Jules Simon: Difference between revisions

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| death_date = {{death date and age|1896|6|8|1814|12|31|df=y}}
| death_place = Paris
| party = [[Moderate Republicans (France, 1848–1870)|Moderate Republican]] (1848-18711848–1871)<br/>[[Opportunist Republican]] (1871-18961871–1896)
| signature = Unterschrift Jules Simon (1814-1896).png
}}
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In 1848 he represented the Côtes-du-Nord in the National Assembly, and next year entered the [[Conseil d'État (France)|Council of State]], but was retired on account of his republican opinions. His refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the government of [[Louis Napoleon]] after the ''coup d'état'' was followed by his dismissal from his professorship, and he devoted himself to philosophical and political writings of a popular order. ''Le Devoir'' (1853), which was translated into modern Greek and Swedish, was followed by ''La Religion naturelle'' (1856, Eng. trans., 1887), ''La Liberté de conscience'' (1857), ''La Liberté politique'' (1859), ''La Liberté civile'' (1859), ''L'Ouvrière'' (1861), ''L'Ecole'' (1864), ''Le Travail'' (1866), ''L'Ouvrier de huit ans'' (1867) and others.
 
In 1863 he was returned to the ''Corps Législatif'' for the 8th circonscription of the [[Seine (département)|Seine]] ''[[département]]'', and supported "les Cinq" (Darimon, [[Jules Favre|Favre]], Hénon, [[Émile Ollivier|Ollivier]] and [[Ernest Picard|Picard]]) in their opposition to the government. He became minister of instruction in the [[Government of National Defense]] on 5 September 1870. After the capitulation of Paris in January 1871 he was sent down to [[Bordeaux]] to prevent the resistance of [[Léon Gambetta]] to the peace. But at Bordeaux, Gambetta, who had issued a proclamation excluding from the elections those who had been officials under the Empire, was all-powerful. Pretending to dispute Jules Simon's credentials, he issued orders for his arrest. Meanwhile, Simon had found means of communication with Paris, and on 6 February was reinforced by [[Eugène Pelletan]], [[Emmanuel Arago|E. Arago]] and [[Etienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pages|Garnier-Pages]]. Gambetta resigned, and the ministry of the Interior, though nominally given to Arago, was really in Simon's hands.
 
== Third Republic ==
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Defeated in the département of the Seine<!-- which elections? February 1871? -->, he sat for the [[Marne (department)|Marne]] in the National Assembly, and resumed the portfolio of Education in the first cabinet of [[Adolphe Thiers]]'s presidency. He advocated free primary education yet sought to conciliate the clergy by all the means in his power; but no concessions removed the hostility of [[Félix Dupanloup|Dupanloup]], who presided over the commission appointed to consider his draft of an elementary education bill. The reforms he was actually able to carry out were concerned with secondary education. He encouraged the study of living languages, and limited the attention given to the making of [[Latin]] verse; he also encouraged independent methods at the École Normale, and set up a school at Rome where members of the French school of [[Athens]] should spend some time.
 
He retained office until a week before the fall of {{lang|fr|Thiers}} in 1873. He was regarded by the monarchical right as one of the most dangerous obstacles in the way of a restoration, which he did as much as any man (except perhaps the [[comte de Chambord]] himself) to prevent, but by the extreme left he was distrusted for his moderate views, and Gambetta never forgave his victory at Bordeaux. In 1875, he became a member of the [[Académie Française]] and a [[Senator for life (France)|life senator]], and in 1876, on the resignation of [[Jules Dufaure]], was summoned to form a cabinet. He replaced anti-republican functionaries in the civil service by republicans, and held his own until 3 May 1877, when he adopted a motion carried by a large majority in the Chamber inviting the cabinet to use all means for the repression of clerical agitation.
 
His clerical enemies then induced [[Patrice Maurice de Mac-Mahon|Marshal MacMahon]] to take advantage of a vote on the press law carried in Jules Simon's absence from the Chamber to write him a letter regretting that he no longer preserved his influence in the Chamber, and thus practically demanding his resignation. His resignation in response to this act of the president, known as the "[[Seize Mai]]", which he might have resisted by an appeal to the Chamber, proved his ruin, and he never again held office. He justified his action by his fear of providing an opportunity for a ''coup d'état'' on the part of the Marshal. However, the May 1877 crisis eventually ended in MacMahon's demise and in the victory of the Republicans over the monarchist [[Orleanist]]s and [[Legitimist]]s.