[4] He blamed his defeat on "red" candidates who claimed to be the true representatives of the people and promised to tax the rich and give the money to the poor.
[5] After the attempted insurrection of 13 June 1849 Corbin persecuted the opponents of Louis Napoleon in the departments of Cher, Indre and Nièvre, and forced them to go underground [6] The secret societies they formed did not at first seem to be a serious threat.
[7] Corbin said that some of the "montagnardes" who spread the ideas of a social and democratic republic were relatively well-educated men, with professional status, the best example being Félix Pyat, a lyrical and admired orator.
[6] In justifying his actions Corbin spoke of revolutionaries who exploited working class poverty and the plight of farmers.
He described secret initiation ceremonies with solemn oaths and raised the specter of a return to the anarchy and violence of the first French Revolution.
[11] In the autumn of 1851 two military commissions arrested 1,200 people in the Cher department, of whom 857 were given sentences that ranged from being placed under surveillance to deportation.