Napoléon who?
In March 1848, a new tax of 45 centimes in the franc was imposed. The government recruited new soldiers from the prisons, mercenaries to be deployed against their own people.
In the April elections, the people of France voted for only 100 or so Republicans out of 800 deputies, blaming the Republicans for the punitive taxes. But still in Paris, opposition remained strong. A demonstration marched from the symbolic location of the Bastille to the Assemblée Nationale, where they optimistically announced a new regime had begun. Then they invaded the Hotel de Ville. But within just a few hours, the National Guards defeated and dispersed the demonstrators.
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the future Napoléon III, had his face printed on match boxes and distributed throughout the capital. He claimed to be a 'socialist' - a proponent of social reform in favour the common people – and upholder of the Republic, a bulwark against anarchy. In early June he was elected to sit in the Assembly, but did not take up his seat until November.
The results of the deliberations of the commission on workers' rights were ignored. On 21 June 1848, the Ateliers Nationaux - charitable employment agencies with perhaps 100,000 unemployed men on their books at pitiful salaries - were dissolved. An insurrection began to take shape.
Barricades were built in the narrow streets once more; 7000 workers assembled at the Bastille; positions were fortified at the Panthéon, Temple and Saint-Denis, controlling half of the city. The government did nothing until, on 23 June, the first shots were fired. A government minister named Emmanuel Arago foresaw the inevitable massacre and tried to persuade the demonstrators to disband. They explained:
'Monsieur Arago, you have never been hungry.'
On 24 June, the Assembly gave full powers to the minister of war, general Cavaignac, a man with broad experience of civilian massacres in Algeria. The ex-jailbird government recruits were given strong liquor and encouraged to commit atrocities. Thiers continued to argue for retreat to Versailles.
The next day, Cavaignac sent in reinforcements, just as the demonstrators' ammunition began to run out. The barricades were pulled down one by one. The insurgents fell back towards the Bastille. The archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur Affre, tried to defuse the conflict by walking into the no-man's-land between the two forces for talks. He was shot. Later it would be claimed that he was killed by government mercenaries.
On 26 June at midday, the final assault resulted in 12,000 prisoners and 3,000 dead. 4,000 workers were deported to French colonies without trial. By July 1848, it was all over. George Sand wrote:
'I no longer believe in a Republic that begins by cutting the throats of its workers.'
A new constitution for a Second Republic was promulgated on 4 November 1848. Louis-Napoléon stood as a candidate for the presidency against Cavaignac. On 10 December 1848 he was elected by universal male suffrage with 75% of the votes cast, many people believing they were voting for his illustrious ancestor, Napoléon Bonaparte.
