Jules Simon: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=OctoberSeptember 20112021}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|image name = Jules Simon - photoglyptie.jpg

| office = [[Prime Minister of France]]

|term_end term_start =17 May12 December 18771876

|successor president = =[[Albert, ducPatrice de BroglieMacMahon]]

'''Jules François Simon''' ({{IPA-fr|ʒyl simɔ̃}}; 31 December 1814<ref name='birthdate'>{{cite news|title=Jules Simon|date=1 December 2009|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/545192/Jules-Francois-Simon|access-date=1 December 2009}}</ref> – 8 June 1896) was a French statesman and philosopher, and one of the leaders of the [[ModerateOpportunist Republicans (France)|Moderate Republicans]] in the [[Third French Republic]].

Simon was born at [[Lorient]]. His father was a linen-draper from [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]], who renounced Protestantism before his second marriage with a Catholic [[Brittany|Breton]]. Jules Simon was the son of this second marriage. The family name was Suisse, which Simon dropped in favour of his third forename. By considerable sacrifice he was enabled to attend a seminary at [[Vannes]], and worked briefly as usher in a school before, in 1833, he became a student at the [[École Normale Supérieure]] in [[Paris, France|Paris]]. There he came in contact with [[Victor Cousin]], who sent him to [[Caen]] and then to [[Versailles, Yvelines|Versailles]] to teach philosophy. He helped Cousin, without receiving any recognition, in his translations from [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]], and in 1839 became his deputy in the chair of philosophy at the [[University of Paris]], with the meagre salary of 83 francs per month. He also lectured on the [[history of philosophy]] at the [[École normale supérieure (Paris)|École Normale Supérieure]].

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.

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 françaiseFrançaise]] 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.

[[Category:PeoplePoliticians from Lorient]]

[[Category:French Lifelife Senatorssenators]]