Editing Odilon Barrot

{{Short description|French politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Odilon Barrot
| image               = Odilon Barrot (1791-1873).jpg
| office              = [[Prime Minister of France]]
| term_start          = 20 December 1848
| term_end            = 31 October 1849
| president             = [[Napoleone III|Louis Napoléon Bonaparte]]
| predecessor         = [[Louis-Eugène Cavaignac]]
| successor           = [[Alphonse Henri, comte d'Hautpoul]]
| birth_date          = 19 July 1791
| birth_place         = [[Villefort, Lozère|Villefort]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1873|8|6|1791|7|19|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Bougival]]
| party               = [[Doctrinaires]] {{small|(1815–1830)}}<br>[[Movement Party (France)|Party of Movement]] {{small|(1830–1848)}}<br>[[Party of Order]] {{small|(1848–1852)}}
}}

'''Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot''' ({{IPA|fr|ɔdilɔ̃ baʁo|lang}}; 19 July 1791 – 6 August 1873) was a [[Politics of France|French politician]] who was briefly head of the council of ministers under king [[Louis Phillipe]] in 1848–49.

==Early life==
Barrot was born at [[Villefort, Lozère]]. He belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of [[Toulouse]], having been a member of the [[National Convention|Convention]] who had voted against the death of [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI]]. Odilon Barrot's earliest recollections were of the October insurrection of 1795. He was sent to the [[École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr|military school of Saint-Cyr]], but later moved to the [[Lycee Napoleon]] to study law and was called to the Parisian bar in 1811.{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}
He married the granddaughter of the liberal politician [[Guillaume-Xavier Labbey de Pompières]] (1751–1831).{{sfn|Michaud|Michaud|1841|p=197}}
He was the brother of [[Adolphe Barrot]] and [[Ferdinand Barrot]].{{sfn|Robert|Cougny|1889–1891}}

He was placed in the office of the politician Jean Mailhe, who was advocate before the council of state and the court of cassation and was proscribed at the second restoration. Barrot eventually succeeded him in both positions. His dissatisfaction with the government of the restoration was shown in his conduct of some political trials. For his opposition in 1820 to a law by which any person might be arrested and detained on a warrant signed by three ministers, he was summoned before a court of assize, but acquitted.
Although intimate with Lafayette and others, he took no share in their schemes for the overthrow of the government, but in 1827 he joined the association known as "[[Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera]]".{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

==July Monarchy==

He presided over the banquet given by the society to the 221 deputies who had signed the address of March 1830 to [[Charles X of France|Charles X]], and threatened to reply to force by force. After the ordinances of 26 July 1830, he joined the [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] and took an active part in the revolution. As secretary of the municipal commission, which sat at the hôtel-de-ville and formed itself into a provisional government, he was charged to convey to the chamber of deputies a protest embodying the terms which the advanced Liberals wished to impose on the king to be elected. He supported the idea of a [[constitutional monarchy]] against the extreme [[republicanism|Republicans]], and he was appointed one of the three commissioners chosen to escort Charles X out of France.{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

On his return he was nominated prefect of the [[Seine (département)|Seine]] ''département''. His concessions to the Parisian mob and his extreme gentleness towards those who demanded the prosecution of the ministers of Charles X led to an unflattering comparison with [[Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve|Jérôme Pétion]] under similar circumstances. [[Louis-Philippe of France|Louis Philippe]]'s government was far from satisfying his desires for reform, and he persistently urged the "broadening of the bases of the monarchy," while he protested his loyalty to the dynasty. He was returned to the chamber of deputies for the department of [[Eure]] in 1831. The day after the demonstration of June 1832 on the occasion of the funeral of [[Jean Maximilien Lamarque|General Lamarque]], he made himself indirectly the mouthpiece of the Democrats in an interview with Louis Philippe, which is given at length in his ''Mêmoires''. Subsequently, in pleading before the court of cassation on behalf of one of the rioters, he secured the annulling of the judgments given by the council of war.{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

The death of the [[Prince Ferdinand-Philippe of France|Duke of Orleans]] in 1842 was a blow to Barrot's party, which sought to substitute the regency of the [[Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin|Duchess of Orleans]] for that of the [[Prince Louis, Duke of Nemours|Duke of Nemours]] in the event of the succession of the [[Philippe, Comte de Paris|Comte de Paris]]. In 1846 Barrot made a tour in the [[Near East]], returning in time to take part a second time in the preliminaries of revolution. He organized banquets of the disaffected in the various cities of France, and demanded electoral reform to avoid revolution. He did not foresee the strength of the outbreak for which his eloquence had prepared the way, and clung to the programme of 1830. He tried to support the regency of the duchess in the chamber on 24 February, only to find that the time was past for half-measures.{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

==Second Republic==
[[File:Barrot - Par Daumier - 1.jpg|thumb|"The famous Odilon Barrot promoted to the dignity of imperial Mamamouchi" by [[Honoré Daumier]] ]]
After the [[Revolution of 1848]], Barrot acquiesced to the republic and gave his support to [[Louis-Eugène Cavaignac|General Cavaignac]].{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

In the December 1848 election for President of the republic, Napoleon won with 5,434,266 votes to 1,448,107 for Cavaignac. Napoleon took his oath on 20 December 1848 a day ahead of schedule, and appointed a ministry that included Barrot and the conservative [[Frédéric Alfred Pierre, comte de Falloux]].{{sfn|Robertson|1952|p=102}}
Barrot was Minister of Justice and "president of the council of ministers when Napoleon was absent".{{sfn|Muel|1890|p=248}}
Following national elections, the Constituent Assembly was replaced by the Legislative Assembly, which sat for the first time on 28 May 1849. On 2 June 1849 a new ministry was announced, again headed by Barrot. It included [[de Tocqueville]] as Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
This ministry was dissolved by Napoleon on 31 October 1849.{{sfn|Muel|1890|p=249-250}}
The new ministry did not have a "president when Napoleon was absent".{{sfn|Muel|1890|p=252}}
A biographer said that Barrot had hoped to extract Liberal measures, but was dismissed as soon as he had served the president's purpose of avoiding open conflict.{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

==Later career==
After the coup d'état of December 1851 Barrot was one of those who sought to accuse Napoleon of high treason. He was imprisoned for a short time and retired from active politics for some ten years. He was drawn once more into affairs by the hopes of reform held out by [[Émile Ollivier]], accepting in 1869 the presidency of an extraparliamentary committee on decentralization. After the fall of the empire he was nominated by [[Adolphe Thiers]], whom he had supported under Louis Philippe, as president of the council of state, but his powers were failing, and he had only filled his new office for about a year when he died at [[Bougival]].{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

Barrot was described by [[Paul Thureau-Dangin]] as "the most solemn of the undecided, the most meditating of the unwise, the happiest of the ambitious, the most austere of the courtiers of the crowd" (''le plus solennel des indécis, le plus méditatif des irréfléchis, le plus heureux des ambitieux, le plus austere des courtisans de la foule'').{{sfn|Chisholm 1911}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
  | title = [[Prime Minister of France]]
  | years = 1848–1849
  | before = [[Louis-Eugène Cavaignac]]
  | after = [[Alphonse Henri d'Hautpoul]]
}}
{{s-end}}

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite EB1911|ref={{harvid|Chisholm 1911}}|wstitle=Barrot, Camille Hyacinthe Odilon}} which in turn cites:
** Odilon Barrot, ''Mémoires'' (edited by Duvergier de Hauranne), 4 vols., 1875–1876.  His personal relations with Louis Philippe and Napoleon, with his views on the events in which he was concerned, are described here.
** Thureau-Dangin, ''Hist. de la monarchie de juillet''
*{{cite book
 |last1=Michaud|first1=Joseph|last2=Michaud|first2=Louis Gabriel|title=Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, ou, Histoire par ordre alphabétique de la vie publique et privée de tous les hommes qui se sont fait remarquer par leurs écrits, leurs actions, leurs talents, leurs vertus ou leurs crimes: ouvrage entièrement neuf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MrhBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA193|access-date=2014-05-04|year=1841|publisher=Michaud}}
*{{cite book
 |last=Muel|first=Léon|title=Gouvernements, ministères et constitutions de la France depuis cent ans
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LaiSjEljm78C&pg=PA248|access-date=2014-02-21|year=1890|publisher=Mouillot}}
*{{citation|language=fr|chapter=BARROT (THÉODORE-ADOLPHE)|title=Dictionnaire des Parlementaires français (1789–1889)
 |last1=Robert|last2=Cougny |first1=Adolphe |first2=Gaston  |editor=Edgar Bourloton|year=1889–1891
 |chapter-url=https://www.senat.fr/senateur-2nd-empire/barrot_adolphe_theodore0199e2.html|access-date=2018-01-18}}
*{{cite book
 |last=Robertson|first=Priscilla Smith|title=Revolutions of 1848: A Social History
 |url=https://archive.org/details/revolutionsof18400robe|url-access=registration
 |page=[https://archive.org/details/revolutionsof18400robe/page/102 102]
 |access-date=2014-02-21|year=1952|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-00756-X}}
{{refend}}

{{Heads of government of France}}
{{First cabinet of Odilon Barrot}}
{{Second cabinet of Odilon Barrot}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrot, Odilon}}
[[Category:1791 births]]
[[Category:1873 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Lozère]]
[[Category:Orléanists]]
[[Category:Party of Order politicians]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of France]]
[[Category:Government ministers of France]]
[[Category:Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 4th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 5th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 6th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy]]
[[Category:Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly]]
[[Category:Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Eure]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Bas-Rhin]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Aisne]]