350 



GREVY, FRANCOIS JULES PAUL. 



the Ghetto. After the second outbreak at Cor- 

 fu a state of siege was declared, and a sufficient 

 force was sent to make an end of the disturb- 

 ance. The monarch of Corfu and the prefect 

 of the town were removed for neglect of their 

 duty. 



ttREVY, FRANCOIS JULES PAUL, ex- 

 President of the French Eepublic, born in Mont- 

 sous- Vaudrey, Department of the Jura, Aug. 

 15, 1807; died there, Sept. 9, 1891. He was the 

 son of a forester who volunteered in 1792 to 

 fight in the army of the republic and who 

 brought up his children as republicans. Jules, a 

 robust and athletic young mountaineer, began 

 his school life at the age of ten in the College of 

 Poligny, went thence to Besancon, and prepared 

 himself for the bar in the University at Paris, 

 where he led a sober, decorous, and studious life. 

 At the outbreak of the revolution of 1830 he 

 joined the insurgents, taking part in the capture 

 of the Babylone barracks. He was admitted to 

 the bar in 1837, and began practice in Paris. 

 By his defense of Armand Barbes and his fel- 

 low-conspirators against the Government of Louis 

 Philippe, in 1889, he established his reputation 

 as an advocate deeply versed in the code and 

 skilled in the technicalities of procedure, and, 

 moreover, as a legal champion of republicanism, 

 whose forensic services were wanted and prized 

 when revolutionists were tried in the courts. In 

 1848 he was sent to Jura by the Provisional 

 Government as prefect or commissary of the 

 republic, as the office was then called. The 

 diplomatic tact with which he arrested disturb- 

 ances and appeased political and religious pas- 

 sions gave him a reputation for political ability. 

 He headed the list of eight Deputies elected to 

 represent his native department in the Constitu- 

 tent Assembly. He was chosen Vice-President of 

 the Assembly, and placed on the Committee of 

 Justice. Taking his seat with the Advanced Re- 

 publicans, he presented the famous proposition 

 Grevy, which, although it was overwhelmingly 

 defeated, placed its author ever afterward on a 

 pedestal as a conspicuous representative of re- 

 publicanism. Perceiving that if the executive 

 head of the Government were elected by univer- 

 sal suffrage it would open the door to Ca3sarism 

 (for, having as many popular votes as all the 

 members of the Assembly together, the Presi- 

 dent of the Republic, in case of a conflict of 

 opinion between himself and the Assembly, 

 could assert that he had the mandate of the 

 nation to suppress the legislative branch or 

 nullify its decisions), he proposed that the exec- 

 utive power should be exercised by a council of 

 ministers, with a president of the council at its 

 head, just as it is in Switzerland. The chief of 

 the state would then be appointed and subject 

 to removal by the vote of the Chamber. This 

 plan was too radical for the Assembly, and the 

 project of an independent executive deriving its 

 authority from a plebiscite carried the day. 

 Napoleon was elected President, and in the Legis- 

 lative Assembly of 1849 Grevy combated the 

 beginnings of Bonapartism by opposing each 

 measure proposed by the President and his ac- 

 complices. After the coup d'etat, which every 

 one said would have been prevented if Grevy's 

 amendment had been carried, he was arrested 

 and kept in prison for several months. After 



his release, he pleaded cases in the courts and 

 held a leading place at tho bar. He advocated 

 Liberal principles, but not as an active poli- 

 tician ; he would not take the oath of allegiance 

 to Napoleon, and therefore refused to enter the 

 Chamber. In 1868, when it begun to be dan- 

 gerous to assert hostility to the Emperor, his 

 friends overcame his scruples, representing that 

 many Liberals were deterred by his illustrious 

 example from accepting a nomination to the 

 Chamber. Elected to the Corps Legislatif in 

 that year from his old department, he took his 

 seat among the Republicans. Although he sel- 

 dom spoke, he was re-elected without opposi- 

 tion in 1869. When asked after the downfall of 

 Napoleon to join the self-appointed Government 

 of Sept 4, he refused, retiring with Thiers. As 

 an upholder of legaltity, he declared that the 

 fall of the empire ought to be decreed by the 

 Chambers. When the Legislative Assembly was 

 invaded by the mob, regular proceedings were, 

 rendered impossible. He declined to associate 

 himself with the irregularly constituted Govern- 

 ment of National Defense, and likewise declined 

 to join M. Thiers in his irregular diplomatic 

 campaign. When the latter asked him to declare 

 what part he would take in the national emer- 

 gency, he said that his part was to carry a mus- 

 ket, and while the war lasted he served in the 

 National Guard. He was returned to the Na- 

 tional Assembly by his compatriots of the Jura 

 on the simple platform of " a permanent repub- 

 lic and any acceptable peace without revenge." 

 On Feb. 17, 1871, a week after the session op- 

 ened, he was elected by an almost unanimous 

 vote to the presidency of the Chamber. In the 

 first sitting he proposed that M. Thiers should 

 be made chief of the Executive, and should hold 

 his power during the pleasure of the Assembly, 

 realizing the proposition that had been the 

 foundation of his political fame. He remained 

 in the chair over two years, being seven times 

 re-elected. The conciliatory tact, the impartial 

 judgment, the calm decision with which he pre- 

 sided over this turbulent body during the most 

 critical period of its history, made Jules Grevy 

 one of the conspicuous figures in European poli- 

 tics. In February, 1873, the Conservatives being 

 in the majority, the Due de Broglie resigned his 

 place as minister to London, to lead the attack 

 that was designed to overthrow Thiers. It was 

 first necessary to get Grew out of the way and 

 place in the chair a man pliant to their purposes. 

 They disputed his decisions, questioned his au- 

 thority, harassed and insulted him, and when he 

 found himself unable to maintain the dignity of 

 the chair, after an offensive personal remark of 

 the Due de Grammont which the majority ap- 

 plauded, he resigned in spite of the pleadings of 

 his friends, who begged him to stay at his post 

 in all circumstances. M. Buffet, his successor, 

 became an instrument in the hands of the con- 

 spirators. There were those even then who said 

 that Grevy was a wily and calculating politician 

 who willingly contributed to the fall of Theirs, 

 to whom he had shrewdly volunteered to advance 

 to the first place in the Republican party, thus 

 maki)ig sure of the succession, upon which he 

 was eager now to enter. In the following Octo- 

 ber he published a pamphlet on " The Necessary 

 Government," in which he took the position that 



