{{Short description|French politician, historian and journalist}} [[File:pelletan camille.jpg|right|thumb|Camille Pelletan, French politician and journalist]] [[File:Camille Pelletan Fantin-Latour.jpg|thumb|Pelletan as a young man: Detail of the painting ''[[The Corner of the Table]]'' (1872) by [[Fantin-Latour]]]]
'''Charles Camille Pelletan''' (28 June 1846 – 4 June 1915) was a [[French politician]], historian and journalist, [[Minister of Marine (France)|Minister of Marine]] in [[Emile Combes]]' ''[[Bloc des gauches]]'' (Left-Wing Blocks) cabinet from 1902 to 1905. He was part of the left wing of the [[Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party]], created in 1902.
==Biography== Pelletan was born in [[Paris]], the son of [[Eugène Pelletan]] (1813–1884), a writer of some distinction and a noted opponent of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=69}}
Camille Pelletan was educated in Paris, passed as licentiate in laws, and studied at the ''[[École Nationale des Chartes]]'' where he was qualified as an "archiviste paléographe". At the age of twenty he became an active [[journalist]], and a bitter critic of the Imperial Government. After the [[Franco-Prussian War|war of 1870-71]] he took a leading place among the [[Radical Party (France)|Radicals]], as an opponent of the "[[Opportunist Republicans]]" who continued the policy of [[Léon Gambetta]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=69}} He was parliamentary editor for ''[[Le Rappel]]'' until 1871, when he was succeeded by [[Alfred Gaulier]].<ref>{{citation|language=fr|chapter=GAULIER (ALFRED-NICOLAS) |title=Dictionnaire des Parlementaires français (1789–1889) |last1=Robert|last2=Cougny |first1=Adolphe |first2=Gaston |editor=Edgar Bourloton|year=1889–1891 |chapter-url=http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche/%28num_dept%29/18089 |access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref> In 1880 he became editor of ''Justice'', and worked with success to bring about a revision of the sentences passed on the ''[[Communards]]''. [[1881 French legislative election|In 1881 he was elected]] a [[Chamber of Deputies (France)|deputy]] for the [[10th arrondissement of Paris]], and [[1885 French legislative election|in 1885]] for the [[Bouches-du-Rhône]] ''[[département in France|département]]'', being reelected [[1889 French legislative election|in 1889]], [[1893 French legislative election|1893]] and [[1898 French legislative election|1898]]; and he was repeatedly chosen as reporter to the various bureaus.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=69}}
During the [[Dreyfus Affair]] he fought vigorously on behalf of the Republican government and when the coalition known as the ''[[Bloc des gauches]]'' (Left-Wings Block) was formed he took his place as a Radical leader,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=69}} becoming a member of the [[Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party (historical)|Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party]] at its creation in 1902, and taking place at its left-wing.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}
He was nominated as [[List of Naval Ministers of France|Minister of Marine]] in the ''Bloc des gauches'' cabinet of [[Émile Combes]] (June 1902 to January 1905), but his administration was severely criticized, notably by [[Jean Marie Antoine de Lanessan]] and other naval experts. During the great sailors strike at [[Marseille]] in 1904 he showed pronounced sympathy with the socialistic aims and methods of the strikers, and a strong feeling was aroused that his Radical sympathies tended to a serious weakening of the navy and to destruction of discipline. A somewhat violent controversy resulted, in the course of which Pelletan's indiscreet speeches did him no good; and he became a common subject for ill-natured caricatures.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=69–70}}
<gallery heights="220px" caption="Caricatures of Camille Pelletan, 1904" mode="packed" style="float:left;"> File:Camille pelletan 20 mars 1904 l'étrille 06828.JPG| File:13 mars 1904 l'étrille 06836 pelletan gen André.JPG| File:Camille pelletan 13 mars 1904 l'étrille 06833.JPG </gallery>
[[File:Camille Pelletan 1914.jpg|thumb|{{center|Camille Pelletan<br />the year before he died}}]] {{clear left}}
On the fall of the Combes ministry he became less prominent in French politics.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=70}} A deputy again for the Bouches du Rhône (until 1912), he voted on 3 July 1905 the [[1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State]]. From 1912 to 1915 he was a [[French Senate|senator]] elected in the Bouches du Rhône electoral district.
Camille Pelletan's name was given to the ''[[Parti radical-socialiste Camille Pelletan]]'', a left-wing offshoot of the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party created after the [[6 February 1934 crisis]] by [[Gabriel Cudenet]], who opposed the participation of several Radicals to the conservative cabinet of [[Gaston Doumergue]], which had replaced the fallen ''[[Cartel des gauches]]'' (Left-Wings Cartel).
The Pelletan's [[family tree]] includes 11 parliamentaries, among whom are [[Georges Bonnet]] and [[Michel Debré]].
US Naval officer Rear Admiral [[Bradley A. Fiske]] wrote of Pelletan in his autobiography ''From Midshipman to Rear Admiral'', edited in 1919, that: {{blockquote|Instead of being a friend of the people, as so many French people thought, Camille Pelletan by his course was more dangerous to them than all the German spies in France put together. Camille Pelletan's course did more to break down the defense of the French Republic than a half a million German troops could have done.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bradley Allen Fiske|title=From Midshipman to Rear-Admiral|url=https://archive.org/details/frommidshipmant02fiskgoog|year=1919|publisher=Century Company}}</ref>}}
== References == {{reflist}} '''Attribution:''' *{{EB1911|wstitle = Pelletan, Charles Camille|volume=21|pages=69–70}}
==Further reading== *Stone, Judith F. ''Sons of the Revolution: Radical Democrats in France, 1862-1914''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0807120200}} *Touroude, Georges. ''Deux républicains de progrès: Eugène et Camille Pelletan''. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995. {{ISBN|273843309X}}
==External links== {{commons category|Camille Pelletan}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721024231/http://www.chd.univ-rennes1.fr/fr/documents-de-reference/iconographies/Pelletan/ 42 prints from Camille Pelletan's Les guerres de la Révolution]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelletan, Camille}} [[Category:1846 births]] [[Category:1915 deaths]] [[Category:Writers from Paris]] [[Category:Politicians from Paris]] [[Category:Radical Party (France) politicians]] [[Category:Ministers of marine]] [[Category:Members of the 3rd Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 4th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 5th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 6th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 8th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 9th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:Members of the 10th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]] [[Category:French senators of the Third Republic]] [[Category:Senators of Bouches-du-Rhône]] [[Category:French journalists]] [[Category:French male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:École Nationale des Chartes alumni]]