Armand Gaston Camus

Armand Gaston Camus ( born April 2, 1740 in Paris, † November 2, 1804 in Paris) was a French politician during the French Revolution, journalist and National Archivist.

Life

He studied law. Later he was a recognized expert in canon law. He represented the clergy as a lawyer at the Parlement of Paris. He was also counsel of the Elector of Trier and the Prince of Salm -Salm. Because he campaigned for a reform of the Court, he had to resign his office. Camus operation after literary and historical studies and translated the Natural History of Animals Aristotle into French. Since 1785, he was a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

He was elected to the Estates-General of 1789 as a representative of the Third Estate in Paris. He belonged in the early days of the meeting of the leading figures of the Third Estate. He collected as secretary of the meeting, the signatures of deputies to the Tennis Court Oath, and was one of the first, who swore not likely to disperse until a constitution was drawn up. The National Assembly appointed him in 1790 to the Archivist of the National Archives.

As the national archivist, he collected numerous documents on the activities of the National Assembly. Because a law had been committed by 1794 access to the archive, he had to build this according to new principles in regard to the usability.

In parliament itself Camus made ​​especially as a speaker against the clergy and nobility a name. He criticized the social differences and called for the sale of the property of emigrants. In particular, he stood up for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Not least it is taking possession of papal possessions back in southern France. He was deeply religious and followers of Jansenism. He was in October / November, President of the National Assembly.

Later, Camus was a member of the National Convention and represented the upper Loire. In 1792 he was deployed to observe by General Dumouriez to Belgium. A year later, he complained to the General and was captured on another trip to the arrest of General along with other emissaries of Dumouriez and handed over to the Austrians.

As a prisoner, he translated ancient texts. After an imprisonment of thirty months, he was against Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XVI. , Replaced. He was after his release at the Council of Five Hundred, and was there at times President of the Assembly. Several occasions the office of financial or police minister, he was offered, but what he always refused.

He turned in vain against the sovereign claim to power of Napoleon as First Consul. He received in 1800 the job in the province to collect ancient chronicles. He published in 1803 in two volumes the results.