In the following year he voted for the death sentence of King Louis XVI, defended more severe punishments against emigrés, and proposed the transport of Rousseau's remains to the Panthéon in Paris, which was achieved in October 1794.

[3] He served in the Council of Five Hundred for the entire duration of the Directory regime and as its president between December 1796 and January 1797,[4] seating with the Thermidorians as a dedicated supporter of the Republic.

[3] In 1798, Debry was chosen as one of the three delegates of the French Republic sent to the Congress of Rastatt, with the intention of negotiating a peace treaty with the Holy Roman Empire.

The other French envoys, Roberjot and Bonnier, were killed on the spot, while Debry received thirteen sabre wounds but survived, having managed to escape and hurriedly seek asylum with a Prussian government official.

Following the emperor's second abdication he was dismissed from office, and in January 1816 forced to leave the country by a law that exiled the regicides of Louis XVI.