Gambetta, LÉON MICHEL, French statesman, was born at Cahors, of Genoese-Jewish extraction, October 30, 1838. After studying law, he became a member of the Paris bar in 1859. He soon attracted attention by his advanced liberal views, and in 1863 acquired still greater celebrity by his striking speech in the Baudin case, and his denunciations of the arbitrary measures of Louis Napoleon. In 1869 he was elected deputy by the Irreconcilables for both Marseilles and Belleville, and took his seat for the former constituency. Early in the session of 1870 he protested against the imprisonment of his friend Rochefort, attacked the ministry of Émile Ollivier, and predicted the approaching advent of the Republic. Upon the surrender of Napoleon III. at Sedan, Gambetta proposed the deposition of the imperial dynasty, and he was one of the proclaimers of the Republic, September 4. On the 5th he became minister of the Interior in the Government of National
Defence, and at once took vigorous measures for opposing the Germans and defending Paris. The capital, however, was invested, and in October he escaped in a balloon in order to join his colleagues at Tours. Here, and subsequently at Bordeaux, he assumed the general conduct of public affairs, and for five months was Dictator of France. With marvellous energy and undaunted courage he called army after army into being, and sent them against the German hosts, but in vain. The trumpet-tones of his appeals were heard throughout the whole of France, and at one moment it seemed as though success must attend the efforts of the indefatigable minister; but the surrender of Metz by Bazaine—which Gambetta denounced as an act of treason—crushed all hopes of deliverance for France. Nevertheless, Gambetta continued the struggle, and even when Paris succumbed to the invaders he demanded that the war should be carried on à l'outrance, and that an assembly should be elected for that purpose. When his colleagues in the capital had concluded an armistice, and called upon the electors without regard to party to elect a constituent assembly, Gambetta issued a decree at Bordeaux, January 31, 1871, disfranchising all functionaries of the Empire and all members of royal dynasties. This decree was repudiated by the government at Paris, whereupon Gambetta resigned, and for some months retired into Spain. But he became more popular than ever with the masses, and was elected to the National Assembly by ten departments. He took no part in the earlier sittings of the Assembly or in the suppression of the Commune. In July he was re-elected for the departments of the Seine, Var, and Bouches-du-Rhône, and took his seat for the last-named department. The République Française appeared in November 1871 as his representative organ.
The second part of Gambetta's political career began after the fall of the Commune, when he was accepted as the chief of the advanced Republicans. Early in 1872 he traversed the south of France, exciting the enthusiasm of the populace, and in the ensuing September he formulated the Republican programme at Grenoble, severely attacking M. Thiers and the National Assembly, and demanding the removal of the government from Versailles to Paris. He had now become the most prominent Frenchman of the time. The National Assembly voted the republican form of constitution in February 1875, and two months later Gambetta delivered his famous speech at Belleville, defending the Republicans from the attacks of the Irreconcilables. The 'fou furieux' of M. Thiers now developed into the leading exponent of Opportunism. He opposed the vote of the Assembly establishing scrutin d'arrondissement, and after the elections of 1876 became president of the budget committee. A constitutional conflict arose in May 1877, when the Duc de Broglie took office in the hope of restoring the monarchy. A civil war seemed imminent, but, owing chiefly to the zeal and activity of Gambetta, such a catastrophe was averted, and the Republic firmly established. The chamber censured the ministry by 363 to 158 votes, and a dissolution was ordered. Gambetta exclaimed, 'We go out 363, and 363 we shall return,' and his prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. Marshal MacMahon refrained from pushing matters to an extremity, and the royalist contest was abandoned. Gambetta was summoned before the Eleventh Correctional Tribunal of Paris for having declared respecting MacMahon at Lille, 'Il faudra ou se soumettre, ou se démettre.' He was condemned on October 24 to three months' imprisonment and a fine of 4000 francs. Two months later he was re-elected for Belleville. The contest between the deputy and the president ended in the triumph of Gambetta—who did not go to prison—and the resignation of MacMahon. M. Grévy was elected president, but Gambetta was regarded as the saviour of the Republic. Though now the most powerful statesman in France, and the maker and unmaker of cabinets, he declined to take office, on the ground that no strong government was possible until the elective scrutin de liste had been adopted. In 1878 Gambetta fought a duel with M. de Fournou, an ex-minister, whom he had charged with falsehood, but the hostile encounter had a harmless termination. Shortly afterwards Gambetta accepted the presidency of the chamber, a post which he held till the autumn of 1880. In November of that year the Ferry ministry resigned, being discredited by the mismanagement of the Tunis expedition. Gambetta was called upon to form a cabinet, and succeeded, after much difficulty. But, as it was practically a government of one, opposition to the new premier set in, and when he produced his scheme for the revision of the constitution in January 1882 the chamber rejected the scrutin de liste proposal by 305 to 110 votes, and Gambetta immediately resigned. He afterwards acted as chairman of the military committee, but took little part otherwise in public affairs.
On 26th November, as he was handling a revolver at his residence at Ville d'Avray, the weapon accidentally went off, and the bullet entered the palm of his hand and came out at the wrist. A report subsequently prevalent asserted that the wound was inflicted by a woman's hand. In any case, no serious consequences were apprehended, and in spite of sinister rumours he was reported convalescent on 13th December. The wound, however, took an unfavourable turn; internal inflammation set in, and the patient suffered terrible agony. Yet he was conscious and self-possessed until the end, and expired on the last day of the year 1882, being only forty-four years of age. He was buried at Nice, France mourning for him as one of the greatest of her patriots and sons, and as one who, by his dauntless will, energy, and eloquence, had indelibly impressed himself upon one of the darkest periods of her national history. Reinach has edited his Discours Politiques (10 vols. 1880-84), and written a Life of him (1884).