Prince Klemens von Metternich

Oh how finally one understand the ideas of Conservatism! An Austrian foreign minister named Metternich became the leader of the Congress of Vienna. He was guided by the principle of legitimacy, where he believed that in order to achieve peace in Europe he must restore legitimate monarchs who would preserve traditional systems. This is one of the chief ideas of Conservatism. With this goal he restored the Bourbons in France and Spain, and other rulers in the Italian states. He along with the Congress of Vienna pursued a policy of a balance of power. This meant that no one country would dominate Europe. He believed that France might become too powerful so he enlarged the area of Prussia and established a larger kingdom of Netherlands to the north of the border.  Metternich saw revolts occurring throughout the Italian states; this led him to create the principle of intervention. The principle of intervention allowed the great powers of Europe to intervene in foreign affairs. The reason he did this was to ensure that legitimate monarchs would remain in power and not be threatened by revolts.  I was very delighted to hear this because Metternich applied the ideas of Conservatism to places elsewhere of Europe. In Naples, European forces crushed revels and restored Ferdinand I back to the throne. In Spain troops restored the Bourbon monarch by crushing the revolt against Ferdinand VII. Metternich successfully used the ideas of Conservatism and restored legitimate monarchs. This goes to show that Conservatism is the only ideology that works.

Conservatism and the French Revolution

On August 26, 1789 the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. Its ideas were rooted in the Enlightenment. Then on October 5, women marched up to Versailles and captured the king and his family and forcefully transported them to Paris. This ongoing chaos in the French Revolution causes me much distraught.  Why would one ever challenge the authority of our government? “Let us observe the world around us -- what institutions have survived throughout the centuries?”  I tell you that it is the French Monarchy! It has survived for sixty-six monarchs of varying sufficiency and it will be assured that it would last another sixty six years.  The infrastructure of authority “do not lie in institutions constructed by reason, and they are certainly not the product of a contract, theoretical or otherwise. If they are to endure, all institutions of authority must necessarily be irrational.” A strong monarchial power is needed and it is exemplified through the downfall of Poland. The restoration of the monarchy in France would be restrained by newly instituted councils named by electors appointed by the king. However ultimate authority must be tied in with religion through the means of the pope. Fellow Frenchmen is this what we want our great nation to end up becoming? We must restore hereditary monarchy and forget about the silly ideas like liberalism. We must favor political authority, an organized religion, and remain with tradition as a guide for order. Only then will we achieve a great nation.

Lies of the Enlightenment

With the radical ideas, such as liberalism and nationalism, unleashed by the French Revolution I came to realization that I must destroy the main concepts of the Enlightenment philosophy. I see that the Revolution and Terror has been greatly influenced much through the ideas of the Enlightenment. To destroy their tenets, I have begun writing books that attacked cosmopolitanism, science, universalism, reason and progress. In order to show how misguided and naïve the enlightened philosophes are I begun to use their own ideas against them. Their ideas on a progressive society can only be justified through metaphysical speculation, logic, and geometry. The Baconian inductive method “does not lead us to the conclusion that man is a neutral medium to be shaped this way or that.” Through simple observations our society in some ways are like that of the animal world.  I see that life is an ongoing battle for survival of the fit in which man places " his destructive hand [and] spares nothing ...  [man is a] proud and terrible king, he wants everything and nothing can resist him." As a result I begin to see man as a wicked, senseless, hubris creature. The belief that the flaws of human nature can be solved is upmost ridiculous as our own pride will get in the way.  I say that "all greatness, all power, all social order depends upon the executioner; he is the terror of human society and the tie that holds it together; Take away this incomprehensible force from the world, and at that very moment order is superseded by chaos, thrones fall, society disappears.” This is the true nature of man…

The American Revolution

Has the world gone mad? American colonies in North America are declaring independence from Britain!!! This brave act from the colonies blew my mind away. They justified this action by saying that they do not believe that the king or Parliament had the right to interfere in their internal affairs. In their Declaration of Independence, they say that it is their right of institute a new government. The Continental army was headed by George Washington. The army is undisciplined, disorganized, lacked man power, and was not well equip as compared to their counterparts the British army. With this in mind, I initially predicted that their war for independence would fail, but I was wrong. In 1781, Washington with the help of the French forced the British army of General Cornwallis to surrender. In 1783, the independence of the American colonies was recognized. What is astonishing is not the fact that the American colonies won independence, but rather the form of government they established. Rather than having a ruler such as a king, they created a national government that was able to set taxes, raise an army, and form a national currency. This government was divided into three branches: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The executive branch was headed by a president; the legislative is composed of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and lastly the Judicial Branch is headed by the Supreme Court and other courts. The American government had a system of checks and balances that would limit the power of each branch. This surprised me a great deal, I had always believed in a hereditary king as the best form of government. This system is completely new to me. We shall soon see whether this system can be affective.

Introduction of my life

Hello my name is Joseph de Maistre and I am a philosopher, lawyer, writer, and a diplomat. I was born on April 1, 1753 at Chambery in the Duchy of Savoy. I was fortunate enough to be born into a family that has a high prestige in France. My father, Francois-Xavier emigrated to Chambery and rose to the rank of senator. He later then received the title Count from the King of Piedmont Sardinia. My mother was from Rumilly. My little brother is Xavier and he is a wonderful military officer and an outstanding writer.

In my youthful days my father taught me to be charitable. As a result I was involved with many charitable societies. When I was fifteen I joined Confrérie des Pénitents Noirs, it is a religious order which helps take care of condemned prisoners. When I turned twenty I was fortunate enough to join the freemasons. I still remember where I was initiated; in fact it was in the lodge of Trois Mortiers in Chambery. I was educated by the Jesuits and I pursued a degree in law at the University of Turin. I graduated in 1774 then I decided to follow in my father's footsteps, so I ultimately became a senator in 1787. The next year was one of my most memorable years. I finally married my sweetheart the lady Francois-Marguerite de Moraud. Oh how it was a beautiful wedding! However the events in which to come were alarming.

In 1789, my father whom I deeply adored passed away... as a result I inherited his title as count. At the same time the bloody revolution began destroying France.  It was all because of that asinine Estate General especially the Third Estate since they began to believe that they can make France "better". On July 9, 1789 the Estates General decided to combine the Third, Second, and First Estates to form the National Constituent Assembly. This revolutionary fervor spreads like wildfire and erupted in Sardinia, which forced me to flee back to Chambery. However here life no longer what it used to be. I was faces with a grim choice of joining the revolutionary army to fight the Piedmontese army, but I refused and immigrated to Lausanne in Switzerland.  It is here where I visited the salon of Madame de Stael and began to discuss politics and religion. I then began my career as a counter revolutionary-writer.  Some of the books I wrote were Discours à Mme. la marquise Costa de Beauregard, and  sur la vie et la mort de son fils ("Letters from a Savoyard Royalist", 1793), ("Discourse to the Marchioness Costa de Beauregard, on the Life and Death of her Son", 1794). From Lausanne I decided to go to Cagliari which is where the King of Piedmont of Sardinia was exiled to.  The court at Cagliari sent me to Russia as an ambassador to Tsar Alexander I.  After the defeat of Napoleon and the restoration of the house of Savoy’s control in Piedmont, I was able to return to Turin in 1817 to serve as a magistrate then as minister of state.  My life has been an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end.