(1837-1894), fourth president of the third
French Republic, son of L. Hippolyte Carnot, was born at Limoges on the
11th of August 1837. He was educated as a civil engineer, and after
having highly distinguished himself at the Ecole Polytechnique and the
Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, obtained an appointment in the public
service. His hereditary republicanism recommended him to the government
of national defence, by which he was entrusted in 1870 with the task of
organizing resistance in the departments of the Eure, Calvados and Seine
Inferieure, and made prefect of the last named in January 1871. In the
following month he was elected to the National Assembly by the
department Cote d'Or. In August 1878 he was appointed secretary to the
minister of public works. In September 1880 he became minister, and
again in April 1885, passing almost immediately to the ministry of
finance, which he held under both the Ferry and the Freycinet
administrations until December 1886. When the Wilson scandals occasioned
the downfall of Grevy in December 1887, Carnot's high character for
integrity marked him out as a candidate for the presidency, and he
obtained the support of Clemenceau and of all those who objected to the
candidatures of men who have been more active in the political arena, 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
General Boulanger. President Carnot's ostensible part during this
agitation was mainly 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 President Carnot's lot to appear at the head of the
state on two occasions of especial interest, the celebration of the
centenary of 1789 and the opening of the Paris Exhibition of that year.
The perfect success of both was regarded, not unreasonably, 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 but 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. Carnot
seemed to be arriving at the zenith of popularity, when o
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