CAVAIGNAC, LOUIS-EUGÈNE. - French general, b. 15 Oct. 1802 in Paris, d. 28 Oct. 1857 on the Ourne estate, near the castle of Loir, in the department of the Sarthe. Having attended the military academy, from which he graduated in 1828 with the rank of captain, he was part of the French expeditionary corps in Greece.
Of republican and democratic sympathies, C. was transferred in 1832 to Algeria, where he remained until 1848. After the February revolution, the provisional government appointed him divisional general and governor-general of Algeria. Elected deputy to the Constituent Assembly, he became minister of war. During the insurrection of June 1848, the Constituent Assembly conferred dictatorial powers on C., voting, after the repression of the disturbances, a law by which it delegated the executive power to him with the title of president of the Council of Ministers. He left this office in Dec. of the same year, having obtained about a million and a half votes in the presidential elections that saw the triumph of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. In Nov. 1848, being head of the government, C. sent de Corcelles, his personal friend, on a special mission to Pius IX, so that he might persuade the Pope to take refuge in French territory. With this move C. intended to strengthen the shaken position of moderate liberalism and of the Catholic liberals or Neo-Guelphs both in Italy and in France. The offer, however, fell on deaf ears, because Pius IX did not move from Gaeta. After the coup d'état of 2 Dec. 1851, C. was forced to withdraw from public life.
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Silvio Furlani