31 Facts About Joseph-Guillaume Barthe

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe was a lawyer, journalist, poet and political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East, Province of Canada.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe served one term in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, as a supporter of Louis-Joseph Papineau and Denis-Benjamin Viger.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe opposed Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine's policy of building a reform alliance within the framework of the Province of Canada.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe's father, Joseph, was a farmer and then a sea captain, who engaged in a legal battle with Robert Christie, a prominent lawyer and member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.

Joseph Joseph-Guillaume Barthe lost some of his property as a result and had to relocate to a different part of the Gaspe.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe sent Joseph-Guillaume, then still in childhood, away to Trois-Rivieres to live with his uncle, Etienne Tapin, for his primary schooling.

Later on, Joseph-Guillaume Barthe attended the Seminaire de Nicolet, in the Trois-Rivieres area, for secondary education.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe did not see his family again until his late teens, in 1834.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe completed his first year of the philosophy course at Nicolet, but when he returned for the second year he could not successfully complete the philosophy program.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe then studied law with Edward Barnard, a lawyer at Trois-Rivieres.

In 1844, Joseph-Guillaume Barthe married Louise-Adelaide Pacaud, sister of the Pacaud brothers.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe started by publishing letters and poetry on political matters in the newspaper Le Populaire, under the pseudonym "Marie-Louise".

In 1839, Joseph-Guillaume Barthe was offered the position of editor of the Montreal newspaper L'Aurore des Canadas, the only French-language newspaper in Montreal at that time.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe was grateful to Viger as his patron for the rest of his life, and thereafter consistently supported Viger's political positions.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe followed Parent's emphasis on the need for French-Canadian identity to become the rallying point, the ultimate "political dogma", in French-Canadian society.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for the Yamaska riding, defeating a pro-union candidate, Jonathan Wurtele.

All of the members of the French-Canadian Group, including Joseph-Guillaume Barthe, voted in favour of the motion and against the union, as did some of the reformers from Upper Canada.

Once Viger was in office, Joseph-Guillaume Barthe naturally took his patron's position, and in his newspaper articles in L'Aurora des Canadas was sharply critical of LaFontaine.

Viger, Neilson, and Joseph-Guillaume Barthe were all defeated in their ridings, by candidates who supported LaFontaine's position.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe wrote furious articles condemning LaFontaine and the successful candidate in his own riding, Leon Rousseau.

Shortly before he retired, he arranged for Joseph-Guillaume Barthe to be appointed Clerk of the Court of Appeals, a prestigious and lucrative position.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe attempted to appoint his brother-in-law as his deputy, but most of the judges of the Court refused to accept that arrangement and would only sit with Barthe as clerk.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe then published articles in L'Avenir stating he was the victim of political partisanship, but did not earn much sympathy.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe stood for election in 1851, again in Yamaska, this time as a supporter of the Parti rouge.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe had become very active in the new Institut canadien de Montreal, an association of relatively young professionals of liberal tendencies, which provided a forum for discussions and public lectures.

In 1853, Joseph-Guillaume Barthe announced that he could not "endure the haughtiness or the injustice of political adversaries", and moved with his family to France.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe had two goals: to encourage greater ties between France and Lower Canada, and to gain an affiliation between the Institut canadien de Montreal and the Institut de France.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe lived in France until 1855, but was not successful in his goals.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe did publish some articles with the Gazette de France.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe wrote his memoirs, Souvenirs d'un demi-siecle, which appeared in 1885.

Joseph-Guillaume Barthe had a tendency to exaggerate the roles he played, and to outright invent events that historical research shows did not occur.