All his
"ideas" and purposes were embodied in a new constitution, and before the
end of 1852 the question of restoring the empire was submitted to the
people; and by the plebiscite of November, in that year, an enormous
majority of the voters elected him Emperor.
No account of the _coup d'etat_,--the most striking and effective in
this series of dramatic events--surpasses in authenticity or interest
that of De Tocqueville. The famous author of _Democracy in America_, and
of equally celebrated works of French history, became Vice-President of
the National Assembly in 1849. As a member of that body he was justified
in saying of his story of the _coup d'etat_, "I merely relate, as an
actual witness, the things I saw with my eyes and heard with my ears."
The first step taken by Napoleon in this affair was the arrest of the
opposition leaders of the Assembly in their beds, on the pretext of a
conspiracy against him in that body. De Tocqueville describes what
followed.
When the representatives of the people learned on the morning of
December 2, 1851, that several of their colleagues were arrested, they
ran to the Assembly.
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