Reimagining Politics After the Terror: The Republican Origins of French Liberalism 0801446694, 9780801446696

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REIMAGINING

Pouncs

AFTER THE TERROR

REIMAGINING PoLITics AFTER THE TERROR

The Republican Origins of French Liberalism

ANDREW JAINCHILL

CoRNELL UNIVERSITY PREss ITHACA AND LoNDON

Copyright© 2008 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for hricf quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, tnust not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2008 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jainchill, Andrew). S. Reimagining politics after the Terror: the republican origins of French liberalism I Andrew jainchill. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-4669-6 (cloth: alk. paper) I. France-History-First Republic, 1792-1804. 2. Political cultureFrance-History. .l. Liberalism-France-History. 4. RepublicanismFrance-History. I. Title.

DC192.)35 2008 944 .04-Jc22 2008016675 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include ,·egetablc-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of non wood fibers. For further information, visit our "vebsite at www. cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing

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CoNTENTs

Acknowledgments Note on Translations and Abbreviations

Vll Xl

Introduction 1. The Constitution of the Year III

26

2. The Post-Terror Discourse of Moeurs

62

3. Liberal Republicanism during the Directory

108

4. A Republican Empire? Debate on Expansion, 1794-99

141

5. Liberal Authoritarianism and the Constitution of the Year VIII

197

6. Liberal Republicanism and Dissent against Bonaparte

243

Epilogue: The Fate of French Liberal Republicanism

287

Index

309

AcKNOWLEDGMENTs

This project began at the University of California, Berkeley, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge the debts accumulated there. First and foremost, I thank Carla Hesse and Martin Jay, model mentors and advisers throughout graduate school and since. I am particularly grateful for their intellectual rigor and demanding standards. I owe a special thanks to Carla, who consistently pushed me to hone my arguments and refine my claims. I add an extra thanks to Marty, whose astonishing breadth of knowledge and eye for the big picture never ceases to astound. At Berkeley, David Bates, Thomas Laqueur, Hanna Pitkin, Hans Sluga, and Jan de Vries, among others, shaped my thinking in important ways. In addition, a tremendous cohort of fellow students made my time in Berkeley intellectually stimulating and more than enjoyable. Thanks especially to Arianne Chernock, Nick Daum, Aaron Freundschuh, Peter Gordon, Benjamin Lazier, Samuel Moyn, Manuel Rota, and Priya Satia. Finally, Berkeley's extraordinary library system made it possible to begin research on a serious note.

vuz

Acknowledgments

The experience of research and writing in Paris has been consistently wonderful, and again it is a pleasure to thank the institutions and individuals that made my trips there so rich. The Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Soeiales and Sciences Po were institutional homes while I was still a graduate student. The Bibliotheque Nationale, the Archives Nationales, the Bibliothequc Historique de Ia Ville de Paris, the Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, and the Archives de l'Institut National offered magnificent research collections. Patrice Gueniffey welcomed me into his seminar, Pierre Serna shared his thoughts on the Directory, and Anne Verjus shared her notes on Pierre-Louis Roederer. Charly Coleman, Benjan"lin Kafka, Emmanuel Saaclia, Dana Simmons, and Anoush Terjanian made a fantastic discussion group, providing penetrating feedback on ideas and chapters-and great food and wine-that thankfully did not end when we all left Paris. The Department of History at Queen's University has provided a collegial and stimulating environment for completing this project. The library system and interlibrary loan office made it possible to finish. A number of scholars have generously provided comments and suggestions over the years. Parts or all of the manuscript were read at various stages by Howard Brown, Dan Edelstein, Steven Englund, Patrice Gueniffey, Dick Howard, Samuel Moyn, Helena Rosenblatt, Pierre Serna, and K. Steven Vincent. Thomas Kaiser talked through questions of foreign policy while we were both working in the Archives des Affaires Etrangeres and James Livesey offered encouragement at an important stage. I owe a special thanks to David Bell and Kent Wright for their extremely helpful and insightful, initially anonymous, reviews of the manuscript for Cornell University Press. I have presented some of the ideas from the book in progress at the Western Society for French History (twice), the Liberalism's Return conference at Columbia University, the Society for French Historical Studies, the Toronto Area French History Group, the Queen's University History Department, and the Workshop on Pluralism in French History in Durham (U.K.). T thank the audiences and fellow panel participants for valuable feedback. An earlier version of chapter 1 was published in French I-hitorical Studie.i, and I am grateful for permission to use the material here. Research and writing during the various stages have been generously supported by a number of institutions I am grateful for the opportunity to

Acknowledgments

thank: the University of California Predoctoral Humanities Fellowship, the Berkeley History Department's Sidney Hellman Ehrman and Peder Sather Fellowships, the Berkeley Graduate Division Humanities Research Grant, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Dissertation Prospectus Fellowship, the Georges Lurcy Foundation Fellowship, the Institut Franc;:ais de Washington's Gilbert Chinard Research Fellowship, the Cultural Services of the French Government's Chateaubriand Fellowship, the Societe des Professeurs Franc;:ais et Francophones d'Amerique's Jeanne Marandon Fellowship, the Society for French Historical Studies' John B. and Theta H. Wolf Award, and Queen's University's Research Initiation Grant and Advisory Research Committee Grant. Without this material support, this book would not have been written. At Cornell University Press, a heartfelt thanks to John Ackerman, who has been an enthusiastic editor from the beginning, and to Jamie Fuller and Candace Akins. Andrew Janiak has been an irreplaceable friend and inspiration for as long as I can remember. Nicolas Constantinesco has been a similarly exceptional friend, interlocutor, and compagnon de route. I am grateful to my parents, sisters, and brothers for far too much to articulate here. Finally, I thank Rebecca Manley. Her love, friendship, support, and intellect have marked every word of this book and every moment of the life I lived-from Berkeley to Paris to Kingston-while writing it. Our life together has since been enriched immeasurably by our wonderful daughter, Anna. This book is dedicated to Rebecca and Anna.

IX

NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

All translations arc my own unless indicated otherwise.

AI,SMP AN BN CP MAE MD Monitcur

Nouv. Acqu. Fr.

Archives de l'Institut, Academic des Sciences Morales et Politiques Archives Nationales de France Bibliotheque Nationale de France Correspondance Politique Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres Memoires et Documents The original edition of Le Moniteur universe!, which I have used for citations to the Moniteur dated from the beginning of the Ycar 4 in the revolutionary calendar (from 23 September 1795). Citations are by date and page. Nouvelles Acquisitions Frans;aises

xzz

RM

Note on TranslationJ and Abbreviations

Rhmpression de /'ancien Moniteu1; 32 vols. (Paris, 1847-50). This is the standard nineteenth-century reprint ofLe Moniteur universe!, which I have used for citations to the Moniteur dated until the end of the Year 3 in the revolutionary calendar (22 September 1795); after this date the reprint is highly abridged and no longer useful. Citations are by volume and page.

REIMAGINING

Pouncs

AFTER THE TERROR

INTRODUCTION

The field of politics is and has been, in a significant and radical sense, a created one. The designation of certain activities and arrangements as political, the characteristic way that we think about them, and the concepts we employ to communicate our observations and reactions-none

of these are written into the nature of things but arc the legacy accruing from the historical activity of political philosophers. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought

SHELDON WouN,

There was a republic, I believe, only during the Directory. Before, it was anarchy and confusion. After, only the despotism of a single man, under the name of First Consul. Louis-MARIE DE LA REvELLIERE-LEPEAux,

lvfcmoires de Larevelliere-Lepeaux

On 27 July 1794 a group of disaffected politicians acted to end the reign ofRobespierre and with it the Terror. The coup against Robespierre,SaintJust, and the radical Jacobins, immortalized in the annals ofFrench history as "9 Thermidor," its date in the revolutionary calendar, marked a new beginning in the French Revolution. The nation's political and intellectual elites emerged from the furies of the Terror, took a collective deep breath, and set out to refound the Republic. They did so informed by the extraordinary experiences of the preceding five years. These experiences cast politics in a new light and prompted a fresh engagement with the fundamental questions of political philosophy. Over the next ten years-until

2

Reimagining Politics after the Terror

1804, when Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Napoleon I, Emperor of the French-these questions were repeatedly discussed and debated, making for a moment of intense, and fertile, reflection on politics. This book is a study of this moment. At its center stands a loose-knit group of politicians and intellectuals who were at or near the hub of power throughout Thermidor, the Directory, and the beginnings of the Consulate, the three brief regimes spanning the years 1794 to 1804. 1 Certain figures in this "republican center" then went on to form the backbone of the liberal opposition to Napoleon Bonaparte as his rule turned authoritarian, while others "collaborated" with the First Consul (and then Emperor). 2 The post-Terror republican center included some of the most famous political actors and theorists of the French Revolution, such as Benjamin Constant, Pierre-Claude-Frans;ois Daunou, Louis-Marie de La RcvelliereLepeaux, Pierre-Louis Roederer, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, and Germaine de Stael. Predominantly revolutionary veterans, the majority occupied key positions in government, many were members of the National Institute (France's official learned academy), and most wrote for or edited the leading journals of the day. Several penned extended theoretical treatises on politics and the nature of the republic. They frequented the same salons and often corresponded when out of Paris. These figures self-identified as politicians and as savants, dominating political and intellectual life in postTerror France, so much so that the historian R. R. Palmer has remarked of these years that a "takeover of the Revolution by the intellectuals had occurred."' The republican center materialized after 9 Thermidor, united in the mission of refounding the Republic in the wake of the Terror. Its goal was to preserve the Republic and consolidate the gains of the Revolution by staving off both a monarchical counterrevolution and the potential recrudescence of Jacobinism. Like any political class, however, the republican center was not a perfectly united or coherent group. Individuals moved in and out of positions of power, internal divisions existed, alliances shifted. I. Thcrmidor (1794-05), the Directory (1795-1799), and the Consulate (1790-1804) are the names accorded to the successive political regimes of these ten years. 2. "Collaborate" is lsscr Woloch's term in Napoleon and His Collaborators: The 1'\,faking of a Dictatonhip (New York, 2001). 3. R. R. Palmer, The lmprouement of Humanity: Education and the French 1-!.euolution (Princeton, 1985), 236.

Introduction

3

The republican center then split, for all intents and purposes, during the Consulate. While a substantial majority supported the coup of Brumaire that brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power, they subsequently differed in their response to his increasingly dictatorial propensities. Sorne, most importantly Roederer and Cambaceres, collaborated with Bonaparte until his eventual fall in 1814-15. Others, however, dissented and formed a liberal, if fragmentary and largely ineffectual, opposition. The continuity in personnel from Thermidor to the moment of liberal dissent under the Consulate is tellingly suggested by the Napoleonic police, who in 1801 labeled the emergent liberal opposition "the Thermidorians." 4 While the coherence of the republican center should not be overstated, it was nonetheless an identifiable cohort that stood at or near the heart of power from 1794 to 1804. What follows is a study of the political imagination, "the presuppositions that underpinned ... politics,''5 of the post-Terror republican center, and of how its political imagination, in turn, shaped political practice. More specifically, this book examines the political culture of Thermidor, the Directory, and the Consulate, and the origins of French Liberalism within that political culture. Analysis of "political imagination" or "political culture" entails examination of political language and what might be called the conceptual foundations of politics. The term "political language" is broadly inclusive, perhaps excessively so, but its capaciousness is precisely its strength: the study of political language allows the historian to bring together a range of otherwise discrete utterances in order to investigate patterns of usage, justification, and, ultimately, meaning. 6 Political questions are asked and answered in historically specific ways that reflect underlying conceptual frameworks and categories of analysis. The political imagination of a historical moment is revealed, however obliquely, through the very concerns 4. Alphonse Aulard, ed., Paris sous lc Consulat: Rccucil de documents pour l'histoire de !'esprit public a Paris, 4 vols. (Paris, 1903-9), 2:188, 192. 5. The phrase is john Brewer's in Party Ideology and Popular Politic.< at the A,cession of George III

(Cambridge, 1976), zr,;, 6. On the study of political language, sec Keith Michael Baker, Inventinr; the French Revolution: Ecsays on French Political Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1990); and J. G. A. Pocock, Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and Histmy, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1985). On "conceptual history," see Ian Hacking, Hi