Émile François Loubet was born in 1838. He received his law degree and his doctorate in law in 1862-3. He became mayor of Montelimar in 1870 and was elected to the chamber of deputies in 1876 during the earliest days of the Third Republic. He was a supporter of Leon Gambetta, and a friend of Sadi Carnot and became a force in the moderate wing of the Republican party. He was an opponent of the Falloux Laws which sought to put education under Catholic control. He entered the Senate in 1885. His reputation as an eloquent orator and his honesty as a politician served him well as he became Senate President in 1886, served briefly as Prime Minister in 1892 and was chosen as President of the Republic in 1899. He completed his term, leaving in 1906. As President he took the side of those who sought to reconsider the conviction of Captain Dreyfus. This his administration succeeded in doing although not without some violence to his person by an anti-Dreyfusard who struck him with a cane. Dreyfus's ten year sentence was remitted and Dreyfus was released. The Paris Exhibition occurred in 1900, helped to form an Entente with Great Britain after friction between the two countries over the Dreyfus affair and the Boer War.
After he retired from politics in 1906, he lived another 23 years, passing away in 1929 at age 90.
