Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès was born on the 3rd of May 1748 in Fréjus, a southern French town. He entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris and spent ten years studying theology and engineering. His ambition to become a professional soldier failed due to frail health. This physical limitation combined with his parents' piety pushed him toward a religious career. The vicar-general of Fréjus aided Emmanuel-Joseph out of obligation to his father Honoré. Yet Sieyès quickly gained a reputation for disliking conventional theology. He studied the new philosophic principles instead. In 1770 he obtained his first theology diploma but ranked at the bottom of the passing list. This low ranking reflected his antipathy toward his own education. By 1772 he was ordained as a priest despite his lack of belief.
King Louis XVI proposed convoking the Estates-General of France after more than a century and a half had passed since its last meeting. Jacques Necker invited French writers to state their views on society organization by Estates. Sieyès published his celebrated pamphlet Qu'est-ce que le tiers-état? in January 1789. The phrase What Is the Third Estate? became famous and is said to have been inspired by Nicolas Chamfort. The pamphlet argued that the Third Estate wanted to be something while allowing privileged orders to exist made them the least thing possible. It attacked the foundations of the Ancien Régime by calling nobility a fraudulent institution. Sieyès defined sovereignty not in aristocrats' hands but in productive orders who generated services and goods. These included agricultural laborers, craftsmen, merchants, brokers, lawyers, and financiers. The pamphlet claimed noble privilege was treason to the commonwealth. It demanded equal deputies for the Third Estate compared to both privileged orders combined. Most controversially it insisted the States General vote by heads rather than by orders. The Third Estate adopted this measure on the 5th of June 1789. They assumed authority to represent the nation as a whole.
Sieyès held major political influence despite speaking rarely and briefly. He recommended reuniting the Estates chamber as the National Assembly. He opposed abolishing tithes and confiscating Church lands. This opposition discredited him in the National Assembly forever. He never regained his former authority. Elected to the special committee on the constitution he opposed the absolute veto power for the King. Honoré de Mirabeau unsuccessfully supported the royal veto. After spring 1790 Sieyès was eclipsed by other politicians. He served only once as president of the Constituent Assembly for two weeks. Like all members of that assembly he was excluded from the Legislative Assembly by an ordinance proposed by Maximilien Robespierre. He reappeared in the third national Assembly known as the National Convention of the French Republic between September 1792 and September 1795. He voted for Louis XVI's death but not with contemptuous terms. His supposed words during the debate were La Mort sans phrases meaning Death without rhetoric. Menaced by the Reign of Terror he abjured his faith when the Cult of Reason installed itself. When asked what he had done during the Terror he famously replied I lived. He failed to establish a bourgeois revolution devoted to peaceful material comfort.
Sieyès considered overthrowing the Directory government after becoming Director of France in May 1799. He replaced Jean-François Rewbell in that position. He took in view replacing the government with unlikely rulers like Archduke Charles of Austria or Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick. These men were major enemies of the Revolution. The death of General Joubert at the Battle of Novi ended this project. Napoleon Bonaparte returned from Egypt putting Sieyès back on track. In the coup of 18 Brumaire on the 9th of November they dissolved the Directory allowing Napoleon to seize power. Thereafter Sieyès produced a constitution he had long planned. Bonaparte completely remodeled it achieving a coup within a coup. The Corps législatif appointed Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Roger Ducos as Consuls of the French Republic. They took an oath of inviolable fidelity to the sovereignty of the people. A list of active citizens formed the basis for political structure. One-tenth of members formed a communal list eligible for local office. Another one-tenth formed a departmental list. A further list came from one-tenth of the departmental list creating a national list. This national list chose the highest officials of the land.
Sieyès retired from his post as provisional Consul after accepting it following 18 Brumaire. He became one of the first members of the Sénat conservateur acting as its president in 1799. This concession was attributed to the large estate at Crosne that he received from Napoleon. Crosne Essonne belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés before coming to the French state with the Revolution. After the plot of Rue Saint-Nicaise in late December 1800 Sieyès defended arbitrary proceedings where Napoleon rid himself of leading Jacobins. During the First Empire era between 1804 and 1814 Sieyès rarely emerged from retirement. When Napoleon briefly returned to power in 1815 Sieyès was named to the Chamber of Peers. In 1816 after the Second Restoration Louis XVIII expelled him from the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. He moved to Brussels but returned to France after the July Revolution of 1830. He died in Paris on the 20th of June 1836 at age 88.
In 1780 Sieyès coined the term sociologie in an unpublished manuscript. The term appeared again fifty years later when philosopher Auguste Comte used it to refer to science of society known in English as sociology. One of these or Sieyès was also among the first to employ the term science sociale. In 1795 he became one of the first members of what would become the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of the Institute of France. When the Académie Française reorganized in 1803 he was elected in second class replacing Jean Sylvain Bailly who had been guillotined on the 12th of November 1793 during the Reign of Terror. After the second Restoration in 1815 Sieyès was expelled for his role in executing King Louis XVI. He was replaced by Marquis of Lally-Tollendal named to the Academy by royal decree. His journals held much information about studies but almost nothing pertaining to personal life. Associates called him cold and vain. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord remarked that men were chess-pieces moved by Sieyès occupying his mind but saying nothing to his heart.
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Common questions
When was Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès born and where?
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès was born on the 3rd of May 1748 in Fréjus, a southern French town. He entered the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris to study theology and engineering for ten years.
What did Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publish in January 1789?
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès published his celebrated pamphlet Qu'est-ce que le tiers-état? in January 1789. The phrase What Is the Third Estate? became famous and argued that noble privilege was treason to the commonwealth.
How did Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès die and when?
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès died in Paris on the 20th of June 1836 at age 88. He had returned to France after the July Revolution of 1830 following his exile in Brussels.
Who coined the term sociologie before Auguste Comte used it?
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès coined the term sociologie in an unpublished manuscript in 1780. The term appeared again fifty years later when philosopher Auguste Comte used it to refer to science of society known in English as sociology.
When did Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès participate in the coup of 18 Brumaire?
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès participated in the coup of 18 Brumaire on the 9th of November 1799. This event dissolved the Directory allowing Napoleon Bonaparte to seize power and establishing a new constitution.