Jules Armand Dufaure

Jules Armand Stanislas Dufaure (French pronunciation: ​[ʒyl aʁmɑ̃ dyfoʁ]; 4 December 1798 – 28 June 1881) was a French statesman.

Biography

Dufaure was born at Saujon, Charente-Maritime, and began his career as an advocate at Bordeaux, where he won a great reputation by his oratorical gifts. He abandoned law for politics, and in 1834 was elected deputy. In 1839 he became minister of public works in the ministry of Jean-de-Dieu Soult, and succeeded in freeing railway construction in France from the obstacles which till then had hampered it.

Losing office in 1840, Dufaure became one of the leaders of the Opposition, and on the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he accepted the Republic, and joined the party of moderate republicans. On 13 October he became minister of the interior under Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, but retired on the latter's defeat in the presidential election. During the Second French Empire, Dufaure abstained from public life, and practised at the Paris bar with such success that he was elected bâtonnier in 1862.