Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès (February 1, 1758 – November 24, 1805) was a French

orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. De Cazalès was born at

Grenade, Haute-Garonne Grenade (; Languedocien: ''Granada''), also referred to as Grenade-sur-Garonne, is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. History The town is a bastide founded in the 1290s on the initiative of the Cistercian monks of th ...

to a family of the lower

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

. With his father as an adviser to the parliament of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, Cazalès undertook a career in the military, becoming captain of the dragoons at the age of 21. In this political career, he proved to be a devout representative of the right, becoming the elected deputy of the nobility for the Verdun countries. His rightist ideals and orations made him political enemies, such as Barnarve, who scarred Cazalès in a duel. As a moderate conservative, Cazalès favored an intermediate system of government, between absolute and constitutional monarchy. Cazalès also tried to found a conservative-liberal party, along with

Mirabeau Mirabeau may refer to: People and characters * Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798–1859), second President of the Republic of Texas French nobility * Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau (1715–1789), French physiocrat * Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, com ...

. His son, Edmond de Cazalès ( fr), wrote philosophical and religious studies.

Early life

de Cazalès was born at

, in a family of the lower nobility. Cazalès was not very educated as a young man. His father, mostly concerned with his duties to parliament, had little time to secure Cazalès' education. With his studies suspended at twelve, the young Cazalès turned to a career in the military, and at fifteen years old, entered in a regiment of

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

s. He made an honest name for himself and by the age of 21, he would become a captain. Cazalès, however, wanted to pursue a career outside of the military and so sought an education. He taught himself through the works of historians and publicists. With a special interest in law, he studied the history of English government. His fascination in government brought him to Montesquieu's school, where he studied the principles of government, liberty, and the separation of powers within government.

Political career

In his early political life, Cazalès was imprisoned for his efforts against Parlement Maupeou. In the Constituent Assembly he belonged to the section of moderate royalists who sought to set up a constitution on the British model, and his speeches in favour of retaining the right of war and peace in the king's hands and on the organization of the judiciary gained the applause even of his opponents. Although he left few records of his speeches or his personal life, his political beliefs and ideologies were published in journals like the ''Moniteur.'' Among Cazalès' beliefs was the belief that men were not equal and maintained the difference between

active and passive citizens The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

. He did not find it necessary to grant equality to slaves nor to women. One of his more prominent positions was that of private property, which he fought vigorously to protect in the Constituent Assembly, feeling that it is a "sacred and inviolable right." Apart from his eloquence, which gave him a place among the finest orators of the Assembly, Cazalès is mainly remembered for a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

fought with Barnave, in which Cazalès was wounded in the forehead. After the insurrection of August 10, 1792, which led to the downfall of royalty, Cazalès emigrated. He fought in the army of the

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France followi ...

s against revolutionary France. He later urged the Convention the privilege of defending Louis XVI before the court, publishing a remarkable argument in his defense. Back in France in 1803, he lived with little public presence until his death in 1805.

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cazales, Jacques Antoine Marie de 1758 births 1805 deaths People from Haute-Garonne French nobility Members of the National Constituent Assembly (France)