People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1894 — USEFUL AND BUSY LIFE. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL AND BUSY LIFE.

Career of Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, President of France. Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, who, December 3, 1887, succeeded Jules Grevy as president of the French republic, was considerably younger than any of his three predecesors, having been bprn in 1837 at Limoges. The son and grandson of most distinguished republican statesmen, he was brought up as a civil engineer and graduated with the highest honors at the Ecole polytechnique in 1857. and subsequently at the famous Lcole des Ponts et Chaussess In 1863. After having acted as government engineer In several provincial district he was in 1871 appointed prefect of the Seine department, which includes the civil governorship of Paris and its sub Abs, and took a prominent part in organ zing the national defense against the German invaders. A few months later he was elected by the Cote-d’Or district to represent them in the .national assembly, and after taking his seat became the organizing secretary of the republican left party in the chamber. In 1876 he was elected by the inhabitants of the district of Beaune to repre ent iheir interests in parliament. Id! 1878 he was appointed under secretary of state for the ministry of public works. In 1880 he became minister of the same department in the cabinet of Jules Ferry. On the resignation of the latter in 1885 he was reappointed to the same ministry in Henri Brisson’s cabinet, and on the resignation of M. ClamargervU a few months later he succeeded him as minister of finance, an office which he likewise held In the Goblet ministry. On the retirement of President Grevy the two great republican orators, Firry and Freycinet, weie the principal candidates for the succession. In the first trial ballot of the republican senators and deputies on the morning of December 3, 1887, the former received 200 and the latter 193 votes, Brisson coming next with 81, and then Carnot with 69. The election of F erry threatened to produce a popular disturbance, and Freycinet’s supporters, when they saw that his chance was hopeless, decided to give their’ votes to Carnot. When the congress met in the afternoon Carnot received on the first ballot 303 votes; F’erry, 212; Gen. Saussier, 148; F'reyoinet, 76; Gen. Appert. 72; Brisson, 26, and other candidates, 31, Freycinet and Ferry then withdrew in favor of Carnot, who was elected on the second ballot by 616 votes, Gen. Saussier receiving from the conservatives 188. President Carnot’s widow Is the daughter of Dupont White, who translated John Stuart Mill’s works into French. F our children, all of whom are living, were the result of the union- One of two sons is in the F’rench army and another represents a steamship company in Brazil. M. Carnot's father, who was minister of public instruction in the republican government of 1848, and who, together with Gen. Cavalgnac. refused to take the both of allegiance to Xapoleon ill. in 1851, was one of the most popular statesmen and distinguished scientists and authors in F rance, his grandfather also figured prominently in French history as one of the leading members of the convention in the great revolution of 1710.