French and German Socialism in Modern TimesEly, Richard T. (Richard Theodore)
History
French and German Socialism in Modern Times
Ely, Richard T. (Richard Theodore)
Socialism -- France; Socialism -- Germany
1. Pure Socialism.
2. State and Professorial Socialism.
3. Christian Socialism.
4. French Collectivism.
5. French Anarchists and Blanquists.
6. Social Democracy.
7. International Socialism.
The most general division is that into communism and socialism. As
subdivisions, social democracy and the International figure under both
of the leading divisions, as these parties include socialists and
communists. Under French communism are included adherents of the French
Collectivists, Anarchists, and Blanquists.
Babœuf and Cabet are perhaps the two leading French representatives of
pure communism, Babœuf representing that of the French Revolution.[19]
François Noël Babœuf was born in St. Quentin, in the Department of Aisne,
in 1764.[20] He appears to have come of a good family, for his father was
a major in the Austrian army. The elder Babœuf devoted much attention to
his son’s education, and, in particular, took especial pains to give him
a good mathematical training; but he died when the young man was only
sixteen years of age, and this obliged Babœuf to leave his studies and
seek employment. After having filled various subordinate positions, he
became a land-surveyor, and was finally elected an administrator of the
Department of the Somme; but did not enjoy this post long, for he was
soon arrested on a charge of forgery, condemned, and sentenced to twenty
years’ imprisonment. He escaped to Paris and joined the revolutionary
movement. Like Mably and numerous speculative thinkers at that time,
he was filled with admiration for the socialistic institutions of the
Greeks and Romans. He even called himself Gracchus Babœuf, after the
Roman tribune, and founded a paper which he named _Tribune of the
People_, and which was the first socialistic newspaper ever published.
He signed his articles Caius Gracchus, and in them he attacked the
institutions of civilized society and the party which accomplished the
Revolution of Thermidor, executed Robespierre and St. Just, and finally
terminated the Reign of Terror. His violent abuse of those in authority
and his revolutionary projects led to his imprisonment for a few months
in 1795. He improved the opportunity to establish a connection with
Darthé, Buonarroti and other Jacobins and Terrorists, of whom there were
nearly two thousand in the same prison. Upon their release, they formed
a conspiracy, called, after its leader, “the conspiracy of Babœuf.” Its
object was to overthrow the Directory and introduce the communistic
millennium, which they had begun to evolve in the prison. The members
of the band called themselves the Equals. They formed a complex and
skilfully contrived organization, whose centre was the secret committee
of insurrection. This consisted of the following seven members; Babœuf,
Buonarroti, Sylvain Maréchal, Felix Lepelletier, Antonelle, Darthé,
and Debon. Most of them were journalists. Maréchal was author of a
Dictionary of Atheists (“Dictionnaire des Athées”).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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