CAVAIGNAC, Louis Eugène (1802-1857), dictator at Paris during the insurrection of June 1848, was born there in 1802. His father was a member of the National Convention, and the family was marked by republican proclivities. After going through the usual course of study for the military profession, he entered the army in 1824, and served in the Morea in 1828. When the revolution of 1830 broke out, he was stationed at Arras, and was the first officer of his regiment to declare for the new order of things. In 1831 he incurred the displeasure of the Government of Louis Philippe by joining in a protest against its reactionary tendencies; but in 1832 he was recalled to the service, and sent to Algeria. This continued to be the main sphere of his activity for sixteen years, till the revolution of 1848; and he took an active part, though in a subordinate capacity, in the different sieges and campaigns by which Algeria was gradually reduced under French mle. After passing through almost all the successive grades in the army, he was, in 1844, raised to the rank of general of brigade, as a reward for his skill and courage. When the revolution of February (1848) took place, the Provisional Government appointed him governor-general of Algeria; and they shortly after offered him the post of minister at war, which he declined. On his election to the National Assembly, however, Cavaignac returned to Paris. When he arrived on the 17 th May, he found the capital in an extremely critical state. The socialists of Paris, incited and organized by skilful leaders, were in a state of bitter hostility to the National Assembly, and a formidable insurrection was gradually maturing. The National Assembly had proved a bitter disappointment to them; for the peasant proprietors, terrified by the vast ...increase of taxation, and the general uncertainty of revolution, had returned a decidedly conservative majority. Several collisions had already taken place. The crisis was at last brought about by the threatened abolition of the national workshops (ateliers nationaux), which the reasonable majority of the Assembly was especially anxious for, as the finances were being ruined by the maintenance in utter idleness of 120,000 men. By the 22d of June a formidable insurrection had been organized, and it remained only for the National Assembly to assert its authority by force of arms. Cavaignac, first as minister at war, and then as dictator, was called to the task of suppressing the revolt. It was no light task, as the national guard was doubtful, regular troops were not at hand in sufficient numbers, and the insurgents had abundant time to prepare themselves. Variously estimated at from 30,000 to 60,000 men, well armed and well organized, they occupied the north-eastern part of the city, their front line stretching from the Pantheon on the south of the Seine by the Pont St Michel to the Portes St Martin and St Denis. Resting on the Faubourg St Antoine as central point, and threatening the Hotel de Ville, they had entrenched themselves at every step behind formidable barricades, and were ready to avail themselves of every advantage that ferocity and despair could suggest to them. Cavaignac, knowing the work he had before him, remained inactive, notwithstanding the urgent representations of the βivil members of Government, till a sufficient regular force had been collected. At last, by a strong combined'movement on the two flanks and against the centre of the insurgent forces, he attempted to drive them from t*heir barricades,—with doubtful success for some time, as every inch of ground was disputed, and the Government troops were frequently repulsed, till, fresh regiments arriving, he forced his way to the Place de la Bastille, and crushed the insurrection in its headquarters. The contest, which raged from the 23d to the morning of the 26th of June, was, without doubt, the bloodiest and most resolute the streets of Paris have ever seen. It is calculated that more Frenchmen fell in it than in the bloodiest battles of the first empire.
Cavaignac was severely censured by some for having, by his delay, allowed the insurrection to gather head; but he was declared by an immense majority to have deserved well of his country, and continued to be president of the Executive Committee till the election of a regular president of the republic. It was expected that the suffrages of France would raise Cavaignac to that position. But the mass of the people, and especially the rural population, sick of revolution, and weary even of the moderate republicanism of Cavaignac, were anxious for a stable government. Against the five and a half million votes recorded for Louis Napoleon, Cavaignac received only a million and a half. Not without chagrin at his defeat, he withdrew into the ranks of the opposition. At the coup Petat of the 2d December 1851, he was arrested along with the other members of the opposition; but after a short imprisonment at Ham he was released, and, with his newly-married wife, lived in retirement till his death in 1857. Cavaignac was no statesman, but was a loyal, skilful, and courageous soldier, a zealous republican, and in every way an honourable man.
[877 words — estimated reading time: 6 minutes]