Léon Gambetta

Gambetta (circa 1871)

Léon Gambetta (2 April 1838 – 31 December 1882) was a French lawyer and republican politician who proclaimed the French Third Republic in 1870 and played a prominent role in its early government. He was Minister of the Interior from 4 September 1870 until 6 February 1871, President of the Chamber of Deputies from 31 January 1879 until 27 October 1881, Prime Minister of France from 14 November 1881 until 30 January 1882 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 14 November 1881 until 30 January 1882.

Quotes

1869

• France is bound under the pain of humiliation and perhaps of social death to complete the French Revolution. It is the task of the nineteenth century; it is particularly the task of our generation. The centenary of 1789 must not dawn upon us without the reconquest by the people for itself and for the rest of the world of the political heritage of which it has been dispossessed since the 18th Brumaire.
  • Letter to the electors of the Seine (28 July 1869), quoted in J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the National Defence: A Republican Dictatorship in France (1936), p. 25

1870

• I am sorry to see that our Republican traditions are being weakened and effaced by the influence of humanitarian doctrines. We who are Republicans should no more than other Frenchmen be patient in tolerating the claim of a military and reactionary power to impose its will and preponderance upon our country and upon the rest of Europe. Danton did not refuse his aid.
  • Interview with Le Figaro after Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern was offered the Spanish crown (July 1870), quoted in J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the National Defence: A Republican Dictatorship in France (1936), p. 36

• On this day, seventy-eight years ago, our fathers founded the Republic, and—while the foreign invader was profaning the sacred soil of their country—vowed to live free or to die fighting. They kept their vow; they defeated the foreigner; and the Republic of 1792 lives in the memory of men as the symbol of heroism and national greatness... May the spirit of power that inspired our forefathers breathe into our own souls, and we, too, shall conquer!
  • Proclamation (21 September 1870), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 65

1871

• At this moment I have only one preoccupation: after our fruitless efforts to drive out the foreigner to try to save at least our Republican institutions.
  • Letter to his father (19 February 1871), quoted in J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the Making of the Third Republic (1973), p. 21

• I have never been a subscriber to this vague and deceptive theory of a Republican United States of Europe...after the hard and severe lessons given us by recent events I absolutely reject this theory as fatal for the regeneration of France, false as a matter of general history, and dangerous for democracy and the freedom of the world.
  • Letter to Gustave Naquet (1871), quoted in J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the Making of the Third Republic (1973), p. 45

• There will be no peace and no order until all classes of society shall have been given a share in the benefits of civilisation and science, and can regard their Government as the legitimate offspring of their own sovereign power, rather than as an exacting and greedy master. Until that day, if we pursue our present fatal path, you will drive the ignorant to support coups d'état at one moment, and swell the forces of street rioters at the next, and we shall be left exposed to the pitiless fury of irresponsible mobs...trying to avenge themselves by looting among the ruins.
  • Speech in Bordeaux (26 June 1871), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 146

• I would have him able, not only to think, read and reason, but also to act and fight. Everywhere we must have, side by side with the schoolmaster, the athlete and the military instructor. [These two forms of education] must be carried on side by side. Otherwise your schools will turn out literary men, but never patriots. The whole world should be made to understand that when a French citizen is born, he is born a soldier.
  • Speech in Bordeaux (26 June 1871), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 147

• I have never been a very keen supporter of the ideas and principles of cosmopolitanism. There is about them something that is too vague, too idealistic, despite the appearance of a certain brilliance and speciousness. I believe that their most assured result is to efface, or reduce too greatly, the love of one's country and one's sense of civic responsibility. In the present situation of our country, what matters, on the contrary, is that our hearts attach themselves more than ever to the principles dictated by a devotion to the national cause, and that they find their inspiration in the French idea. I love my country too much to sacrifice any part whatever of its prosperity or strength to a system, however generous it may be, or appear to be.
  • Letter to the organisers of the Lausanne Peace Congress (September 1871), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 19

• What we have lacked is what people who have allowed themselves to be enslaved for too long always lack: faith in themselves and a proper hatred of the foreigner. Let us never speak of the foreigner, but let it be clear that we always think of him. Thus you will be on the road to revenge.
  • Speech in Saint-Quentin (16 November 1871), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 20

• I want to make it a platform from which we shall demand each day before Europe our rights and our ravished provinces. France is at the mercy of Germany. We are in a state of latent war; neither peace nor freedom nor progress is any longer possible in Europe.
  • Circular letter sent to Alsace-Lorraine to advertise the daily newspaper République Française, which was founded in November 1871, quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 20

1872

• If, amid our misfortunes, the Republican form of government has appeared the only one possible, it is because no other was in a position to confront the danger. At the time of the catastrophe there was no thought of any other Government. Where were the claimants to the throne?
  • Speech in Havre (18 April 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), pp. 155-156

• Never let us deny the poverty and suffering of a section of the democracy. But let us also beware of the Utopias of those who believe that a panacea or a formula can make the world happy. There is no social remedy, because there is not one social question, but a whole series of problems to be solved and difficulties are to be overcome. These problems must be solved one by one and not by means of any single formula. There is no panacea.
  • Speech in Havre (18 April 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 156

• Paris, the cradle of our civilisation, the buckler of our public liberties, the teacher and guide of the national genius, Paris that may be made a mark for the imbecile hatred of a few rustic boors, but can never be downtrodden nor dishonoured.
  • Speech in Havre (18 April 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 157

• Tenacity is one of the characteristics of your race. It is for that reason that our dear Alsace was especially necessary to French unity; it represented that unquenchable energy which exists among us, side by side with a fickleness and levity which at times, unfortunately, mar our national character. Until Alsace comes back into the family circle there will be no France and no Europe. Let us not speak of revenge, let us utter no rash word, let us think over the matter calmly and soberly. For my part, I have no other ambition than faithfully to observe the mandate you have given me, a mandate that I look upon as my greatest honour, the ruling principle of my life.
  • Speech to Alsatians who had presented him with a bronze (9 May 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 157

• A man's first duty is to fight for his country.
  • Speech to the celebration of Lazare Hoche's birthday in Versailles (24 June 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 160

• The unity that was attained on July 14, 1789, must be restored. Every effort has been made to sow divisions between peasant and artisan, between artisan and bourgeois; these elements must once more be welded together. Let your fields, your religious festivals, your meetings, your markets, your fairs, serve as opportunities for political discussion and education.
  • Speech in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre (14 July 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 161

• Wherever there is a French mother, she should bring up her children to show a religious love for France. If there is anything to console us amid the sorrow and shame of our bereaved country, it is the thought that the mothers and the patriots of France will supply her future champions and avengers. But before we think of the future we must make sure of the present, and establish once and for all a Government founded on justice and equality, not an envious and grudging equality, but that equality of rights and duties which recognises no other distinctions between man and man than those arising from character, intelligence and energy in the battle of life.
  • Speech to the workers of Loire (1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 161

• The Republic should not mean the privileged rule of a few; it should be a tool that all may handle... Let us shelve the discussion of theories and keep for the time being to questions of conduct, let us tend the Republic with all possible care while it is still in the bud, let us watch over the young tree with loving devotion.
  • Speech in Chambéry (1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 161

• France has seen a portion of her inheritance wrested from her; she must recover her loss. That is the work we have to do: let us think of it always, but speak of it—never!
  • Speech in Chambéry (1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 162

• Go into your places of worship, believe, affirm, pray. What I demand is liberty, an equal liberty for you and for me, for my philosophy and for your religious beliefs. We are not the foes of religion; we want to see it set on a firm basis, free and inviolable.
  • Speech in Albertville (1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 162

• Yes, I foresee...I announce the arrival and the presence on the political scene of a new social class which has been active in the affairs of the country for nearly eighteen months, and which is certainly far from inferior to its predecessors... What do you expect? There are in France some social classes which have found it difficult for forty-five years to face up not only to the French revolution, but also to its consequences... And it is in this lack of decision and courage of a notable part of the French bourgeoisie that I find the origin and explanation of all our misfortunes, our shortcomings, of all that is still uncertain, vague and unhealthy in today's politics. One asks oneself, in all conscience, how these men can close their eyes to a spectacle that ought to be obvious to them. Have they not since the fall of the Empire witnessed the arrival of a new generation, intelligent, fit to take part in government, anxious for all its right? ... Is this not a typical warning that the country, after having tried many forms of government, wants at last to call on another social class, to try the republican way?
  • Speech in Grenoble (26 September 1872), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), pp. 18-19

• Ah, they never trafficked in their blood, those two beloved provinces: it was their children whose breasts were the first to be pierced! Noble provinces, always heart and soul for France, always looking towards her flag.—"Yes, we suffer," they said, "but it is for our country's sake that we suffer, the very life-blood of the nation courses through our veins! ..." Gentlemen, I cannot go on, I cannot... It is... those provinces...
  • Speech in Thonon to a deputation of Alsace-Lorrainers (29 September 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 163

• It is well to weigh our words carefully when we speak of France's heritage. France, as you say with justice, will be all the more attractive when her destinies are controlled by all her citizens, and not swayed by the caprice of one. Yes, France in all her glory, France, under the auspices of the Republic, once more at the head of civilisation, offering to the world her legions of artists and workmen, of peasants, traders and professional men—yes, it is worth while to belong to such a France as that, and there is no man who would not then be proud to say, in his turn, "I am a French citizen!" But there is another France that I cherish no less, another France just as dear to me—the France that has been vanquished, overwhelmed, humbled in the dust. Yes, I adore that France as a mother; it is to that France that we must sacrifice our lives, our love of self, our personal enjoyment; it is of that France that we must say, "Where France is, there is our country!"
  • Speech after a member of the departmental council said that if the monarchy were restored in France, Savoy would unite herself with Switzerland (c. October 1872), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 164

1874

• What, what, I ask you, would be the value in these formidable elections of an exclusively republican policy, excessively ardent, incisive in its programme, alarming in its doctrines, compromising in its representatives? It would be swept away like straw before the wind, and all we should have left to console us for the blindness of the multitudes would be sterile oratory.
  • Letter to Juliette Adam (14 September 1874), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 17

• Yes, everything for the country, we must love it absolutely and be ready to sacrifice everything for it, down to our most private preferences. And this is a little more difficult than offering one's carcass or fortune. I prize nothing more than that beautiful title: Patriot before all else.
  • Letter to Jules Claretie (3 December 1874), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 22

1876

• I must confess I am driven to distraction by our everlasting squabbles over personal matters, the perpetual clash of private interests. How can I do anything for my country's good when my hands are tied like this? What a time for petty wrangling! We are in a state of utter chaos; everything is at sixes and sevens All this time, Germany is growing stronger and Bismarck has the whip-hand. You will notice, too, that every time he cracks his whip it is just after some piece of diplomatic bungling on our part. We are always at the mercy of some "incident." What would become of us if we had not learnt to dodge these blows, if we were as innocent as when we fell into the trap of the forged telegram from Ems?
  • Letter to Arthur Ranc (3 March 1876), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 216

1878

• Those who imagine that it is the duty, or that it lies within the power, of the Government to secure the happiness of all, are pursuing a mirage. Strictly speaking, there is only one thing that a Government owes to all, and that is, justice. Every man being bis own master, it rests with him to make himself happy or unhappy by using his freedom to good or bad purpose. The State does no more than guarantee an equality of rights to everyone, be he rich or poor, high or low. What we want is not an aristocratic or a middle-class or a proletarian Republic, but a national Republic.
  • Speech to the working-men's deputation from the Aveyron at the 1878 Paris Exposition (8 November 1878), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 258

1881

• I am only saddened by the help foreigners obtain from my electoral opponents at home. It is very sad to see the extreme (radical) republican party losing even the notion of patriotism.
  • Letter to the Marquise Arconati Visconti (19 February 1881), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 31

• I found myself unable to tolerate such a lowering of republican France before Europe and I intervened. In a few minutes I made them ratify a firm policy, one of national pride.
  • Letter to Léonie Léon (9 November 1881), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 31

1882

• As time goes on, the Republic, with its tendency to decentralisation, and its democratic prejudices pushed to extremes, will see its strength and its resources in soldiers melt away. Equality, for the army, means indiscipline and lack of cohesion; liberty means criticism pushed to the point of denigration and calumny against leaders...; fraternity is cosmopolitanism, humanitarianism, international stupidity; all these will doom us and, after a few years, they will throw us, an easy prey, under the feet of the Teutons, united with the Latins from across the Alps... We are slipping on to the slope of the South American republics... And what becomes of France in all this? That is the least concern of this degenerate race.
  • Letter to A. Gérard (12 August 1882), quoted in Herbert Tint, The Decline of French Patriotism 1870–1940 (1964), p. 34

Quotes about Léon Gambetta

• Gambetta, like Danton, was first and foremost the man of energy, the eloquent tribune who kindled the spirit of national resistance, and supplied an indispensable moral driving force... [T]here was no one else at the time who could have done it as well, no one who had the confidence, the energy, and the prestige necessary to carry the country with him as did Gambetta. Badly, indeed, he did conduct the war in many ways... But, despite all this, and despite its apparent fruitlessness, Gambetta's work had a real significance; for, in so far as it was conducted well, it revealed new possibilities, and it had a genuine moral value.
  • J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the National Defence: A Republican Dictatorship in France (1936), pp. 276-278

• If, as Renan said, he destroyed the legend of 1792, nevertheless, despite the defects of his administration, he showed the immense possibilities of a well-organised national defence, and of the systematic resistance of a whole people to a foreign invader. And Europe, and, most important of all, in Europe Germany, was impressed by that demonstration. There was no more eloquent tribute to its effectiveness than the wish expressed by von der Goltz that should Germany ever suffer such defeat as France in 1870, she should find a man like Gambetta to kindle resistance to the uttermost.
  • J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the National Defence: A Republican Dictatorship in France (1936), p. 278

• He had helped to restore the self-respect of the French people, to save its honour, and by identifying every citizen with the national defence to revive the idea of the "Patrie" in all its full significance. Even after his programme of war to the knife had proved impracticable, the idea had value. By it and by his protest against the treaty of Frankfurt, Gambetta personified the conception of the essential unity and indivisibility of France.
  • J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the National Defence: A Republican Dictatorship in France (1936), p. 279

• He was a foreigner, who relied greatly on the sonorousness of his voice, from which, however, he obtained striking effects. Not many ideas. He had conducted the war—both well and badly, but more badly than well—but he certainly did conduct it, and as well as he could. And he had profoundly generous impulses—his philosophy was beautiful and noble. I liked Gambetta, and respected him. He didn't know very well where he was going, but he went with ardour.
  • Georges Clemenceau, remarks to Jean Martet (19 June 1928), quoted in Jean Martet, Clemenceau: The Events of His Life As Told by Himself to His Former Secretary Jean Martet (1930), pp. 280-281

• [Gambetta is] one of the few orators of our time, perhaps the only one, who could make an audience experience that divine shudder which tightens the throat and makes one's hair stand on end.
  • Jules Delafosse, Figures contemporaines (1899), p. 191, quoted in J. P. T. Bury, Gambetta and the Making of the Third Republic (1973), p. 67

• Gambetta was dearly loved in his lifetime, and is still loved no less dearly. His name is a part of France's religion: what more glorious dream could a great soul cherish? In the blaze of that sunlight, his faults, his mistakes, his inconsistencies disappear from view. France no longer sees aught but this—that when everything had crashed into ruin, when all seemed lost, there arose one man who bore up the flag, with indomitable faith, to the end. She loves him vanquished no less than if he had been victorious. Vanquished, do I say? Nay, he is victorious. Yes, he is victorious to-day by our side. It is because he held out in 1870 that France did not lose the world's esteem or her own self-respect, that she kept her rank in the human family, that she raised herself and fulfilled the destiny that he had planned.
  • Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 329

• There can be no great nation or great man without a great idea. A nation like France does not own itself finally beaten because of three defeats: that is what he felt, that is what he proclaimed with irresistible force, with deathless eloquence. From 1914 to 1918 his soul fought in company with our heroes. His ideal, the union of all Frenchmen in a victorious Republic, has proved a reality. In the hour when France signed the peace of Right he was present in our midst and took part in the ceremony.
  • Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), pp. 329-330

• On December 9, 1918, when we entered Strasburg, we read, on a house in the Grand-Rue, the following scrawl, an artless and touching effusion of popular feeling: "Sleep in peace, Gambetta! At last the glorious dawn of the day you dreamed of has arisen for us!"
  France, Alsace and Lorraine have always given themselves freely to those who loved them well and never doubted that they were sound.
  • Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), p. 330

• I cannot but remember that we are all saddened to-night by the death of a great man—the greatest of all Frenchmen of his time... All, I think, of whatever party, have admired the magnitude of his courage, his tremendous energy, his splendid oratory, and, those who knew him in private, his unmatched gaiety and sparkling wit. These have made him, I repeat, the first Frenchman of his day.
  • Charles Dilke, speech in Chelsea (1 January 1883), quoted in The Times (2 January 1883), p. 4

• It seems difficult to speak of "moral" power about Gambetta. His kind of power was almost purely physical; it was a power of courage, energy, and oratory.
  • Charles Dilke, letter (1883), quoted in Stephen Gwynn and Gertrude M. Tuckwell, The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke Bart., M.P. Vol. I (1917), p. 513

• Much as I loved his society, I did not think him a loss to the Republic, for he was too dictatorial and too little inclined to let other men do important work to suit that form of government, except, indeed, in time of war. It is quite true that his was the only strong personality of which France could boast, and it was possible that, so long as he was there, the people would not be likely in a panic to hunt in other camps for a saviour; but great as was his power—physical power, power of courage and of oratory—and terrible as was the hole in France made by his death, nevertheless the smaller men were perhaps more able to conduct the Republic to prosperity and to general acceptance by the people.
  • Charles Dilke, quoted in Stephen Gwynn and Gertrude M. Tuckwell, The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke Bart., M.P. Vol. I (1917), pp. 513-514

• M. Gambetta, to whom I am giving this letter for you, is what we call in France a Republican. But he has more intellect and sound sense and true wisdom than many of the most enlightened Conservatives, and I only wish that most of the party leaders had as much. No one knows the inside of Paris better than he, or could give you fresher and more accurate news of it.
  • Adolphe Thiers to Prince Nicolas Bibesco (4 August 1868), quoted in Paul Deschanel, Gambetta (1920), pp. 19-20