Adolphe Thiers - Second Republic and The Second Empire

Second Republic and The Second Empire

Under the Republic he took up the position of conservative republican, which he ever afterwards maintained, and he never took office. But the consistency of his conduct, especially in voting for Louis Napoleon as president, was often and sharply criticized, one of the criticisms leading to a duel with a fellow-deputy, Jacques Alexandre Bixio. He had an important role in the shaping of the Falloux Laws of 1850, which strongly increased the Catholic clergy's influence on the education system.

Thiers and the president soon ran afoul of each other and he was arrested in December 1851 coup d'état and sent to Mazas Prison, before being escorted out of France. But in the following summer he was allowed to return. His history for the next decade is almost a blank, his time being occupied for the most part on The Consulate and the Empire. It was not until 1863 that he re-entered political life, being elected by a Parisian constituency. For the seven years following he was the chief speaker among the small group of anti-Imperialists in the French chamber and was regarded generally as the most formidable enemy of the Empire. While protesting against its foreign enterprises, he also harped on French loss of prestige, and so helped contribute to stir up the fatal spirit which brought on the war of 1870.