Editing Jules Simon

{{Short description|French statesman and philosopher (1814–1896)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Jules Simon
| image               = Jules Simon - photo Charles Gallot.png
| office              = [[Prime Minister of France]]
| term_start          = 12 December 1876
| term_end            = 17 May 1877
| president = [[Patrice de MacMahon]]
| predecessor         = [[Jules Dufaure]]
| successor           = [[Albert, duc de Broglie]]
| birth_date          = 31 December 1814
| birth_place         = [[Lorient]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1896|6|8|1814|12|31|df=y}}
| death_place         = Paris
| party               = [[Moderate Republicans (France, 1848–1870)|Moderate Republican]] (1848–1871)<br/>[[Opportunist Republican]] (1871–1896)
| signature           = Unterschrift Jules Simon (1814-1896).png
}}

'''Jules François Simon''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒyl simɔ̃|lang}}; 31 December 1814<ref name='birthdate'>{{cite news|title=Jules Simon|date=1 December 2009|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/545192/Jules-Francois-Simon|access-date=1 December 2009}}</ref> – 8 June 1896) was a French statesman and philosopher, and one of the leaders of the [[Opportunist Republicans|Moderate Republicans]] in the [[Third French Republic]].

==Biography==
Simon was born at [[Lorient]].  His father was a linen-draper from [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]], who renounced Protestantism before his second marriage with a Catholic [[Brittany|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, France|Paris]]. There he came in contact with [[Victor Cousin]], who sent him to [[Caen]] and then to [[Versailles, Yvelines|Versailles]] to teach philosophy. He helped Cousin, without receiving any recognition, in his translations from [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]], 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 (Paris)|École Normale Supérieure]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

At this period he edited the works of [[Nicolas Malebranche]] (2 vols, 1842), of [[René Descartes]] (1842), [[Jacques Benigne Bossuet|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Political career from 1848 to 1871 ==

In 1848 he represented the Côtes-du-Nord in the National Assembly, and next year entered the [[Conseil d'État (France)|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1863 he was returned to the ''Corps Législatif'' for the 8th circonscription of the [[Seine (département)|Seine]] ''[[département]]'', and supported "les Cinq" (Darimon, [[Jules Favre|Favre]], Hénon, [[Émile Ollivier|Ollivier]] and [[Ernest Picard|Picard]]) 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]], [[Emmanuel Arago|E. Arago]] and [[Etienne Joseph Louis Garnier-Pages|Garnier-Pages]]. Gambetta resigned, and the ministry of the Interior, though nominally given to Arago, was really in Simon's hands.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Third Republic ==

Defeated in the département of the Seine<!-- which elections? February 1871? -->, he sat for the [[Marne (department)|Marne]] 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 [[Félix Dupanloup|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He retained office until a week before the fall of Thiers 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 [[Senator for life (France)|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His clerical enemies then induced [[Patrice Maurice de Mac-Mahon|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} However, the May 1877 crisis eventually ended in MacMahon's demise and in the victory of the Republicans over the monarchist [[Orleanist]]s and [[Legitimist]]s.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The rejection (1880) of article 7 of [[Jules Ferry Laws|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 (France)|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 (France)|Le Matin]]'' from 1882 onwards, in the ''[[Journal des Débats]]'', which he joined in 1886, and in ''[[Le Temps]]'' from 1890.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== 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. Thiers'' (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'' (1900) and ''Le Soir de ma journée'' (1902), edited by his son Gustave Simon, may be supplemented by [[Léon Séché]]'s ''Figures bretonnes, Jules Simon, sa vie, son œuvre'' (new ed., 1898), and [[Georges Picot]], ''Jules Simon: notice historique'' (1897); also by many references to periodical literature and collected essays in [[Hugo Paul Thieme]]'s ''Guide bibliographique de la littérature française de 1800 à 1906'' (1907).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Simon's Ministry, 12 December 1876 – 17 May 1877==
{{commons category|Jules Simon}}
{{Wikisource author|Jules François Simon}}
*Jules Simon – [[List of Prime Ministers of France|President of the Council]] and [[list of Interior Ministers of France|Minister of the Interior]]
*[[Louis, duc Decazes|Louis Decazes]] – [[List of Foreign Ministers of France|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
*[[Jean Auguste Berthaud]] – [[List of Defense Ministers of France|Minister of War]]
*[[Léon Say]] – [[List of Finance Ministers of France|Minister of Finance]]
*[[Louis Martel]] – [[List of Justice Ministers of France|Minister of Justice]] and Worship
*[[Martin Fourichon]] – [[List of Naval Ministers of France|Minister of Marine and Colonies]]
*[[William Henry Waddington]] – [[List of Education Ministers of France|Minister of Public Instruction]]
*[[Albert Christophle]] – Minister of Public Works
*[[Pierre Teisserenc de Bort]] – Minister of Agriculture and Commerce

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{EB1911 |wstitle=Simon, Jules François |volume=25 |page=125}}

==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=11152}}

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{{succession box|title=[[List of Prime Ministers of France|Prime Minister of France]]|before=[[Jules Dufaure]]|after=[[Albert, duc de Broglie|Duc de Broglie]]|years=1876–1877}}
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{{Heads of government of France}}
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{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Jules}}
[[Category:1814 births]]
[[Category:1896 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Lorient]]
[[Category:Politicians of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:French life senators]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni]]
[[Category:French interior ministers]]