Is Alsace German or French? - Part 7

Sir, you are an eminent historian.  But when we speak of the present, do not fix your eyes too much upon history.  Race is history; it is of the past.  Language too, is history; it is the remains and the sign of the remote past.  What is current and alive are wills, ideas, interests, and affections.  History perhaps tells you that Alsace is a German country, but the present proves that she is a French one.  It would be futile to maintain that she must return to Germany because she was once a part of it centuries ago.  Are we to reestablish everything as it was centuries ago?  And then, I beg you to consider to which Europe we must refer; that of the seventeenth century, or that of the fifteenth, or even that of ancient Gaul that possessed the whole Rhine and where Strasbourg, Saverne, and Colmar were all Roman cities?  Let us be of our own time.  We have today something better than history to guide us.  We possess, in the nineteenth century, a principle of public right that is infinitely clearer and less negotiable than your pretended principle of nationality.  Our principle is that a population can be governed only by institutions it freely accepts, and that it can only be a part of a State through its own will and free consent.  This is the modern principle.  It is today the only foundation of order, and to it must rally whoever is a friend of liberty and a partisan of human progress.  Whether Prussia likes it or not, it is this principle that will triumph in the end.  If Alsace is and remains French it is only because she wants to be.  You will only make her German if one day she has some reason to want to be German.  Her future should depend upon her.  Today, France and Prussia fight over her, but only Alsace can decide.  You say that you claim Strasbourg and that it must be restored to you.  Of what claim do you speak?  Strasbourg belongs to no one.  Strasbourg is not a possession that we must return.  Strasbourg is not ours; she is with us.  We wish Alsace to remain among the French provinces, but please note what reason we cite for this.  Do we say it is because Louis XIV conquered her?  Not at all. Do we say it is because she is useful for our defense?  No.  Neither reasons of force not strategic interests are important here.  It is only a question of public right and we should resolve the question using modern principles.  France only has one reason for wishing to keep Alsace, which is that Alsace has valiantly shown that she wishes to remain with France.  This is why we go to war with Prussia.  Bretons and Burgundians, Parisians and Marseillais, we fight you over the matter of Alsace; but so that no one is mistaken, we do not fight to constrain her, but to stop you from constraining her.

Paris, the 27th of October, 1870

Is Alsace German or French? - Part 6

All the arguments in the world will change nothing.  You can invoke ethnicity and philology all you want.  We are not taking a university course.  We are in the midst of facts and the human heart.  If your reasoning tells you that Alsace should have a German heart; my eyes and ears assure me she has a French one.  You assert from afar that "She has a spirit of provincial opposition against France,"; I have seen her up close; I know men of all classes, all religions, all political parties and I have found this spirit of opposition nowhere.  You insinuate that she is antipathetic towards the men of Paris; I know all too well with what sympathy she welcomes them.  By heart and mind, Alsace is one of the most French of our provinces.  The Strasbourgeois has, like each of us, two fatherlands: his city of birth first, then, over it, France.  As for Germany, there is not even the thought that it ever could be her country,

Your have observed it well for two months.  On the sixth of August, France was defeated.  Alsace, bereft of troops, was open to the Germans.  How did she receive them?  The Alsatian peasants took their old guns and shovels to fight the foreigners.  Many, unable to tolerate the enemy's presence in their villages, sought refuge in the mountains, where even now they defend every ridge and ravine. The Prussians have demanded that Strasbourg surrender and you know how it responded.  But note this:  Strasbourg only had 2,500 French soldiers and the sixth artillery regiment composed of Alsatians serving as garrison.  It is the population of Strasbourg that resisted the Germans.  It was an Alsatian general that led the city.  The bishop, whose advances were so rudely rejected from the German side, was Alsatian.  Those who fought so valiantly, those who struck the enemy in such rude sorties, were Alsatians.  All these men undoubtedly spoke your language but they certainly did not consider themselves your compatriots.  And the German soldiers who launched bombs at Strasbourg, who aimed at the Cathedral, who burned the Temple-Neuf, the library, the houses, the hospital, who, while respecting the ramparts and managing the garrison, were pitiless only towards the inhabitants, state frankly, hand on heart, did they feel themselves compatriots?  Speak no more of nationality, and above all, refrain from telling the Italians: Strasbourg is ours by the same right by which Milan and Venice are yours; because the Italians would reply that they bombarded neither Milan nor Venice.  If one could still have had some doubt on the true nationality of Strasbourg and of Alsace, the doubt is no longer possible today.  The cruelty of the attack and the energy of the defense has caused the truth to flash before all eyes.  What stronger proof do you want?  As the first Christians confessed their faith, Strasbourg, by her martyrdom, has confessed that she is French.

Is Alsace German or French? - Part 5

It is not race: cast your eyes upon Europe and you will clearly see that people are almost never defined by primitive origins.  Geographical features, political or commercial interests are what defined populations and formed states.  Each nation was thus gradually formed, each country defined itself without anyone concerning themselves with the ethnic factors that you wish to make fashionable.  If nations correspond to races, Belgium would be French, Portugal, Spanish, the Netherlands, Prussian; for that matter, Scotland would detach itself from England, to which she has been so closely linked for a century and a half, Russia and Austria would each divide themselves into three or four parts, Switzerland would split in two, and Posen would assuredly separate from Berlin.  Your racial theory is contrary to all existing states in Europe.  If it were to prevail, the whole world would have to remake itself.

Neither is language the characteristic sign of nationality.  We speak five languages in France, however, no one has thought of doubting our national unity.  They speak three languages in Switzerland; is Switzerland any less one nation, and will you say she lacks patriotism?  On the other hand, they speak English in the United States; do you see the United States wishing to reestablish the national link that once united them to England?  You emphasize that they speak German in Strasbourg; is it any the less true that it is in Strasbourg that they sang our Marseillaise for the first time?

It is neither race nor language that distinguishes nations.  Men feel in their hearts that they are of the same people when they have a community of interests, ideas, affections, memories, and hopes.  That is what makes a country.  That is why men march together, work together, fight together, live or die for each other.  One's country is what one loves.  It could be that Alsace is German by race and language; but by nationality and patriotic feeling, she is French.  And do you know what made her French?  It was not Louis XIV, it was our revolution of 1789.  From that moment on, Alsace followed our destiny; she has lived our life.  All that we thought, she thought; all that we felt, she felt.  She shared our victories and our losses, our glory and our faults, all our joys, and all our sufferings.  She has nothing in common with you.  Country, for her, is France.  Foreign soil, for her, is Germany.

Is Alsace German or French? - Part 4

This principle which she alleges for Schleswig, which she alleges for Alsace, which she will allege for Holland, for Austria, for Germanic Switzerland, for Livonia, she takes it for the opposite of what it is.  It is not what she believes.  It constitutes a right for the weak; it is not an excuse for the ambitious.  The principle of nationality is not the old right of the strong under a new name.

Let us understand it the way it is understod by European common sense.  What does it say about Alsace?  One thing only: that Alsace must not be constrained to obey foreigners.  Do you now want to find out what is foreign for Alsace?  Is it France, or is it Germany?  Which is the nationality of the Alsatians; which is their real country?  You assert, Sir, that Alsace is of German nationality.  Are you sure of this?  Would that now be one of those assertions that rely on words and appearances more than on reality?  I beg you to examine this questions frankly, loyally: to what do you attribute nationality?  How do you recognize a country?

You think you have proven that Alsace is of German nationality; because her population is of Germanic race and because her language is German.  But I am astonished that a historian like you pretends to be ignorant of the fact that neither race or language is what consitutes nationality.

Is Alsace German or French? - Part 3

It is on this point that I wish to respond to you.  Because it is necessary to understand that, in this horrible duel, Right finds itself on the same side as Might.  It is also necessary to accept the fact that Alsace is wrong to defend herself and that Prussia is right to bombard Strasbourg.

You invoke the principle of nationality, but you understand it differently from the rest of Europe.  According to you, this principle authorizes a powerful State to seize a province by force, with the only condition that the province be occupied by the same race as the State.  According to Europe and common sense, it simply authorizes a province or a population not to obey a foreign master against her will.  I explain myself with an example:  the principle of nationality does not permit Piedmont to conquer Milan and Venice by force; but it allows Milan and Venice to free themselves from Austria and to voluntarily attach themselves to Piedmont.  You see the difference.  This principle may well give Alsace a right, but it gives you none over her.

Think of what would happen if the principle of nationality were to be understood the way Prussia understands it and if she succeeds in making it the rule in European politics.  She would have the right to seize Holland.  She would then remove from Austria the affirmation that Austria is a foreigner with regard to her own German provinces.  Then she would reclaim from Switzerland all the German speaking cantons.  Finally, she would address herself to Russia, taking the province of Livonia and the city of Riga, which is inhabited by the German race; that is what you say on page 16 of your pamphlet.  It would never end.  Europe would be periodically disrupted by Prussia's "claims."  But it cannot be so.

Is Alsace German or French? - Part 2

So, since the month of Augusr you indicate with perfect perception the real point being disputed between France and Prussia.  Mr. von Bismarck had not stated it yet.  He had not yet said aloud that we must wage war to take Alsace and part of Lorraine.  But already, Sir, you were a good prophet and you announced the pretentions and goal of Prussia.  You ascertained what would be the purpose of this new war that she would undertake in her turn against our nation.  No one can continue to be ignorant of it today:  what places the entire military population of Germany and the whole able bodied male population of France in the balance, is this question, frankly stated:  Will Alsace belong to France or to Germany?

Prussia counts on settling the question by force; but force is not enough; she must take the law into account as well.  Also, while her armies invade Alsace and bombard Strasbourg, you must endeavor to prove that she is in the right and that Alsace and Strasbourg belong to her legitimately.  If we were to believe you, Alsace is a German province, therefore she must belong to Germany.  She used to be a part of it; you conclude from that that she must be returned.  She is German-speaking and from this you draw the conclusion that Prussia can seize her.  By virtue of these reasons, you "claim" her; you want her to be "restored."  She is yours, you say, and you add: "We want to take all that is ours, nothing more, nothing less."  You call this the principle of nationality.

Is Alsace German or French? - Part 1

Sir,

You have recently addressed three letters to the Italian people.  These letters which just appeared in the Milan newspapers and which were later published together as a pamphlet are a true manifesto against our nation.  You have left your historical studies to attack France; I leave mine to respond to you.

In your first two lettters, which were written at the end of the month of July, you set out to demonstrate that Prussia, infuriatingly attacked, was only defending herself.  Perhaps you were correct at that time; because the aggressor then was clearly France.  But don't you presume a lot when you add that Prussia would only fight defensive wars?  You would not write that today; because the roles were so completely reversed at the conference at Ferrieres that Prussia is clearly the aggressor today.  As for the rest, Sir, I can only applaud the sentiments that you expressed in favor of peace and law.

Your third letter, written at the end of the month of August, that is, in the midst of the Prussian victories, differs significantly from the first two.  You are no longer concerned with the defense of your country, but with its expansion.  For you, it is no longer a question of security, but of conquest.  Without the smallest demur, you write that Prussia must take Alsace and keep it.