Jules Simon
Encyclopedia
Jules François Simon was a French statesman and philosopher, and one of the leader of the Opportunist Republicans
faction.
. His father was a linen-draper from Lorraine
, who renounced Protestantism before his second marriage with a Catholic 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. There he came in contact with Victor Cousin
, who sent him to Caen
and then to Versailles to teach philosophy. He helped Cousin, without receiving any recognition, in his translations from Plato
, 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.
At this period he edited the works of Nicolas Malebranche
(2 vols, 1842), of René Descartes
(1842), Bossuet (1842) and of Antoine Arnauld
(1843), and in 1844–1845 appeared the two volumes of his Histoire de l'école d'Alexandrie. He became a regular contributor to the Revue des deux mondes
, and in 1847, with Amédée Jacques
and Émile Saisset
, founded the Liberté de penser, with the intention of throwing off the yoke of Cousin, but he retired when Jacques allowed the insertion of an article advocating the principles of collectivism, with which he was at no time in sympathy.
In 1863 he was returned to the Corps Législatif for the 8th circonscription of the Seine
département, and supported "les Cinq" 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
, E. Arago and Garnier-Pages
. Gambetta resigned, and the ministry of the Interior, though nominally given to Arago, was really in Simon's hands.
in the National Assembly, and resumed the portfolio of Education in the first cabinet of Adolphe Thiers
's presidency. He advocated free primary education yet sought to conciliate the clergy by all the means in his power; but no concessions removed the hostility of Dupanloup
, who presided over the commission appointed to consider his draft of an elementary education bill. The reforms he was actually able to carry out were concerned with secondary education. He encouraged the study of living languages, and limited the attention given to the making of Latin
verse; he also encouraged independent methods at the École Normale, and set up a school at Rome where members of the French school of Athens
should spend some time.
He retained office until a week before the fall of 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 française
and a 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.
His clerical enemies then induced Marshal MacMahon to take advantage of a vote on the press law carried in Jules Simon's absence from the Chamber to write him a letter regretting that he no longer preserved his influence in the Chamber, and thus practically demanding his resignation. His resignation in response to this act of the president, known as the "Seize Mai", which he might have resisted by an appeal to the Chamber, proved his ruin, and he never again held office. He justified his action by his fear of providing an opportunity for a coup d'état on the part of the Marshal. However, the May 1877 crisis eventually ended in MacMahon's demise and in the victory of the Republicans over the monarchist Orleanist
s and Legitimists.
The rejection (1880) of article 7 of Ferry's Education Act
, by which the profession of teaching would have been forbidden to members of non-authorized congregations, was due to his intervention. He was in fact one of the chief of the left centre Opportunist Republicans
faction, opposed in the same faction to Jules Grévy
and also to the Radical Gambetta. He was director of Le Gaulois
from 1879 to 1881, and his influence in the country among moderate republicans was retained by his articles in Le Matin
from 1882 onwards, in the Journal des Débats
, which he joined in 1886, and in Le Temps
from 1890.
----
Opportunist Republicans
The Opportunist Republicans , also known as the Moderates , were a faction of French Republicans who believed, after the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, that the regime could only be consolidated by successive phases...
faction.
Biography
Simon was born at LorientLorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
. His father was a linen-draper from Lorraine
Lorraine (province)
The Duchy of Upper Lorraine was an historical duchy roughly corresponding with the present-day northeastern Lorraine region of France, including parts of modern Luxembourg and Germany. The main cities were Metz, Verdun, and the historic capital Nancy....
, who renounced Protestantism before his second marriage with a Catholic Breton
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
. 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
Vannes
Vannes is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2000 years ago.-Geography:Vannes is located on the Gulf of Morbihan at the mouth of two rivers, the Marle and the Vincin. It is around 100 km northwest of Nantes and 450 km south west...
, and worked briefly as usher in a school before, in 1833, he became a student at the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
in Paris. There he came in contact with Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin was a French philosopher. He was a proponent of Scottish Common Sense Realism and had an important influence on French educational policy.-Early life:...
, who sent him to Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
and then to Versailles to teach philosophy. He helped Cousin, without receiving any recognition, in his translations from Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, and in 1839 became his deputy in the chair of philosophy at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
, with the meagre salary of 83 francs per month. He also lectured on the history of philosophy
History of philosophy
The history of philosophy is the study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. Issues specifically related to history of philosophy might include : How can changes in philosophy be accounted for historically? What drives the development of thought in its historical context? To what...
at the École Normale Supérieure.
At this period he edited the works of Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche
Nicolas Malebranche ; was a French Oratorian and rationalist philosopher. In his works, he sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes, in order to demonstrate the active role of God in every aspect of the world...
(2 vols, 1842), of René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
(1842), Bossuet (1842) and of Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld — le Grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician...
(1843), and in 1844–1845 appeared the two volumes of his Histoire de l'école d'Alexandrie. He became a regular contributor to the Revue des deux mondes
Revue des deux mondes
The Revue des deux Mondes is a French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829....
, and in 1847, with Amédée Jacques
Amédée Jacques
Amédée Jacques , often known as Amadeo, was a Franco-Argentine pedagogue and philosopher and one of the most prestigious educators of his time.-Biography:...
and Émile Saisset
Émile Saisset
Émile Edmond Saisset was a French philosopher.He was born at Montpellier. He studied philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure, and carried on the eclectic tradition of his master along with Ravaisson and Jules Simon...
, founded the Liberté de penser, with the intention of throwing off the yoke of Cousin, but he retired when Jacques allowed the insertion of an article advocating the principles of collectivism, with which he was at no time in sympathy.
Political career from 1848 to 1871
In 1848 he represented the Côtes-du-Nord in the National Assembly, and next year entered the Council of State, but was retired on account of his republican opinions. His refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the government of Louis Napoleon after the coup d'état was followed by his dismissal from his professorship, and he devoted himself to philosophical and political writings of a popular order. Le Devoir (1853), which was translated into modern Greek and Swedish, was followed by La Religion naturelle (1856, Eng. trans., 1887), La Liberté de conscience (1857), La Liberté politique (1859), La Liberté civile (1859), L'Ouvrière (1861), L'Ecole (1864), Le Travail (1866), L'Ouvrier de huit ans (1867) and others.In 1863 he was returned to the Corps Législatif for the 8th circonscription of the Seine
Seine (département)
Seine was a département of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. Its préfecture was Paris and its official number was 75. The Seine département was abolished in 1968 and its territory divided among four new départements....
département, and supported "les Cinq" in their opposition to the government. He became minister of instruction in the Government of National Defense
Government of National Defense
Le Gouvernement de la Défense Nationale, or The Government of National Defence, was the first Government of the Third Republic of France from September 4, 1870, to February 13, 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, formed after the Emperor Louis Napoleon III was captured by the Prussian army. The...
on 5 September 1870. After the capitulation of Paris in January 1871 he was sent down to Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
to prevent the resistance of Léon Gambetta
Léon Gambetta
Léon Gambetta was a French statesman prominent after the Franco-Prussian War.-Youth and education:He is said to have inherited his vigour and eloquence from his father, a Genovese grocer who had married a Frenchwoman named Massabie. At the age of fifteen, Gambetta lost the sight of his right eye...
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
Eugène Pelletan
Pierre Clément Eugène Pelletan was a French writer, journalist and politician.Born in Royan, Charente-Maritime, Eugène Pelletan was an associate of Lamartine, but refused an appointment to the office in the foreign affairs ministry. He was elected deputy in 1863 and joined the opposition to the...
, E. Arago and Garnier-Pages
Étienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pagès
Étienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pagès was a French politician, born at Marseille.Soon after his birth his father Jean Francois Garnier, a naval surgeon, died, and his mother married Simon Pagès, a college professor, by whom she had a son...
. Gambetta resigned, and the ministry of the Interior, though nominally given to Arago, was really in Simon's hands.
Third Republic
Defeated in the département of the Seine , he sat for the MarneMarne
Marne is a department in north-eastern France named after the river Marne which flows through the department. The prefecture of Marne is Châlons-en-Champagne...
in the National Assembly, and resumed the portfolio of Education in the first cabinet of Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...
's presidency. He advocated free primary education yet sought to conciliate the clergy by all the means in his power; but no concessions removed the hostility of Dupanloup
Félix Dupanloup
Félix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup was a French ecclesiastic.-Biography:He was born at Saint-Félix, in Haute-Savoie. In his earliest years he was confided to the care of his brother, a priest in the diocese of Chambéry. In 1810 he was sent to a pensionnat ecclésiastique at Paris...
, who presided over the commission appointed to consider his draft of an elementary education bill. The reforms he was actually able to carry out were concerned with secondary education. He encouraged the study of living languages, and limited the attention given to the making of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
verse; he also encouraged independent methods at the École Normale, and set up a school at Rome where members of the French school of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
should spend some time.
He retained office until a week before the fall of 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 française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
and a life senator
Senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...
, 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.
His clerical enemies then induced Marshal MacMahon to take advantage of a vote on the press law carried in Jules Simon's absence from the Chamber to write him a letter regretting that he no longer preserved his influence in the Chamber, and thus practically demanding his resignation. His resignation in response to this act of the president, known as the "Seize Mai", which he might have resisted by an appeal to the Chamber, proved his ruin, and he never again held office. He justified his action by his fear of providing an opportunity for a coup d'état on the part of the Marshal. However, the May 1877 crisis eventually ended in MacMahon's demise and in the victory of the Republicans over the monarchist Orleanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
s and Legitimists.
The rejection (1880) of article 7 of Ferry's Education Act
Jules Ferry laws
The Jules Ferry Laws are a set of French Laws which established free education , then mandatory and laic education . Jules Ferry, a lawyer holding the office of Minister of Public Instruction in the 1880s, is widely credited for creating the modern Republican School...
, by which the profession of teaching would have been forbidden to members of non-authorized congregations, was due to his intervention. He was in fact one of the chief of the left centre Opportunist Republicans
Opportunist Republicans
The Opportunist Republicans , also known as the Moderates , were a faction of French Republicans who believed, after the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870, that the regime could only be consolidated by successive phases...
faction, opposed in the same faction to Jules Grévy
Jules Grévy
François Paul Jules Grévy was a President of the French Third Republic and one of the leaders of the Opportunist Republicans faction. Given that his predecessors were monarchists who tried without success to restore the French monarchy, Grévy is seen as the first real republican President of...
and also to the Radical Gambetta. He was director of Le Gaulois
Le Gaulois
Le Gaulois was a French daily newspaper, founded in 1868 by Edmond Tarbe and Henri de Pene. After a printing stoppage, it was revived by Arthur Meyer in 1882 with notable collaborators Paul Bourget, Alfred Grévin, Abel Hermant, and Ernest Daudet...
from 1879 to 1881, and his influence in the country among moderate republicans was retained by his articles in Le Matin
Le Matin
Le Matin is a daily newspaper published by Edipresse in Lausanne, Switzerland. The French language tabloid has a circulation of 69,350 and a readership of 331,000.The Sunday edition Le Matin dimanche has a circulation of 207,945....
from 1882 onwards, in the Journal des Débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
, which he joined in 1886, and in Le Temps
Le Temps
Founded in 1998, Le Temps is a Swiss newspaper edited in French. Le Temps consists of a daily newspaper , several supplements , thematic special editions, a performing website and digital applications.Le Temps is the...
from 1890.
Works
His own accounts of some of the events in which he had been involved appear in Souvenirs du 4 septembre (1874), Le Gouvernement de M. (2 vols., 1878), in Mémoires des autres (1889), Nouveaux mémoires des autres (1891) and Les Derniers mémoires des autres (1897), while his sketch of Victor Cousin (1887) was a further contribution to contemporary history. For his personal history, the Premiers mémoires (I900) and Le Soir de ma journée (1902), edited by his son Gustave Simon, may be supplemented by Leon Seche's Figures bretonnes, Jules Simon, sa vie, son œuvre (new ed., 1898), and G Picot, Jules Simon: notice historique (1897); also by many references to periodical literature and collected essays in Hugo P Thieme's Guide bibliographique de la litt. française de 1800 a 1906 (1907).Simon's Ministry, 12 December 1876 – 17 May 1877
- Jules Simon – President of the Council and Minister of the Interior
- Louis DecazesLouis, duc DecazesLouis-Charles-Élie-Amanien Decazes de Glücksbierg, 2nd Duc de Decazes and 2nd Hertig af Glücksbierg, was a French statesman.-Biography:...
– Minister of Foreign Affairs - Jean Auguste Berthaud – Minister of War
- Léon SayLéon SayJean-Baptiste Léon Say , French statesman and economist, was born in Paris.-Biography:The family was a most remarkable one. His grandfather Jean-Baptiste Say was a well-known economist. His brother Louis Auguste Say , director of a sugar refinery at Nantes, wrote several books against his theories...
– Minister of Finance - Louis Martel – Minister of Justice and Worship
- Martin Fourichon – Minister of Marine and Colonies
- William Henry WaddingtonWilliam Henry WaddingtonWilliam Henry Waddington was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France in 1879.-Early life and education:...
– Minister of Public Instruction - Albert Christophle – Minister of Public Works
- Pierre Teisserenc de Bort – Minister of Agriculture and Commerce
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