Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

On May 3, 1748, I, Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, was born in southern France. Five years later, France was on the verge of revolution; it split into three estates. But in my early life, I was educated for to become a Jesuit, people who specialize in debate to defend the Church. Though, when I grew older, I began to embrace the works of writers and philosophes such as John Locke, and I accepted the ideas of the enlightenment even though I had joined the Church. While in the church I rose to be an abbé, a designation for a clergyman in the French Roman Catholic Church. Later on, after being so influenced by the philosophes during the French Revolution, I wrote a pamphlet named What Is the Third Estate? and it became the manifesto of the French Revolution for the third estate, and it eventually caused my own thoughts and faith to change as well. After I had joined the church, I became a dedicated theorist whose concept of popular sovereignty guided the National Assembly in its struggle against the monarchy and nobility. Even though I wasn’t born of noble birth I was still known by many people because of the standing I had in church and the profession that I pursued as a theorist. I was then raised for an ecclesiastical career at the Sorbonne and rose in the church to become a vicar general and chancellor. Even though I did end up reaching a high ranking, I was unable to advance in the church because I wasn’t born of noble birth. After a few more years I absolutely hated the aristocracy and monarchy, ruled by King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, (they had no balance of power) by the time the Estates General were summoned in 1788. After seeing how the nobles acted and the way the monarchy blatantly ignored the Third Estate, I wrote What Is The Third Estate? which identified the unprivileged Third Estate with the French nation and asserted that it alone had the right to draft a new constitution. The pamphlet I had written won me immense popularity with the Third Estate and ensured me an election as a representative of the Third Estate to the States General. A few years later, the delegates from the Third Estate proclaimed themselves a National Assembly empowered to legislate for the French people on my command on June 17. Although we had done this ourselves, King Louis XVI refused to recognize the legitimacy of our Assembly on the 23. We ignored the king for some time and I thought about the active (those eligible to vote) and passive citizens. We changed it so only those with property could vote - thereby guaranteeing that power would be kept in the hands of the bourgeoisie. As time moved on, my vanity and lack of oratorical skill reduced my political effectiveness. After doing nothing for a while, I voted for the king’s execution but the democrats of the Jacobins seized control of the revolution in June, 1793. The Reign of Terror ravaged through France with their bloody guillotine and I withdrew from politics as quickly as possible. The Reign of Terror was just ill-planned; it got in the way of the revolution, only causing bloodshed and the turning in of your friends if you thought they weren’t with the revolution and the new ways of society. It was absolute madness. Executions happened everyday with the beheading of some person who had rallied against or not followed the rules of the Reign of Terror. I joined the Committee of Public Safety, where I advocated an expansionist foreign policy. In October, 1795, I was elected to the Council of Five Hundred to set up the republican constitution. Later on, I won a seat on the five-member Directory; France’s ruling executive board. (At this point, the Reign of Terror had dramatically pulled away from France. Robespierre had been executed on the night of July 27, 1794.) Even though the five-member Directory and I had planned to not fail this time, we only lasted for four years. Even though we had made peace with Prussia and Spain, war with Austria and Great Britain continued with France. Chaos and riots were pillaged against the five-member Directory, but then Napoleon Bonaparte stepped in after I helped him rise to power against the Directory. Politicians turned to him, including me, and we constructed another constitution for an elaborate balance of powers within the executive. But Bonaparte quickly altered the constitution to make himself first consul and supreme ruler. After Napoleon began to create an empire my influence greatly declined. I was still a senator and I was nominated grand officer of the Legion of Honour in 1804, then I became count of the empire in 1808. But then the monarchy came back in 1815, ruled by Louis XVI’s cousin and I was banished as a regicide. I fled France and settled in Brussels but returned to Paris upon the overthrow of King Charles X in July, 1830. Six years after my return to my home country, I died on July 20. Throughout the revolution, I was a leader and advocate for the Third Estate, the peasants, dentists, laborers, and more of the nation. My thoughts and skills as a politician helped France write constitutions, defend the Third Estate, bring Napoleon to power, and help wear down the monarchy.