Editing Sadi Carnot (statesman)

{{Short description|President of France from 1887 to 1894}}
{{For|the scientist and uncle of Marie François|Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Sadi Carnot
| image               = Portrait officiel de Sadi Carnot.jpg
| caption             = Official portrait {{circa}} 1880s
| party               = [[Opportunist Republicans|Moderate Republican]]
| office              = [[President of France]]
| term_start          = 3 December 1887
| term_end            = 25 June 1894
| primeminister       = {{ubl| [[Maurice Rouvier]] | [[Pierre Tirard]] | [[Charles Floquet]] | [[Charles de Freycinet]] | [[Émile Loubet]] | [[Alexandre Ribot]] | [[Charles Dupuy]] | [[Jean Casimir-Perier]] }}
| predecessor         = [[Jules Grévy]]
| successor           = [[Jean Casimir-Perier]]
| office1             = [[List of Finance Ministers of France|Minister of Finance]]
| term_start1         = 16 April 1885
| term_end1           = 11 December 1886
| primeminister1      = {{ubl| [[Henri Brisson]] | Charles de Freycinet }}
| predecessor1        = [[Jean-Jules Clamageran]]
| successor1          = [[Albert Dauphin]]
| office2             = [[Minister of Public Works (France)|Minister of Public Works]]
| term_start2         = 6 April 1885
| term_end2           = 16 April 1885
| primeminister2      = Henri Brisson
| predecessor2        = [[David Raynal]]
| successor2          = [[Charles Demôle]]
| term_start3         = 23 September 1880
| term_end3           = 14 November 1881
| primeminister3      = [[Jules Ferry]]
| predecessor3        = Henri Varroy
| successor3          = David Raynal
| birth_date          = 11 August 1837
| birth_place         = [[Limoges]], [[July Monarchy|France]]
| death_date          = 25 June 1894 (aged 56)
| death_place         = [[Lyon]], [[French Third Republic|France]]
| death_cause         = [[Assassination of Sadi Carnot|Assassination]]
| signature           = Signature of Sadi Carnot.svg
}}

'''Marie François Sadi Carnot''' ({{IPA|fr|maʁi fʁɑ̃swa sadi kaʁno|lang}}; 11 August 1837 – 25 June 1894) was a French statesman who served as [[President of France]] from 1887 until [[Assassination of Sadi Carnot|his assassination]] in 1894.<ref>{{cite book|last=Harismendy|first=Patrick|title=Sadi Carnot : l'ingénieur de la République|year=1995|publisher=Perrin|location=Paris}}</ref>

His presidency was marked by a series of poorly handled crises. [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|General Boulanger]]'s rapid rise and failed attempt to march on the Élysée in 1889 posed the first serious threat to the Republic during Carnot's term. Then came a series of ministerial crises, financial scandals, labour turmoil, anarchist violence, and finally Carnot's own assassination in 1894. The [[Panama scandals]], involving bribes to parliamentarians, resulted in major financial losses and deeply embarrassed those involved. The extreme right-wing newspaper ''La Libre Parole'', run by anti-Semitic publicist [[Édouard Drumont]], escalated intolerance towards Third Republic politics.<ref>David Scott Bell, et al. eds. ''Biographical dictionary of French political leaders since 1870'' (Prentice Hall, 1990). pp. 69–70.</ref>

Carnot presided over a few achievements. He was well received when he travelled around France, inaugurated the 1889 exhibition celebrating the French Revolution, and facilitated a diplomatic rapprochement with Russia. His term in office bolstered the power and influence of the presidency.<ref>Bell, ''Biographical dictionary of French political leaders since 1870'' (1990). pp 69–70.</ref>

==Early life==
[[File: Sadi Carnot (1873) - photographie Franck.png|thumb|left|upright|Sadi Carnot, {{circa|1873}}]]

Marie François Sadi Carnot was the son of the statesman [[Hippolyte Carnot]] and was born in [[Limoges]], Haute-Vienne. His third given name Sadi was in honour of his uncle [[Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot]], the engineer who formulated the [[second law of thermodynamics]] and is generally regarded as the founder of the subject, who in turn was named after the Persian poet [[Sadi of Shiraz]]. Like his uncle, Marie François came to be known as Sadi Carnot. In his scientific-mindedness and [[republicanism|Republican]] leanings, he resembled his grandfather, [[Lazare Carnot]], the military modernizer and member of the [[French Directory|Directory]] of the [[French Revolution]].

He was educated as a [[civil engineer]] and was a highly distinguished student at both the [[École Polytechnique]] and the [[École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées|École des Ponts et Chaussées]]. After his academic course, he obtained an appointment in the public service. His hereditary republicanism caused the [[Government of National Defense]] to entrust him in 1870 with the task of organizing resistance in the {{lang|fr|[[département]]s}} of the [[Eure]], Calvados and [[Seine-Inférieure]], and he was made prefect of Seine-Inférieure in January 1871. In the following month he was elected to the [[French National Assembly]] by the {{lang|fr|département}} [[Côte-d'Or]]. He joined the [[Opportunist Republicans|Opportunist Republican]] parliamentary group, {{lang|fr|Gauche républicaine}}. In August 1878 he was appointed secretary to the minister of public works. He became minister in September 1880 and again in April 1885, moving almost immediately to the [[Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry (France)|ministry of finance]], which post he held under both the [[Jules Ferry|Ferry]] and the [[Charles de Freycinet|Freycinet]] administrations until December 1886.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Presidency==
When the Daniel Wilson scandals occasioned the downfall of [[Jules Grévy]] in December 1887, Carnot's reputation for integrity made him a candidate for the presidency, and he obtained the support of [[Georges Clemenceau]] and many others, so that he was elected by 616 votes out of 827. He assumed office at a critical period, when the republic was all but openly attacked by [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|General Boulanger]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Carnot's ostensible part during this agitation was confined to augmenting his popularity by well-timed appearances on public occasions, which gained credit for the presidency and the republic. When, early in 1889, Boulanger was finally driven into exile, it fell to Carnot to appear as head of the state on two occasions of special interest, the celebration of the centenary of the [[French Revolution]] in 1889 and the opening of the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|Paris Exhibition]] of the same year.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ory|first=Pascal|title=l'Expo Universelle|year=1989|publisher=Editions Complexe|location=Brussels}}</ref> The success of both was regarded as a popular ratification of the republic, and though continually harassed by the formation and dissolution of ephemeral ministries, by socialist outbreaks, and the beginnings of [[anti-Semitism]], Carnot had only one serious crisis to surmount, the [[Panama scandals]] of 1892, which, if they greatly damaged the prestige of the state, increased the respect felt for its head, against whose integrity none could breathe a word.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Carnot was in favour of the [[Franco-Russian Alliance]] and received the [[Order of St Andrew]] from [[Alexander III of Russia|Alexander III]].

==Assassination==
{{main|Assassination of Sadi Carnot}}
[[File:Le Petit Journal 1894-07-02 cover.jpg|thumb|upright|Illustration of Carnot's assassination]]
President Carnot was reaching the zenith of his popularity, when, on 24 June 1894, after delivering a public banquet speech in Lyon at the [[Palais de la Bourse, Lyon|Palais du Commerce]], in which he appeared to imply that he would not seek re-election, he was stabbed on the [[Rue de la République]] by an Italian [[Anarchism|anarchist]] named [[Sante Geronimo Caserio]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Carnot, transported to the Préfecture du Rhône nearby, died shortly after midnight on 25 June.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k76591c|title=L'assassinat du président Carnot / par A. Lacassagne,...|first1=Alexandre (1843–1924) Auteur du texte|last1=Lacassagne|first2=A. Auteur du texte|last2=Poncet|date=10 April 1894|publisher=A. Storck|access-date=10 April 2018|via=gallica.bnf.fr}}</ref> The stabbing aroused widespread horror and grief, and the president was honoured with an elaborate funeral ceremony in the [[Panthéon]] on 1 July 1894, after which he was interred in the Panthéon's crypt alongside other notable figures in French history.<ref>{{cite book|title=Le Président Carnot et ses Funérailles au Panthéon| year=1895 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5809758b.r=President+Sadi+Carnot.langEN|publisher=Librarie le Soudier|access-date=8 November 2013}}</ref>

Caserio called the assassination a political act, was convicted and sentenced to death on 3 August 1894 and executed on 16 August 1894.<ref name="at the guillotine">{{cite news |title=Caserio at the Guillotine |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E4DC1730E033A25755C1A96E9C94659ED7CF |work=The New York Times |date=16 August 1894 |access-date=24 June 2008}}</ref>
{{clearleft}}

==See also==
* [[Carnot, Central African Republic|Carnot]] – A city in the Central African Republic named in honour of him
* [[Politics of France]]
* [[André César Vermare]] – Sculptor of statue in Saint-Chamond

==References==
<references/>
;Attribution
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Carnot, Marie François Sadi|volume=5}}

==Furthere reading==
* Bell, David Scott, et al. eds. ''Biographical dictionary of French political leaders since 1870'' (Prentice Hall, 1990). pp 69–70.

==External links==
{{commonscatinline}}
* {{Structurae person|id=d001266|name=Sadi Carnot}}
* {{Find a Grave|7507}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081208072605/http://www.minefe.gouv.fr/directions_services/cedef/histomin/ministres/fiche013.html Carnot biography]
* {{NPG name|id=00765}}

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{{Heads of state of France}}
{{Finance Ministers of France}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnot, Marie Francois Sadi}}
[[Category:1837 births]]
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