Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc

Military traditional formation under the Old Mode

Originating in a noble family of Burgundy, he is the oldest son of the major Alive-François Viénot de Vaublanc, ordering Strong Saint-Louis in Fort-Dauphin. He is born and grows with Saint-Domingue where his/her father is confined. He comes to Metropolitan France for the first time at the age seven years.

After military studies with the School of juniors by the Arrow and with the Military academy of Paris of 1770 with 1774, it is decorated with the Ordre of Saint-Lazare before even his exit of school by the count of Provence, the future Louis XVIII, large Master of the order.

It is Sous-lieutenant with the Régiment of the Saar, pertaining to the Duc of Rochefoucault and whose his/her uncle Charles is Lieutenant-colonel, of 1776 with 1782. It holds successively garrison with Metz, with Rouen and with Lille then it obtains notifications of command for Saint-Domingue where call it some businesses of family.

It Marie over there with Miss de Fontenelle of which he has a girl and returns to France in 1782. It buys the office of lieutenant of the Marshals of France for Dammarie-the-Lily close to Melun. It buys in same time a house in the area. The profession indicated at the time of its taking of is owner-farmer.

This load which consists in reconciling the gentlemen in the event of litigation makes it possible him to be made known of a certain number of aristocrats of its area. It gives him also time to be interested in agriculture, the letters and arts.

Entry in policy under the Revolution

First local functions with convocation of the General states

Initially allured by the novel ideas of the French revolution, it launches out in the career politique : he becomes member of the nobility of the bailliage of Melun in 1789. He is made elect secretary of this assembly, under the presidency of Louis-Marthe de Gouy d' Arsy, large baillif of Melun, and of which also made to part the famous sailor and exploring Bougainville. This assembly is charged to write a Register of grievances to the King and to name a deputy with the General states. He supports the candidature of Fréteau de Saint Just, elected appointed of the nobility for the bailliage of Melun and which becomes then member of the constituent Assembly.

In 1790, Vaublanc is called with the functions of member then of president of the departmental council, also called general advice, of Seine-et-Marne. Its function gives him the right to chair the administrative directory of this department.

Arm wrestling lost against the Jacobins under the legislative Parliament

During the dissolution of the constituent Assembly, electoral colleges are formed to elect new deputies. Vaublanc is made elect president of that of the Seine and Marne. September 1st 1791, it is elected eighth deputy (on a list of eleven) of the Seine-et-Marne to the legislative Assemblée by 273 votes out of 345 voters. It is one of rare having already a political expertise in particular on the question of the West-Indian colonies in an assembly primarily made up of beginners in policy since, faithful to their oath, no member of the constituent Assembly represented himself.

Appear of the Club of Breaking into leaf

As of the first day of meeting, it is pointed out by making a speech denouncing the bad conditions under which Louis XVI would be received by the Parliament the following day. Because of these declarations, he is elected vice-president from November 3rd to 15th 1791, by 104 votes (against 92 for Brissot one of the chiefs of the Girondins) by an assembly then mainly royalist. He becomes about it then president from November 15th to 28th 1791.

The November 29th, Vaublanc is charged to write a message requiring of the king to withdraw the Veto which it emitted against the decree of November 9th of the Parliament, the purpose of which is to put an end to the massive emigration (encouraged in particular by the priests and the noble ones) by threatening the German princes of reprisals if they continue to be used as refuge with the armed with the princes (the Count d' Artois and the Prince de Condé). The Parliament is so satisfied with her work that by a formal exemption from its uses, she asks him, to the head of a delegation of 24 members, of going to read itself in person her message with the king. Louis XVI answers that it would take into very great account the message of the Parliament and, a few days later, announces his resolutions in person to him in this respect.

On this occasion, Vaublanc is made a name while indicating to the Parliament that the king had inclined the first and that it had done to nothing but return his safety him . The anecdote is revealing swing of the constitutionnel power struggle;: the legislative power, incarnated by the legislative Parliament, clearly took the ascending one on the executive power incarnated by Louis XVI who is nothing any more but it King of the French .

Vaublanc lines up as regards party of the constitutional monarchists and is registered with the Club of Breaking into leaf the like 263 others of his/her colleagues (on 745 deputies). It becomes about it one of the chiefs to the Parliament with Jacques Claude Beugnot, Mathieu Dumas or François Jaucourt because their principal leaders, like Barnave or Lameth, do not sit there any more. He is opposed highly to the revolutionary governments while pointing out himself by his loyalty to the king, his opposition to repressive measurements concerning the refractory priests, to the voted laws confiscating the goods of the emigrants and finally by denouncing the massacres of Avignon. The discussions are radicalized. The crowd which attends the debates often shouts to him like with some of her colleagues like Charles de Lacretelle With the lanterne ! . Nicolas de Condorcet, his colleague of the legislative Parliament in 1791 which hardly appreciates it, known as lui : There exists in very assembled these noisy speakers with hollow head, who produce a great effect with redundant sillinesses . Brissot calls it as for lui : chief of the bicamerists .

Inevitable the fall of monarchy

In 1792, it is one of those which defend the count de Rochambeau in front of the Parliament and which obtain its payment.

According to the majority of the Parliament which seeks to abolish the Esclavage in the the Antilles, it warns however in a speech of March 20th the pure and hard abolitionists such as Brissot which know little about the life in the colonies of the risks of possible civil war, being given the diversity of the ethnic and social categories of the population of Santo Domingo. It in addition supports the law of April 4th, 1792 giving the citizenship to all coloured men and negros free . At the time of the meeting of April 10th, he decides in favor of the progressive abolition of the draft of the Blacks in the colonies, with the example of the Denmark and the Great Britain.

May 3rd, 1792, it supports the proposal of Beugnot which causes a decree of charge of Marat and of the abbot Royou and on May 8th, to the Parliament, it is addressed to the Jacobins in these termes : You want, Sirs, to save Constitution ; and well, will that point reach you only while cutting down the factions and the factieux ; that in combatant only for the loi ; that while perishing with it and for it, and I declare you that I will not be the last which will perish with you, for its exécution ; believe it, Sirs… .

June 18th, he is elected Member of the Commission extraordinary of the Twelve, created on proposal of Marant, charged examining the state of France and with proposing the means of saving the Constitution, freedom and the Empire. He gives his resignation on July 30th.

Defense of Fayette

Following the Day of June 20th, 1792, Fayette goes to Paris on June 28th to convince the King to leave Paris and to put at the head its armies gathered in North. With the head of the national guard, it tries to close the clubs but its attempt fails partly because of the refusal of the Court to follow it. Reacting to this coup attempt of force, the left of the Parliament decides to propose a decree of treason against Fayette.

August 8th, 1792, anxious and shocked by the events, Vaublanc makes a speech in front of the Parliament where it defends vigorously and courageously, in spite of the very sharp opposition of the Jacobins dominating the Parliament and the street, the general of Fayette threatened of the decree showing it to have violated the Constitution. He manages (with the assistance of Quatremère de Quincy) to rejoin (according to its dires), 200 undecided deputies of the center to his cause. Fayette is discharged by 406 votes out of 630 voters.

While leaving the meeting, Vaublanc, with about thirty deputies, is threatened, insulted and hustled by the hostile crowd which attended the debates. Some of these deputies must even take refuge with the body of guard of the Palais Royal from where they escape by the windows. According to Hippolyte Taine : As for the principal defender of Fayette, Mr. de Vaublanc, attacked three times, it had the precaution not to return to lui ; but of furious invest its house while shouting that eighty citizens must perish with their hand, and him it premier ; twelve men go up to his apartment, excavate there everywhere start again the searching in the close houses, and, not being able the empoigner itself, seeks its famille ; it is informed that if it returns in its residence, it will be massacred .

August 9th, Vaublanc requires the distance consequently of federated and of Marseillais . The request is rejected by a majority of the Parliament.

Day of August 10th, 1792

Outlaw under Convention and Terror (1792-1795)

The evening of August 10th, it must take refuge at Camus, the archivist of the Parliament. A few days later, it takes refuge with the hotel of Strasbourg, street Neuve Holy Eustace. September 3rd, 1792, he hears howls in the court of his hotel and then thinks of being denounced, he acts himself in fact of the passage of crowd holding up the head of the princess of Lamballe card-indexed on a pique !

The Committees of the public hello and monitoring of the Convention, lately set up, emit an order in which it is put out the law , registered on the list of proscribed by the municipality of Paris. This decree the constrained one to leave the city and to take refuge initially in Normandy, where it finds its family there, then in its country house of Bélombres close to Melun. It saw recluse there during several months. It learns there in particular that the newspaper Gorsas shows it like others to have receipt: 300000 francs of the queen to organize the counter-revolution in Provence and that it saw in secrecy .

The Loi of the suspects is voted on September 17th, 1793. Its name appears there. A revolutionary detachment comes to excavate its house what brings it to to run main road only with foot, moving circumstances randomly. He wanders of inns in inns, he describes in particular his anguish not to be denounced when it arrives in a city and that it must make aim his passport by the local inspection committee.

At the time of the lawsuit of the queen Marie-Antoinette, October 14th and 16th 1793, its name appears on a part of the charge with that of François Jaucourt.

Choosing to move towards the South of France and Bordeaux, it changes direction after having learned wild repression that Tallien carries out to it, the representative of Convention, and thus of the incurred risks. It passes in particular by Poitiers and La Rochelle where it remains one month. Wanting to escape the risk to be made enlist in the national guard, where it would have been likely to be recognized, it is made pass for patient and is made prescribe a cure at a watering-place with Castéra-Verduzan in the Gers. Not to wake up the suspicions on its alleged disease, it regularly pricks the gums to reproduce the symptoms of one incurable scurvy . It is in this city that he learns the fall from Robespierre the Thermidor 9 (July 27th, 1794). It must nevertheless wait four more months to go back to Paris time that its family obtained the lifting of her stop of proscription.

Activist counter-revolutionary during the Directory (1795-1799)

Of return to Paris with the Spring 1795, it makes anonymously appear its Réflexions on the basis of constitution by the citizen *** , under the pseudonym of Louis-Philippe de Ségur presented by his friend Jean-Baptist-Marie-François Bresson, then appointed national Convention, which orders to make print the text. In this work, he recommends the creation of two parliamentary rooms instead of only one as it was the case under Convention. The mode monocaméral of the Convention, of which he criticizes the Constitution (that of 1793), being according to him one of the causes of Terror. He recommends also the installation of only one person to the head of the executive, from a point of view of better effectiveness. He is thus opposed on the constitutional level to the mode of the Directoire and his five leaders.

Following the publication of this book, the composite commission of Daunou and François-Antoine de Boissy d' Anglas and charged to work out the future Constitution of Year III (that of the Directory) invites it to come to express its ideas, which Vaublanc refuses. Its advice is partially taken since for the first time in France two rooms are born under the names of Conseil of Old the and Conseil of the Five hundred to represent the legislative power.

Opposed to the Decree of two thirds, it fills an active role with Antoine Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy at the time of the insurrection of 13 Vendemaire of year IV (October 5th, 1795). On this occasion, he discovers the tactical genius of the general Bonaparte called the Vendémiaire general. He is member of the royalist central committee which must replace Convention.

October 17th, as a royalist section head of the Suburb Poissonnière, it is condemned to died by Contumace by a military commission chaired by the Lostange general, sitting at the Th3e4atre Fran1cais. This new judgment obliges it one second time to live hidden. It takes refuge in particular at friendly Sophie Cottin of the woman of Jean-Baptist-Marie-François Bresson. It makes profitable this constrained insulation to be devoted again to the one of its passions : the drawing.

A few days before, the Convention forced with new elections convened the electoral colleges. This election then brings a majority of royalists to the Senate and the Council of the Five hundreds. The college of Melun elects on October 15th, 1795 Vaublanc Député of Seine-et-Marne to the Conseil of the Five hundred. It must however wait to sit the abrogation of its judgment for unconstitutionality by his friends of the council Desfourneaux and Pastoret, which the fear generated within the Parliament by the Conjuration of Equal the at the end of August 1796 facilitates. He pronounces on September 2nd, 1796 the famous oath I swear hatred with the royalty and the anarchie ! . For the anecdote, one of the mountain assistants, would have crié to him;: More haut ! , Vaublanc without disconcerting itself would have répondu to him;: And you more bas !

The election of the year V (May 1797), which renews one the third of the rooms, reverses gives it in favor of the royalists who become majority in the two councils. Thus, on May 20th, 1797 (20 meadow year V), Pichegru is elected president of the Council of the Five hundreds and Bored-Marbois with the Council of Old. Vaublanc as for him is named member of the office of the Council of the Five hundreds.

The same day, the legislative body carries out the replacement of the republican director the Turner who was drawn with the fate by the moderate royalist François de Barthélemy, then ambassador of France in Suisse. Vaublanc votes against this nomination preferring to him the general of of known Beurnonville for its comes up.

The new majority supports the freedom of the press which makes it possible to attack the Directory freely. The club of Clichy whose Vaublanc is one of the eminent members consequently controls the two councils and threat directly the Directory. It is named at the commission of the inspectors of the club of the clichiens whose role is to make the police force and to maintain safety within the councils. It has of this fact the capacity to give orders to the sergeants of the councils.

Barred, the strong man of the mode, in its Mémoires , known as of him that they have the same opinions in connection with the colony of Santo Domingo

The driven back Directory, counter-attack by approaching Paris the army of strong Sambre-and-Meuse of: 80000 men ordered by Notch. In same time, Vaublanc pleads and obtains the Council the dissolution of the clubs, of which that of the Jacobins.

July 16th, 1797, under the pressure of the councils, the three republican directors Barred, Reubell and Reveillière-Lépeaux, decide a cabinet reshuffle, in discredit of the royalists. September 3rd, Vaublanc, with his colleague the admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse and others clichiens, is with two fingers to make a success of a coup d'etat against the triumvirate of the republican directors. The plan of the clichiens which convinced the director Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot is simple. Vaublanc is charged to make a speech on September 4th in front of the demanding Council of the Five hundreds the committal for trial of the three republican directors. During this time, the Pichegru general, convinced by Carnot to return in the conspiracy and to the head of the bodyguard legislature, would have as a role to come to stop the directors.

Unfortunately for him, the Bonaparte general, then chief of the army of Italy, intercept meanwhile a royalist agent, Louis-Alexandre de Launay, count d' Antraigues, in possession of documents concerning this conspiracy and of the treason of Pichegru. It then sends the general Augereau and its army to Paris where this one made placard the treason of Pichegru in the streets: it is the coup d'etat of the 18 fructidor year V (September 4th, 1797). The principal conspirators either are stopped and off-set in Guyana like Pichegru and Barthélémy, or in escape such as Carnot or Vaublanc. This last succeeds in leaving the limits of Paris, then in state of siege, while hiding in a hackney carriage with the complicity of Rochambeau. It is exiled in Italy, disguised under various getups, while passing by the Suisse with his friend Pastoret.

Rallying with Napoleon Bonaparte

The Coup d'etat of the 18 brumaire of year VIII (November 10th, 1799) and the advent of the Consulat which emits a decree allowing the return of proscribed him make it possible to return to France where it is presented to Bonaparte.

Deputy with the legislative Body

In 1800, Vaublanc is elected by the preserving Senate, appointed Apple-brandy, among the 300 members of the legislative Body where he exerts the functions of questeur, for a five years mandate. It is, inter alia, charged to write a report/ratio on the Consulate with life.

Its admiration and the recognition which it dedicates to Napoleon Bonaparte to have restored the order in France and put fine at persecutions of the priests , can see itself in some of its speeches of the time including that marked 24 floréal of year X with the consuls, as a deputy of the legislative Body, eulogistic speech for the 1st consul, or that of January 13rd, 1805 (24 nivôse year 13), this time in front of Napoleon 1 {{er}}, become emperor of the French meanwhile, with Jean-Pierre Louis de Fontanes, president of the legislative Body in exercise, during the inauguration of a marble statue of the Emperor in the hall of the legislative Body, to honor the father with the civil code.

He is president of the legislative Body from April 21st to May 7th, 1803.

The November 4th 1804, the Pope Black and white VII, making stage in its voyage towards Paris at the time of the crowning of the Emperor, spends the night in its house of Montargis, to the 28 of the street of Loing.

Prefect of the Moselle 1805-1814

At the end of its mandate of deputy in 1805, the electoral college of Seine-et-Marne carries it candidate to the Sénat but it is not retained. Being interested in the new administrative organization and territorial lately installation, he requests and obtains a prefecture. He is named on February 1st, 1805 prefect of the Moselle, with Metz, until in 1814. It pointed out there by its activism. According to Odette Voillard, “it maintains best the relations with the notable ones the country. Elegant gentleman who traverses with horse his department, it tends to reinstall at the leader stations the principal families of the old company. ”. He contributes moreover to impose the use of French in the state education of a department populated to some extent of populations of German language.

Napoleon does not fail for this period to thank it for his zeal by covering it for honors. He is made ordering Legion of honor, knight on November 28th 1809 then baron d' Empire by letters patent of December 19th 1809 (regular hereditary title), gratifié precedes of it on July 17th 1810 of a Majorat in Hanover. Lastly, in 1813, it would have been made count d' Empire. However this last title was not granted by letters patent, and is thus not hereditary. This does not prevent it being made call count de Vaublanc and from obtaining the reversion of this title for the benefit of its grandson Adolphe de Segond.

In June 1812, it has an interview with the emperor of passage to Metz. It informs him of its objections in connection with the future countryside of Russia but this one does not listen to it. At the time of the countryside of France in 1813 and fold of the Armed with Mainz overcome with Leipzig, a great number of wounded soldiers took refuge in Metz, propagating an epidemic of Typhus ; Vaublanc was reached by it and misses perishing about it.

In 1814, it opens the doors of Metz and accommodates with enthusiasm united.

Rallying with Louis XVIII

With the first Restoration and in spite of the Hundred Days

Maintained prefect of the Moselle at the time of the first Restoration, it is promoted Officer of the Legion of Honor on August 23rd, 1814. At the time of the return of Napoleon, there remains prefect in the hope to preserve Metz at Louis XVIII where he tests with the marshal Oudinot, military governor of the town of Metz, to prevent the rallyings Bonapartists. An order of arrest published by the marshal Davout in the Universal Monitor the constrained one to flee in direction of the Luxembourg to join Louis XVIII with Ghent where this last took refuge.

The little story makes him say to the officer embarrassed to have to stop it in Metz : Be quiet for me. But it is necessary to think of you même ; it is not necessary that one sees you leaving the large court of the prefecture and Vaublanc renews it by an additional exit before fleeing with horse.

On its arrival in Ghent, it côtoie Chateaubriand which quotes it in its Mémoires of in addition to-falls : Mr. de Vaublanc and Mr. Capelle joined us. The first said to have of all in its wallet. Do you want of Montesquieu ? here is ; of Bossuet ? in here . It gives to the King, via the count d' Artois, several memories on the state of the country and predicts to him that it would be of return to Paris before two months .

Under the Second Restoration, to thank it for its rallying at the time of the Hundred Days, Louis XVIII names it on the field to advise State and the fact, on December 27th, 1815, large officer of the Légion of honor.

July 12th 1815, Louis XVIII appoints it prefect of the Rhone delta with for mission of making release 500 to 600 prisoners Bonapartists locked up in Marseilles, tries from which he discharges correctly being given the context of the time (Marseilles was given to the English and knows bloody riots anti-Bonapartists).

Ultraroyalist Minister of Interior Department (September 26th, 1815 - May 7th, 1816)

Deputy of the room of 1820 to 1827

He is elected on November 13rd, 1820 (then re-elected on October 10th, 1821 and on March 6th, 1824 but not in 1827) by the departmental college of the Calvados during a renewal of the Room by fifth. He sits there on the side of the Ultraroyalists. At the time of the session of 1822, it is even elected one of the vice-presidents of the Room.

It is in the same time chosen by the Guadeloupe, where he is joint owner of a sugar refinery in the Low-Ground parish, like deputy attached to the government of the King of 1820 to 1830. He then recommends several changes in the legal order and the administration of the colonies such as the creation of a warehouse.

With these colleagues of the Room, François Governed of Bourdonnais, count of Breteche and the baron de Vitrolles, it controls part of the ultraroyalist press to begin with Daily the and the White Flag .

In January 1823, he decides in favor of the Expédition of Spain and is named Member of the Commission of investigation requested by the King and chaired by the marshal Macdonald to examine the made exactions.

He is again named with the Council of State on July 25th, 1830 with the promise written to be named with the Pairie when the ordinances of July 1830 would be published that it did not wish. At this point in time the fall of Charles X intervenes.

It withdraws public life after the accession with the throne of Louis-Philippe in 1830. It then occupies its time to write its Memories. He dies on August 21st, 1845 in his 90e year, almost blind, street of the Vat in Paris.

Appendices

Works

1792 Report/ratio on the honors and rewards military, on January 28th, 1792, fact with the National Assembly, in the name of the Committee of state education . Text on line: * 1795 Reflections on the basis of constitution by the citizen *** (under the pseudonym of Louis-Philippe de Segur). Paris HMSO, Meadow year III (70 pages)
1804 Competition of France and England: since the conquest of England by Guillaume, duke of Normandy, until the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens by England , Paris, in Bernard, (378 pages)
1818 synchronic Tables of the French history
1819 the last of Césars or the fall of the Roman Empire of the East (poem in twelve songs)
1822 Of the trade of France in 1820 and 1821 , Paris, at Found J-C and Pin
1828 Of the provincial and municipal administrations . Text on line: * 1833 Memories on the Revolution of France and research on the causes which brought the Revolution of 1789 and those which followed it (4 volumes). Text on line: , and * 1833 Test on the instruction and the education of a prince at the XIXeme century, intended for the duke of Bordeaux .
1838 memorable Records of France
1839 Memories (in 2 volumes), Paris, at Pounce Lebas and Co
1839 Soliman II, Attila, Aristomène . (collection of tragedies, drawn with 200 specimens).
1843 Of the navigation of the colonies
One year on the grand' road at Montsouris
the courage of the Frenchwomen

Sources

Evelyne Rising: Louis XVIII , Beech, 1988.
Emmanuel de Waresquiel and Benoit Yvert: History of the Restoration. 1814-1830. Birth of modern France. , Perrin, 1991.
old and modern universal Biography: history alphabetically of the public life and private of all the men (Michaud) (supplement)
. Project: Bouillet/OCR/V/VA:
Adolphe Robert, Edgar Bourloton, Gaston Cougny (s.d.): Dictionary of the French members of Parliament since May 1st, 1789 until May 1st, 1889 , Paris: Bourloton Editor, 1889-1891, 5 vol.
Memories of Vincent-Marie Viénot, count de Vaublanc: Memories on the Revolution of France and research on the causes which brought the Revolution of 1789 and those which followed it (4 volumes), At G-A. Dentu, printer and publisher, street of Erfurth, N 1 (a), Paris, 1833. Text on line on Basis BNF Gallica. , and * Biography of Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc by Emile Decoudray on page 1049 of the historical work Dictionary of the French revolution , under the direction of Albert Soboul, Mr. Suratteau and François Gendron, Presses University of France, 1989 ISBN 2-13-042522-4.
Parliamentary records of 1787 to 1860: complete collection of the legislative and political debates of the French Rooms. First series, 1787 to 1789. Volumes LI, XLII and XLIII.

To go further

Genealogy

Family Vaublanc

External bonds

Volume III: The revolution: the conquest electronic jacobine version of the Origins of contemporary France
the ministry - Restauraton on the site of the Ministry for the interior
Biographies of the actors of the proclamation of the Empire in 1804 site on napoleonica.org
Vincent Marie Viénot-Vaublanc on virtualology.com
Bust out of plaster of Vincent-Marie Viénot of Louis Dupaty (work exposed to Dahesh Museum off Art with New York)

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