Early French political cartoon/caricature postcard depicting President of France Maurice de MacMahon
Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon, marquis de MacMahon, duc de Magenta (1808-1893), was a French general and politician who served as President of France from 1873 to 1879.
The reference appears to be to events in May 1871 when, as head of the army of the French Third Republic, under President Adolphe Thiers, MacMahon led the Semaine Sanglante, the bloody week-long military campaign which defeated the Paris Commune and placed the city under the authority of the Third Republic.