Edouard Rene Lefebvre- Laboulaye

Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye ( 18 January 1811 to 25 May 1883) was a French jurist, author, poet and activist against slavery. It was he who in 1865 floated the idea of a monumentthat would be presented by the French people to the United States. That initiative resulted in the Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor. His idea was that this would strengthen France's relationship with the United States. Laboulaye joined the bar in 1842, and in 1849 became professor of comparative law at the Collège de France. After the Paris Commune (1870), he represented the departement of the Seine in the national assembly, and was effective in defeating the Monarchists in establishing the Third Republic. In 1876 Laboulaye was appointed administrator of the Collège de France, resumed lecturing on comparative legislation in 1877. As a keen observer of the politics of the United States, and admirer of its constitution, he wrote 3-volumes on the political history of the United States. During the American Civil War, he enthusiastically advocated the Union cause and the abolition of slaverys. After the war he became president of the French Emancipation Committee that assisted freed slaves in the U.S.