View source for Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy

{{Short description|French politician (1750–1806)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
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| name                = Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy
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| image               = Dejabin Collection - Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy (1750-1806).jpg
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| birth_date          = {{birth-date|7 January 1750}}
| birth_place         = [[Port-sur-Saône]], France
| death_date          = {{death-date and age|2 February 1806|7 January 1750}}
| death_place         = [[Genoa]], Italy
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| rank                = [[Second lieutenant]]
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''' Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy''' (7 January 1750, at [[Port-sur-Saône]] in the department of [[Haute-Saône]] – 2 February 1806, in [[Genoa, Italy]]) was a French [[military engineering|military engineer]] and politician, during the [[French Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SDABAAAAYAAJ&q=maubourg&pg=PA240| pages=242–244| title=Le Glaneur Francais, Number One | author=Henri La Fayette Villaume Ducoudray Holstein | author-link=Henri La Fayette Villaume Ducoudray Holstein | publisher=Russell Robbins| year=1833 }}</ref>
==Political career==
[[List of members of the National Constituent Assembly of 1789|Deputy]] of [[nobility]] for the bailliage d'Amont in the [[Estates General of 1789]] that became the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]], Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy was three times named president of the National Constituent Assembly:
* from 2 to 24 February 1790;
* from 11 to 24 September 1790;
* from 24 May to 5 June 1791.
He contributed actively to the division of France into 83 [[French departments|departments]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/collections/archives/findingaids/French_Revolution_Pamphlets-English.pdf |title=Bureaux de Pusy, Jean Xavier, 1750–1805. ''Summary report of the new divisions of the kingdom made to the National Assembly, to the Committee of the Constitution, by Mr. Bureaux of Pusy at the Meeting of Friday 8 January 1790'' (Paris, Baudouin) |access-date=24 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060915223100/http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/collections/archives/findingaids/French_Revolution_Pamphlets-English.pdf |archive-date=15 September 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in 1790, and with the [[International System of Units#History|metric system]].
In 1790, he corresponded with [[Alexander Hamilton]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rbL7xJhUIVoC&dq=Jean-Xavier+Bureau+de+Pusy&pg=PA18 Alexander Hamilton, Harold CSyrett, ''The Papers of Alexander Hamilton'', p.18]</ref>
==Military career==
On 1 January 1771 he entered the School of Engineering at [[Charleville-Mézières|Mézières]] as a second lieutenant. He was a military engineer at the [[Fort de Joux]] in 1786, in 1789 he was captain with the Royal corps of Engineers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.racinescomtoises.net/Jean-Xavier-Bureau-de-Pusy-1750 |title=Racine Comteises, ''Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy (1750–1806)'' |access-date=24 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516004234/http://www.racinescomtoises.net/Jean-Xavier-Bureau-de-Pusy-1750 |archive-date=16 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
After the session of the National Constituent Assembly, he resumed as a captain in the engineering corps, and continued to defend the constitutional principles. On 1 January 1792, [[Louis XVI]] gave him the [[Cross of St. Louis]].
In 1792, he was a subordinate under [[Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette]], at Metz. He, Lafayette, and some other officers were taken prisoner by the Austrians near [[Rochefort, Belgium|Rochefort]] when de Pusy asked for rights of transit through Austrian territory on behalf of a group of French officers.  This was initially granted, as it had been for others fleeing France, but was revoked when the famous Lafayette was recognized.<ref>{{cite book | last = Spalding| first = Paul S.| title = Lafayette: Prisoner of State| year = 2010| publisher = University of South Carolina Press| isbn = 978-1-57003-911-9 }}, pp. 1–3</ref> He was imprisoned by the Austrians at the fortress of [[Olmütz]] in 1792. He was released in 1797, under the terms of the treaty of [[Campo-Formio]] (18 October 1797).
He the then went to [[Hamburg]]. From there he traveled to the United States, where he received a warm welcome as Lafayette companion in misfortune. He was offered vast, land grants on the banks of the [[Delaware River]], but he had not given up on returning to France, and when the [[French Consulate|consulate government]] had, after the [[coup of 18 Brumaire]], struck off the list of ''émigrés'' members of the National Constituent Assembly who had recognized the sovereignty of the people, he hastened to return.
In 1799, he corresponded with [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref>[http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/volumes/vol31.html ''The Papers of Thomas Jefferson'', Index, Volume 31: 1 February 1799 to 31 May 1800]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Consulate and empire==
On 11 Brumaire X (2 November 1801), the [[Napoleon Bonaparte|First Consul]] appointed him the [[prefect]] of [[Allier]], and then, on 11 Thermidor X (30 July 1802), that of the [[Rhône (department)|Rhône]]; it showed a very conciliatory spirit, and showed himself able administrator.
He was made a Commandeurs of the [[Legion of Honour]] on 25 Prairial XII (14 June 1804). He was appointed prefect of [[Gênes]] ([[Genoa]]) on 15 Messidor year XIII (4 July 1805); he had to suppress a riot of [[Parma]], and was able to without shedding a drop of blood. He caught an illness that he died from on this exposition.
== Family ==
He was the son of Jean-Baptiste Bureau de Pusy de Port-sur-Saône, conseiller correcteur of the [[Chambre des comptes]] of [[Franche-Comté]], and grandson of Pierre-François Choullat. He was the son-in-law of [[Pierre Poivre]]. His mother-in-law, Françoise Robin, married [[Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours]]. His son, Maurice de Pusy (1799–1864), married Mathilde de Lafayette, daughter of [[Georges Washington de La Fayette|Georges de Lafayette]] and Emilie de Tracy, and granddaughter of [[Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette|General Lafayette]] and [[Antoine Destutt de Tracy]].
==References==
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[[Category:1750 births]]
[[Category:1806 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Haute-Saône]]
[[Category:French nobility]]
[[Category:Members of the National Constituent Assembly (France)]]
[[Category:Politicians from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté]]
[[Category:French engineers]]
[[Category:French prisoners of war in the 18th century]]
[[Category:French Army officers]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Prefects of Allier]]
[[Category:Prefects of Rhône (department)]]
[[Category:Knights of the Order of Saint Louis]]