Napoleonic Documents Directions: Read the documents and make sure answers to these questions end up in your notes. 1. What ideas and values does Bonaparte support when he stages his coup? Are these the values of the ? 2. What reasons does Bonaparte give for overthrowing the Directory? 3. What type of government does the Constitution of the Year VIII call for? Who gets to have a say in the French government? Document I Proclamation of 19th Brumaire (9 November 1799) Issued by Bonaparte After the , 's new government, the Directory, was more conservative than earlier governments had been. The Constitution of 1795 (Constitution of the Year III) gave executive power to five Directors. Gradually the Directors asserted more control over the government, ignoring much of the legislative branch. Despite this change, however, France continued to fight against foreign opponents of the French Revolution. One of France's best military leaders was the young general Napoleon Bonaparte. On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire by the calendar), Bonaparte staged a coup d'état and overthrew the Directory, establishing a government called the Consulate. In this proclamation, Bonaparte explains his actions. To the people: Frenchmen, on my return to France I found division reigning among all the authorities. They agreed only on this single point, that the constitution was half destroyed and was unable to protect liberty.… I presented myself before the Council of the Five Hundred alone, unarmed, my head uncovered, just as the Elders had received and applauded me. My object was to restore to the majority the expression of its will and to secure to it its power.... Frenchmen, you will doubtless recognize in this conduct the zeal of a soldier of liberty, of a citizen devoted to the republic. Conservative and… liberal ideas have been restored to their rights through the dispersal of the rebels who oppressed the councils and who proved themselves the most… contemptible of men.

Document II Proclamation of 21 Brumaire, Year VIII (12 November 1799)

The Constitution of the Year III was dying. It could neither guarantee your rights, nor assure its own existence. Repeated assaults were robbing it irreparably of the people's respect. Malevolent, greedy factions were dividing up the republic. France was finally approaching the last stage of a general disorganization. Patriots have come together. All that could harm you has been set aside. All that could serve you, all that remained pure in the national representation has united under the banner of liberty. Frenchmen, the Republic, strengthened and restored to that rank in Europe which it should never have lost, will see the realization of its citizens' hopes and the fulfillment of its glorious destiny. Swear with us the oath we are taking to be faithful to the Republic, one and indivisible, founded on equality, liberty and the representative system. The of the Republic Bonaparte. Roger Ducos. Sieyés. Document III Constitution of the French Republic, 1799 (excerpts)

This Constitution was proposed by Napoleon, and then submitted to the French people for their approval.

2. Every man fully twenty-one years of age, born and resident in France, who has had himself enrolled upon the civil register of his communal arrondissement,1 and has since lived for one year on the territory of the Republic, is a French citizen... 7. The citizens of every communal arrondissement shall designate by vote those among them whom they believe to be most suited to administer public affairs. A list of trustworthy persons, containing the names of one-tenth of the number of citizens who have the right to co-operate therein, will result from such vote. The public functionaries of the arrondissement are to be selected from such first communal list. 8. Likewise the citizens included in the communal lists of a department shall designate one-tenth of their number. A second, or departmental, list, from which the public functionaries of the department are to be taken, will result from such a vote. 9. Likewise the citizens named in the departmental list shall designate one-tenth of their number. A third list, comprising the citizens of the department who are eligible to national public office, will result from such vote. 16. The shall be composed of eighty members, at least forty years of age, irremovable, and holding office for life. 20. From said list [that is, the national list mentioned in #9 above] the Senate shall choose the legislators, tribunes, consuls, judges... and commissioners of accounting. 25. New laws [shall take effect] only when the draft thereof has been proposed by the government, communicated to the Tribunate, and decreed by the Legislative Body. 27. The Tribunate shall be composed of one hundred members, at least twenty-five years of age... 28. The Tribunate shall discuss drafts of laws; it shall vote the adoption or rejection thereof. 31. The Legislative Body shall be composed of three hundred members, at least thirty years of age... 34. The Legislative Body shall make laws by secret ballot, and without any discussion on the part of its members.

(to be continued...)

1 arrondissement: neighborhood