Time of Napoleon

The period of time when France was brought under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte was crucial for my plans of political organization being put into action. Therefore, I formed an alliance with Bonaparte who had a mass amount of authority at the time. Bonaparte complied to work with me under the strict condition that a third member, Ducos, be added. I could not afford to retire from my job during this important phase. On August 2, 1802, the French Senate recognized Napoleon as Consul for Life and a new constitution adopted two days later accepted that Napoleon had the authority to nominate the successor to this position. When Napoleon returned to power in 1815, he named me to the Chamber of Peers. It was under these circumstances that Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, emerged as the most dominant of the three Consuls in a system of government where elected representatives had limited authority in comparison to the more controlling powers executed by the Consuls. In May 1804 he was then accepted as the hereditary Emperor of the French Republic. Under the Napoleonic Empire, I became a senator and it is in this role that I defended Napoleon’s suppression of the more radical Jacobin groups. From the beginning, I never would’ve thought that the one nation that I tried to improve will go against one of its chief supporters. After Napoleon achieved the highest amount of glory he could receive, he conveniently broke off his connection with Ducos and I. More misfortune was followed after the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. I was politically unwelcome in France by the mass population and was sentenced to live in exile in Brussels.

Directory's Rule

After the execution of Robespierre, I took up the role of reemerging as an important political player during the constitutional debates that followed. In 1795, I went on a political mission to The Hague, and drew up a treaty between the French and Batavian republics. I highly resented the constitution of 1795, and therefore refused to serve as a Director of the Republic. Instead I began to plot the overthrow of the Directory and their institutions. In September 1797 three directors jousted two other directors who were suspected to be in favor of a restoration of the old monarchy and an assumed negotiated treaty. In May 1798, elections turned in a large number of radical Jacobin deputies therefore the Directors decided to ignore the election results. One year later, the relatively radical leanings of the French legislature led to the forced resignation of three Directors. Through my determination, I closed down the once revived Jacobin Club and made overtures to General Joubert for a coup d'état. However my success was undermined by the death of Joubert at the Battle of Novi and the return of Bonaparte from Egypt. This led to only one solution which was to come into terms with Napoleon. After the coup d'état of Brumaire, I produced the perfect constitution only to have it completely rewritten by Bonaparte who thereby achieved a coup d'état. My social status rose and soon enough I was elected to become Director of France in replacement of Jean-Francois Rewbell in May 1799.

The Reign of Terror

Between 1793 and 1794, France experienced the most radical phase of the revolution, known as the Reign of Terror. This period of time offended me so greatly by its violent character that I abjured my faith at the time of the installation of the Cult of Reason. After wards, I characterized my conduct during the the ironic phrase, J'ai vécu . During this period, France was ruled by the twelve-member Committee of Public Safety elected by the National Convention every month. The leader of this committee was Maximilien Robespierre , a professional lawyer who rose within the Jacobin Club and gained a reputation for incorruptibility and superb oratory. Robespierre defines the revolution and justifies extreme actions, including terror, in its defense. My voice was not given much notice in affairs during the Reign of Terror, which possibly helped me survive these difficult times. Thousands were guillotined because of simple gestures suggested to go against the government. Enough was enough and too much blood was shed for wanton reasons that the Committee of Public Safety proposed.  The last straw was dropped when Robespierre advocated a new state religion in worshiping the deistic Supreme Being. With enough votes, the National Convention turned on Robespierre and sentenced him to the guillotine. Karma had it coming for Robespierre and I find it ironic how the very object that raised his social status in life served to lead him to his doom. After the overthrow of Maximilien Robespierre, who was responsible for these executions, I decided that it was safe enough to become active once more in the government.

The Estates General

During my time in the Estates General, I created a pamphlet that outlined the desires and frustrations of the alienated Third Estate. Not to be exaggerating but in some ways I was the force that tore apart the Ancient Regime in France by arguing the nobility to be fraudulent and preying on an overburdened and despondent bourgeoisie. My pamphlet was essentially the necessary call for the transition from a once powerless class into an unheard-of political force stating grievances that were not to be disregarded in the convocation of the Estates General known as the cahiers de doleances. Whereas the aristocracy defined themselves as an elite ruling class charged with maintaining the social order in France, I saw the Third estate as the primary mechanism of public service. In my pamphlet, I deemed noble privilege “treason to the commonwealth” and advocated equality for all men. The French Revolution could not have been what it was without this patriotic message which was spread rapidly through a developing language of revolutionary politics within the Third Estate. It was also from this reform that the Declaration of the Rights of Men and the Citizen was instituted. Specifically, the third estate demanded that the number of deputies for their order be equal to that of the two privileged orders combined, and most controversially “that the States General Vote, Not by Orders, but by Heads”. The pamphlet took these issues to the masses and their partial appeasement was met with revolutionary reaction. I proposed that the members of the First and Second order join the Third Estate and become a united body to represent the nation as a whole. Also to help persuade the other estates, I stated that the Third Estate had the right to consider those who denied this invitation to be in default of their national responsibility. The traditional system of the three Estates as separate groups must be abandoned to make the formation of a single chamber National Assembly. As a result, I inspired resentment in the Third Estate to encourage them to unite against the feudalistic traditions of the ancient regime.

My Life

Hello citizens of France! My full name is Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and I am a representative of the Third Estate and a clergyman. I was born in the town of Frejus in southern France as the fifth child of my parents Honoré and Annabelle Sieyès. Originally I wanted to become a soldier and join the military but my poor health combined with my parent's religious lifestyle changed my choice of career. So instead I studied theology and engineering for 10 years at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris to prepare myself for priesthood. Gossip spread around school for my interest in the sciences and "new philosophic principles". Despite my aversion towards religious education, I still managed to obtain my first theology ranking in 1770. It was a pretty slim shot since I was at the bottom of the list for passing candidates. Eventually in 1772 I was ordained as a priest and two years later I received my theology license. As a member of the Third Estate, I encouraged the other members to reunite our chamber as the National Assembly in response to the First Estate's decision to vote by order. I usually do not speak out often and the first time I did was when I proclaimed that I opposed the abolition of tithes and the confiscation of church lands. All I really wanted was to establish a constitution that listed the right of men and equality in France. I even wrote out a pamphlet that questioned the hierarchical order of France and the importance of the Third Estate. "What is the Third Estate? Everybody. What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing. What does it desire? Everything." However, this fatal opinion of accepting tithes discredited my reputation in the National Assembly and I was not able to regain my authority back. Maximilien Robespierre's ordinance excluded me and other former members from the position of spots in the Legislative Assembly. However, I was elected again to the National Convention which was the third national assembly of the French revolution. I sought a bourgeoise revolution of representative order "devoted to the peaceful pursuit of material comfort". My initial purposes were to persuade changes in a more passive way to establish a constitutional monarchy. Although I voted for the death of Louis XVI, it was not done fully of my own will and of the terms ascribed to me. Truthfully, even when the monarchy was doomed, I "continued to assert my belief in the monarchy".  However the execution of Louis XVI forcefully ended this with the reality of human nature. After wards I tried to organize my political ideas into a plan for France. I made an alliance with Bonaparte as a means to put my theories into practice. My beliefs took me quite a while to create yet Bonaparte reedited all of it and managed to achieve a coup within The Constitution of the Year VIII. The result of this though landed me the positoin of the Director of France. Later I retired from the post of provisional Consul which I had accepted after Brumaire, and became one of the first members and president of the Senat conservateur. This led to my concession to the large estate at Crosne that I received from Napoleon. After the plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise in late December 1800, I as the senator defended the arbitrary and illegal processes whereby Bonaparte abolished the leading Jacobins.My retirement was during 1804 to 1814 until Napoleon briefly returned to power in 1815, thus I was named to the Chamber of Peers. After the Second Restoration, Louis XVIII expelled me from the Academy so I moved to Brussels, but returned to France after the July Revolution of 1830. Sadly not all of my goals were accomplished and I lived the rest of my life in Paris.