Lazare Hippolyte Carnot (6 October 1801,

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audoma ...

– 16 March 1888) was a French politician. He was the younger brother of the founder of

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws ...

Sadi Carnot and the second son of the revolutionary politician and general

Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Education and early ...

, who also served in the government of Napoleon, as well as the father of French president

Marie François Sadi Carnot Marie François Sadi Carnot (; 11 August 1837 – 25 June 1894) was a French statesman, who served as the President of France from 1887 until his assassination in 1894. Early life Marie François Sadi Carnot was the son of the statesman Hippo ...

Early life

Hippolyte Carnot was born at

, Pas-de-Calais. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, his father went into exile. Hippolyte Carnot lived at first in exile with his father, returning to France only in 1823. Unable to enter active political life, he turned to literature and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

, publishing in 1828 a collection of ''Chants helléniens'' translated from the German of

Wilhelm Müller Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller (7 October 1794 – 30 September 1827) was a German lyric poet, best known as the author of ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (1823) and ''Winterreise'' (1828), which Franz Schubert later set to music as song cycles. Life ...

, and in 1830 an ''Exposé de la doctrine Saint-Simonienne'', and collaborating in the Saint-Simonian journal ''Le Producteur''. He paid several visits to Britain and travelled in other countries of Europe.

Overview

In March 1839 after the dissolution of the chamber by Louis Philippe, he was elected deputy for Paris (re-elected in 1842 and in 1846), and sat in the group of the Radical

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, being one of the leaders of the party hostile to Louis Philippe. On 24 February 1848 he pronounced in favour of the republic.

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...

chose him as minister of education in the provisional government, and Carnot set to work to organize the primary school systems, proposing a law for obligatory and free primary instruction, and another for the secondary education of girls. He opposed purely secular schools, holding that "the minister and the schoolmaster are the two columns on which rests the edifice of the republic." By this attitude he alienated both the Right and the Republicans of the Extreme Left, and was forced to resign on 5 July 1848. He was one of those who protested against the ''coup d'état'' of 2 December 1851 but was not proscribed by

Louis Napoleon Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

. He refused to sit in the Corps Législatif until 1864, in order not to have to take the oath to the emperor. From 1864 to 1869 he was in the republican opposition, taking a very active part. He was defeated at the election of 1869. On 8 February 1871 he was elected deputy for the

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

''. He joined the ''Gauche républicaine'' parliamentary group and participated in the drawing up of the Constitutional Laws of 1875. On 16 December 1875 he was named by the National Assembly

senator for life A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , six Italian senators out of 206, two out of the 41 Burundian senators, one Congolese senator out of 109, and all members of the B ...

. He died three months after the election of his elder son,

, to the presidency of the republic. He had published ''Le Ministère de l'Instruction Publique et des Cultes, depuis le 24 février jusqu'au 5 juillet 1848'', ''Mémoires sur Carnot par son fils'' (2 vols., 1861–1864), ''Mémoires de Barère de Vieuzac'' (with David Angers, 4 vols 1842–1843). His second son, Marie Adolphe Carnot (b. 1830), became a distinguished mining engineer and director of the

École des Mines École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

(1899), his studies in analytical chemistry placing him in the front rank of French scientists. He was made a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1895.

References

;Attribution *

Sources

* Vermorel, ''Les Hommes de 1848'' (3rd ed., 1869); * Spuller, ''Histoire parlementaire de la Seconde Republique'' (1891); * Pierre de La Gorce, ''Histoire du Second Empire'' (1894 et seq.). {{DEFAULTSORT:Carnot, Hippolyte 1801 births 1888 deaths People from Saint-Omer Politicians from Hauts-de-France Moderate Republicans (France) Opportunist Republicans French Ministers of Public Education and Religious Affairs Members of the 5th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 6th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic Members of the 1st Corps législatif of the Second French Empire Members of the 2nd Corps législatif of the Second French Empire Members of the 3rd Corps législatif of the Second French Empire Members of the National Assembly (1871) French life senators Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Parents of presidents of France Carnot family