Frédéric Passy (20 May 182212 June 1912) was a French economist and pacifist who was a founding member of several peace societies and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He was also an author and politician, sitting in the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 until 1889. He was a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his work in the European peace movement.
Born in Paris to a prominent Catholic and Orléanist family, Passy was surrounded by military veterans and politicians. After training in law, he worked as an accountant and served in the National Guard. He soon left this position and began travelling around France giving lectures on economics. Following years of violent conflicts across Europe, Passy joined the peace movement in the 1850s, working with several notable activists and writers to develop journals, articles, and educational curricula.
While sitting in the Chamber of Deputies, Passy developed the Inter-parliamentary Conference (later the Inter-Parliamentary Union) with British MP William Randal Cremer. Alongside this, he founded several peace societies: the , the , and the . Passy's work in the peace movement continued into his later years, and in 1901, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Red Cross founder, Henry Dunant.
Passy died in 1912 after a long period of illness and incapacitation. Despite his economic works gaining little traction, his efforts in the peace movement resulted in him being recognised as the "dean of European peace activists". His son, Paul Passy, published a memoir of his life in 1927, and his works are still being republished and translated into English in the 21st Century.
Family and early life
Passy was born in Paris in 1822 to an aristocratic Catholic family, which had strong ties to Orléanist politics.
His father, Justin Félix Passy, was a veteran of Waterloo. His paternal grandfather, Louis François Passy, had been (Receiver General of Finance), an important office in the Ancien Régime. His paternal grandmother was Jacquette Pauline Hélène d'Aure, whose brother, the Count d'Aure, was a riding master who fought for France in Egypt and Saint-Domingue.
Passy's mother, Marie Louise Pauline Salleron, was from an aristocratic Parisian family. His maternal great-grandfather, Joseph Salleron, was deputy mayor of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, and his maternal grandfather, Claude Louis Salleron, created a highly-profitable tanning business and was proposed as an officer in the National Guard in 1814.
After getting married in 1821, Félix Passy moved into the family home with Claude Louis Salleron. They went into business with each other and Félix eventually became an equal partner. Frédéric Passy's mother died in 1827, and in 1847, Félix married Irma Moricet, his son's widowed mother-in-law.
Early career
From 1846, Passy worked as an accountant in the Conseil de Droit. In 1848, he served in the National Guard. He resigned from his Conseil position in 1849 to start a career as an economist.
He was unable to secure a full-time position in education; he refused to swear the mandatory oath of loyalty to French monarch Napoleon III, believing his rule to be illegitimate. However, Passy published several books on economics during this time, the majority of them compiled from his lectures at universities in Pau, Montpellier, Bordeaux, and Nice.
Development of ideas Passy was trained in law, but soon became interested in moral and political economy. As he contemplated the effects of war, he was inspired by the works of several liberal economists and reformers: Frédéric Bastiat, Richard Cobden, and Daniel O'Connell. Passy was most impressed by Bastiat, who developed his ideas from Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League. Bastiat held the belief that the conscription and high tax which often accompanied militarism had a largely negative effect on the poor, and Passy further developed these ideas on class conflict throughout his work.
Being raised in a family of military veterans, Passy described in his autobiography how he "might easily have been drawn towards militarism". Instead, the stories about the horrors of the French conquest of Algeria pushed him to consider the effect that war had upon humanity. Years of violent discontent in Italy, Poland, and Austria and Prussia led to calls for a Europe federation from prominent liberals and socialists: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Émile de Girardin, Passy, and Michel Chevalier were all advocates of this idea. In 1859, Passy condemned the idea that military action could be a solution to political issues, suggesting instead that Europe should have a "permanent congress to oversee the general interests of humanity" and an international police force.
Recognising the importance of journalism in the fight for peace, he conceived a plan to create a journal devoted to "pacific propaganda". This led to him working with Edmond Potonié-Pierre on (The International Mail), an English/French periodical devoted to the European peace movement. Passy's association with Potonié's (League of Public Good), a liberal and socialist group aimed at attacking monopolies and high taxation, ended when Potonié began to call for a sweeping change in social policy. He advocated for the separation of church and state, a free press, equality of the sexes, the abolition of the death sentence.
League of Peace Founding the League In April 1867, the Paris newspaper Le Temps published three letters attacking the actions of the French concerning Luxembourg, the third of which was written by Passy. The letter invited readers to join a "peace league", and was given enthusiastic support by:
Henry Richard, secretary of the Peace Society, visited Paris in that year and urged the Minister of the Interior to allow an international peace congress during the 1867 Paris Exposition. The idea was rejected, but the government eventually allowed lectures on the general principles of peace go ahead, with the condition that no questions were asked afterwards.
In May 1867, Passy and Chevalier received permission to organize the (International and Permanent League of Peace). It was in the that Passy declared "war on war", believing that liberal economics would bring social change once military spending was eradicated. This differed greatly with the ideas of previous conservatives like Friedrich von Gentz, whose anti-war stance was concerned with maintaining the status quo.
On 21 May, Passy delivered a lecture at the (School of Medicine) in Paris, discussing his views on pacifism. He explained that his views were not from a religious or political perspective, but from an economic, moral, and philosophical one. While he did suggest that defensive or independence wars could be "the most noble and magnificent task in life", he strongly condemned wars of conquest and expansion as disadvantageous to a country's wealth and moral character.
In the same year, the French Saint-Simonian Charles Lemonnier founded a similarly named League in Geneva. This group was far more political than Passy's, founded on republican views and strongly advocating for the separation of church and state. Passy made efforts to differentiate his from this one, repeating their "anti-revolutionary aims" and avoiding political questions over human rights.
Despite struggling to find adequate space for its 600 members, the held a meeting in June 1868 in which Passy gave a speech on the group's "anti-revolutionary" aims:
Franco-Prussian War The first large conflict to happen during the 's existence was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. After the Battle of Sedan and capture of Napoleon III, Passy pleaded with the Prussian royalty to remember "that you only made war to defend yourself, not to attack" and stop attacking the French people after the collapse of their government. He returned to Paris and attempted to convince the British and American embassies to provide neutral intervention in the conflict, even considering travelling by hot air balloon to the Prussian king himself. On the death of his brother-in-law in the Vosges, Passy left Paris once again, disheartened that the could not stop the war.
Opposition With Passy having adamantly renounced the earlier group, it is understandable that Edmond Potonié was one of the main opponents of the . He believed it not to be a serious peace society due to their vastly-differing opinions on the speed of change: he believed that only rapid societal change would bring about peace, whereas Passy's group advocated a calmer legalistic approach. Other protest against the came from religious groups, with Hyacinthe Loyson being denounced by the right-wing journalist Louis Veuillot as part of a "Protestant front": efforts to recruit more Catholics to the cause largely failed.
Funding The received monetary support from notable liberals, such as John Stuart Mill (who joined on 4 August 1867) and Jean Dollfus. Subscription rates for its 600 members allowed the 's treasury to have six thousand francs in 1868: founding members paid roughly one hundred francs, while associates paid five francs.
The Society of Friends of Peace
After the 's collapse following the Franco-Prussian War, peace activism in Europe gained a rejuvenation after the successful arbitrations between Britain and the United States in Geneva. Daniël van Eyk, Philip Johannes Bachiene, and Samuel Baart de la Faille founded a Dutch group on the ideas behind Passy's in 1871, and Masonic lodges began to undertake peace projects.
Passy noticed this renewed belief in peace, and in 1872 he began working on reviving the . He explained the two paths which society could take: A path of war and revenge against Prussia and the German Empire to restore Alsace-Lorraine, involving permanent armaments, a standing army, and a world where young men were doomed to a life in the barracks. A path of peace and law, where arbitration was a fundamental part of European governing and an organized international system would allow the return of "lost provinces" through diplomatic means like referendums. He was aware that his favoured path, the latter, would not happen immediately or even in the near future, but set about creating a new French peace society to promote arbitration, the (French Society of Friends of Peace).
Several other groups considering arbitration and the development of international law appeared during this time, including the (Association for the Reform and the Codification of the Law of the People; later the International Law Association) in 1873, which Passy and Henry Richard were involved in. The meetings, involving discussions on ways to reduce friction among different communities, were a way to enhance the conversations that Passy thought important for developing international co-operation.
1878 Paris Exposition Noticing the growth and popularity of the peace movement, members of the arranged a congress at the 1878 Paris Exposition, however they warned attendees not to raise "unpleasant" and provocative issues. 13 different nations were present among the 150 delegates, although 95 were from France. The congress was held across multiple days, involving a range of talks and speakers: Adolphe Franck, the French philosopher, opened the congress with an assertion that peace activism was beneficial for society. He argued that while war may previously have benefitted society, through creating communities and spreading culture, it was now nothing more than a cause of destruction and suffering. Charles Lemonnier reviewed the contributions of previous peace societies and opposed a motion that sought to create a transnational organisation or federation, stating the young age of the movement. The delegates ignored his advice, but he was seemingly correct as it took 13 more years to create such a group.