Leon Gambetta
| Léon Gambetta | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Gambetta by Léon Bonnat (1875)
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| 37th Prime Minister of France | |
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In office 14 November 1881 – 30 January 1882 |
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| President | Jules Grévy |
| Preceded by | Jules Ferry |
| Succeeded by | Charles de Freycinet |
| 5th President of the Chamber of Deputies | |
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In office 31 January 1879 – 27 October 1881 |
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| Preceded by | Jules Grévy |
| Succeeded by | Henri Brisson |
| Minister of the Interior | |
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In office 4 September 1870 – 6 February 1871 |
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| Prime Minister | Louis-Jules Trochu |
| Preceded by | Henri Chevreau |
| Succeeded by | Emmanuel Arago |
| Member of the French Chamber of Deputies | |
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In office 8 June 1869 – 31 December 1882 |
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| Constituency |
Bouches-du-Rhône (1869–71) Bas-Rhin (1871) Seine (1871–76) Paris (1876–82) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
2 April 1838 Cahors, France |
| Died | 31 December 1882 (aged 44) Sèvres, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Political party |
Moderate Republican (1863–1869) Republican far-left (1869–1871) Republican Union (1871–1882) |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | None |
Léon Gambetta (French: [leɔ̃ ɡɑ̃bɛta]; 2 April 1838 – 31 December 1882) was a French statesman, prominent during and after the Franco-Prussian War.
Born at Cahors, Gambetta is said to have inherited his vigour and eloquence from his father, a Genoese grocer who had married a Frenchwoman named Massabie. At the age of fifteen, Gambetta lost the sight of his right eye in an accident, and it eventually had to be removed. Despite this handicap, he distinguished himself at school in Cahors, and in 1857 went to Paris to study law. His temperament gave him great influence among the students of the Quartier latin, and he was soon known as an inveterate enemy of the imperial government.
Gambetta was called to the bar in 1859. However, although he contributed to a Liberal review edited by Challemel-Lacour, Gambetta did not make much of an impression until, on 17 November 1868, he was selected to defend the journalist Delescluze. Delescluze was being prosecuted for having promoted a monument to the representative Baudin, who had been killed while resisting the coup d'état of 1851, and Gambetta seized his opportunity to attack both the coup d'état and the government with a vigour which made him immediately famous.
In May 1869, he was elected to the Assembly, both by a district in Paris and another in Marseille, defeating Hippolyte Carnot for the former constituency and Adolphe Thiers and Ferdinand de Lesseps for the latter. He chose to sit for Marseille, and lost no opportunity of attacking the Empire in the Assembly. Early in his political career, Gambetta was influenced by Le Programme de Belleville, the seventeen statutes that defined the radical program in French politics throughout the Third Republic. This made him the leading defender of the lower classes in the Corps Législatif. On 17 January 1870, he spoke out against naming a new Imperial Lord Privy Seal, putting him into direct conflict with the regime's de facto prime minister, Emile Ollivier. (see Reinach, J., Discours et plaidoyers politiques de M. Gambetta, I.102 – 113) His powerful oratory caused a complete breakdown of order in the Corps. The Monarchist Right continually tried to interrupt his speech, only to have Gambetta's supporters on the Left attack them. The disagreement reached a high point when M. le Président Schneider asked him to bring his supporters back into order. Gambetta responded, thundering, "l'indignation exclut le calme!" ("indignation excludes calm!") (Reinach, Discours et plaidoyers politiques de M. Gambetta, I.112)
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