Совет старейшин
On 15 October 1795, he was elected Deputy of Corrèze to the Council of Ancients, the upper house of French legislature during the French First Republic, with 121 votes out of 236. He became opposed to the "Club de Clichy", which he accused of conspiring against the interest of the Republic and he subsequently approved the coup of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797), engineered by Generals Napoleon Bonaparte and Pierre Augereau, the latter having been his "protégé" during the War of the Pyrenées. On 6 September 1797, he was elected president of the Council of Ancients. On 11 January 1798, he passed a proposal aiming to contain the uprising that was being ignited by "émigrés" in the county of Avignon, in the south of France. Re-elected president of the Council of Ancients on 19 June 1798, he delivered a commemorative speech during the celebrations of the 14th of July, and favoured decisive actions against the coalition powers at war with France. On 18 April 1799, he supported a bill for the conscription of two hundred thousand men for the army, opposing the system adopted by the Minister of the Interior, François de Neufchâteau.