Alolphe Thiers Biography

Dromo's Den

THIERS, Adolphe (1797–1877). A French statesman and historian, born at Marseilles, April 15, 1797. He was distinguished as a student at the lycée, and in 1815 he went to Aix to study law. There he formed a friendship with Mignet, the historian, in company with whom, after he had taken his degree as advocate (1818), he set off for Paris. Obtaining an introduction to Lafitte, he was enrolled among the contributors to the Constitutionnel, then the leading Liberal organ. His vigorous articles attracted attention and won him a place in the most brilliant circles of the Opposition. His Histoire de la révolution française (1823–27) gave him high rank as an historian. In January, 1830, he, with Mignet and Armand Carrel, established an able Opposition paper, the National. Thiers in this journal waged unrelenting war against the Polignac administration, whose publication of the celebrated Ordinances of July brought on the revolution of 1830. Under the new government of Louis Philippe Thiers was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, where he quickly made his mark as a debater, was appointed to a secretaryship in the Department of Finance, and in October, 1832, was made Minister of the Interior. During the next four years he acted as Minister of the Interior, Minister of Commerce and Public Works, and Minister of Foreign Affairs under various chiefs—Soult, Gérard, Mortier, and Broglie. His views became more conservative, and he repressed with severity the democratic uprisings against the new government. In February, 1836, he became President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, but in August retired when the King refused to approve his plan for intervention in Spain and became Opposition leader. In March, 1840, he again assumed the premiership and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He wished to support Mehemet Ali (q.v.) in his struggle against the Sultan, thus seeking to carry out the Napoleonic idea of a controlling influence by France in Syria and Egypt. He therefore refused to enter the alliance of Western powers formed for the preservation of the Ottoman Empire. (See Quadruple Alliance.) When Mehemet Ali was driven out of Syria, popular irritation in France, fostered by Thiers, was great, but Louis Philippe refused to countenance armed interference, as he had done in the Spanish matter, and accepted Thiers's resignation, October, 1840. The next five years Thiers spent in travel and in work upon his second history, L'Histoire du consulat et de l’empire (1845–62). After 1846 he again became active politically, and appeared frequently in the Chamber as an eloquent spokesman of the Opposition. In the revolution of 1848 his part was that of a Moderate friendly to the Republic. He was banished after the coup d'état of 1851, but in 1852 was permitted to return to Paris.

Thiers entered the Corps Législatif in 1863, and became the leader of the Liberal opposition, assailing the Imperial policies in a series of masterly speeches. He eloquently opposed the war with Prussia and predicted the defeat of France. After the collapse of the Empire he became the brains of the rehabilitation of France. He undertook diplomatic journeys to England, Russia, Austria, and Italy, on behalf of France—a self-imposed mission in which he was unsuccessful, but he acquired the gratitude of his countrymen. After the capitulation of Paris Thiers was elected to the National Assembly by 26 constituencies, and on Feb. 17, 1871, became chief of the executive power in the provisional government, and as such negotiated the treaty of peace with Germany. Upon the outbreak of the War of the Commune (q.v.) Thiers took swift and energetic measures for its suppression. On Aug. 31, 1871, the National Assembly conferred upon him the title of President of the Republic, making his term of office three years. Thiers, contrary to the expectations of the monarchical parties, became convinced of the need of a republican form of government, and in November, 1872, sent to the National Assembly a message urging the necessity of formulating an organic instrument of government for the Republic. The Clericals and Monarchists thereupon decided upon his fall, and, as the result of a vote of censure passed on the ministry, Thiers resigned May 24, 1873. He retired from public life for some time, but in 1876 was elected from Paris to the Chamber of Deputies, exercising his influence to the last in the defense of the Republic against Monarchist plots.

Thiers was perhaps the most influential political leader France has produced. His figure was small, his appearance far from impressive, and his early attempts at oratory are said to have been ridiculous, but when he adopted the rapid, incisive style adapted to his personality he became a most effective speaker. His course as a statesman was guided by an intense love of country, bordering on Chauvinism, and the conviction that the political power should repose in the hands of the middle class whose interests and tastes he so well represented. His histories are merely brilliant eulogies of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic ideals. He was elected a member of the Academy in 1834. His Notes et souvenirs were published in Paris in 1907.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 214.