Liberty Forever, a Transatlantic Timeline

June 2, 1801
Maximillien Robespierre was more than just a legislator. He was a man of the people. He had been among the people for about a week now. He was taking some time off, along with some of his colleagues, from his duties in the National Assembly. "Oh, how has the revolution gone so wrong?" He asked himself. The mob in front of him was not at all like the Parisian mob in its heyday. Too many of its members had been sapped away. Some had had the wool pulled over their eyes by propaganda emphasizing the military victories in foreign lands. What nonsense! He himself had seen many suspicious men in recent days entering the city. Some had boots too fine, or jackets of a certain color. But it was clear that they were deserters, wearing the remnants of military uniforms and not clever enough to fully disguise themselves. What kind of triumphant army has mass desertions? He thought it plausible that the great victory they had won was nothing more than Girondin lies. Others had found employment under the bourgeoise and had been convinced to become good little Girondins. "By the Supreme Being!" thought Robespierre. "I will set this right." He would have to make sure not to use that language for the crowd gathered before him. Too many were Hebertists, with their ridiculous reason cult. At least Hebert was his ally. He still seethed about how that fool Danton had turned him down.
"I support your endeavor, but I fear I cannot take part," Danton had said. When he took power, he would purge Danton first, and then the Hebertists. The figure of Jean-Paul Marat scurrying up to him took him out of his thoughts. The man itched too much, and his skin disgusted Robespierre, but like Hebert, Robespierre relied on his support.
"I have some bad news," said Marat. "One of my men in the army, an officer, has informed me that several days ago Napoleon and part his army were ordered by President Brissot to speed up their movement and enter the city for a victory parade. They are due in a day. You know what this means."
Robespierre considered. "Have any of your men, the officers, had success with Napoleon?"
Marat shook his head. "Many have tried, but Napoleon refuses to even discuss anything regarding the national situation."
"Ah," said Robespierre. "A non-political man, I see. Well, I know what must be done. I will address the crowd." Robespierre and Marat quieted the mob and Robespierre stepped forward to speak. "Brave men, brothers, fellow Jacobins," he said. "Today I have become aware of a great threat to our republic. In twenty four hours General Napoleon Bonaparte will enter the city as a surprise, ahead of schedule. I have no doubt this is part of a Girondin coup to seize power using his army. We must rise up against this corrupt National Assembly before it is too late! If you do not join me, in two days we will all be bowing down to Emperor Brissot! Gather our allies and weapons, and meet me in front of the Salle du Manège in three hours! The Second French Revolution begins tonight!"
All the men chanted "Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!" and left swiftly.
 
Added a wikibox for the 1793 French election.
CaNwVfn.png
 
June 2, 1801 (cont.)
Robespierre walked behind the mob. He didn't intend on getting shot today. They trudged through the Paris streets, towards the National Assembly. Robespierre looked up to see a commoner with shiny boots riding on horseback down the road in front of him. He wondered if the others would be where he had instructed them to be. After a short while they reached the square in front of it. At the back of the square, away from the building, was the mob gathered by Marat, Hebert, and his other allies. They were well numbered, he thought. The National Assembly had a few guards, and this mob of sans-cullotes would be able to mop them up quickly. They had machetes, knives, and a few guns that had been seized from the Ancien Regime and stashed away.
Robespierre noticed a group that stood out among the crowd. Towards the front, near the steps up to the building, there were many men clustered. They were all wearing heavy coats, and seemed to be hiding items, rather unsuccessfully, with them. Robespierre peered deeply at them, and realized that each man had a rifle. What was more, he saw many remnants of military uniforms, as he had seen before. He smiled to himself, and walked over to Marat.
"Well, Marat. It seems we aren't the only ones mounting a revolution today. We have some angry deserters who want their share of the National Assembly's blood. I saw we give it to them. Come on, let's go meet them. FOR LIBERTY!" With his yell, a few men he had selected fired pistols in the air. The unknowing crowd quickly begin to scream and run away at the sudden violence. The mob begin to advance across the square, towards the cluster of coated men. Robespierre walked near the front, eager to co-opt this movement of deserters for his gain. They were about twenty meters away when the men in coats, all facing the mob, all shrugged of their coats off at once. Underneath the coats were full military uniforms. Each man raised their rifle and pointed it at the mob. Robespierre shrieked and began to run towards the back of the square, trying to push to the rear of the mob. Some members of the mob begin to fire and charge at the soldiers.
The soldiers fired. Many in the mob fell, but Robespierre was lucky. He was a few ranks behind the front line now, and he looked back as the front doors of the Salle du Manège slammed open. Two cannons rolled out. Robespierre stared in horror as a soldier lit each fuse. He was frozen in fear, and a cannonball flew right at him.

Robespierre screamed and turned into a fine red mist.
 
June 2, 1801 (Part 3)
Napoleon made sure to step out of the doors behind the cannons. With the fighting already begun he stood little risk of being noticed and shot at. He had been marching with his triumphant army back to Paris when he had received a message, that he was to take part of his army and march at an advanced pace to the capital for a surprise victory parade. Shortly after that one came another, very secretive this time. A man had papers saying he was a personal physician for Napoleon and was authorized by the central government. Once they were alone, he whispered into his ear that someone had confessed that a coup was being planned in Paris. He didn't doubt this. There had been a few fellow officers who had tried to strike up discussions with him that were critical of the central government. Napoleon kept his mouth shut. He wasn't the type to sit there and whine when something was wrong. The messenger had said that the Parisian mobs were going to be roused into rebellion and destroy the republic. He was to take the best men he still had with him, get on horseback, and ride for the capitol as swiftly as possible. He had done so immediately, disguising his men crudely, and had begun guarding the National Assembly every night, waiting for an attack. When the time came, he was ready. The fools had walked towards them, unaware of their intentions. Right into the trap. It served these scumbags right. They were the lowest of the low of the Parisian mobs. Those who hadn't been satisfied by the Revolution itself and still wanted to smash and destroy. Perhaps they would never be satisfied. Napoleon looked down at the carnage. His men were clearly winning. If he was correct, there were a few members of the National Assembly in the very battlefield today, and some more members could be connected to this crime. He wondered who would fill their places.
 
The President and the Radical - June 2 1801 (End)

Jacques Pierre Brissot and Georges Danton stood in a room in the upper floor of the National Assembly, looking down at the fighting below. Danton hadn't been glad to betray his fellow Radical, but he knew it was necessary. Robespierre was the type who would always turn on those he saw as a threat, Danton could tell. A man like that was too dangerous to allow to have power, and Danton could easily see that an alliance between them to overthrow the National Assembly would have been very temporary. Besides, he stood to gain from the complete annihilation of the Montagnard faction of the radicals. "I trust you have the evidence to connect every Hebertist and Montagnard to this crime?" He asked Brissot.
"Of course," the President responded.
"And you've advised your fellow Moderates that when members of the Assembly find themselves unable to serve, members of their party should be appointed by the President until the next election?" Danton didn't say it, but he meant Dantonist members.
"Of course. I believe the resolution will be passed within a week," said President Brissot.
"All good then. I'm glad to have saved the Republic."
"Whatever happens from now on, I won't forget this." The President and the radical left the room.
 
Any thoughts on showing presidential runoff elections like this:

French Presidential Election 1798

First Round:
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 10.8%
Hebert (Hebertist Radical) - 8.0%
Danton (Dantonist Radical) - 16.5%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 34.4%
Sieyes (Conservative) - 11.1%
Barnave (Conservative) - 16.2%
Minor Candidates - 3.0%
Hebert and statistically insignificant minor candidates eliminated.

Second Round:
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 19.5%
Danton (Dantonist Radical) - 17.2%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 35.0%
Sieyes (Conservative) - 11.6%
Barnave (Conservative) - 16.7%
Sieyes eliminated.

Third Round:
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 19.5%
Danton (Dantonist Radical) - 17.2%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 35.2%
Barnave (Conservative) - 28.1%
Danton eliminated.

Fourth Round:
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 34.5%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 37.4%
Barnave (Conservative) - 28.1%
Barnave eliminated.

Fifth Round:
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 34.5%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 65.5%
Brissot elected.

In the French Presidential election of 1800, the Conservatives resolved to stand behind a single candidate and hoped to build wide support around him. At a series of conventions held in various locations in Paris, conservative leadership voted several times, with the main front runners being Barnave and Abbe Sieyes. Eventually pragmatism prevailed, and the more centrist Sieyes who had more widespread appeal was settled upon. This was the beginning of "primary" elections for the French.
On the Radical side, Hebert had become closer allies with Robespierre in the past two years, and decided not to run in 1800, instead lending his support to Robespierre.

First Round
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 18.1%
Danton (Dantonist Radical) - 15.7%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 31.0%
Sieyes (Conservative) - 34.8%
Minor Candidates - 0.4%
Danton and statistically insignificant minor candidates eliminated.

Second Round
Robespierre (Montagnard Radical) - 31.2%
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 33.9%
Sieyes (Conservative) - 34.9%
Robespierre eliminated.

Third Round
Brissot (Moderate Republican) - 65.1%
Sieyes (Conservative) - 34.9%
Brissot elected.

The widespread popularity of Sieyes, and unified conservative support propelled him to a lead in the early rounds. He was the second choice of few on the radical side, though, and when the Robespierre and Danton supporters were eliminated, most had Brissot as their third choice, propelling him to another victory. Some began to wonder if Brissot would ever let go of the presidency.
 
Last edited:
In the aftermath of Robespierre's Rebellion all but a few Montagnard members of the National Assembly were arrested, with the remaining quickly organizing under Danton, as being related with Robespierre was now seen as political suicide. In the end, all arrested were expelled from the assembly, and some were given prison sentences, including Febert. Robespierre and Marat had been killed in the square at the National Assembly that day, and Parisian newspapers were having a field day about the brutality of Napoleon's men. Robespierre's torso was nowhere to be found, and Marat was covered with bruises and looked as if he had been beaten to death. The government stated that Robespierre had been hit by a cannonball and Marat had been trampled by the fleeing mob. Although the radical Parisian newspapers criticized Napoleon and the government and painted Robespierre as a martyr, most Frenchmen, and indeed most Parisians knew that they had been trying to overthrow the Republic, and hailed Napoleon now as a twice triumphed hero. He had saved France from forces outside and in. The next week, the National Assembly had a meeting regarding the empty seats and how to fill them.

Assemblyman Pierre Claude François Daunou stepped up to the podium, projecting his voice to speak. "We propose that the President of France appoints assemblymen to fill the empty spaces, with the condition that, to protect the will of the people who voted for these very assemblymen, they must come from the same party as the expelled assemblymen." A cheer went up from the Moderate Republican and Dantonist sections of the Assembly, with some whispering coming from the Conservatives. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, a conservative assemblyman, stepped forward, with a man in military uniform besides him.
"I believe you shall be interested in what this man has to say!" cried Talleyrand. The crowd quieted as some delegates began to realize who the man was.
"Greetings. It is a great honor to be here in front of our nation's National Assembly. My name is Napoleon Bonaparte, humble officer of the French military. The question of the day is what shall be done to fill the empty spaces of the men who's plot I had the unfortunate job of foiling. Some commentators say that protecting our government from the people by the use of rifle and cannon is an affront to democracy. I call those commentators fools! Our actions were not an affront to democracy. Our actions were to protect democracy! I believe deeply in democracy and the will of the French people. And I do not believe in giving seats in our Assembly back to those who have attempted to thwart the will of the people themselves! Do you not think that opinions may have been swayed by the events of the past week? I call for holding elections immediately to fill these seats!" There was much applause from the Conservatives, and even many Moderates yelled their support. The Conservatives liked the military, seeing it as a moderating element that could and had protected France from the violent whims of the mob. They also saw Napoleon as someone they could use. The Moderate Republicans also felt they owed Napoleon for saving the Assembly they controlled from the mob, and to go against his wishes would likely hurt their support. A resolution to hold immediate elections for the empty seats (using the normal method for French National Assembly elections but with less seats) was passed with Moderate and Conservative support, with only the Radicals against.

Composition of National Assembly (before special elections)
Radicals (Dantonist) - 83 (Hereafter known as simply the Radicals due to the elimination of the Montagnard faction)
Moderate Republicans - 199
Conservatives - 131
Up for election - 87

Napoleon surprised all those who sought to control him when he announced his candidacy for the National Assembly, as an independent. Due to the electoral rules, if he received more than one seat's worth of votes, he would be able to appoint the remaining seats personally. A vote for Napoleon was effectively a vote for Napoleon and a party of whoever else he wished. This was a popular option for many people.

French Special Election of June 1801
87 seats up
Radicals - 1
Moderate Republicans - 3
Conservatives - 4
Napoleon Bonaparte - 79

Napoleon won a landslide victory in the special election. One factor contributing to this was the fact that this election would only effect the 6 months leading up to the 1802 elections, meaning it was of less importance for campaigning by the parties. Another factor is the movement to boycott the election by Montagnards who wished their Assemblymen to be reinstated. The final and largest factor was that many were simply willing to abandon their party to vote for the popular general. He fit conservative affinity for the military, and his speech in strong favor of democracy convinced many Moderates that he was a moderate like them, not a monarchist. Upon the election's conclusion, Napoleon's faction started to call itself the All France movement for its opposition to control by the Parisian mobs, but rather democracy with input from the whole country. Some conservatives, mostly the military focused wing such as Lafayette as well as Talleyrand, defected to the new All France party. The Catholic pro-clerical faction under Abbe Sieyes took control of the conservative party after this and expelled all protestants, including former leader Antoine Barnarve, who joined the Napoleonic group.

2vRQsdo.png

Composition of the French National Assembly after the special election of 1801.
 
Top