page_title: Godefroy Calès
section_title: His parliamentary work
hierarchical_section_title: Godefroy Calès / Biography / His parliamentary work
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Gravure. Fêtes et cérémonies de la République française. 4 mai 1848. Première séance de l'Assemblée Nationale. Proclamation de la République une et indivisible par les représentants du peuple. Dessin par Ch. Fichot et Jules Gaildreau. Español: Grabado: Fiestas y ceremonias de la República Francesa, 4 de mayo de 1848, primera sesión de la Asamblea Nacional, proclamación de la República, una e indivisible, por los representantes del pueblo. Dibujo de Ch. Fichot y Jules Gaildreau.
context_page_description: Jean Marie Noël Godefroy Calès was a French physician and politician. He was born on March 21, 1799 in Saint-Denis and died on July 25, 1868 in Villefranche-de-Lauragais.
context_section_description: Supporter of the freedom of expression, Calès was opposing any restrictive law on the press, such as that on the restoration of the deposits for the newspapers. However, on 9–11 August 1848, the Assembly voted the extension of press offenses, the aggravation of penalties and the increase of the deposits.
  Calès had been constantly interested in the social question which was progressively rising in France since the beginning of the 19th century. He therefore supported the uprising of May and June 1848. Thus, when on 26 August 1848, the Assembly proposed the prosecution of the former member of the Provisional Government Louis Blanc and the former prefect of police Marc Caussidière, who had been accused of having participated to the uprising, Calès strongly opposed the project. Prosecutions will be finally voted by the conservative majority and maintained. Blanc and Caussidière were forced to flee on exile.
  On 1 September 1848, he also opposed the project of the restoration of the « contrainte par corps » (imprisonment for debt, in criminal matters), previously suppressed by the Provisional Government. It will be finally restored by the assembly, even if slightly softened.
  As humanist, Goderoy Calès was a fervent supporter of a total abolition of the death penalty. Its partial abolition (for political offenses) had been initially decreed by the Provisional Government in February 1848, at the initiative of one of its member, the famous poet Alphonse de Lamartine. A project to extend the partial abolition to a total abolition was then debated at the National Assembly on 16 September 1848. The main abolitionist speaker was the famous writer and poet Victor Hugo. However, Calès and Hugo will finally not succeed in convincing their colleagues: the project will be rejected (and abandoned until 1981).
  Like his uncle Jean-Marie Calès, Godefroy was advocating a system of « representative » Republic against any possible form of republican « absolutism », founded both on a strong legislative and parliamentary power, and on a non-personalised and limited executive power. Thus, on 6 October 1848, Godefroy Calès defended the Grevy amendment, which proposed that « The National Assembly delegates the executive power to a citizen, who takes the title of president of the council of ministers, elected for a limited time, and always revocable ». Indeed, through this amendment, the young republican Jules Grevy wanted to oppose the project of an election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage, and proposed instead to obtain the election of a president of the executive, who will be always revocable by the National Assembly, thus refusing to legitimize the power to one single person above everything: however, following Lamartine's recommendation, the majority of the deputies rejected the amendment. The date of the presidential election was thus set for December 10, 1848.
  On 2 November 1848, still supporting social progress in society, Calès voted in favor of the Right to labor, defended at the speaker's tribune by Ledru-Rollin. Nevertheless, the final formula of the compromise, due to Lamartine, obliged the Republic to provide work for the needy « within the limits of its resources ».
  On 25 November 1848, he voted against the parliamentary decree: « The General Cavaignac has well deserved from the Homeland ». Being accused of having allowed the June insurrection to flourish, and before violently crushing it, sacrificing thousands of National Guards, General Cavaignac gave explanations at the occasion of a public debate, which took place at the Assembly on November 25. The debate turned to his advantage, and the Assembly almost unanimously confirmed the previous decree of 28 June 1848. Godefroy Calès, together with Victor Hugo, was one of the only thirty-four representatives who voted against.
  Among other social measures debated in public at the parliament, Calès voted on 27 December 1848, in favor of the abolition of the tax on salt (against Government's recommendation), which was solicited by representatives of rural regions; on 2 
caption: Celebrations and ceremonies of the French Republic. 4 May 1848. (First session of the National Assembly. Proclamation of the united and indivisible Republic by the people's representatives. Drawing by Ch. Fichot and Jules Gaildreau, national archives.)
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