The following is the text of the important document issued by the chief
of the state to the French nation:
Paris, September 19,
1877.
Frenchmen: You are about to elect your
representatives in the Chamber of Deputies.
[Page 171]
I have not the pretension to exercise any pressure on your choice,
but I am anxious to remove all ambiguity.
You must know what I have done, what I intend to do, and what will be
the consequences of what you are about to do yourselves.
This is what I have done:
For four years I have preserved peace, and the personal confidence
with which the foreign sovereigns honor me enabled me to render
daily more cordial our relations with all the powers.
At home order has not been for a moment disturbed.
By means of a policy which has rallied around me the men who are
before all else devoted to the country, the public prosperity, which
had been for a moment checked by our misfortunes, has recovered its
buoyancy. The public wealth has increased notwithstanding our heavy
burdens. The national credit has been strengthened.
France, peaceable and confident, has at the same time seen her army,
which is always worthy of her, reconstituted on fresh bases.
But those great results were in danger or being compromised.
The Chamber of Deputies, escaping each day more and more from the
direction of the men of moderate ideas, and more and more swayed by
the avowed leaders of radicalism, had reached the point of
disregarding the share of authority which belongs to me, and which I
could not allow to be diminished without engaging the honor of ray
name before you and before history. At the same time, contesting the
legitimate influence of the Senate, it tended to nothing less than
to substitute for the necessary equilibrium of the powers
established by the constitution the despotism of a new
convention.
There was no time for hesitation.
Exercising my constitutional right, and with the concurrence of the
Senate, I dissolved the Chamber of Deputies.
It is now for you to speak.
You are told that I wish to destroy the republic. You will not
believe it.
The constitution is confided to my care. I will cause it to be
respected.
What I expect from you is the election of a chamber which, rising
above party competitions, studies, before all, the business of the
country.
At the last elections an abuse was made of my name. Among those who
then called themselves my friends many have not ceased to oppose me.
They still tell you of their devotedness to me personally, and
pretend to only attack my ministers.
You will not be the dupes of such an artifice. In order to frustrate
it, my government will designate to you, among the candidates, those
who alone are authorized to use my name.
You will weigh maturely the meaning of your votes.
Elections favorable to my policy will facilitate the regular working
of the existing government. They will affirm the principle of
authority, which has been undermined by demagogues, and will secure
order and peace.
Hostile elections would aggravate the conflict between the public
powers, impede the movement of business, and maintain the agitation;
and France in the midst of those new complications would become an
object of mistrust to Europe.
As for myself, my duty would increase with the danger. I could not
obey the orders of the demagogues. I could neither become the
instrument of radicalism, nor abandon the post in which the
constitution has placed me.
I shall remain to defend conservative interests, with the support of
the Senate, and to protect energetically those faithful
functionaries who, in a trying moment, have not allowed themselves
to be intimidated by vain menaces.
Frenchmen! I await with entire confidence the manifestation of your
sentiments.
France, after so many trials, desires stability, order, and
peace.
With the aid of God we will secure those blessings for her. You will
listen to the voice of a soldier who serves no party, no
revolutionary nor retrograde passion, and who is guided solely by
love of country.
Marshal de MAC MAHON,
Duke de
Magenta, President of the
Republic.
Countersigned:
De Fourtou,
Minister of the Interior.
