Camille Jordan was not the only person who made unavailing efforts to arrest Bonaparte in the first steps of his ambition.  There were yet in France many men who, though they had hailed with enthusiasm the dawn of the French Revolution, had subsequently been disgusted by its crimes, and who still dreamed of the possibility of founding a truly Constitutional Government in France.  Even in the Senate there were some men indignant at the usual compliance of that body, and who spoke of the necessity of subjecting the Constitution to a revisal, in order to render it conformable to the Consulate for life.

The project of revising the Constitution was by no means unsatisfactory to Bonaparte.  It afforded him an opportunity of holding out fresh glimmerings of liberty to those who were too shortsighted to see into the future.  He was pretty certain that there could be no change but to his advantage.  Had any one talked to him of the wishes of the nation he would have replied, “3,577,259 citizens have voted.  Of these how many were for me? 3,368,185.  Compare the difference!  There is but one vote in forty-five against me.  I must obey the will of the people!” To this he would not have failed to add, “Whose are the votes opposed to me?  Those of ideologists, Jacobins, and peculators under the Directory.”  To such arguments what could have been answered?  It must not be supposed that I am putting these words into Bonaparte’s mouth.  They fell from him oftener than once.

As soon as the state of the votes was ascertained the Senate conceived itself under the necessity of repairing the only fault it had committed in the eyes of the First Consul, and solemnly presented him with a new ‘Senatus-consulte’, and a decree couched in the following terms: 

Article I. The French people nominate and the Senate proclaim Napoleon Bonaparte Consul for life.

Article ii.  A statue representing Peace, holding in one hand the laurel of victory, and in the other the decree of the senate, shall commemorate to posterity the gratitude of the Nation.

Article iii.  The Senate will convey to the First Consul the expression of the confidence, the love, and the admiration of the French people.

Bonaparte replied to the deputation from the Senate, in the presence of the Diplomatic Body, whose audience had been appointed for that day in order that the ambassadors might be enabled to make known to their respective Courts that Europe reckoned one King more.  In his reply he did not fail to introduce the high-sounding words “liberty and equality.”  He commenced thus:  “A citizen’s life belongs to his country.  The French people wish that mine should be entirely devoted to their service.  I obey.”

On the day this ceremony took place, besides the audience of the Diplomatic Body there was an extraordinary assemblage of general officers and public functionaries.  The principal apartments of the Tuileries’s presented the appearance of a fete.  This gaiety formed a striking contrast with the melancholy of Josephine, who felt that every step of the First Consul towards the throne removed him farther from her.