John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[65] strangers, made haste to send them back to the city. Production and distribution were badly disorganized. The private workshops were closed; the numbers of the unemployed increased till the government found itself at one time with more than one hundred thousand able-bodied idle men on hand. It offered to find places for them in the army, with food and clothing, but this was by no means satisfactory. Many wanted work which would enable them to support their families, while many wanted themselves and families supported without work. The bourgeoisie, who were, then as now, the well-to-do middle class, having capital, factories, and shops, were disgusted with the idleness, confusion, and violence which prevailed, and while it naturally disapproved of the government's well-meant but misdirected efforts to find work for the unemployed, gave ready and effective support to its efforts to suppress insurrection and violence. Indeed, the conservatives of every class became so incensed at the idleness which prevailed on every hand that they openly favored the extermination of the hungry and insurgent proletariat. The government, although established by the revolution, with absolute control of the army, gathered about itself all the elements of conservatism, the royalists, the imperialists, the constitutional republicans, the conservative socialists, and the non-partisan bourgeoisie, and made common cause against the insurgents, killing in a few days as many as ten or twelve thousand.

The French government estimated the killed at fully thirty-six thousand, but Dana, after personal investigation, came to the conclusion that twelve thousand would cover the entire number. During the first ten days of his stay in the distracted city he was constantly on the go, visiting the scenes of interest. Soon after his arrival he was himself subjected to a domiciliary visit, during which he was severely lectured for his slowness in opening his