by Michael Hill
Chapter 2
1 Wickham Hoffman, the secretary of the American Legation, later described in his memoir, Camp, Court, and Siege, the system of “mail balloons” set up by the Parisians to communicate with the outside world during the siege: “The French always had a fancy for ballooning, and were probably in advance of the rest of the world in this respect. They now applied their experience to a practical use, and soon a service of mail balloons was organized, starting from Paris twice a week . . . The officer of the Post-office who was charged with the organization of this service told me that, of ninety-seven balloons that left Paris during the siege, ninety-four arrived safely . . .” (182–183)
2 Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, scene 1.
3 As U.S. Minister, Washburne was understandably concerned about the fate of May and Reynolds, who had left with Gambetta the day before. On October 8 a carrier pigeon arrived in the city with a message announcing their safe escape. Gambetta had landed near Tours, some 150 miles to the south, and May and Reynolds at Roye, north of Paris.
4 In a letter to Washburne dated October 19, 1870, Count Bismarck granted permission for the Americans to leave on the condition they were “provided with passports delivered by you and stating they are citizens of the United States.” Bismarck warned Washburne, however, that anyone leaving would “not be allowed to carry any parcels, letters or communications whatsoever besides those to be delivered to our outposts, and that any contravention in this respect will unfailingly bring down upon them the full rigor of martial law.”
5 Although Jules Favre was sympathetic to Washburne’s request to allow the Americans to leave, General Trochu adamantly refused. He was concerned about the effect their leaving might have on the morale of the city and disdainfully compared the Americans to “rats deserting [a] sinking ship.” (Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 204.)
6 A French politician who opposed the Franco-Prussian War and encouraged the Government of National Defense to enter into peace negotiations.
7 Washburne and Gratiot had taken up temporary lodgings with a friend, Mr. Leopold Hüffer, at his home at No. 18 Rue de Londres after “military operations had driven” Washburne out of his house.
8 Bismarck had written to Washburne on November 12, 1870, complaining that certain persons leaving Paris under Washburne’s “certificate” had violated the departure terms by secretly carrying out personal letters. Two days later Washburne expressed his “regret” and assured Bismarck that he was doing all in his power to prevent such instances from occurring.
9 Alphonse and Gustave Rothschild were sons of the Baron James de Rothschild who, at one time, was the greatest banker in the world. Both brothers served in the French army and helped guard the walls of Paris during the siege. After the armistice was signed between France and Prussia in January 1871, the family bank would play a major role in helping France pay off the reparations due Germany under the final treaty.
Chapter 3
1 From Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Criticism.”
2 From Shakespeare’s Othello, Act III, scene 3. The actual line is, “On horror’s head, horrors accumulate.”
3 From Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” The actual line is “The short and simple annals of the poor.”
4 Washburne appears to be referring to “Claudite jam rivos,” from Virgil’s “Eclogue III,” which translates “close the streams” or “shut up your streams.”
5 First line of the poem “The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna” (1817) by Irish poet Charles Wolfe. The poem describes the funeral of Moore, who was killed in battle against Napoléon I’s forces in the Spanish Peninsular Campaign of 1809. Among Moore’s last words were “I hope the people of England will be satisfied! I hope my country will do me justice!”
6 Over the next several days the temperature would continue to drop dramatically from 14 degrees F. on December 21, to 5 degrees on Christmas Eve and 4 degrees on Christmas Day. (Galignani’s Messenger, Dec. 21, 24, 25, 1870.)
7 The friend Washburne and Gratiot had gone to stay with at No. 18 Rue de Londres.
8 Washburne is referring to the radical political clubs, which were publicly criticizing the actions of the French government. Wickham Hoffman also complained about the “rampant” existence of the clubs and some of their outrageous claims. “Their orators advocated the wildest and most destructive theories amidst the applause of a congenial audience. Blasphemy was received with special favor,” Hoffman wrote later. (Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 171.)
9 Today those prices would be the equivalent of $431 for the goose and $121 for the chicken.
10 An agent employed by commanders of belligerent forces in the field.
Chapter 4
1 Washburne wrote to Count Bismarck on January 4, 1871: “Some Paris papers represent that I have given out news; others say that I give out nothing, because the news is favorable to the French arms . . . I conclude the only safe way is to receive no more English papers. I shall expect to receive my home papers as usual and hope also to have permission to receive my private letters.”
2 Approximately $71.00 in today’s money.
3 In today’s dollars, equal to about $155.00.
4 The next day, on January 13, 1871, a letter was drafted to Count Bismarck by Washburne and several “diplomatic agents formerly accredited to Paris” to protest the “bombardment of Paris, without previous notice.”
5 Lines derived from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley titled “The Devil’s Walk.” The actual lines are: “. . . They dine on news of human blood; They sup on the groans of the dying and dead; And supperless never will go to bed . . .”
6 The choice of Vinoy, a former supporter of the Second Empire, was seen as peculiar, but as Michael Howard noted in his book The Franco-Prussian War, “. . . the appointment [of Vinoy] was neither made nor accepted with a view to carrying on the war. Vinoy’s task was to deal with the explosion within Paris which could not in anyone’s view be averted any longer.” (369)
7 In a letter dated January 17, Count Bismarck responded to the letter of January 13 protesting the bombardment of Paris without previous notice. In his reply Bismarck took a hard, firm line dismissing all such accusations and blaming the French government for turning Paris into “a fortress and a battlefield.” As a consequence, Bismarck argued, the city had now become a legitimate military target totally within the “recognized usages and principles” of international law. Bismarck continued: “Paris being the most important fortress in France, in which the enemy has concentrated his principal forces, which, from their fortified positions in the midst of the population, constantly attack the German armies by their sorties and by the fire of their artillery, no good reason can be alleged why the German generals should give up the attack upon this fortified position, or conduct their military operations in a manner which would be in contradiction with the object they have in view.”
8 Alistair Horne in The Fall of Paris describes Belleville as one of the “solidly proletarian and ‘Red’ arrondissements” of Paris. (26)
9 A phrase derived from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act III, scene 2: “Mischief, thou art afoot.”
10 The Rothschild bank was handling funds that had been put in an account by the Prussian government for Washburne to draw upon for expenses incurred in caring for the German nationals trapped in Paris.
11 Matthew 24:6.
Chapter 5
1 Under the terms of the armistice formally signed by France and Prussia on January 28, 1871, France was allowed to convene an elected assembly to decide whether to continue the war and, if not, what the final terms of surrender and peace would be. On February 8, a nationwide election was held to select delegates to this convention. To the dismay of the left wing extremists, who demanded a continuation of the war, the candidates favoring final capitulation to the Prussians won an overwhelming victory at the polls. “News of the elections hit Republican Paris like a thunderbolt,” historian Alistair Horne lat
er wrote, “To the left wing . . . the elections, and hence-forth the peace-seeking, conservative country squires would become paired with the Prussian conquerors.” (Horne, Fall of Paris, 256.) As a dark harbinger of things to come, forty-three of the more radical delegates elected in Paris resigned their seats to join the Communists.
One of the first acts of the newly elected convention was to name a new government headed by Adolphe Thiers who immediately began negotiations with the Prussians to reach a final peace agreement.
2 Washburne is referring to politically conservative constitutional monarchists who supported members of the Orléans branch of the house of Bourbon for the throne.
3 The Latin rendition of the last words of Jesus Christ as he was dying on the cross, according to John 19:30.
Chapter 6
1 After the receipt of the donation of $30,000 to the people of Paris from the City of New York, Riggs, a friend of Washburne’s and longtime resident of Paris, had been appointed to a commission to oversee the distribution of the funds in Paris.
2 A line from Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801.
3 Loosely translated, “This is the problem. This is the hard task.”
4 Rapid-fire weapons of rifle caliber.
5 Lord Richard Bickerton Pemell, British ambassador to Paris.
6 His daughter Susan, who would have been twelve years of age at this time.
7 Wickham Hoffman would later write how some enterprising Parisians would do a “large business . . . in these fragments after the siege, as well in the exploded shells. They were sold as relics; and the Parisian shop-keepers mounted them as clocks, fenders, inkstands, penholders, and other articles de Paris.” (Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 275–276.)
8 From Shakespeare’s Richard III, Act I, scene 1.
9 A member of the Commune’s Ministry of War. Washburne initially sought his assistance because, as he noted in a letter to Secretary of State Fish, he seemed “at present time, to be the directing man in affairs here.” (Washburne to Fish, April 23, 1871.)
10 J. A. McKean was Washburne’s private secretary.
11 According to historian Alistair Horne, the Column “had been erected by Napoléon I on the site where, in 1792, the mob had destroyed an equestrian statue of Louis XIV.” The political left wing of France had long “detested” the Column because it represented everything it most despised “about militarism and imperialism” in French politics and government. (Horne, Fall of Paris, 349.)
12 Auguste Blanqui (1805–1881) was one of the oldest and most revered leaders of the French revolutionary movement. After his involvement in the failed October 31, 1870, insurrection, he was arrested and sentenced to death by the government. As the Commune began to splinter apart, Raoul Rigault saw Blanqui’s leadership as the only hope for the Commune. “Nothing can be done without the Old One,” Rigault proclaimed, hoping that a hostage exchange for the Archbishop would free Blanqui from prison.
13 It was reported that Adolphe Thiers was “very angry” at Washburne for trying to meddle in a proposed exchange of Blanqui for the Archbishop, calling Washburne’s actions “conduite très singulière” (“very peculiar behavior”). (Stewart Edwards, The Paris Commune, 1871. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1973, p. 213.)
14 Grousset was a twenty-six-year-old former journalist known as a “fiery, dapper little Corsican, so carefully groomed” that his nickname was “the ladies’ hairdresser.” Washburne evidently liked and trusted Grousset, calling him someone of “intelligence, education, and genteel personal appearance.” (Horne, The Fall of Paris, 299.)
Epilogue
1 The equivalent of nearly $500,000 in current dollars.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Washburne, E. B. (Elihu Benjamin), 1816–1887.
Elihu Washburne: the diary and letters of America’s minister to France during the Siege and Commune of Paris / [edited] by Michael Hill; with a foreword by David McCullough.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Washburne, E. B. (Elihu Benjamin), 1816–1887—Diaries.
2. Washburne, E. B. (Elihu Benjamin), 1816–1887—Correspondence.
3. Paris (France)—History—Siege, 1870–1871—Personal narratives.
4. Paris (France)—History—Commune, 1871—Personal narratives.
5. Ambassadors—United States—Diaries. 6. Ambassadors—United States—Correspondence. I. Hill, Michael. II. Title.
DC314.W37 2012
327.73044092—dc23
[B] 2012013304
ISBN 978-1-4516-6528-4 (print)
ISBN 978-1-4516-6531-4 (eBook)