Georges Clémenceau

Biography

Vendean youth

Georges Clémenceau is born the September 28th 1841 with Mouilleron-in-Pareds, small village the Vendée. A few decades later, in this same village will be born another famous character from the French military history: Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

His/her mother is of a Protestant family. His/her father, Benjamin Clemenceau, has a great influence on him; it is a committed republican who invests in 1830 in the fight against Charles X and later against Louis-Philippe. Stopped by Napoleon III after the attempted murder by Orsini, he is condemned to the deportation in Algérie, but is released before being embarked with Marseilles.

Beginnings noticed in policy and in journalism

After studies with the college of Nantes, Georges Clémenceau obtains in 1858 a baccalaureat of the letters. It then chooses to move, just like his father, worms of the studies of medicine. During its first years of studies to Nantes, it is pointed out like rowdy, being undoubtedly opposed to its Masters enthusiast of religion and the imperial ideal . In 1861, it leaves to continue its studies with Paris where it attends artistic and republican circles in the Latin Quarter. It also founds with comrades in December of this year a weekly magazine, Work . The February 23rd 1862, it is stopped by the police force to have affixed posters convening a demonstration. It spends 77 days in the prison of Refined. During its years of studies, Clemenceau still takes part in the creation of several reviews and writing of many articles. He becomes doctor of medicine the May 13rd 1865 with a thesis entitled Of the generation of the atomic elements . As a young journalist, it is violently caught of them with work Louis Pasteur (which was not doctor). However, once the demonstrations of this last carried out and endorsed by Joseph To list, he recognizes his error willingly.

The July 25th, it embarks for the England then the the United States. It finds a post of teacher in a college for young girls with Stamford where it gives courses of French and horsemanship. It éprend then of one of its pupils, Mary Plummer, which he marries the June 20th 1869. It returns the June 26th 1869 and undertakes a political career in the camp of the opponents with Napoleon III.

Following the defeat of Napoleon III with Sedan the September 2nd 1870, a revolt starts with Paris. During this “day of September Four”, Clemenceau takes an active share in the demonstration claiming the end of the Empire. The new government names provisional mayors in the various districts of Paris. Clemenceau is placed at the head of the XVIII {{E}} district. The November 5th, following elections, it preserves its station. The February 8th, it is elected appointed the Seine within the news National Assembly. In March 1871, at the time of the insurrection of the Commune, Clemenceau remains with Paris. It initially tries to alleviate the spirits but is quickly frightened by “is delirious of blood” who invades the Parisian population. It quickly puts at back the insurrectionists as well as the government of Versailles which shows it passivity. Following the failure of its attempts at mediation, it presents its resignation to the National Assembly the March 27th and leaves Paris the May 10th. Income with Paris the June 15th 1871, it is made elect city council man of Clignancourt the July 30th 1871. The November 29th 1875, it is elected president of the Municipal council.

The opponent and the ladykiller of ministries

Its election, the February 20th 1876, like deputy of Paris to the Room mark the true beginning of its career. It gradually will be made known in all the France and to impose like the uncontested chief of the republican radicals and the opposition of extreme left. Its first combat, developed during its first years with the Senate, are to obtain the amnesty for the Communards, a revision of the Constitution written by moderate republicans and monarchists and the separation of the Church and the State. To sit its political influence still more, Clemenceau decides to found a newspaper. Justice appears for the first time the January 13rd 1880. The daily newspaper has a relatively weak pulling but receives a certain audience in the political circles. Clemenceau acquires the nickname of “Tiger” for its ferocity and a reputation of “ladykiller of ministry” when in 1881, it obtains the resignation of the ministry led by Jules Ferry. Its action in favor of a single assembly also contributes to the resignation of the ministry of Gambetta in 1882. In incentive the deputies to refuse the vote of a budget for a French military intervention on the Suez Canal, it pushes the government of Freycinet to the resignation. Its combat against the ministry Jules Ferry ends the March 30th 1885 in the resignation of this last after the negative result of the votes of a budget for the French troops with the Tonkin attacked by the Chinese army.

Savagely opposed to colonization, he was opposed to Jules Ferry which declared:

I repeat that there is for the higher races a right because there is a duty for them. They have the duty to civilize the lower races. (Speech in front of the House of Commons, July 28th 1885).

Clemenceau answered him in these terms:

The higher races have on the lower races a right than they exert and this right, by a particular transformation, is at the same time a duty of civilization. Here, in proper terms, the thesis of Mr. Ferry and one sees the French government exerting his right on the races lower while going guerroyer against them and converting them of force than the benefits of civilization. Higher races! Lower races! It is soon known as. For my part, I in reductions singularly since I saw German scientists showing scientifically that France was to be overcome in the Franco-German war, because the French is of a race lower than the German. Since this time, I acknowledge it, I look there with twice before being turned over towards a man and a civilization and pronouncing: man or lower civilization! I do not want to judge at the bottom the thesis which was brought here and which is other thing only the proclamation of the power of the force on the Right (Speech in front of the House of Commons, July 30th 1885)

It drove back finally Jules Ferry with the resignation after the business of the Tonkin in 1885. It is adverse savage opportunist , rejoined with the Republic for want of anything better, and sits at the extreme-left of the House of Commons.

In 1885, Georges Clémenceau is elected jointly in the Var and with Paris. It chooses to become appointed Var, department whose population votes more and more on the left, in the district of Draguignan. It preserves this station, though with a less vast majority of votes, with the elections of 1889. In 1892, within the framework of the business of Panama, Clemenceau is blamed for its relations with a man, Cornelius Herz, which bought the votes of certain deputies. One brings a lawsuit against him, of false evidence are produced but Clemenceau is bleached. Nevertheless, the evil is made, its reputation is stained, the revenge of its many adversaries is moving. In 1893 at the time of the of the department of Var electoral campaign the opposition abundantly uses the rhetoric of the man sold with the foreign powers, the swindler, parvenu without supporting these charges of any concrete proof. The September 3rd 1893, with the second turn of the elections, Clemenceau is beaten in spite of the famous Discours of Salerno where it pronounces a sentence remained famous “Where are the million? ”.

The electoral failure of the September 3rd 1893 Clemenceau force to withdraw political scene. It is devoted consequently more to the writing. Its experiment of writer, journalist and its notoriety are assets from which it benefits to face the financial problems.

The Dreyfus Business and the political comeback

It is via the Affaire Dreyfus that Clemenceau returns in the foreground. Clemenceau which entered as writer to the Dawn in October 1897, is not with the departure convinced of the innocence of Dreyfus (condemned to the bagne in 1894). It is the payment of Esterhazy (which will prove to be the true culprit) the January 11th 1898 which starts the crisis. The January 13rd, Zola publishes an article on first page of the Dawn to which Clemenceau finds a title shock: “I show…!”. He pleads then in the brought lawsuit with Zola and the newspaper. After the failure of the lawsuit, its articles are almost daily. Its engagement is maintained until the revision of the lawsuit then the presidential pardon from which Dreyfus profits, and this in spite of the constant attacks of the conservatives and the anti-semites. At the end of January 1901, Clemenceau leaves the Dawn following disagreements with other journalists. It creates a new weekly magazine then: the Block . This weekly magazine has this of private individual that Clemenceau written there about all. It appears until the March 15th 1902.

The return to the policy of Georges Clémenceau is made thanks to the network of friendship that it had preserved but also acquired by its action supporter of Dreyfus. Also when a place of senator is released in the Var, many were those which encourage it to present its candidature and declare themselves ready to support it. The April 4th 1902, it is elected triumphantly. Its first years as senator are assagissement characterized according to the dires his/her colleagues by some assagissement of Clemenceau known as adverse and disturbing eternal. There remains however a burning defender of the law of Separation of the Church and the State; it makes of it the second topic of its speech made at the Roche-sur-Yon the September 30th 1906.

In March 1906, after the victory of the Radical party to the legislative elections, it for the first time is destined for a ministerial position. It occupies then the function of Minister of Interior Department. In October 1906, the President of the Council, Sarrien, patient, recommends to succeed to him the president Fallières, Georges Clémenceau. It thus reaches the October 25th 1906 the presidency of the Council. Its years with the head of the ministry for the Interior and the Presidency of the Council are characterized by an important reform of the police forces and a vigorous policy with regard to the trade unions and of the strikers. Clemenceau acquires even a reputation of strikebreaker and is scrambled durably with Jean Jaurès and the Socialists. It is illustrated by its ferocity against the social movements, repressing in blood the strike of the minors of the Pas-de-Calais and the revolt of the vine growers of Languedoc. It gives itself the nickname of “first cop of France”. It in parallel supports the foundation of the scientific police by Alphonse Bertillon and of the Brigades of the Tiger by Célestin Hennion. According to the terms of Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, “falls Clemenceau government presented an accidental character and was related to an undeniable tactical awkwardness of its share”. The July 20th 1909, indeed, Clemenceau refuses to answer questions of technical order about the navy posed by Delcassé, former president of the Council that Clemenceau contributed to make fall, and makes vote an day order. This one is pushed back and Clemenceau resigns.

The years 1909 - 1912 constitute in the career of Clemenceau one period of lull. It devotes its time to voyages, conferences but also with his convalescence because, patient of the Prostate, it undergoes in 1912 a painful operation. Clemenceau does not stop any therefore its journalistic activity. The April 10th 1910 appears the first number of the Journal of the VAr of which he is the creator. It is detached little by little from this publication during the two years which follow and the May 6th 1913 appears to the first number of the Free man , Parisian newspaper. In this one it is implied of advantage and publishes its leading article daily. In its leading articles, Clemenceau is interested more and more in the foreign politics and military questions at the same time as he condemns the socialist Pacifisme. During the First World War, its newspaper is one of the first to know the censure of the government, exiled in Bordeaux. He sees his article, denouncing the insufficiencies of the sanitary service to the armies starting from a fact various, censured by the government. The newspaper is suspended September 29th with the October 7th. It then changes the title of its daily newspaper into the Man connected . During the years which follow Clemenceau gets busy to criticize the inefficiency of the government and the lack of information which it transmits but also to defend the importance of patriotism and the union vis-a-vis the danger. Its patriotism does not fit however in a nationalist optics , it falls under a tradition which sees it like an instrument of the defense of the Republic and its values . It makes also several visits on the face as a President of the commission of the Army to the Senate. the man connected guard his name until the accession of Clemenceau to the Presidency of the Council, the November 16th 1917. November 13rd indeed, the government Painlevé fell and chair it Poincaré must quickly find a successor to him. He would have had then to choose between Joseph Caillaux and Clemenceau. Its preference goes in Clemenceau which is favorable to a military victory rather than in Caillaux, in favor of a peace of compromise. Clemenceau becomes thus with soixante-seize years President of the Council for the second time but also Ministre for the War, ministry which it made a point of only keeping for him.

The First World War

At the beginning of the First World War, it is in the opposition, but Raymond Poincaré which however hardly appreciates it, calls it in November 1917 with the head of the government. It restores confidence, putting all works about it so that the République supports the shock of this Guerre (Guillaume II precisely predicted the opposite, ensuring that the democracies - France and the United Kingdom - would crumble themselves if the Guerre were to last). “Neither treason, nor half-treason: the war! ” he proclaims. In her interior policy, Georges Clémenceau gets busy with vigorously subduing any attempt of revolt, mutiny or strike in the factories. It also carries out an energetic fight for the support of moral of the troops. With this intention, he pursues the pacifist ones, the defaitists and also makes pressure on the press favorable to these movements without use the censure. He also makes stop Malvy and Joseph Caillaux, the second without serious reason but simply because he is in favor of a negotiated peace. More solved and more intransigent that never, it became true a Dictateur (with the ancient direction of the term) and leads a policy of public hello which bears its fruits the following year. “ I make the war, I always make the war ”, says it the March 8th 1918 to the platform of the Parliament, to summarize its until - boutism.

In other times, this Autoritarisme would have been worth to him the setting with the round of applause of the French political world. In the circumstance, it leaves the test affluent of a great popularity, as well in the civilians as among the Poilu S. Its many visits with the face are certainly not foreign with that. Supporting the general Foch in the critical hours of spring 1918, it imposes its deep mark over the last year of the conflict. More than ever, its nickname of “Tiger” at the same time famous and is deserved. To this one comes to be added that of “Father the Victoire”, who summarizes with him only the share taken by him with the rectification of 1918, in particular for her role in the creation of the single command, in March. Clemenceau is charged to announce with the Room and the country the conditions of the Armistice of the November 11th 1918. Its nickname of “Father-the-Victoire” was transformed quickly into ironic “the Lose-the-Victoire” because of her opposition to the annexation of the Saar.

The following year and in company of the President of the Republic, he undertakes a triumphal voyage in the reconquered Alsace and the Lorraine. Clemenceau will represent France with the conference of peace of Versailles, it there defends an annexation by France of left bank of the Rhine and requires heavy material and financial allowances. Pushed by a public opinion traumatized by the war (“ the boche must pay ”), its requirements towards the Germany are indeed exorbitant. Territorial concessions and payment of gigantic repairs are the two sides of its program. Its requirements run up against the refusal of the United Kingdom and the United States, anxious to avoid the complete ruin of Germany, which leads to a wobbly compromise. Many contemporary historians estimate that Clemenceau takes a certain responsibility in the errors for the Traité for Versailles.

The morning of the February 19th 1919, the anarchist Emile Cottin draws to him above with three recoveries, without wounding it seriously. A ball, ever extracted, is placed in the scapula with a few millimetres of the Aorte. The attack starts in the population and the press an extraordinary enthusiasm. Popular enthusiasm is exacerbated, one idolâtre Clemenceau. It is left finally without too much damage and intervenes from there so that the author of the attack is pardoned. Six days later, it takes again its activities, showing a remarkably vigorous health for its age. It preserves besides its station of President of the Council until in 1920.

Candidature fallen through for the Presidency and end-of-life

In January 1920, Clemenceau which aspired from now on to a peaceful retirement accepted that friends subject his candidature for the presidency of the Republic. It is by pride that he did not propose itself and was not formally candidate. But its age worries the catholics: a so old president, it is the prospect for civil funeral in the Elysium. He makes the fault of narguer Aristide Briand by ensuring that this last will beat the sole during seven years in front of the Elysium, i.e. he would not be minister. Its many political enemies agreed to support the candidature of its adversary Paul Deschanel. January 16th took place a preparatory vote with the National Assembly. Deschanel, which it had beaten a few years before in duel, carried it of very a small majority on Clemenceau. It then withdraws with his friends the authorization to present his candidature. The 17, Deschanel then gains the presidential election of a very vast majority and the 18, Clemenceau presents the resignation of its government.

Old 79 years, Clemenceau from now on will devote its time to long voyages. He thus visits the Egypt, the Sudan, the India, the Southeast Asia, in September 1920, and the the United States with the autumn 1922. Of return of its voyages, Clemenceau is harnessed with the drafting of several works: Démosthène , Size and Misères of a victory (where it defends, against Poincaré and Foch, its political action of 1917-1919 and mentions the risk of German rearmament because of the abandonment of the guarantees of the treaty of Versailles and the policy of appeasing of Briand) but especially a rough work of reflection and philosophy which was the principal goal of its old days: At the evening of the Thought (reflection on the changes which it observed during its life). During its last years, it shares its life with Marguerite Baldensperger, 43 years its junior. Its health condition is degraded little by little and he dies on November 24th, 1929. In accordance with its last wills, it is buried in greatest sobriety, beside his father, with the dovecote of Mouchamps, family property, on an inclined ground dominating the Petit Lay.

Others

Without letting itself submerge by its untiring activity (including duels with the sword), it found also time to be art lover and was the guard of Claude Monet and other painters, such as Jean Peské. He wrote the booklet of opera the Veil of happiness . Equipped with an unquestionable humor, Clemenceau was regularly illustrated by sarcastic remarks concerning France, its company and its neighbors.

The name of Clemenceau was given to a Porte-avions French, in service of 1961 with 1997, like with many colleges (Nantes, Montpellier…), colleges (Tulle…) and streets. The house of Georges Clémenceau, located at Saint-Vincent-on-Jard, is transformed into museum and is visited. Its Parisian residence also was the subject of a transformation into museum.

His/her son, Michel Clemenceau, is a politician of the Fourth Republic.

Career

Mayor of the XVIIIe district of Paris, made up essentially of the old commune of Montmartre, 1870 with 1871
Appointed with the National Assembly (1871 - 1893)
President of the municipal council of Paris (1875)
Senator (1902 - 1920)
Minister of Interior Department (1906), called the Tiger
President of the Council (1906 - 1909 and 1917 - 1920), called the Father the Victoire
Member of the French Academy, elected in 1918.

Sources

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