Grévy, Jules

(1807-1891)

   political figure

   Born in Mont-sous-vaudrey, Jules Grévy was an attorney with republican sympathies. He was named commissioner of the second republic (1848), elected to the Constituent Assembly (April 1848), then to the Legislative Assembly (May 1849). There, he sat with the Left and took a position for freedom of the press and against the expedition to Rome (see Nicolas oudinot). After the coup d'état of December 2, 1851 he temporarily retired from politics. Reelected, he sat as an opposition deputy in the Legislative Corps (1868), where he opposed the declaration of war against Germany (1870) and joined the ranks of the moderate republicans after the fall of the second empire (September 4, 1870). A deputy for bordeaux in the National Assembly in February 1871, then a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1876, Grévy was elected president of the third republic after General edme mac-mahon (1879), and tried to pursue a policy that was opposed to revanchist nationalism and colonial expansion. He kept men like léon gambetta and jules ferry from power, but the scandal involving the sale of honors and decorations in which his own son-in-law was involved forced Grévy to resign in 1887.