Born, 1748 at Fréjus; died in Paris, 1836.
Being the youngest of seven children his father insisted upon his
embarking in an ecclesiastical career. Sieyès remained for ten years
at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris, until he had, at the age
of twenty-four, received priest’s orders. While at college he devoted
himself to the study of metaphysics, Locke being his favourite author.
He was made Canon of Trégnier in Brittany in 1775, and in 1780
transferred to a Canonry at Chârtres, united to the posts of
Vicar-General and Chancellor.
The revolutionary period approached, and Provincial Assemblies were
called together, Sieyès being a member of the Assembly at Orleans in
1787. He published a succession of pamphlets in the course of the next
two years, which added greatly to his literary and political reputation.
The electors of Paris sent him as the twentieth member for their town
to the States-General, where he represented the _Tiers d’État_ and
not the clergy. He took a prominent part as soon as he entered this
assembly; it was he who promoted the meeting of the Orders, framed the
oath administered in the Tennis Court; and the division of France into
Departments was entirely his work. His influence in the Assembly was
so great that Mirabeau gave him the nickname of “Mahomet.” In February
1791 he was offered the Constitutional Bishopric of Paris, which he
refused. He was elected member of the Convention in 1792, and appointed
to the leadership of the Committee _D’Instruction Publique_.
Sieyès was too prudent and, possibly, too humane to take any prominent
part in that noisy and ill-regulated assembly; but at the trial of
Louis XVI. he voted for death, without adding a single word beyond
recording his vote; indeed, with the exception of the occasion when
he publicly abjured his religious faith and declared he had ceased to
be a priest, Sieyès never made a speech in the Convention, though he
recorded his vote in favour of every revolutionary measure.
He was asked, in later life, what he had done during the Terror. He
replied significantly, “I lived.”
In 1795 he went to Holland, and while in that country was offered a
place in the Directorate, which he refused, but the _coup d’état_
of Vendemaire brought him out of his retreat, and he was named
President of the Five Hundred (November 25, 1797).
The following year he went as Ambassador to Berlin, and on May 16,
1799, he returned to Paris and replaced Rewbell in the Directorate. On
June 19 he undertook the Presidency of the disorganised Government, his
object being to make an end of Republicanism, and he joined forces with
Bonaparte.
During the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Sieyès showed great ability
and coolness, and Napoleon appointed him one of the three provisionary
Consuls. He was soon succeeded by le Brun, after which his active
political life may be said to have concluded, for Bonaparte, supported
by the army, easily effaced his rival. The constitution planned by
Sieyès was not even discussed, and Napoleon entirely destroyed his
public influence by creating him a Senator, and bestowing upon him as a
national gift the fine estate and château of Crosne.
In later years Sieyès was given the Presidency of the Senate, the grand
cross of the legion of honour, and created a Count. After the second
restoration the law of 1816 exiled him as a regicide, and he retired to
Brussels until 1830, dying at Paris six years later, aged eighty-eight.