Download 1 In the Shadow of Tocqueville: French Liberals and the American

Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
In
the
Shadow
of
Tocqueville:
French
Liberals
and
the
American
‘Model
Republic’
Focusing
particularly
on
the
liberal
publicist,
historian
and
politician,
Edouard
Laboulaye,
I
will
discuss
the
influence
of
the
United
States
on
the
development
of
French
liberal
thought
in
the
second
half
of
the
nineteenth
century.
French
liberals
had
always
been
heavily
indebted
to
(Anglo‐)American
political
models:
they
tended
to
look
to
England,
most
notably
so
in
the
case
of
the
historian
and
politician
François
Guizot
and
his
fellow
Doctrinaires.
It
was
Tocqueville,
of
course,
who
trying
to
understand
the
‘great
social
revolution’
towards
democracy
introduced
the
United
States
in
the
1830s
to
the
French
as
the
country
‘in
which
its
development
has
been
the
most
comprehensive
and
peaceful’.1
Arguably,
French
liberalism
and
a
wistful
look
abroad
–
be
it
across
the
channel
or
across
the
Atlantic
–
have
always
been
inseparably
linked.
In
their
quest
to
‘end
the
French
Revolution’2,
liberals
and
more
moderate
republicans
were
keen
to
import
certain
(Anglo‐)American
constitutional
principles
to
France.
The
debates
on
the
Constitution
of
the
Second
Republic
in
1848,
in
which
liberals
(and,
rather
tellingly,
also
many
conservatives)
argued
for
bicameralism
and
a
strong
executive
‐
constitutional
features,
which
in
their
eyes
had
proven
their
worth
in
the
United
States
‐,
anticipated
the
central
fault‐lines
of
a
discussion
which
would
continue
well
into
the
Third
Republic3:
while
France’s
most
durable
system
of
government
would
adopt
many
of
these
liberal
principles
in
practice
–
albeit,
in
the
wake
of
the
experience
of
Napoleon
III.’s
usurpation,
not
a
strong
President
‐,
the
Third
Republic
saw
itself
as
the
heir
and
executor
of
the
French
Revolution
and
its
more
radical
legacy.
In
light
of
the
enthusiasm
for
the
United
States
during
the
Revolution
of
1848
(the
prompt
American
recognition
of
the
Second
Republic
had
certainly
played
its
part)
but,
moreover,
during
the
1850s
and
especially
the
1860s,
the
relative
decline
of
the
importance
of
the
American
‘Model
Republic’
in
French
political
discourse
after
1870
1
Alexis
de
Tocqueville,
Democracy
in
America
and
Two
Essays
on
America,
trans.
Gerald
Bevan
(London:
Penguin,
2003).
p.
23.
I
am
referring
to
François
Furet’s
influential
interpretation
of
the
political
history
of
nineteenth‐century
France:
François
Furet,
La
Révolution
Française
2vols.,
vol.
2:
Terminer
la
Révolution.
De
Louis
XVII
à
Jules
Ferry,
1814‐1880
(Paris:
Hachette,
1988).
3
On
these
debates
see:
Eugene
Newton
Curtis,
"The
French
Assembly
of
1848
and
the
American
Constitutional
Doctrines"
(Columbia
University
1917).
2
1
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
might
seem
surprising:
having
been
intrinsically
linked
to
a
particular
school
of
French
liberalism,
however,
this
fall
from
grace
of
the
American
example
has
as
much
to
with
the
limitations
of
these
thinkers
as
with
the
change
of
circumstances
–
but
we’ll
come
back
to
that.
Coming
to
our
period
of
interest
then:
the
years
of
the
Second
Empire
saw
the
heyday
of
the
liberal
eulogising
of
the
United
States
(arguably
even
more
than
in
the
wake
of
the
publication
of
Tocqueville’s
first
volume
in
1835).
While
economic
liberalism
had
a
powerful
advocate
and
representative
in
the
Saint‐Simonien
Michel
Chevalier
present
in
Napoleon
III.’s
government,
political
and
civil
liberties
had
been
severely
curtailed
following
the
coup
d’état
of
the
President‐Emperor:
in
the
week
following
the
coup
on
December
2nd,
1851,
28.000
arrests
were
made
‐
among
them
many
parliamentary
deputies,
including
Tocqueville.
While
many
were
quickly
released,
almost
10.000
were
initially
deported
to
Algeria.
Others
were
interned
or
went
into
exile,
most
famously
perhaps
Victor
Hugo
or
Ledru‐Rollin.
Outspoken
republican
professors,
moreover,
like
Edgar
Quinet
and
Jules
Michelet
were
removed
from
their
chairs.4
One
of
the
key
figures
of
French
liberalism
in
these
two
decades
was
Edouard
Laboulaye,
professor
of
Comparative
Legislation
at
the
Collège
de
France
–
in
the
words
of
one
scholar
the
‘titled
defender
of
the
United
States’
during
the
Second
Empire,
taking
up
the
role
Tocqueville
had
had
during
the
July
Monarchy.5
His
ardent
admiration
for
the
United
States,
a
country
he
never
actually
visited
himself,
distinguishes
him
from
most
of
his
contemporaries,
who
more
often
than
not
would
still
rather
turn
to
England
in
their
quest
for
foreign
models.
During
the
dark
years
of
the
Empire,
it
were
to
quote
his
pupil,
the
later
founder
of
what
is
now
Sciences­Po,
Emile
Boutmy,
‘Laboulaye’s
lectures
and
Prévost‐Paradol’s
articles
(that)
were
a
powerful
encouragement
to
a
generation
that
was
on
the
brink
of
despair’.6
Describing
a
typical
Laboulaye‐lecture
at
the
Collège,
Boutmy
further
wrote:
‘The
room
was
packed.
Youths
with
shining
eyes
eyes
flocked
in
there,
ready
to
seize
and
underline
with
'bravos'
any
allusion
to
the
news
of
the
day,
keeping
an
eye
on
the
arrows
which
he
threw
from
time
to
time
through
the
4
Figures
taken
from:
Furet,
La
Révolution
Française
5
Françoise
Mélonio,
Tocqueville
et
les
Français
(Paris:
Aubier,
1993).
p.
204.
6
Émile
Boutmy,
quoted
in:
Roger
Soltau,
French
Political
Thought
in
the
Nineteenth
Century
(London:
Ernest
Benn,
1931).
p.
258.
2
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
window,
eagerly
curious
for
the
final
words,
not
quite
so
attentive
to
the
always
solid
and
substantial
content
of
the
lecture
as
such.’
7
One
of
Laboulaye’s
most
successful
lecture
series
was
his
course
on
the
history
of
the
United
States,
given
in
1849,
and
then
published
between
1855
and
1866.8
This
history
covered
the
colonial
period,
the
Revolution
and
the
Constitution.
Having
previously
been
a
‘reclusive
scholar’9,
interested,
for
example,
in
the
criminal
law
of
the
Romans
and
the
life
and
works
of
the
German
jurist
Friedrich
Carl
von
Savigny,
Laboulaye
explained
his
new‐found
passion
for
the
United
States
in
the
wake
of
the
Revolution
of
1848
as
follows:
‘I
turned
to
the
United
States
in
1848,
wanting
to
learn
from
it.
It
were
our
faults
and
our
suffering;
but
with
what
courage
and
wisdom
the
Americans
had
rescued
themselves
from
danger,
what
difference
in
their
manner
of
understanding
and
establishing
liberty.’10
Laboulaye’s
interpretation
of
the
American
‘Model
Republic’
does
not
really
differ
from
the
well‐known
Tocquevillian
image
of
the
United
States.
Laboulaye
writes:
‘America
understands
liberty
totally
different
from
France:
at
root
it
is
English
liberty,
but
as
there
are
neither
aristocracy
nor
gothic
forms
to
veil
it
in
the
United
States,
one
can
see
it
much
better
in
all
its
simplicity
and
grandiosity.’11
In
spite
of
his
own
background
in
law,
he
argued
against
the
notion
of
an
American‐style
constitution
being
a
panacea:
‘one
understands
over
there
that
a
charter
is
nothing
but
a
piece
of
paper
[…]
(even)
the
(most)perfect
and
freest
constitution
is
nothing
but
a
dangerous
chimera.
[…]
It
is
with
the
help
of
religion,
education,
municipal
organisation,
(and)
militias
that
one
plants
liberty
into
the
soul
of
the
citizen.’12
While
Laboulaye
was
impressed
with
the
institutional
set‐up
of
the
United
States,
this
emphasis
on
decentralisation
(the
issue
par
excellence
of
French
liberals),
democratic
moeurs
and
civil
society
is
important
to
note.
These
issues
were
indeed
very
7
Emile
Boutmy,
Taine,
Scherer,
Laboulaye
(Paris:
Armand
Colin,
1901).
p.
117.
8
Édouard
Laboulaye,
Histoire
des
États­Unis,
1
ed.,
vol.
1:
Histoire
des
Colonies
(Paris:
A.
Durand/
Guillaumin,
1855),
———,
Histoire
des
États­Unis,
1
ed.,
vol.
2:
Histoire
de
la
Révolution
(Paris:
Charpentier,
1866),
———,
Histoire
des
États­Unis,
1
ed.,
vol.
3:
Histoire
de
la
Constitution
(Paris:
Charpentier,
1866).
9
Walter
D.
Gray,
Interpreting
American
Democracy
in
France
­
the
Career
of
Édouard
Laboulaye,
1811­1883
(Newark:
University
of
Delaware
Press,
1994).
p.
28.
10
Laboulaye,
Histoire
des
États­Unis.
I.
p.
iii.
11
Ibid.
p.
vii.
12
Ibid.
p.
vii‐viii.
3
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
close
to
his
heart.13
Almost
certainly,
alluding
to
Laboulaye
and
his
particular
take
on
the
United
States,
Gustave
Flaubert
closed
his
entry
on
Amérique
in
his
Dictionnaire
des
idées
reçues
with
the
following
two
lines:
‘Praising
it
even
if
one
hasn’t
been
there.
Making
declamations
on
(exalting)
self‐government’.14
The
ardour
and
consistency
of
his
infatuation
with
the
United
States,
marks
Laboulaye
out
as
a
singular
figure
among
the
opposition.
And
while
his
liberal
‘party’
‐
thanks
to
its
prominence
in
certain
parts
of
the
media
and
its
stronghold
on
Parisian
academia
‐
was
particularly
visible
and
influential
during
the
Second
Empire,
this
group
did
not
represent
the
whole
oppositional
movement.
‘Too
exclusively
in
sympathy
with
the
comparatively
restricted
class
with
which,
in
books
and
society,
he
had
always
lived,
and
among
whom
he
had
always
found
his
models’15,
as
the
American
minister
in
Paris
John
Bigelow
had
characterised
him,
Laboulaye
and
like‐minded
intellectuals
displayed
a
certain
‘blindness
to
social
questions’.16
Republicans
and
socialists,
of
course,
also
engaged
with
the
United
States.
Their
perspective,
however,
was
a
lot
more
critical
–
disappointed
in
the
lack
of
initiative
on
the
part
of
the
American
government
in
protesting
against
Louis
Napoléon’s
coup
d’état
in
the
first
instance,
there
was
also
a
growing
awareness
of
the
unfolding
of
the
United
States’
own
crisis
during
the
1850s.17
Moreover,
American
expansionism
was
registered
with
alarm
(indeed
this
unease
extended
across
the
whole
of
the
political
spectrum).
Most
importantly,
however,
the
issue
of
slavery
aggrieved
the
French
Left.
While
the
French
themselves
had
only
abolished
slavery
in
1848,
there
was
a
general
feeling
that
the
existence
of
slavery
was
completely
at
odds
with
idea
of
political
liberty,
which
the
United
States
claimed
to
represent.18
This
was
emphasised
particularly
in
a
series
of
articles
on
the
subject
by
the
geographer
Elisée
Reclus
in
the
Revue
des
Deux
Mondes.
13
On
this
issue
more
generally
see:
H.
S.
Jones,
"Constitutions
Éphémères,
Structures
Sociales
Durable?
A
Propos
D'un
Paradoxe
français,"
Journal
of
Modern
European
History
6,
no.
1
(2008).
Gustave
Flaubert,
Les
Dictionnaire
des
Idées
Reçues
et
le
Catalogue
des
idées
Chic
(Paris:
Librairie
Génerale
Française/Le
Livre
de
Poche
Classique,
1997).
p.
49.
For
the
first
part:
———,
Dictionnaire
des
idées
reçues
(Paris:
Aubier,
1978).
p.
21.
15
John
Bigelow,
Some
Recollections
of
the
Late
Edouard
Laboulaye
(New
York:
privately
printed,
G.P.
Putnam's
sons,
1889).
p.
71.
16
Soltau,
French
Political
Thought
in
the
Nineteenth
Century.
p.
257.
17
Thomas
A.
Sancton,
"America
in
the
Eyes
of
the
French
Left,
1848‐1871"
(University
of
Oxford
1979).
p.
11‐58.
18
Lawrence
Jennings,
French
Anti­Slavery:
The
Movement
for
the
Abolition
of
Slavery
in
France,
1802­1848
(Cambridge:
University
of
Cambridge,
2000).
14
4
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
Harriett
Beecher
Stowe’s
novel
Uncle
Tom’s
Cabin
had,
of
course,
been
hugely
successful
also
in
France.
It
was
also
dramatised
and
apparently
moved
the
young
Georges
Clemenceau,
who
attended
a
performance,
to
tears.19
Laboulaye,
moreover,
translated
and
published
W.E.
Channing’s
On
Slavery,
contributing
a
preface,
to
great
success
in
1855.20
During
the
Civil
War
then
he
was
joined
in
the
French
Committee
for
the
Abolition
of
Slavery
by
the
veteran
of
French
abolitionism,
Victor
Schoelcher
and
liberal
luminaries
like
Guizot,
De
Broglie,
Cochin
and
Montalembert.21
Again,
however,
this
particular
group
represents
rather
the
moderate
wing
of
the
opposition.
Staunch
republican
Victor
Hugo
had
taken
matters
into
his
own
hands
earlier,
writing
an
open
letter
to
President
Buchanan
asking
him
to
pardon
John
Brown
in
1859
–
this
letter
was
widely
reproduced
in
the
European
press.22
While
Hugo
and
other
prominent
republican
exiles
like
Louis
Blanc,
Ledru‐Rollin
and
Edgar
Quinet
all
rallied
to
the
North,
there
was
a
certain
impatience
with
regard
to
Lincoln’s
pronouncements
on
the
abolition
of
slavery.23
Laboulaye,
who
not
only
commented
on
events
in
the
press
but
also
seems
to
have
been
asked
(or
offered
himself)
to
write
a
preface
for
almost
every
single
other
pamphlet
or
book
on
the
subject
by
other
French
writers
(Gasparin,
Astié),
spent
all
his
energies
on
pitching
the
cause
of
the
Union
to
the
French
public:
to
the
end
of
advocating
French
neutrality,
he
not
only
defended
the
cause
of
the
North
as
just
but
highlighted
how
much
it
was
in
France’s
own
interest
to
ensure
the
existence
of
a
strong
United
States
in
order
to
counterbalance
the
commercial
and
political
power
of
England:
‘For
the
whole
of
Europe,
the
unity
and
independence
of
America,
the
only
maritime
power
that
can
equal
England,
is
the
only
guarantee
of
the
liberty
of
the
seas
and
world
peace
for
the
whole
of
Europe.’24
Laboulaye’s
plea
for
French
neutrality,
brings
us
to
the
common
denominator
between
the
various
groups
of
the
opposition:
in
light
of
the
government’s
not
so
secret
sympathies
for
the
Confederate
states,
siding
with
the
North
had
a
double
significance.
19
Sancton,
"America
in
the
Eyes
of
the
French
Left,
1848‐1871".
p.
29.
Dumanoir
and
D'Ennery,
La
Case
de
L'oncle
Tom.
Drame
en
Huite
Actes
(Paris:
Michel
Lévy,
1853).
Edmond
Texier
and
Léon
De
Wailly,
L'oncle
Tom.
Drame
en
Cinq
Actes
et
Neuf
Tableaux
(Paris:
Michel
Lévy,
1853).
20
Edouard
Laboulaye,
ed.,
Oeuvres
de
W.­E.
Channing.
De
L'ésclavage,
Précédé
d'une
Préface
et
d'une
Étude
sur
L'esclavage
aux
États­Unis
(Paris:
Comon,
1855).
21
Bigelow,
Some
Recollections
of
the
Late
Edouard
Laboulaye.p.18.
22
Sancton,
"America
in
the
Eyes
of
the
French
Left,
1848‐1871".
p.53.
23
Ibid.
p.
59.
24
Edouard
Laboulaye,
Les
États­Unis
et
la
France
(Paris:
E.
Dentu,
1862).p.
5.
5
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
The
support
for
American
democracy
as
represented
by
the
North
was
a
positive
affirmation
of
the
very
principles
it
represented,
and
thereby
then
also
an
oblique
attack
on
the
French
government,
which
denied
such
liberties
to
its
own
citizens.
So,
while
there
were
distinct
divisions
between
the
various
advocates
of
the
Union
cause
in
France,
party
lines
between
radical
republicans
and
moderate
liberals
were
blurred
in
the
common
initiatives
to
demonstrate
transatlantic
solidarity
–
and
domestic
opposition
at
the
same
time.
This
coming‐together
of
liberals
and
more
radical
groups
reached
its
highpoint
in
the
wake
of
the
assassination
of
Abraham
Lincoln.
Due
to
time
constraints,
I
will
highlight
only
the
two
aspects
common
to
most
obituaries
in
the
French
press:
first,
there
was
a
complete
fascination
with
Lincoln,
‘the
man’,
his
humble
beginnings
and
his
modesty:
‘Abraham
Lincoln
stayed
peuple
from
his
birth
to
his
death’
in
the
words
of
one
journalist.
This
was
then
always
contrasted
with
the
privileged
upbringing,
the
airs
and
the
vanity
of
European
rulers
(and
by
allusion,
one
in
particular,
of
course).25
Second,
and
more
pronounced
in
the
learned
liberal
journals,
was
a
spirited
defense
of
Lincoln
as
a
man
of
principle
:
in
riposte
to
the
earlier
criticism
from
the
French
Left,
who
had
been
so
impatient
on
the
issue
of
abolition,
the
liberal
writer
Auguste
Laugel,
for
example,
went
to
great
lengths
to
emphasise
once
again
Lincoln’s
integrity
and
the
consistency
of
his
moral
abhorrence
of
slavery.26
The
American
minister
in
Paris,
Bigelow
received
a
flood
of
letters
of
condolences
–
of
course,
also
one
by
Laboulaye,
who
recounted
how
in
spite
of
illness
he
had
given
a
lecture
at
the
Conservatoire
des
Arts
et
Métiers
on
Franklin
but
had
then
in
light
of
the
events
talked
mostly
about
Lincoln:
‘Never
in
my
life
as
a
professor,
have
I
come
across
such
sympathy.
At
three
different
moments,
the
hall
applauded
with
an
enthusiasm
which
was
not
directed
at
the
speaker
but
at
the
noble
victim
of
a
cowardly
assassination.’27
There
was
also
a
march
of
more
than
3.000
students,
shouting
‘Vive
l’Amérique!
Vive
la
République!’,
from
the
Quartier
Latin
to
the
American
Legation–
among
them
(once
again)
the
young
Georges
Clemenceau.
The
march
never
reached
its
destination
though
as
the
police
arrested
many
and
dispersed
the
rest
of
the
crowd.28
25
Le
Charivari.
April
29th,
1865
26
Revue
des
Deux
Mondes.
Mai‐June
1865.
Vol.
57.
27
Laboulaye
to
Bigelow.
April
29th,
1865.
BP
(MssCol301).
CCP.
Vol.
21.
Lettres
particulières
28
Sancton,
"America
in
the
Eyes
of
the
French
Left,
1848‐1871".
p.
127
6
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
Finally,
it
is
worth
mentioning
the
subscription
campaigns
for
medals
and
flags
to
commemorate
the
dead
President
as
it
is
here
that
one
finds
ample
evidence
for
Lincoln
also
having
exuded
a
strong
hold
on
the
imagination
of
the
French
working
class.
One
such
example
was
a
subscription
campaign
at
ten
centimes
initiated
by
the
‘Lyon
Democrats’
in
order
to
present
the
American
government
with
a
commemorative
flag
made
by
the
famous
silk
weavers
of
the
city.29
Remarkably,
so
the
American
consul
in
Lyon,
this
campaign
had
been
very
successful
in
collecting
the
necessary
funds
–
an
achievement
all
the
more
noteworthy
as
contributions
had
only
come
from
one
class,
‘the
poor
workmen’
of
the
city.
Just
a
couple
of
days
after
the
campaign’s
inception
subscriptions
already
amounted
to
over
f.
2.000,
made
up
all
of
ten
or
fifteen
centimes
donations
at
a
time.
In
the
Consul’s
own
words,
this
signified
‘a
real
popular
testimony’.30
Another
campaign
was
initiated
by
the
Phare
de
la
Loire‐newspaper:
a
gold
medal
was
supposed
to
be
presented
to
the
widow
of
Abraham
Lincoln,
bearing
the
inscription:
‘Liberty.
Equality.
Fraternity.
To
Lincoln
twice
chosen
President
of
the
United
States.
From
the
grateful
Democracy
of
France.
Lincoln,
the
Honest,
abolished
Slavery.
Re‐established
the
Union,
saved
the
Republic.
Without
veiling
the
statue
of
Liberty.
He
was
assassinated
the
14th
of
April
1865’.31
The
American
Consul
in
Nantes
reported
to
Paris
in
May
that
this
campaign
had
enlisted
more
than
50.000
subscribers.32
Next
to
the
substantial
working‐class
element
among
the
supporters,
one
could
find
such
illustrious
names
as
Hugo,
Quinet,
Blanc,
Michelet,
Schoelcher
and
Pelletan.33
Yet,
at
various
points
this
campaign
was
hindered
by
the
intervention
of
state
officials
and
the
police,
confiscating
the
subscription
lists
–
an
indication
of
the
government’s
alarm
at
the
power
of
Lincoln
as
a
symbol
of
the
French
opposition.
The
fate
of
both
Laboulaye
and
Prévost‐Paradol
(another
liberal
who
in
his
regular
contributions
to
the
Journal
des
débats
had
done
much
to
promote
the
cause
of
29
Viollier
to
Bigelow.
September
3rd,
1865.
BP
(MssCol301).
CCP.
Vol.
21.
(Vol.15?)
30
Viollier
to
Bigelow.
September
7th,
1865.
ibid.
31
Bigelow
to
Seward.
June
2nd,
1865.
BP
(MssCol301).
CCP.
Vol.
15.
32
De
la
Montaigne
to
Bigelow.
May
18th,
1865.
ibid.
33
Gavronsky,
The
French
Liberal
Opposition
and
the
American
Civil
War.
p.
241.
Sancton,
"America
in
the
Eyes
of
the
French
Left,
1848‐1871".
p.
129.
Still
need
to
check
some
details
in
the
Papiers
Chassin
(C.P.
5647
–
Vol.
9
ff.
24‐183),
Bibliothèque
Historique
de
la
Ville
de
Paris.
7
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
the
Union
and
that
of
liberty
more
generally)
stands
symptomatic
of
the
history
of
liberalism
‐
as
well
as
the
standing
of
the
United
States
‐
in
France.
By
following
Emile
Ollivier
and
belatedly
aligning
themselves
with
the
now
supposedly
‘liberal
Empire’
of
Napoléon
III.
in
the
late
1860s,
Laboulaye
and
Prévost‐Paradol
compromised
their
own
democratic
credentials
–
not
only
in
the
eyes
of
their
former
allies
and
admirers:
tragically,
Prévost‐Paradol,
who
had
been
made
French
ambassador
to
the
United
States
upon
his
consent
to
serve
the
Emperor
in
1870,
committed
suicide
in
New
York
just
a
couple
of
weeks
after
his
arrival
there.34
Laboulaye,
on
the
other
hand,
had
to
bear
the
disappointment
and
scorn
of
the
many
students,
he
had
previously
so
enthused
with
his
lectures
and
moral
rectitude:
some
students
from
Strassbourg
vocally
reclaimed
an
engraved
inkstand
they
had
presented
to
him
a
couple
of
years
earlier.
In
fact,
the
protests
at
the
Collège
de
France
became
so
heated
that
Laboulaye
felt
unable
to
continue
his
courses
there
for
the
time
being
and
asked
for
them
be
suspended.35
His
Republican
critics
felt
that
he
had
betrayed
the
cause
of
liberty
for
his
personal
ambitions
for
political
office.
His
old
friend,
John
Bigelow
was
milder:
‘the
worst
that
can
be
said
of
Mr.
Laboulaye
is,
that
he
allowed
himself
to
be
deceived
and
betrayed,
but
no
one
can
say
that
he
was
bought.’36
Laboulaye
left
Paris
during
the
‘année
terrible’,
resenting
the
radicalisation
represented
by
the
Commune.
As
he
wrote
rather
bitterly
in
the
autumn
of
1871
:
‘Everything
changes
so
quickly
in
France
that
political
tracts
age
faster
than
almanachs.
[…]
Yesterday
one
is
viewed
as
a
revolutionary,
today
one
has
suddenly
become
a
reactionary.’37
The
first
years
of
the
Third
Republic
saw
him
finally
having
a
political
career
of
sorts
:
amongst
other
things
he
took
part
in
the
drafting
of
the
Constitution
of
1875.
He
is
best
remembered,
however,
for
his
initiative
to
present
the
United
States
with
the
‘Statue
of
Liberty’
–
an
idea
conceived
in
the
wake
of
the
Civil
War
but
only
realised
in
1886
and
thus
after
Laboulaye’s
death
in
1883.
34
Soltau,
French
Political
Thought
in
the
Nineteenth
Century.
p.
256
35
Jean
de
Soto,
"Edouard
de
Laboulaye,"
Revue
Internationale
d'Histoire
Politique
et
Constitutionnelle
5,
no.
18
(1955).
p.
117‐118.
36
Bigelow,
Some
Recollections
of
the
Late
Edouard
Laboulaye.
p.
47
37
Edouard
Laboulaye,
Le
Parti
Libéral,
Son
Programme
et
Son
Avenir,
8th
ed.
(Paris:
Charpentier,
1871).
p.
i.
8
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
To
conclude:
in
light
of
this
colloquium’s
theme,
one
might
question
if
France
can
really
be
considered
as
having
been
part
of
this
‘braid
of
transatlantic
liberalism’
of
the
mid‐nineteenth‐century
at
all.
As
I
hope
to
have
shown,
the
particular
circumstances
of
the
French
Second
Empire
and
arguably
also
French
historical
and
political
traditions
more
generally
did
not
lend
themselves
easily
to
the
development
of
a
liberal
movement
paralleling
the
strength
of
those
in
Britain
or
the
United
States
‐
let
alone
a
culture
of
popular
liberalism.38
Most
French
thinkers
were
strictly
on
the
receiving
end
of
these
transatlantic
debates.39
One
could
be
tempted
to
agree
with
the
turn‐of‐the‐century
lament
of
the
writer
Émile
Faguet:
‘Le
libéralisme
n’est
pas
français.’
(expressed
in
1905,
in
the
context
of
the
review
of
Les
Deux
Frances
by
the
Swiss
author
Schneippel,
who
saw
both
Left
and
Right
as
having
authoritarian
tendencies
and
being
essentially
illiberal).40
Still,
irrespective
of
whether
it
was
unidirectional
or
not,
the
central
importance
of
the
‘transatlantic
liberal
movement’
in
influencing
and
informing
French
aspirations
for
democratic
reform
in
the
1850s
and
1860s
cannot
be
underestimated.
French
liberals
like
Laboulaye
were
able
to
express
their
opposition
to
the
authoritarian
regime
of
Napoléon
III.
by
upholding
their
image
of
the
United
States
as
a
counterexample
–
and
using
it
as
a
veil
through
which
to
voice
their
criticism.
Laboulaye’s
unerring
belief
in
the
cause
of
the
Union,
moreover,
paved
the
way
for
a
broader
cross‐party
coming
together
in
support
of
the
North.
The
reactions
to
Lincoln’s
violent
death,
finally,
show
how
sincerely
a
broad
base
of
French
democrats
–
and
not
only
self‐proclaimed
‘liberals’
–
wanted
to
be
part
of
this
movement
of
transatlantic
liberalism.
38
France
was
rather
different
from
Britain
in
this
respect:
Eugenio
F.
Biagini,
Liberty,
Retrenchment
and
Reform:
Popular
Liberalism
in
the
Age
of
Gladstone,
1860­1880
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1992).
39
On
Anglo‐American
exchanges
see:
Leslie
Butler,
Critical
Americans:
Victorian
Intellectuals
and
Transatlantic
Liberal
Reform
(Chapel
Hill:
The
University
of
North
Carolina
Press,
2007).
Alexis
de
Tocqueville
is,
of
course,
the
obvious
exception.
Yet
one
can
reasonably
argue
that
his
importance
as
an
object
of
twentieth/twenty‐first
century
transatlantic
debates
on
liberalism
far
outweighs
his
role
in
such
exchanges
in
the
nineteenth
century.
40
Émile
Faguet,
‘Les
deux
Frances’,
Revue
latine
Vol.
4,
No.
11
(1905),
p.
643.
9
Maike
Thier
[email protected]
UCL
Commonwealth
Colloquium:
‘Transatlantic
Liberalism’
20th
February
2009
Bigelow,
John.
Some
Recollections
of
the
Late
Edouard
Laboulaye.
New
York:
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1889.
Boutmy,
Emile.
Taine,
Scherer,
Laboulaye.
Paris:
Armand
Colin,
1901.
Butler,
Leslie.
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Victorian
Intellectuals
and
Transatlantic
Liberal
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Hill:
The
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of
North
Carolina
Press,
2007.
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of
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and
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de
Soto,
Jean.
"Edouard
de
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18
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Paris:
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Paris:
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1978.
———.
Les
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Paris:
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Walter
D.
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1811­1883.
Newark:
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H.
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Le
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Paris:
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———.
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la
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———,
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———.
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la
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———.
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10