Leon Gambetta, a French statesman, of Genoese-Jewish descent, born in Cahors, Oct. 30, 1838. He studied law, and became a member of the Paris bar in 1859. In 1863 he acquired eminence as an ultra liberal, in 18(58 became still more famous by his denunciations of the arbitrary measures of Louis Napoleon, and in 1869 he was elected deputy by the so-called party of "irreconcilables" for Paris and Marseilles. He meant to take his seat for Marseilles, but was prevented by illness until the beginning of 1870, when he protested in the corps legislatif against the imprisonment of his friend and colleague Rochefort (Feb. 7), and shortly after against Louis Napoleon's new plebiscite, which he declared to be a violation of the constitution. On the news of the surrender of Louis Napoleon at Sedan he proposed to depose the imperial dynasty, and was among the first to proclaim the republic, Sept. 4; and on the 5th he became minister of the interior in the provisional government of national defence. He took measures for convoking the electoral colleges; but Paris being invested by the Germans, no election could take place.

Early in October he escaped in a balloon to join his colleagues at Tours. Here, and afterward at Bordeaux, he assumed the general direction of movements outside the capital, taking charge of the interior, war, and finance departments. He made desperate efforts to organize new armies, issuing unfounded reports of victories, and understating the importance of the defeats, which he generally ascribed to treason, especially the surrender of Metz by Bazaine. When all his efforts to raise the siege of Paris had failed, and his colleagues in that capital had concluded the armistice, and convoked all electors without regard to political parties to elect a constituent assembly, he issued a decree at Bordeaux, Jan. 31, 1871, disfranchising all functionaries and official candidates of the second empire, and all members of royal dynasties, and announced his determination to continue the war to the last. Though his decree was declared null and void by his colleagues in Paris, of whom Jules Simon went to Bordeaux to put an end to his arbitrary proceedings, he persevered in active opposition, but finally tendered his resignation, which only increased his popularity with the masses of the people.

On Feb. 8 he was elected to the national assembly by ten departments, • including those destined to be partly annexed to Germany. He gave the preference to that of Bas-Rhin, though it was certain that he would lose his seat by the detachment of Alsace from France. On July 2 he was reelected in the departments of the Seine, Var, and Bouches-du-Rhone, and took his seat for the last named department, which he had formerly represented. In November, 1871, the Republique Frangaise appeared as his special organ in the press, and he was generally recognized as the leader of the radicals. During the political excitement in the early part of 1872 he visited southern France, stirring up the populace everywhere, and his appearance at Marseilles was the occasion of disturbances which were put down by the police. In the latter part of the year he agitated the public mind in S. E. France, especially by his speech at Grenoble (Sept. 26), in which he attacked Thiers, and denounced the Bonapartists and the national assembly, and insisted upon the removal of the government from Versailles to Paris. A number of officers who had attended the banquet at Grenoble in honor of Gambetta were sentenced to 60 days' arrest, and then transferred to another regiment.

In 1873 he promoted the election of Barodet and Ranc to the national assembly, in opposition to the candidates supported by Thiers, whom he afterward vainly strove to uphold in his presidency, when the majority in the assembly had determined on his overthrow. His opposition to the prolongation of the powers of Marshal MacMahon, the new president, proved equally futile.