DREYFUS (Affaire). - FRANCE (Anatole). Autograph... Lot 56

DREYFUS (Affaire). - FRANCE (Anatole). Autograph manuscript. 11 pp. in-4 with numerous collettes. SPEECH GIVEN AT THE SOIREE COMMEMORATIVE DE LA PUBLICATION DU J'ACCUSE D'ÉMILE ZOLA (January 13, 1906), organized by the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen, six months before the rehabilitation of Alfred Dreyfus, which would be decreed on July 12, 1906 by the Cour de Cassation. "Yes, we'll talk about it, citizens! [Alluding to Caran d'Ache's famous cartoon in which a family dinner ends in a fistfight over the Dreyfus affair - "Ils en ont parlé" - and Anatole France is depicted as the patriarch]. Yes, we'll talk about the Dreyfus affair. Yes, we will recall with just pride that we were among those who were called Dreyfusards. Let's take our minds back to that troubled and productive year of 1897. Bernard Lazare had long since provided the first proof of the innocence of the man condemned in 1894. A man of ancient probity, Scheurer-Kestner, Vice-President of the French Senate, had just expressed his cruel doubts that an appalling error had not been committed. Mathieu Dreyfus had provided material proof that the document attributed to his brother was in Esthérazy's handwriting. Many people around the world were already aware of the miscarriage of justice. Then a major political and religious party turned this crime into a means of action and a principle of government... Selfishness and fear ruled the country. They were ministers. Their names were Méline and Billot. A few good citizens denounced the crime and pointed out the danger. But they were ignored. The culprits were backed by such political and secret forces that it seemed impossible to reach them, and there was no hope of shedding light on the country's conscience, clouded by countless lies and troubled by odious violence. WHILE TERROR REIGNED, ÉMILE ZOLA SHOWED WHAT A JUST AND FEARLESS MAN CAN DO. Full of works, enjoying in peace his genius and his glory, he made the sacrifice of his popularity, his peace of mind, his work, and threw himself into fatigue and peril for justice and truth, to show himself a righteous man, and in the proud hope that with him his country would once again become just and courageous...".