[1] Devès was elected as a deputy for Béziers on 20 February 1876, and sat with the Republican Left.

He was reelected in the second round on 4 September 1881, then resigned and ran successfully for election for Bagnères-de-Bigorre on 18 December 1881.

[2] Devès was Minister of Justice and Religion from 7 August 1882 to 28 January 1883 in the cabinet of Charles Duclerc, then Minister of Justice from 29 January 1884 to 20 February 1883 in the cabinet of Armand Fallières.

[1] On the issue of the naturalization of Algerian Jews, Devès made a tacit concession to antisemitism in Algeria and France.

He favored a literal interpretation of the 1870 Crémieux decree, which supported naturalization of Jews in the areas of Algeria that were departments in 1870, but not in the M'zab protectorate in the south.