Frederic-Cesar de la Harpe
| Frédéric-César de La Harpe | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
6 April 1734 Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland |
| Died | 30 March 1838 (aged 83) Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation |
Founder and Director of Helvetic Republic Tutor to Alexander I of Russia |
| Notable work | Essay on the Constitution of the Vaud |
Founder and Director of Helvetic Republic
Frédéric-César de La Harpe, 6 April 1754 (Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland) – 30 March 1838 (Lausanne, Switzerland) was a Swiss political leader, scholar, and Vaudois patriot best known for his pivotal role in the formation of the Helvetic Republic, and for serving as a member of the Helvetic Directory.
He was a personal teacher of Alexander I of Russia and educated him in ideals of Lumières.
LaHarpe was born in 1754 in Rolle, Switzerland in the canton of Vaud. At the time Switzerland was a confederacy of mainly self-governing cantons held together by a loose military alliance, with little in terms of actual union and no central government. Some of the cantons were what was referred to as subject lands since they were governed by other cantons: Vaud, for example, had been under the control of Bern since the 16th century. LaHarpe studied at the University of Tübingen in 1774, graduating with a doctorate of Laws degree. Leaving Switzerland, LaHarpe travelled to Russia, where he became a tutor for the children of the Russian Emperor Paul I, including the future Alexander I with whom LaHarpe remained in contact well into his reign.
LaHarpe was a republican idealist, seeing the rule of the Bernese administration as oligarchical, and as an infringement on the natural rights of the people of Vaud and the other subject states, such as Fribourg. LaHarpe viewed the rule of the culturally dissimilar Bernese government and aristocracy as uncaring for the popular will, and contrary to the historical sovereignty of Vaud, in the tradition of the Swiss people. Because of this, LaHarpe attempted to achieve a return to the "Old Regime" of the Swiss, and to create a system wherein local governance was centralized in a representative structure, rather than the existing system of subject states within the region; this system he proposed would, he thought, preserve the natural rights and freedom of citizens.
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