Notre patrie

Our Fatherland

Charles Peguy

It was a revelation, and I shall not write this time the cahier I had set aside for myself, that I had promised myself to write about the four years of this legislature; that will be for another time, and, as usual, this other time will no doubt never come; a cahier of the whole and of looking back, a cahier of summary, a little summary of contemporary history for the use of patient dauphins, where I proposed to assemble, organize, recall to myself, in a certain order, several studies that it seemed to me indispensable to pursue, or to begin, for the beginning of this seventh series, studies bearing themselves, as one must, on the political and social movement since the beginning of this Chamber, and particularly, as was to be expected, since the beginning of Combism.

I expected it, myself like everyone else. One must expect one’s trade, and the obligations of one’s trade, the periodic obligations. No trades imply periodic obligations, the word says it, like the manufacture of periodicals. One must expect it. One gets used to it. One manages through crop rotation, and one comes very well, like modern lands, to do without fallow.

Against my will, through the ministry of these cahiers, I have after all become a little bit of a journalist; that is to say, a man who follows events; I do not deny it; I need have neither shame nor remorse about it; fortnightly journalist, if one may say so, I shall not disown the trade I practice; journalist by the month or by the semester, journalist at last, my misery is the common misery: I must follow events, an excellent exercise for finishing convincing oneself that truly events do not follow us.

They no doubt have other things to do; better or worse; journalist, fortnightly or by the semester, I could not let this legislature fall and the next elections prepare themselves without trying to cast backward a historian’s glance at the events of these last four years; a fairly large number of these events seemed to me important, serious; as they occurred they had seemed important to me; I was not quite sure they would seem so to me today; but in our wretched trade, we must pretend to believe it; of their own accord they organized themselves, arranged themselves in echelon, traced the plan of the cahier I had to write; truly this cahier was already done, like those cahiers that certain authors bring me; one only had to write it; that is to say one only had to do it; the resignation of Waldeckism and the beginning of Combism; how Combism claimed to be the direct lineage of Waldeckism; sincerely perhaps, at least for certain men, and for certain circumstances, and for a certain part, and for certain ideas; mendaciously indeed, for almost all the persons, in almost all the circumstances, for the greater part, and for almost all the ideas; to measure, to dose the legitimacy of this claim; how yes, Combism was in a certain sense the lineage of Waldeckism; how it was not its direct lineage, but a bastard lineage; how it was to become, how it fairly rapidly became its very negation; how, in fact and in possession, it became the master of the inheritance, legitimate heir in a certain sense, supposed heir for the greater part, usurper, more and more unworthy from day to day; how this lineage, real, claimed, was eroded from day to day as Combism advanced toward the domination of the Republic; the Combist domination; whether the establishment of the Combist domination was not essentially an establishment of the Jauresist domination; the Combist domination; whether the exercise and maintenance of the Combist domination was not essentially the exercise and maintenance of the Jauresist domination; how during almost the entire time, scarcely alleviated toward the end, with unexpected returns all the more frenetic, all the more insane, because everyone, and the interested parties almost as much as anyone, felt imminent the ruin of the system; and that this ruin, once achieved, once obtained, would remain definitive; that one would not return to it; how and by how much this form of Caesarism was more dangerous than all previous forms; how and by how much this hitherto untried form, precisely in part because it had not been tried, was profoundly more dangerous than all forms known and classified up to now; how it manifested itself; how it was organized; how it acted; by what processes; or even by what methods; how it culminated and descended in radiating fashion; in what it resembled known forms; in what it was new; that the government of the Republic and the true, old, traditional and religious republicans — I mean the men who had this true religion of the Republic — by dint of having their gaze fixed on the old realities, on recent threats, on present intentions, on the new appearances of military Caesarism, by dint of being frightened, terrified, fascinated by it, were bound to fall, and quite innocently, into the realities of civil Caesarism; which is the more dangerous, military Caesarism or civil Caesarism; that it is perhaps civil Caesarism; precisely because up to now one has been much less wary of it; of the moral innocence of the old republicans; and also of their mental innocence, which we commonly call ignorance; that through fear and fascination of military Caesarism this ignorance was bound infallibly to fall into civil Caesarism; that through fear and fascination of epaulette Caesarism, it was bound infallibly to fall into jacket Caesarism; that it is today demonstrated that a man can with impunity exercise a pitiless Caesarism in the Republic, provided that he is not a handsome man, that he is not a soldier, that he wears even civilian dress badly, above all that he does not know how to ride a horse; finally, that one may call him old father So-and-so; that as a bonus, if he were popularly ugly, it would be all the better; of the capital importance of the designation of “old father” in our contemporary history; and in the organization of demagoguery; that the popularity of the “old father” type is the most essential of all for an ambitious man; that it is therefore also the most dangerous for the reality of the Republic; thus, that the very characteristics that were, so to speak, de rigueur and constitutional for the old classical Caesarian ambitions, on the contrary have become, for the modern contemporary Caesarist ambitions, the most automatic causes of impediments; that M. Berteaux did the greatest harm to his candidacy for the presidency of the Republic by riding a horse, with boots, even civilian ones, at the last great military maneuvers this September; that one of his friends ought to tell him so; that one must not know how to ride, how to dress, even in a frock coat, have spurs, cut a fine figure; above all, that one must absolutely not recall Felix Faure; that everything on the contrary is permitted, and everything is promised to every little man, little father, little man of the people; suitably supported by an entire network of political ward committees; how the law on congregations was applied, an inheritance from the preceding government; how it was applied disloyally, despite the great protest, stifled in a conspiracy of silence, of the great Bernard-Lazare; that it was applied quite otherwise than it had been voted, by a forcing of the text; that consequently its application was an operation of public disloyalty; not only that this application was an act of public disloyalty, but that it was a new application of the principle of raison d’Etat; that raison d’Etat, which had triumphed in the corruption of Dreyfusism, was never as powerful as in the triumph of Combism; the abdication, the great abdication of M. Waldeck-Rousseau; the grandeur and unique sadness of that departure, which appeared from the start an eternal departure; how, in his very retreat, and in the preparation of his death, he tried, a second and final time, to save the Republic; of the resistance that was gradually gathering among the true republicans; of this resistance that was organizing itself; what admirable efforts, quickly suppressed by illness and by the advances of death, M. Waldeck-Rousseau imposed on himself to give, with one last turn of the helm, the true course; and the shameful reception he got; from men who owed him everything; who without him would have been nothing, condemned to or condemned by the nationalist reactionary demagoguery; in what spirit the separation of Church and State was prepared; but in what spirit it was to be carried out; conceived in a Combist spirit; but carried out in a much more republican spirit; that the law being voted on the Separation of Church and State appeared to be the continuation of the law on the Congregations; but that what was happening with the Separation law was the contrary of what had happened with the Congregations law; that the Congregations law, prepared, made, and voted as Waldeckist, was executed, applied as Combist; and that the law establishing the separation of Church and State on the contrary, prepared Combist, was amended juridical, would be voted fairly juridical, that is to say, in a certain sense, somewhat Waldeckist; what the Government’s policy toward the Holy See had been; and what the Holy See’s policy toward the French government had been; how the anticlericals conducted themselves; how the anti-Catholics conducted themselves; how the clericals conducted themselves; how the Catholics did not conduct themselves; how the liberals, the libertarians, the men and citizens of liberty, began to gather themselves together, and how they finally conducted themselves; how the great death of Waldeck-Rousseau was finally known; how this death, this slow death, was judged at once an absolutely irreparable misfortune; how the law on workers’ pensions was postponed; how the law establishing an income tax was further postponed; why; whether it is true that General Andre, Minister of War, forgotten today, disorganized the army, which was still fairly organized; in what sense and how; whether it is true that M. Camille Pelletan, today a journalist, then Minister of the Navy, finished disorganizing a naval force that was no longer much of an organized force; in what sense and how; whether there was not, in the same direction, a disorganization of France itself; that there was assuredly a disorganization, a decomposition, and a corruption of the old Dreyfusism; assuredly a disorganization, a decomposition, and a corruption of the old socialism; that Dreyfusism, becoming governmental, political, parliamentary, ceased to be a true Dreyfusism; that socialism, becoming governmental, political, parliamentary, was becoming statism and ceased to be a true socialism; how the revolutionary spirit was struck at its deepest sources; how the French revolutionary tradition was harmed in its oldest resources; how a universal Jauresism for nearly four years raged; for it is not enough to say that it reigned; that is to say a political and social opportunism without the grandeur and without the competence of the old opportunists; how anarchism itself did not remain unscathed; having received many blows, having admitted many political and literary contaminations; how a little popular and jesting man can become a great tyrant without anyone noticing; how the popularity of Caesarism forms the most dangerous outcome of democracies; how easy it is to establish an autocracy in France, provided one respects certain forms, while respecting no reality, no liberty; how the Republic, by dint of guarding against the invasions of exterior Caesarisms, in a manner so to speak professional, was condemned to not see the intrusions of the far more dangerous interior Caesarism rising; but how there still remained a few free citizens; how denunciation, which had always been in the practice of governments and parties, was organized into an official, governmental, political, parliamentary theory, supposedly republican; thus how Freemasonry, which in heroic times had rendered so many and such real services to the Republic, to liberty, to free thought, at a single stroke, having betrayed liberty, free thought, nearly made the Republic lose all the advantage that it had formerly helped to win for it; and for free thought all the advantages that it had formerly helped to win for free thought; how from the beginning of this ministry, favor, the privilege of favor, political favor, governmental favor, which had always been in the practice of governments and parties, in political mores, was scandalously erected into an official, governmental, political, parliamentary theory, supposedly republican; how a League instituted for the defense of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen itself became, despite courageous resistances, numerous enough, a political parliamentary organism; how it somewhat neglected the old rights of the old men, and the old rights of the old citizens; how all these old rights became the least of its concerns, far from having remained the eldest of its principles; how this great League, instituted by serious authors, by just men, by Fathers of the Republic for nobler destinies, despite courageous resistances came to never miss an occasion for demagoguery; how it did political work in the accomplishment of an unofficial Combism, a second Combism doubling, redoubling the official Combism; annex of the official Combism; how it intervened in the execution of the anti-Congregationist law; how it did not intervene as it should have in the separation of Church and State; how it became, despite courageous resistances, the abettor of denunciation; how finally Combism suddenly collapsed; at least in appearance, for, when all is said, the collapse was not sudden; under what apparent and real pressures; under what real but non-apparent weights; that there were in the downfall of Combism, besides a growing general disgust, besides a sort of impossibility of continuing almost officially noted in parliamentary language, political causes, perhaps singular, and somewhat mysterious; some good and some bad, as always; perhaps, this time, and by exception, as many good as bad.