After losing an election for the Chamber of Deputies in 1885, Déroulède decided that the parliamentary system adopted from Britain had sapped France of its vitality and virtue, and should be replaced by a presidential republic with the cabinet appointed by and responsible to a popularly elected president. Déroulède thus became a champion of constitutional revision and hoped to use the league as an organization to promote the cause among republican patriots. After the rise of General Georges Boulanger, Déroulède attempted to use the Ligue des Patriotes, until then a non-political organization, to assist his cause, but was deserted by many of the league's members and forced to resign his presidency. Nevertheless, he used the section that remained faithful to him with such effect that the government found it necessary in 1889 to decree its suppression.