GREVY, FRANCOIS JULES P. 



413 



ment of Massachusetts Infantry, afterward the 

 1st regiment of heavy artillery. In 1862, while 

 stationed with his regiment at Fairfax, Va., he 

 was recalled and assigned by General McClel- 

 lan to the command of the artillery brigade of 

 General Whipple's division. His brigade con- 

 sisted of the 14th Massachusetts Infantry, 2d 

 New York Artillery, 16th Maine Infantry, and 

 1st battery Independent Wisconsin Artillery. 

 On October 11, 1862, he resigned his commis- 

 sion, returned to Boston, and about a year and 

 a half before his death went to England. He 

 was a member of the Massachusetts Constitu- 

 tional Convention in 1853, was active in labor 

 and reform movements, and, being zealous for 

 freedom of speech, was instrumental in secur- 

 ing for Mrs. Victoria C. Woodhull a hearing in 

 Boston. He was a fine mathematician, and 

 was versed in Hebrew literature and in Hebrew 

 and Egyptian antiquities. In Freemasonry he 

 had taken the 33 degrees of the Ancient and Ac- 

 cepted Rite, taking the earlier degrees in France. 

 Among his published works are a Socialistic, 

 Communistic, and Financial Fragments," "The- 

 ory of the Calculus," " Explanation of the The- 

 ory of the Calculus," " Transcendentalism," 

 " The Facts of Consciousness and the Philoso- 

 phy of Mr. Herbert Spencer," and several pub- 

 lications relating to Freemasonry, the most im- 

 portant being " The Blazing Star." 



GRllVY, FEANQOIS JULES PAUL, President of 

 the French National Assembly from 1871 to 

 1873, President of the Chamber of Deputies in 

 1876 and 1878, and President of the Republic 

 in 1879, was born at Mont- sous- Vaudrey in 

 the department of the Jura, August 15, 1813. 

 His family were middle-class people, in easy 

 circumstances, living on a small estate, and at- 

 tached by feeling and tradition to the repub- 

 lican cause. He began his studies when ten 

 years old, at the College of Poligny, continued 

 them at Besancon, and finished them at Paris. 

 He was still at the Lyceum, being seventeen 

 years old, when the revolution of 1830 broke 

 out, and took no part in that movement, al- 

 though it has been erroneously stated that he 

 was engaged in it. He continued his studies 

 in the faculty of law, and was enrolled in 1837 

 as an advocate in the Royal Court of Paris. 

 The effect of his studies and his associations was 

 to confirm him in the republican principles 

 which he had inherited ; but he did not take 

 an active part in politics. In 1839 he, as ad- 

 vocate, defended the prisoners Philipot and 

 Quignot, accomplices of Barbes. The finished 

 qualities of his addresses early brought him 

 into notice as an orator. At the period of the 

 revolution of 1848 he had acquired the confi- 

 dence of the Republican party as a man of abil- 

 ity and sound discretion, who could be relied 

 upon. The Provisional Government of 1848 

 appointed him Commissioner for the Republic 

 in the department of the Jura. The electors 

 of the Jura, without his solicitation, sent him 

 to the capital at the head of their list of dele- 

 gates to the National Constituent Assemblv. 



Whether as Commissioner of the Republic or 

 as Deputy, his motto, which he was accustomed 

 to repeat frequently, was : " Politics is only a 

 kind of business; it is of supreme importance, 

 but should always be treated like other busi- 

 ness, with the same rectitude and the same 

 simplicity of means." In the Assembly he ad- 

 vocated the abolition of imprisonment for debt, 

 and opposed the extension of the state of siege 

 over the deliberations upon the Constitution of 

 the Republic, but failed to carry the body with 

 him on either measure. His name as a mem- 

 ber of this body is most closely associated with 

 the proposition of the so-called Gr6vy amend- 

 ment, a measure especially defining the tenure 

 of the Presidential office. The Constitution, 

 following the model of that of the United 

 States, declared that the President of the Re- 

 public should hold his office for a definite term 

 of four years M. Grevy apprehended that the 

 operation of this system among a people so at- 

 tached to personal government as the French 

 had been would be dangerous, and offered the 

 following instead : " The chief of the execu- 

 tive power is elected by the Assembly. He 

 takes the title of President of the Council of 

 Ministers; he is elected for an unlimited time; 

 he is always removable ; he names and removes 

 the ministers." In his speech supporting his 

 amendment, he foreshadowed the danger of 

 the republic being overthrown. But he was 

 supported by only 168 members against 643. 

 Another constitutional question was discussed 

 in the reports which M. Gr6 vy made in Jan- 

 uary, 1849, as a member of committees on the 

 project which was known as the proposition 

 Bateau. This measure provided that the Le- 

 gislative Assembly should be called to meet 

 March 19, 1849, and the powers of the Constit- 

 uent Assembly should cease on the same day; 

 till then, the latter body should be occupied 

 principally with the electoral law and the law 

 relative to the Council of State. M. GreVy's 

 reports undertook to show that the Constit- 

 uent Assembly had been called for a specific 

 object to constitute the republic, and that it 

 would be untrue to its duty if it suffered it- 

 self to be dissolved without perfecting its task. 

 As a body, its business was to go on with its 

 work without reference to the result of the re* 

 cent elections, which concerned another func- 

 tion of government, with which the present 

 body had nothing to do. These views were 

 sustained by a majority of only six votes in 

 the Assembly. From this time M. Gr6vy op- 

 posed steadily all the measures which led up 

 to the establishment of the empire. He de- 

 nounced the appointment of M. Changarnier 

 as commander both of the National Guard and 

 of the array of Paris, as a violation of the law 

 of 1834, which intended to keep these offices 

 separate, and as threatening to the liberty of 

 the nation, and declared that the peril of the 

 republic Iny no longer in popular tumults, but 

 in coups d'etat. In a speech against the press 

 law, made in the National Assembly in May, 



