Men admire those who dauntlessly pluck the flower, safety, out of the nettle, danger.
Finally, the influence of one commanding personality was ultimately to be given to the cause of the Republic.

That strange instinct which in times of crisis turns the gaze of a people towards the one necessary man, now singled out M.Thiers.The veteran statesman was elected in twenty-six Departments.

Gambetta and General Trochu, Governor of Paris, were each elected nine times over.

It was clear that the popular voice was for the policy of statesmanlike moderation which Thiers now summed up in his person; and Gambetta for a time retired to Spain.
The name of Thiers had not always stood for moderation.

From the time of his youth, when his journalistic criticisms on the politics, literature, art and drama of the Restoration period set all tongues wagging, to the day when his many-sided gifts bore him to power under Louis Philippe, he stood for all that is most beloved by the vivacious sons of France.