Gustave de Beaumont

Biography

The last of the four children of the count Jules de Beaumont and the countess born Pink Courtyard of Baraudière, Gustave de Beaumont entered the magistrature under the Restoration. Prosecutor of the king at the county court of Versailles (February 22nd 1826), then with the court of Paris (September 27th 1829), it pointed out himself by his liveliness and his eloquence. It remained in place after the Révolution of 1830.

In 1831, it was charged by the government with going to study the American penitentiary system. It embarked on the vessel Le Havre with his friend Alexis de Tocqueville, of which it wrote with his father: “It is obvious that our destinies are and will be always common. ” They spent ten months to the the United States.

On its return, Gustave de Beaumont was indicated to be the body of the public ministry in the lawsuit brought by the baroness of Feuchères, former mistress of the last prince de Condé, with the family of Rohan. On its refusal, it was relieved and was withdrawn on its grounds with the castle of Borde with Beaumont-la-Chartre, where it was devoted to literary and historical work. He married in 1836 Clémentine of Lafayette, grand-daughter of the marquis of Fayette.

Its voyage to the United States provides him the matter of two works which were worth each one to him a Prix Montyon: one heading Of the penitentiary system in the United States (1833), written in collaboration with Tocqueville; the other, Marie, or of Slavery in the United States (1835), composed in the form of romantic account nouveau riche of many notes. In 1837, it went on with his wife a journey in Ireland from which it drew the matter from a book on social Ireland, political and religious (1839).

Elected official appointed the December 15th 1839 by the 6th electoral college of the Sarthe (Mamers), it sat on the benches of the dynastic Opposition and was opposed with determination to the ministers Doctrinaires of Louis-Philippe I {{er}}, speaking in particular on the railroads and the Algérie. He was re-elected the July 9th 1842 (226 votes out of 287 voters and 368 registered voters) then the 1846 (233 votes out of 299 voters and 362 registered voters) and, on this last date, was also elected in the 4th college of the Sarthe (Saint-Calais). He chose Mamers and took again his place in the rows of the constitutional left. In 1844, it proposed an amendment in the paragraph of the project of address relating to the foreign policy, and frequently intervened in the debate on the reform of the prisons. In 1845, it supported the proposal Rémusat on the incompatibilities, that of Vatry on the deputies interested in the markets passed with the State and that of Crémieux in favor of the electoral reform.

With the fall of the Monarchy of July, he was elected in 1848 representing Somme (5th on 12 with 83.985 votes out of 114.212 voters), became vice-president of the constituent Assembly and, sitting on the right of the Parliament, joined with a very moderate Republic. It supported policy of general Cavaignac, and belonged to Committee of constitution, but it could to take broad share with debates because of diplomatic missions whose invests it the Government, which appointed it ambassador with London, then with Vienna. He voted for the re-establishment of the guarantee (August 9th 1848), against the tax cut of salt (December 28th), for the proposal Rateau (January 12th 1849), for the appropriations of the Expédition of Rome (April 16th), against the amnesty of transported (May 2nd), for the Cavaignac amendment asking the government “to take the necessary measures to vigorously protect interests interior and external of the Republic” (May 23rd).

Re-elected with the legislative Parliament the May 13rd 1849 (67 850 votes on 103 029 voters and 135.640 registered voters), it continued to pursue the same policy, supporting the constitutional republic but far from the Mountain and of the representatives of the advanced democracy.

Opposed to the Coup d'etat of December 2nd, 1851, it formed part like Tocqueville, of the stopped deputies the December 2nd 1851 with the Town hall of Xe district where they had met, after to be expelled manu militari of the Palate-Bourbon, to protest against the takeover by force of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Led to the Mount Valérien, it was released at the end of a few days and remained then with the variation of the public life. June 1st 1863, it made nevertheless an unfruitful attempt, like candidate of the opposition, to be made elect with the legislative Body: it failed in the 4th district of the Sarthe (7 078 votes against 14 708 with the deputy outgoing Bonapartist Marc de Beauvau-Craon).

He had been elected member of the Academy of Science morals and political in 1841.

Works

Of the penitentiary system in the United States, in collaboration with Alexis de Tocqueville, 1833
Marie or slavery in the United States, 1835 (full text on classiques.uqac.ca)
the Ireland social, political and religious , 1839 - 1842

References

Partial source

Adolphe Robert and Gaston Cougny, Dictionary of the French Members of Parliament , Paris, Dourloton, 1889

External bonds

Biographical note on the site www.tocqueville.culture.fr

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