Born 1654 at Metz; died in 1735.
His father, a lawyer at Strasbourg, compelled his son, who was an
ardent disciple of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to follow the parental
profession, much against his will.
Roederer began his political life in 1788, by publishing a pamphlet
on the “Deputation to the States-General,” when he also became a
journalist. Sent by the electors of Metz to the States-General, as a
representative of the _Tiers État_, he took an important part in
the debates, proposing the new law reforms, the institution of trial by
jury, the abolition of religious orders and of titles of nobility, and
demanding also liberty for the press and equality in political rights
for every citizen. He showed great financial ability, compiled the new
stamp and patent laws, inventing a new system of taxation. He was a
member of the Jacobin Society until June 20, 1792, after which date
(the day of the first invasion of the Tuileries) he seceded from the
club, and from that period the extreme party were his mortal enemies.
On August 10 he, together with Merlin, conducted the Royal Family to
the Assembly, and protected, helped, and comforted them to the best of
his power.
The following day he was denounced by the Jacobins, but not arrested,
and he prudently disappeared from the Assembly, and devoted himself
entirely to the sub-editorship of the _Journal de Paris_. An
article in this paper, dated January 6, 1793, in which Roederer denied
the right of the Convention to try the King, brought him into immediate
danger; however, he fled from Paris, and did not reappear there until
after the 9th Thermidor (July 28, 1794).
In 1795 he became editor of the _Journal de Paris_. He was
threatened with transportation to Guienne during the Directorate,
and only saved by the direct intervention of Talleyrand. He was now
satisfied that a firm and stable government was the sole means of the
regenerating of France, and was therefore an active agent for what he
termed the “generous and patriotic conspiracy” of the 18th Brumaire.
He wrote the “Address to the Parisians,” which was placarded upon the
walls of Paris on that eventful morning.
Bonaparte made him Councillor of State on 25th December, 1799, and in
1802 he was named Director of _L’Esprit Public_, a position which
gave him control of all the theatres and of public instruction. In
1806 he was sent to Naples, of which Joseph Bonaparte had just been
created King, and by Napoleon’s orders undertook the duty of Neapolitan
Finance Minister, which post he continued to hold under Murat. In 1810
he was appointed administrator to the Grand Duchy of Berg. When the
Bourbons returned, he quitted political life and retired to his country
seat, the Château of Bois Roussel, devoting himself until 1830 to
literary pursuits.
After the accession of Louis Philippe he was again summoned to the
Chamber of Peers, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, took a
considerable part in debate, publishing a pamphlet, _Lettre aux
Constitutionnels_, which caused a violent excitement all over Paris.
In it he attacked the doctrine that “The King reigns, but does not
govern.”
Roederer died from an accident at the age of eighty-one, when still in
the enjoyment of good health and spirits.