- Joseph Chaumié
Joseph Chaumié (
17 March 1849 –19 July 1919 ) was a French politician, Senator forLot-et-Garonne from 1897 until his death.Joseph Chaumié was born in
Agen into a family of modest means. He studied law at theSorbonne inParis and although he was a successful student, he was unsuccessful in obtaining permission to practice at the bar in Paris, probably due to the influence of police reports which described him as a revolutionary. He returned to Agen where he practised law.In 1886 he was elected to the town council in Agen and served as mayor from 1896 to 1900. He was elected to the Senate in 1897. He was one of those who worked with
René Waldeck-Rousseau to create theDemocratic Republican Alliance , of which he was vice-president. A highly regarded orator and active member of the Senate, he served as Education minister 1902 to 1905 in the government ofÉmile Combes an then Justice minister in until 1906 in the second and third governments ofMaurice Rouvier . Under Combes, he oversaw the integration of the staff of theÉcole Normale Supérieure into theUniversity of Paris . He represented the government atÉmile Zola 's funeral and other key events. He was a strong supporter of the separation of church and state enshrined in the1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State , a law which had a great impact on education.After he left government he became involved in a dispute with
Maurice Bunau-Varilla 's newspaper "Le Matin", which accused him ofnepotism and favouritism. He claimed that he was being attacked because he refused to share documents on theDreyfus affair with the paper and began alibel ("diffamation") action, eventually winning his case. These events put a strain on his health and he was afterwards much less active in the Senate.He died at
Clermont-Dessous in Lot-et-Garonne in 1919. His sons Jacques (1877–1920), Pierre (1880–1966), and Emmanuel (1890–1934), were all active in politics.References
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* cite web |url=http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/biographies/1889-1940/ |title=Dictionnaire des Parlementaires français 1889-1940 |accessdate=2008-06-02 |last=Jolly |first=Jean |date=1960 |publisher=Presses Universitaires de France
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