The Consulate and the Empire of France (12 volume set)
(Consulate and the Empire of France From the Author's Pref...)
Consulate and the Empire of France From the Author's Preface...."After fifteen years of assiduous work I have completed my History of the Consulate and the Empire, which I began 1840...........I speak according to my innermost conviction, but ever with the greatest fear of self-deception; for I think nothing to be more reprehensible, when one has voluntarily undertaken the mission of informing others of the truth concerning the great events in history, than to disguise it through feebleness, to misrepresent it through passion, or to suppose only, through indolence, and thus, whether knowingly or not, to lie to one's own generation and those to come. ...........I have read, re-read and annotated with my own hand, the numberless documents contained in the Sate Archives, the thirty thousand letters which compose Napoleon's personal correspondence, the letters no less numerous of his ministers, his generals and aides-de-camp and even those of his police agents..........."
(Citizens, did you want a revolution without a revolution...)
Citizens, did you want a revolution without a revolution? Maximilien Robespierre As one of the seminal social revolutions in human history, the French Revolution holds a unique legacy, especially in the West. The early years of the Revolution were fueled by Enlightenment ideals, seeking the social overthrow of the caste system that gave the royalty and aristocracy decisive advantages over the lower classes. But history remembers the French Revolution in a starkly different way, as the same leaders who sought a more democratic system while out of power devolved into establishing an incredibly repressive tyranny of their own once they acquired it. The height of Republican Frances tyranny came during a 10 month period forever known as the Reign of Terror, the most notorious and arguably most memorable part of the French Revolution. One of the first victims of the Reign of Terror was its most famous: former French Queen Marie Antoinette. But Antoinette was followed by thousands more, including everyone from aristocrats to clergy to prostitutes and even instrumental revolutionaries like Danton, Desmoulins, and, most notably, Robespierre. It was Robespierre whose position on the Committee of Public Safety made him the Reign of Terrors instrumental figure until he himself became a victim of it in July 1794. Robespierres date with the guillotine is often considered the official end of the Reign of Terror, but by then it is estimated that at least 16,000 people were guillotined in that time and possibly 25,000 more were summarily executed across the country. Although Robespierre is almost singlehandedly associated with the Reign of Terror and is typically blamed for it, many factors influenced the actions and beliefs of Paris and the remainder of France during late 1793 and 1794. Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety believed passionately in the Revolution and fought to eliminate any threat to the young French Republic. Robespierre envisioned a Republic of Virtue, with no room for anyone who did not abide by his rules and morality. Counterrevolutionaries certainly did threaten the Revolution; however, most of those killed during the Reign of Terror were not counterrevolutionaries and posed no serious threat to the Revolution or Republic.
The History of the French Revolution, Vol. 3 of 5 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The History of the French Revolution, Vol. 3...)
Excerpt from The History of the French Revolution, Vol. 3 of 5
Great was the joy at the J acobins. Its members congratu lated themselves on the energy of the people, on their late admirable conduct, and on the removal of all those obstacles which the right side had not ceased to Oppose to the progress of the Revolution. According to the custom after all great events, they agreed upon the manner. In which the last insur rection should be represented. The people, said Robe spierre, have confounded all their calumniators by their conduct. Eighty thousand men have been under arms for nearly a week, yet no property has been violated, not a drop of blood has been spilled, and they have thus proved whether it was their aim, as it has been alleged, to profit by the disorder for the commission of murder and plunder. Their insurrection was spontaneous, because it was the effect of the general conviction; and the Mountain itself, weak and astonished at this movement, has proved that it did not concur to produce it. Thus this insurrection has been wholly moral and wholly popular.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Louis Adolphe Thiers was the most gifted of the literary statesmen who were an important feature of 19th-century French political life.
Background
Adolphe Thiers was born on 15 April 1797, during the rule of the Directorate. His father was a businessman and occasional government official under Napoleon, who frequently was in trouble with the law. His father abandoned Adolphe and his mother shortly after he was born.
Education
Adolphe Thiers attended the local lycée and studied law at Aix.
Career
Though admitted to the bar, he forsook the legal profession to become a journalist. Moving to Paris in 1821, Thiers became a contributor to the Constitutionnel, a Liberal paper, and began the History of the French Revolution (10 vols. , 1823-1827; trans. , 5 vols. , 1895), a sympathetic account which established his reputation as a man of letters. The work suffered from diffuseness, casuistry, bias against those with whom he disagreed, and omission of inconvenient facts, all of which evoked the protest from many participants in the described events that he had treated them and their cause unjustly. Brilliant but arrogant, energetic but antagonistic, Thiers embarked upon a successful but controversial political career under the July Monarchy. With the financial backing of Jacques Lafitte, in 1830 Thiers joined F. A. M. Mignet and N. A. Carrel in founding the National and launching an editorial campaign to replace the Bourbon with an Orleanist dynasty. A member of the haute bourgeoisie, he played a prominent role in the July Revolution and in the ascendancy of the Duc d'Orléans to the throne. Elected deputy for Aix, he soon became the leader of the Left Center, which wanted to broaden the suffrage to include the lower bourgeoisie and thought that the King should reign but not rule.
Under the Second Republic, Thiers posed as a conservative republican. The "red scare" created by the June Days so intimidated him that he supported L. E. Cavaignac's bloody suppression of the workers. He backed Louis Napoleon for president, however, in the belief that, if Louis Napoleon was elected, his presumed ineptitude would pave the way for the restoration of the Orleanist dynasty. Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1849, Thiers, Voltairean skeptic though he was, even voted for the Falloux Law (1850) because he saw the Church as an ally against the socialists. Arrested at the time of the coup of 1851, the former premier went into English exile, but within a year the Prince President granted him amnesty. Returning to Paris in 1852, Thiers spent the next decade completing the History of the Consulate and the Empire (trans. , 20 vols. , 1845 - 1862), a work begun in 1840. So pro-Napoleon as to be panegyrical, it suffered, too, from the same faults which marred his first history and provoked the same criticism. In 1863 Thiers resumed his political career as a deputy for Paris. A severe critic of Napoleon III's foreign policy, he blamed it for France's loss of prestige. After 1866 he repeatedly warned the Emperor of the Prussian menace, but few of his countrymen took his Philippics seriously. The consequences of unpreparedness were, of course, the defeat of France and the fall of Napoleon III. On September 4, 1870, the Third Republic replaced the Second Empire and opened the way for Thiers's third and greatest ascendancy. Elected provisional executive by the Assembly on February 16, 1871, he at once negotiated with Bismarck the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10) and soon thereafter (May 21-28) crushed the Paris Commune. On August 30 a grateful France elected him president, and for the next 2 years he gave the infant republic the stability and direction that it so desperately needed. A strong executive and a skillful parliamentary leader, Thiers earned the sobriquet "Adolphe I. " But on May 24, 1873, a monarchist majority, which regarded him a turncoat, forced him to resign. The "grand old man" continued to sit in the Assembly until his death on September 3, 1877.
(Excerpt from The History of the French Revolution, Vol. 3...)
Politics
After the fall of the Lafitte ministry (March 1831), Thiers became less liberal, and, following the suppression of the Republican insurrection of June 1832, he became minister of the interior in the Soult government. During the next 4 years Thiers advanced from one portfolio to another until he became premier (February-September 1836). The brevity of his ministry is explained by the opposition of François Guizot, leader of the Right Center, and the hostility of Louis Philippe, who resented his ambition and arrogance. In March 1840 Thiers again became premier but held the post only 6 months before his rash support of Egypt during the second Mohammed Ali crisis brought France to the brink of war with Britain and caused the King to dismiss him (October 29, 1840). He continued to sit in the Chamber but seldom spoke until 1846, when he began a campaign of opposition against the Guizot ministry. When it fell on February 23, 1848, the King again turned to Thiers, but this action came too late. The next day, Thiers, loyal to the end, advised Louis Philippe to leave the capital and besiege it until it could be assaulted. The King, however, rejected the plan and repaired instead to England.
Political parties : Party of Resistance (1831–1836), Party of Movement (1836–1848), Party of Order (1848–1852), Third Party (1852–1870), Independent (1870–1873), Moderate Republican (1873–1877).
Membership
In 1834 he was elected the second-youngest member ever of the Académie Française. He was elected on the first ballot, with twenty-five votes; at age thirty-six, he was the second-youngest member elected in the 19th century. He was a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Personality
He was brilliant person but arrogant, energetic but antagonistic.
Connections
Louis Thiers was married to Marie-Claire Fougasse in 1785, and had a son, but spent most of his time with his mistresses. Marie-Claire Fougasse died on 3 March 1797. Six weeks later, on 15 April 1797, Marie-Joseph-Louis-Adolphe Thiers was born to Marie-Madeleine Amic, one of his father's mistresses. Four weeks later, on 13 May 1797, Pierre-Louis married Marie-Madeleine Amic, making Adolphe legitimate. A few days later, Pierre-Louis disappeared, without leaving an address.