Jean-Baptiste Bienvenu-Martin


Jean-Baptiste Bienvenu Martin was a French Radical leader and cabinet officer. He was born at Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, and was educated in the law.

Career

He held an under prefecture, entered the Council of State, and in 1894 became director under the Minister of the Colonies. He was an unsuccessful senatorial candidate for Yonne in 1897, was elected deputy for Auxerre in that year, was reelected in 1898 and 1902, and in 1905 became Senator for Yonne. In the Chamber he supported the Waldeck-Rousseau and the Combes ministries, and advocated the separation of church and state.
In 1904 he organized the new Radical group of the Left. In 1905-06 he held the portfolio of Public Instruction in the Rouvier cabinet; he was Minister of Justice in the Doumergue cabinet in 1913–14, and in the first cabinet organized by René Viviani in June, 1914; and when the War in Europe broke out in 1914, he became Minister of Labor in the second Viviani cabinet, formed August 26 of that year.
He died on December 10, 1943 at Saint-Bris.