The Helvetic Republic 681
French army that the new Helvetic government, which had no armed force of its
own, could look for the means to enforce its authority. It also, only a few weeks
after the new constitution went into effect, decreed the dissolution of four “primi-
tive” cantons, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, and Unterwalden, and their combination into a
single new canton of Waldstätten. The new republic thus strongly affirmed the
unitary principle, by which local districts were only changeable subdivisions of the
political community as a whole. The people of the abolished cantons remained in a
state of armed insurrection, insisting on the federal principle, or the indissolubility
of pre- existing units, the better to protect their traditional customs and outlook.
In these circumstances the French army remained in Switzerland, and was even
reinforced. The burden of levies and requisitions mounted. Agents like Rapinat
and others could not be controlled by the Paris government. Even in the Helvetic
Directory and legislative councils a strong anti- French sentiment soon developed.
There were official protests against the French exactions, and pleas that the Hel-
vetic authorities be given more freedom to manage the resources of their own
country. Yet the continuing dependence on France could not be denied. Peter
Ochs, in particular, took the view that, with the regime of representative democ-
racy threatened in its very existence by enemies both internal and foreign, it would
be ruinous to allow anti- French sentiment to go too far; that criticism of the
French must remain private and prudent; that public complaint, or exaggeration of
regrettable episodes, would only give arguments to the British and Austrians, and
to Swiss oligarchy and parochialism.
The history of the Helvetic Republic, like that of the Batavian and the Cisal-
pine, was therefore punctuated by abrupt coups d’état. Ochs joined forces with
Rapinat to prepare a change of government, Ochs acting secretly without the
knowledge of his Swiss colleagues, and Rapinat without instructions from Paris.
Both wished to get men into the Helvetic government who would work more will-
ingly with the French in the matter of requisitions, and be prompt and decisive in
employing French troops against the insurgent cantons. Rapinat forced two mem-
bers of the Helvetic Directory to resign. The French Directory, as usual, accepted
the accomplished fact. The Helvetic councils then proceeded to elect two new Di-
rectors, Ochs and La Harpe. They elected Ochs in order to placate the French, and
La Harpe in a gesture of independence against them. Ochs and La Harpe agreed
on fundamentals, so that the revolutionary legislation outlined above continued to
go forward, and French troops were used to suppress a new and more serious out-
break in the high Alpine districts. They differed in the policy to be adopted toward
the Great Nation and the European war. The French demanded an offensive and
defensive alliance. Ochs, supported by one other Director, Viktor Oberlin, favored
such an alliance, arguing that the Helvetic Republic should do its share in a war on
whose outcome the existence of all modern republics seemed to depend. La Harpe,
two other Directors, and most other Swiss revolutionaries preferred either that the
Helvetic Republic should remain neutral, or that its citizens should fight only
within their own frontiers if attacked. The French forced Swiss acceptance of the
treaty nevertheless.
After the Austrian army occupied the Grisons in October, and the war of the
Second Coalition began, the French pressed their demand that the Swiss organize