Background
Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin was born in Paris on February 2, 1807.
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Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin
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In 1838 he bought for 330, 000 francs Desire Dalloz's place in the Court of Cassation.
He therefore founded La Reforme in which to advance his propaganda.
Between Ledru-Rollin and Odilon Barrot with the other chiefs of the " dynastic Left " there were acute differences, hardly dissimulated even during the temporary alliance which produced the campaign of the banquets.
It was the speeches of Ledru-Rollin and Louis Blanc at working-men's banquets in Lille, Dijon and Chalons that really heralded the revolution.
He and Lamartine held the tribune in the Chamber of Deputies until the Parisian populace stopped serious discussion by invading the Chamber.
He was minister of the interior in the provisional government, and was also a member of the executive committee1 appointed by the Constituent Assembly, from which Louis Blanc and the extremists were excluded.
At the crisis of the 15th of May he definitely sided with Lamartine and the party of order against the proletariat.
Henceforward his position was a difficult one.
His opposition to the policy of President Louis Napoleon, especially his Roman policy, led to his moving the impeachment of the president and his ministers. The motion was defeated, and next day (June 13, 1849) he headed what he called a peaceful demonstration, and his enemies armed insurrection.
He himself escaped to London where he joined the executive of the revolutionary committee of Europe, with Kossuth and Mazzini among his colleagues.
He was accused of complicity in an obscure attempt (1857) against the life of Napoleon III, and condemned in his absence to deportation.
Emile Ollivier removed the exceptions from the general amnesty in 1870, and Ledru-Rollin returned to France after twenty years of exile.
Achievements
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Under Louis Philippe he made large contributions to French jurisprudence, editing the Journal du palais, 1791-1837 (27 vols. , 1837), and 1837-1847 (17 vols. )
, with a commentary Repertoire general de la jurisprudence franqaise (8 vols. , 1843 - 1848), the introduction to which was written by himself.
His later writings were political in character.
Politics
He had just begun to practise at the Parisian bar before the revolution of July, and was retained for the Republican defence in most of the great political trials of the next ten years.
Neither from official Liberalism nor from the press did he receive support; even the Republican National wasopposed to him because of his championship of labour.
At the presidential election in December he was put forward as the Socialist candidate, but secured onlyvotes.
Connections
He made a rich and romantic marriage in 1843, an(l in 1846 disposed of his charge at the Court of Cassation to give his lime entirely to politics.
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Born
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Died
February 31, 1874 (aged 67) -
Nationality
France -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
socialist