The Second Republic (1848-1852) was born of the February 1848 revolution. It established universal male suffrage and elected Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte president, before he restored the Empire in 1852. It abolished slavery in the colonies in April 1848 and adopted in November a Constitution that entrusted executive power to an elected president. The June Days of 1848, then the 1850 law restricting suffrage, drew it away from its ideals; the coup of 2 December 1851 paved the way for the return of the Empire.