CREMIEUX, ISAAC A. 



CURTIS, WILLIAM E. 



201 



of Orleans, but when subsequently interpel- 

 lated on the subject he declared that his inten- 

 tion had only been to induce the Duchess to 

 read a declaration stating that she left to the 

 people the right of proclaiming its government. 

 On February 24th he declared himself in the 

 Chamber of Deputies against the project of a 

 regency, and proposed a provisional govern- 

 ment. This proposition having been adopted, 

 he was appointed a member of the Provisional 

 Government and Minister of Justice. He was 

 confirmed in these functions by the Constitu- 

 ent Assembly, but resigned on June 7th, when 

 the Constituent Assembly ordered the prose- 

 cution of Louis Blanc. He was a member of 

 the Constituent Assembly for the department 

 of Indre-et-Loire, which also reflected him to 

 the Legislative Assembly. In this Assembly 

 he voted on all important questions with the 

 Left, and made himself particularly conspicu- 

 ous by his energetic opposition to the bill for- 

 bidding the clubs. He separated, however, 

 from his political friends on the question of 

 the Presidency, supporting the candidature of 

 Prince Louis Napoleon. Soon, however, he 

 regretted this step, and he became in the 

 Legislative Assembly one of the foremost op- 

 ponents of the policy of the Prince-Presi- 

 dent. He voted against the coup d'etat, and 

 was one of those who were arrested on De- 

 cember 2d and taken to Mazas ; he was, how- 

 ever, liberated after a few days. Returning to 

 the bar, he occupied again the distinguished 

 position which he had held before 1 848. At 

 the general election of 1869 he was defeated 

 in the department of Drome by the official 

 candidate, but in November of the same year 

 one of the Paris districts returned him at the 

 supplementary elections. He took his seat on 

 the extreme left, voted against the plebiscite 

 of April, 1870, and was one of the seventeen 

 members who signed the " anti-plebiscitary 

 address." When the surrender of Sedan led 

 to the overthrow of the Napoleonic dynasty, 

 he was, on September 4th, appointed a mem- 

 ber of the Government of the National De- 

 fense and Minister of Justice. With Glais- 

 Bizoin he left for Tours to constitute the 

 provisional delegation, to which soon Gam- 

 betta was added. Cremieux as well as Glais- 

 Bizoin readily conceded to their younger col- 

 league the leadership. Cremieux took, how- 

 ever, an active part in the organization of 

 the Army of the Loire, and especially in the 

 deposition of the magistrates who had formed 

 part of the notorious "Commissions mixtes" 

 since December 2, 1851. At the general elec- 

 tions of 1871 he again failed to be elected, and 

 after the meeting of the National Assembly, he 

 resigned as member of the Government and as 

 Minister of Justice. He then proposed to the 

 nation to pay to Prussia the five milliards im- 



mediately by a national subscription, to which 

 he offered to contribute 100,000 francs. In 

 1872 the city of Algiers elected him a member 

 of the National Assembly over his radical com- 

 petitor, Bertholon. In his address to the elec- 

 tors he had declared himself in favor of a 

 permanent republic ; of separation between 

 Church and state ; of secular, compulsory, and 

 gratuitous instruction; of the dissolution of 

 the Assembly of Versailles ; and of a general 

 amnesty. As his voice was enfeebled by age, 

 he but rarely took part in the discussions of 

 the Assembly, except in questions relating to 

 Algeria, which found in him an eloquent 

 champion. In December, 1875, he was elected 

 by the National Assembly Life-Senator. Dur- 

 ing his entire life he showed an indefatigable 

 zeal in behalf of his co-religionists, not only in 

 France, but all over the world. In 1840 he 

 undertook a journey to Egypt and Turkey, to 

 look personally after the condition of the 

 Jews, and he succeeded in clearing the Jews 

 of Damascus from the charge of having 

 murdered a Catholic priest. He founded the 

 Universal Israelitic Alliance, which under his 

 able and devoted guidance has become the 

 most cosmopolitan and most influential Jewish 

 organization of the world. He was also re- 

 garded as one of the foremost representatives 

 of French freemasonry. Few men were more 

 generally and more highly esteemed than 

 Cremieux. His wife had died only a few days 

 before him, on the eve of the celebration of 

 their golden wedding. 



CURTIS, WILLIAM EDMUND, Chief Justice 

 of the Superior Court of New York, was the 

 son of Judge Holbrook Curtis, of Litchfield, 

 Connecticut, where he was born in 1826. He 

 graduated with honor from Trinity College, 

 Hartford, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar. 

 He settled in New York, and rose rapidly in his 

 profession. He was Commissioner of the Board 

 of Education, and was for four years its Presi- 

 dent. He received the degree of LL. D. from 

 Trinity College. He was Vice-President of 

 the Geographical Society. In 1871 he was 

 elected Judge of the Supreme Court of New 

 York. His decisions increased his reputation 

 as a jurist. One of the most notable was ad- 

 verse to the extradition, under existing trea- 

 ties, of Vogt, the Belgian, who murdered the 

 Chevalier de Blanco. The treaty of com- 

 merce between Belgium and the United States 

 was suspended for a time, but finally Vogt 

 was extradited and hung. He also dissolved 

 the injunctions which prevented the establish- 

 ment of rapid transit. His ability and in- 

 tegrity resulted in his elevation to the position 

 of Chief Justice of the Superior Court of 

 New York, which he filled at the time of his 

 sudden death on July 6th, at Watertown, Con- 

 necticut. 



