The Choctaw Freedmen Part 59

An American citizen does not need to go to far-off India or Africa to learn how people live without the Bible. Every heathen nation, living in ignorance and degradation furnishes a practical ill.u.s.tration. This ill.u.s.tration may be found by visiting the countries on the other side of the southern boundary line of the United States, where for several centuries under dominant catholic influence the Bible has been a forbidden book in the few public educational inst.i.tutions of the country. The result may now be seen in the general prevalence of ignorance, poverty and oppression; the owners.h.i.+p of land limited to a comparatively few persons, corruption and rapacity on the part of public officials, general improvement checked and the country impoverished by frequent insurrections and revolutions, that indicate incapacity for stable and prosperous self-government.

France, however, once made the actual experiment of suppressing the Bible and Bible readers for two centuries, during the period from 1572 to 1795, while the Reformation of the 16th century was progressing in Germany, Switzerland, Britain and other countries.

Thomas Carlyle, in his history of the French Revolution, that occurred 1788 to 1795, has very dramatically portrayed scenes and incidents, which become pregnant with new and thrilling interest, when briefly summarized to ill.u.s.trate the folly and sad consequences of suppressing the Bible and Bible readers in that nation. The historic value of these incidents should make this story interesting and instructive to every student and teacher.

ATHEISM, DEISM, PHILOSOPHISM

Louis XV, king of France, at the end of a reign of fifty-nine years, dies unwept and unmourned in 1774. Affirming there is no G.o.d or heaven, at the beginning of his long reign, and not permitting any of his courtiers to mention the word "death" in his presence, he abandons himself to a life of forbidden pleasure, humiliates and scandalizes the people of France instead of enlightening and elevating them. He inherits and maintains the tyrannous and oppressive feudal system, that prevents the common people from acquiring owners.h.i.+p of land. His career has been described, "as an hideous abortion and mistake of nature, the use and meaning of which is not yet known." The persecution of Bible readers, or Protestants, is begun with a general ma.s.sacre at Paris, on the anniversary of Saint Bartholomew in 1572. Those who escape the b.l.o.o.d.y horrors of that occasion, are commanded to emigrate from France, on pain of death. The following events occur, during the latter part of the last half century, preceding the French Revolution.

The leaders in thought are the shameless and selfish infidels and deists, Voltaire, Rosseau, Robespierre and others like them. Paris admires her deistical authors and makes them the objects of hero-wors.h.i.+p. They are called "Philosophs," and Bible readers must not stand in their way. Philosophism sits joyful in glittering saloons, is the pride of n.o.bles and promises a coming millennium. Crus.h.i.+ng and scattering the last elements of the Protestant Reformation, they blindly and falsely talk of a Reformed France. The people applaud, instead of suppressing these false teachers. The highest dignitaries of the church waltz with quack-prophets, pick pockets and public women. The invisible world of Satan is displayed and the smoke of its torment goes up continually. No provision is made for the general education of the common people and yet the government is fast becoming bankrupt.

In 1774 Louis XVI succeeds his father, as the last King of France. He is youthful, uneducated, imbecile. He is wedded to a giddy superficial queen. Both are infidels and incapable of any intelligent acts of government. With imbecility and credulity on the throne, corruption continues to prevail among high and low. Instead of individual thrift and general prosperity, poverty and famine prevail throughout the land.

APPEAL FOR BREAD

In 1775, impelled by a scarcity of bread, a vast mult.i.tude from the surrounding country gather around the royal palace at Versailles, their great number, sallow faces and squalid appearance indicating widespread wretchedness and want. Their appeal for royal a.s.sistance is plainly written, in "legible hieroglyphics in their winged raggedness." The young king appears on the balcony and they are permitted to see his face. If he does not read their written appeal, he sees it in their pitiable condition. The response of the king is an order, that two of them be hanged. The rest are sent back to their miserable hovels with a warning not to give the king any more trouble.

Mirabeau, a French writer, describes a similar scene that occurs later that same year. "The savages descending in torrents from the mountains our people are ordered not to go out. The bagpipes begin to play, but the dance in a quarter of an hour is interrupted by a battle. The cries of children and infirm persons incite them, as the rabble does when dogs fight. The men, like frightful wild animals, are clad in coa.r.s.e woollen jackets with large girdles of leather studded with copper nails. Their gigantic stature is heightened by high wooden clogs. Their faces are haggard and covered with long greasy hair. The upper part of their visage waxes pale, while the lower distorts itself into a cruel laugh, or the appearance of a ferocious impatience."

These proceedings are a protest of the common people, of whom there are twenty millions, against government by blind-man's-buff. These people, paying their taxes, are protesting against corrupt officials depriving them of their salt and sugar, in order to maintain royal and official extravagance. Stumbling too far prepares the way for a general overturn.

MORAL AND FINANCIAL BANKRUPTCY

There is no visible government. Its princ.i.p.al representative is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or king's treasurer; and "Deficit of revenue" is his constant announcement, to the feudal lords, who exercise local government. In 1787 Cardinal Lomenie becomes the king's new treasurer. His predecessor has been ousted because the treasury was bankrupt, but his unscrupulous methods continue to be adopted because no better ones can be devised. As late as the next year the cardinal demands the infliction of the death penalty on all Protestant preachers.

The period has become one of spiritual and moral bankruptcy. The Bible has been suppressed and blind human reason has been exalted. There is no bond of morality to hold the people together. Men become slaves of their l.u.s.ts and appet.i.tes, and society, a ma.s.s of sensuality, rascality and falsehood. Infidelity, despotism and general bankruptcy prevail every where. There is no royal authority and the palace of justice at Versailles is closed.

The poverty and misery, experienced by the peasants in their comfortless hovels, awakens a feeling of discontent and protest. This feeling of protest, among the poor and illiterate, permeates upward and becomes more intense as it proceeds. In this unorganized protest the hand of one is arrayed against his fellow man. The common people are arrayed against the n.o.bles; the n.o.bles, against each other, and both n.o.bles and people are bitter against the government. Towns.h.i.+ps are arrayed against towns.h.i.+ps and towns against towns. Gibbets are erected everywhere and a dozen wretched bodies may be seen hanging in a row. The mayor of Vaison is buried alive; the mayor of Etampes, defending a supply of food, is trampled to death by a mob exasperated with hunger, and the mayor of Saint Denis is hung at Lanterne. The ripening grain is left ungathered in the fields, and the fruit of the vineyards is trodden under foot. The b.l.o.o.d.y cruelty of universal madness prevails everywhere.

A frightful hail storm, that destroys the grain and fruits of the year at the beginning of harvest, is followed by a severe drought in 1788.

Foulon, an official grown gray in treachery and iniquity, when asked,

"What will the people do?" makes response,

"The people may eat gra.s.s."

The royal government is now described, as existing only for its own benefit; without right, except possession; and now also without might.

"It foresees nothing, and has no purpose, except to maintain its own existence. It is wholly a vortex in which vain counsels, falsehoods, intrigues and imbecilities whirl like withered rubbish in the meeting of the winds."

Commerce of all kinds, as far as possible, has come to a dead pause, and the hand of the industrious is idle. Many of the people subsist on meal-husks and boiled gra.s.s. Armed Brigands begin to make their appearance and a "reign of terror," is ushered in.

FIRST POPULAR a.s.sEMBLY

On May 4, 1789, the first popular a.s.sembly meets at Versailles, more churches than other buildings having been used as polling places, at this first election in France. The a.s.sembly is composed of n.o.bles, clergy and commoners, the last representing the people.

Six "parlements," consisting only of n.o.bles, have previously been convened by the king's treasurer, and as often have been dismissed by the king, because they were not willing to tax themselves more, to increase the revenues of the king. In this a.s.sembly, there are six hundred commoners, who, when the king dismissed the a.s.sembly, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Mirabeau refused to be dismissed, and bind themselves by an oath, to remain in session, until they have framed and adopted a const.i.tution.

This act of the commoners is the beginning of the French Revolution.

This Revolution has been defined, as "An open, violent rebellion and victory of unimprisoned anarchy, against corrupt worn-out authority; breaking prison, raging uncontrollable and enveloping a world in fever frenzy, until the mad forces are made to work toward their object, as sane and regulated ones."

These commoners are shut out of their hall and their signatures are attached to their oath in a tennis court. They are later joined by Lafayette, the friend of Was.h.i.+ngton, and by other n.o.bles and 149 Roman clergy. They are treated offensively, but cannot be offended. They are animated with a desire to prepare a const.i.tution, that will regenerate France, abolish the old order and usher in a new one.

Paris, always very demonstrative under excitement, grows wild with enthusiasm for the commoners, and others, who compose their first National a.s.sembly. They go simmering and dancing, thinking they are shaking off something old and advancing to something new. They have hope in their hearts, the hope of an unutterable universal golden age, and nothing but freedom, equality and brotherhood on their lips. Their hopes, however, are based on nothing but the "vapory vagaries of unenlightened human reason," instead of the unchanging truths and principles of Divine Revelation. They experience an indescribable terror, of the unnumbered hordes of Europe rallying against them, in addition to the constant dread of their own cruel, armed brigands and inhuman official executioners.

Unfortunately the commoners had not been previously trained in the art of statesmans.h.i.+p, and after a long session, that lasted until September 14, 1791, the const.i.tution then proposed was still incomplete; and had to be submitted to another a.s.sembly to be completed. They however accomplish some things worthy of note. In 1789 they abolish feudalism, root and branch; and the payment of t.i.thes. The latter meant the separation of church and state, in matters of support and government; and this event seemed to the deists, like a time of Pentecost.

REPUBLIC OF FRANCE

On Sept. 22, 1792 the Republic of France is declared. On Jan. 1, 1793, King Louis XVI, who had become a runaway king, and on October 16th following, Marie Antoinette, the queen, are executed. These events are followed by another reign of terror, the plundering of churches and a war with Spain.

The Republic of France, when first established, proves to be one of a mob, robbing and murdering those, who had property. The people become despotic as soon as they have disposed of their useless king, and queen.

There were only nine prisoners in the Bastille, when it was destroyed, but now in two days and under the name of liberty, eight thousand innocent persons are ma.s.sacred in prison. Walter Scott in his Life of Napoleon adds: "Three hundred thousand other persons, one third of whom are women, are ruthlessly committed to prison," the executioners usurping the place of the judges and, without trial, "p.r.o.nouncing sentence against them." Their watchwords, while the Revolution continues, are, "Unity, Brotherhood or Death." These principles are enforced by edicts of exile, imprisonment, or death by the guillotine.

REIGN OF TERROR

This reign of terror continues until July 28, 1794, when the cruel hearted Robespierre and his consorts are condemned to death on the guillotine, a cunningly devised beheading machine, on which he had been practicing with innocent and helpless victims, for twenty-two years.

In 1795 a new const.i.tution is adopted, and after the suppression of a number of b.l.o.o.d.y riots and insurrections that year, by the young Napoleon with his batteries of artillery, public order is restored and the Revolution is regarded as ended.

PEOPLE UNPREPARED FOR FREEDOM

These are but a few of the many riotous and disorderly events that occurred in France just at the close of the American Revolution, in which Lafayette co-operated with so much honor to himself and his country. These suffice to show how unprepared the people were for any great or concerted movement, and how dest.i.tute the nation was of men, fit to serve as leaders in thought and action, until the rise of Napoleon with his genius for military affairs. Mirabeau, their first trusted leader, dies before the end of their first a.s.sembly. Lafayette, a prominent member of the first a.s.sembly, when made military commander at Paris, finds the rabble will not listen to his counsels, and he resigns. In 1782 he makes another attempt to re-instate authority in Paris, and the attempt proving a failure he retires from further partic.i.p.ation in public affairs.

No one is able to antic.i.p.ate the next movement of the populace, or win and hold their confidence, any length of time. One event follows another "explosively." Men, fearing to remain longer in their huts or homes, fugitively rush with wives and children, they know not whither. Under the leaders.h.i.+p of the infidels, Rosseau and Robespierre, they experience terrors such as had not fallen on any nation, since the fall of Jerusalem.

INSURRECTION OF WOMEN

An insurrection of women is suddenly started in Paris, in October 1789, at the call of a young woman who seizes a drum and cries aloud, "Descend O Mothers; Descend ye Judiths to food and revenge!" Ten thousand women, quickly responding to this call, press through the military guard to the armory in Hotel de Ville, and when supplied with arms march on foot to Versailles, and, taking the king and his family captives, bring them and the National a.s.sembly to Paris the next day, October 5th, followed by a good natured crowd, estimated at 200,000. Now that the king occupies the palace of the Tuileries at Paris, the people hungry, but hopeful, shake hands in the happiest mood, and a.s.sure one another "the New Era has been born."

RESULTS

The princ.i.p.al results of the French Revolution may be briefly summarized as follows:

Good riddance of a half century line, of worse than useless, atheistic kings and queens; the suppression of the tyrannous feudal system, that prevented the common people from acquiring owners.h.i.+p of land, the suppression of the Bastille, a feudal prison and robber den, and of the guillotine; the suppression of religious persecution, and the separation of church and state in matters of government and support; and the adoption of a const.i.tution, that provides for the people to have a voice, in the management of the affairs of the government.

LAND OF CALVIN AND LAFAYETTE

France is the land that gave birth and education to John Calvin, the pioneer advocate of civil and religious liberty, and in his day the good work of the Reformers had gained an encouraging foot hold in his native land, but after the lapse of a century of cruel extermination, one looks in vain to see the expected fruits of his great work. A century, of Bible suppression and persecution of Bible readers, has left the people in ignorance of the Word of G.o.d, which is the Light and Life of the World, and in its place catholicism and infidelity, like h.o.a.r frosts or destructive black clouds, have spread over the land. Oppressed with a feeling of need and seeking something not clearly defined, the people grope in darkness and stumble on events, as if playing blind-man's-buff.

The one hundred and forty-nine Roman clergy in the first a.s.sembly are so lacking in intelligence and patriotism, they exert no special influence worthy of note.