Joseph Lakanal

Early career

Born in Serres, in present-day Ariège, his name was originally Lacanal, and was altered to distinguish him from his Royalist brothers. He studied theology, and joined one of the teaching congregations (Pères de la Doctrine Chrétienne), and for fourteen years taught in their schools. He was professor of rhetoric at Bourges, and of philosophy at Moulins.

He was elected by his native département to the National Convention of the French Republic in 1792, where he sat until 1795; Lakanal was one of the noted administrators of the French Revolution. At the time of his election, he was acting as vicar to his uncle Bernard Font (1723–1800), the constitutional bishop of Pamiers. In the convention, he sat with The Mountain and voted for the execution of King Louis XVI.

Later life and exile

Under the Consulate and Empire, Lakanal resumed his professional work, as a professor at the Lycée Charlemagne, and after the battle of Waterloo (1815), he retired to the United States. He was welcomed there by President James Madison, and the United States Congress gave him a grant of 500 acres (2.0 km2) in the Vine and Olive Colony in Alabama. He then later became a planter, therefore owning slaves, and was afterward chosen president of the University of Louisiana that he reorganized with the support of local masonic lodges, known today as Tulane University.

He returned to France in 1834, and published in 1838 an Expos sommaire des travaux de Joseph Lakanal. Shortly afterwards, in spite of his advanced age, Lakanal married a second time. He died in Paris; his widow died in 1881. Lakanal's éloge at the Academy of Moral and Political Science, of which he was a member, was pronounced by the Comte de Rémusat (16 February 1845), and a Notice historique by François Mignet was read on 2 May 1857.