Dupont de Nemours (see chapter 3) played a prominent part in the events of the pre-revolutionary period, prior to becoming an influential deputy in the Constituent Assembly. Strangely enough, this figure is virtually forgotten today. If so few have sought to honour his memory, it is very probably because he belongs to a liberal tradition whose supporters have always been in a minority in France. It seems to me appropriate to review here the main stages of his career.

Pierre-Samuel Dupont (or Du Pont) was born in Paris in 1739. His parents, who were Protestants, had each a very different influence upon him. His mother belonged to a family of minor, impoverished nobility; his marked taste for literature and the arts derived from her. His father, a clockmaker, had an authoritarian and somewhat introverted character, and shared all the prejudices of his day against literary men. He opposed Dupont's aspirations and his penchant for study, and wished his son to follow in his footsteps.

When Dupont was seventeen, his mother died, and life became hard for him. Left to his own devices, in conflict with his father, he found it hard to invest his existence with any meaning. He began training for a military career, then for a medical one. After a serious illness, he again became an apprentice clockmaker and finally, having dreamed of various chimerical projects, he resolved to consolidate his situation in life, in order to be able to marry his sweetheart, Nicole Le Dée de Rencourt.