The Mystery Surrounding The Dreyfus Affair Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper The Mystery Surrounding the Dreyfus Affair by Mitchell Fishbein A.P. European History Mr. Ascuito April 4, 1999 The Dreyfus matter was the consequence of many unfortunate fortunes, non the planned premeditated intercession of the Gallic Army. It was the result of sensible intuition, acted on by disdain, some circumstantial grounds, and natural bias. However, the knowing ground forces coverup, and fly-by-night courtroom processs, were responsible for stamp downing of import grounds and maintaining an of import Gallic Army officer incarcerated in beastly conditions. Alfred Dreyfus was born into a affluent Judaic household on October 9, 1859 in the town of Mulhouse located in the state of Alsace, under Gallic regulation. However the Dreyfus household moved after the Franco-Prussian War in order to stay Gallic citizens. Dreyfus choose a Military Career, and entered the E kale Polytechnique in 1878. As a immature officer, Dreyfus was competent and hardworking, although non superb or popular. In 1889, Dreyfus attained the rank of heavy weapon captain, and was assigned as a trainee to the general staff. On July 20, 1894, a Gallic officer, Marie Charles Ferdinand Walstin-Esterhazy, offers to sell secret Gallic military files, to the German military attache, Lieutenant Colonel Max von Schwartzkoppen. Esterhazy left a note, or bordereau as it came to be known, for the German attache in his mail box, but it was retrieved by a Gallic agent. It ended up in the custodies of Colonel Sandherr, who torn it to pieces, to do it look that Lt. Col. Had Schwartzkoppen read the missive and torn it up. The cleansing amah retrieved the grounds. Typically, Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Henry would be in Paris, and this faithless information would hold gone consecutive to him, but that twenty-four hours he was on leave. Colonel Henry, was a friend of Esterhazy # 8217 ; s, might hold recognized the similarity between the two manus Hagiographas, but be as it may it was the first of several unfortunate fortunes that, resulted in Dreyfus # 8217 ; s strong belief. This was, supposofly, non the first grounds of Gallic lese majesty. Another note was found written by the Italian attache to Paris, Lieutenant Colonel Panizzardi, to Schwartzkoppen. In this missive, Panizzardi referred to an agent by # 8220 ; Scoundrel D. # 8221 ; Officers madly searched the files of officers that might hold entree to some of the extremely classified stuff mentioned in the missive. They rapidly came across the name of Alfred Dreyfus. This would be the 2nd unfortunate circumstance. The happenstance that Alfred # 8217 ; s last name started with the missive D. Dreyfus # 8217 ; s composing samples were scrutinized by Major Marquis Du Paty de Clam who was indecisive. Major Marquis, summoned a handwriting expert from the Banque de France, who was every bit unsure. On October 15, 1894, Dreyfus was summoned by Major Du Paty to look at central offices, have oning civilian apparels. Major Du Paty dictated from the bordereau, and Dreyfus was order to compose it down. Dreyfu s did so calmly, except for some shaking due to the coldness of the fall twenty-four hours. Major Du Paty became infuriated by his composure, and believed it was a frontage to hide his guilt. Dreyfus was instantly arrested for lese majesty, by Minister of War General Auguste Mercier. Dreyfus instinctively pronounced his artlessness. Subsequently Major Du Paty de Clam offered him a gun to perpetrate self-destruction, but Dreyfus would non, stating that he would populate to turn out his artlessness and justify his award. The 3rd unfortunate set of circumstance was the fact that Alfred Dreyfus was a Jew, and non a popular officer. At age 30 six Dreyfus was of medium tallness, with brown hair, and a toneless voice, and distinguished merely by his rimless pince-nez spectacless. Dreyfus # 8217 ; s deficiency of friends and uneven visual aspect left him in a vulnerable place. Dreyfus was stiff, cold, and about unnaturally right. His demeanour, the antonym of royal poinciana, seemed to be the perfect screen for a undercover agent. The 1890 # 8217 ; s was a period of widespread and hostile antisemitism in France. Hatred toward the Jews was financed by Monarchists, Patriots, Jesuits, and Catholic functionaries running deep into the most respectable territories. France was still enduring from her licking by the Germans in 1870, in which Alsace and Lorraine was lost. In 1892, the Panama Canal Scandal broke which revealed that 104 deputies were involved in the pickings of illegal payoffs, doing the company to travel bankrupt. Several of the taking participants involved in the dirt were Judaic bankers, and Gallic bitterness towards the Jews increased when many Gallic investors lost their money. Because of Dreyfus # 8217 ; s faith, the Gallic people and officers found it easier to accept his guilt as the whipping boy. For two months, Dreyfus was held in prison, without visitational rights, while the ground forces built it # 8217 ; s instance. Dreyfus was so committed to the award of France and it # 8217 ; s officers, he was certain they would non manufacture grounds and would shortly recognize the error and release him. Meanwhile, the Dreyfus place was searched and Major Du Paty questioned his married woman, and warned her non to talk to anyone refering Alfred. The ground forces did non happen any longer criminative grounds and lacked a motivation. Gen. Mercier realized that the instance against Dreyfus was circumstantial at best. Mercier knew that Dreyfus would non usually hold entree to some of the sensitive stuff mentioned in the bordereau. He besides knew that Dreyfus was non scheduled for any ground forces manoeuvres at that clip, as it was said it the bordereau. The lone piece of difficult, true grounds was the unsigned bordereau, and the expert handwriting committee was divided as to who the existent writer was. General Mercier understood a strong belief would be based upon one of two things: a confession or incontestable script designation. F or Dreyfus, the following set of unfortunate fortunes occurred when General Mercier, drastically changed the whole position of the instance. Colonel Henry became fearful that his friend, Esterhazy would be named as the true perpetrator, so Henry leaked the narrative to a anti-semitic newspaper, La Libre Parole. Due to the deficiency of grounds and motivation, the War Department planned on let go ofing Dreyfus. This was all changed on November 1, 1894 when La Libre Parole accused Mercier of being a Judaic sympathiser, and that he was being paid off by the mob of international Jewry. Suddenly Mercier realized that if Dreyfus was freed, his place as Minister of War, would be in danger and worse, perchance, the authorities itself. In response to La Libre Parole’s accusal, Mercier summoned the military editor from the newspaper Figaro. Here he stated he had â€Å"proofs that cried aloud the lese majesty of Dreyfus† and he reiterated Dreyfus’s â€Å"guilt with absolut e certain.† The power and significance of Mercier’s words were immediately recognized, for it changed the whole matter. Even before the test, Mercier tied the ground forces to Dreyfus’s guilt, and secured the army’s base on the instance. Mercier’s words were interpreted even further by the many influential and colored newspapers of bend of the century France. Cassagnac, the monarchist editor, wrote in L Autorite, † If Dreyfus is acquitted, Mercier goes†and since Mercier works for the authorities, â€Å"If Dreyfus is non guilty so the authorities is.† The first test of Captain Alfred Dreyfus started on December 19, 1894 in Paris. It can be said that Dreyfus # 8217 ; s destiny was sealed in the first Court session, when the tribunal voted to hold the Sessionss in camera, with all public and imperativeness restricted. Such unnatural proceedings, which have long been held in neglect in France and other Western states, were allowed due to the nature and traffics, of top secret military information which were wholly uncorroborated, . This becomes the first, but non last controversial courtroom opinion. The 2nd twenty-four hours of tribunal found Lt. Col. Henry attesting that in March, a respectable officer told him that another officer was perpetrating lese majesty. Henry so said, that in June the same individual named the treasonist as Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus became emotional and demanded to cognize who his accuser was. Henry responded with a smiling, # 8221 ; There are secrets in an officer # 8217 ; s head that even his cap must n on know. # 8221 ; The 2nd irregular courtroom determination was to uphold Lieutenant Colonel Henry # 8217 ; s vail of secretiveness. He would non hold to unwrap the name of the officer, but simply to curse on his award he told the truth. On the 3rd twenty-four hours, the adept manus authors testified, but they were non really convincing, and sentiment seemed to put with the accused. Mercier, genuinely believing that Dreyfus was guilty of lese majesty, had planned for merely this state of affairs. General Mercier ordered Major Du Paty to manus the presiding justice, Colonel Maurel, an envelope incorporating counterfeits, ( such as the Panizzardi missive ) irrelevances, and hearsay all implicating Dreyfus as the perpetrator. This came to be known as the # 8220 ; secret file # 8221 ; or dossier secret. This so became the 3rd illegal, and scandalous courtroom behavior, because the contents of the dossier were neer revealed to Dreyfus # 8217 ; s lawyer, Charles Demange, which discre dits the whole test and renders it illegal. General Mercier to the full realized the effects of his actions, and paid for it. Dreyfus # 8217 ; s defence lawyer, shuting statements lasted for three hours, in it which he contended that the prosecution did non even bother to offer a motivation, which they said it was non up to them to provide one, but that the obscure similarity of the bordereau and Dreyfus # 8217 ; s script was ground adequate to convict. The Judgess so went to their Chamberss, where unknown to the defence, and in unfastened misdemeanor of Gallic jurisprudence, they opened the secret file. The deliberations lasted one hr and the finding of fact was consentaneous, Dreyfus was guilty. Later that twenty-four hours on the site of his disapprobation, a triumph rabble gathered shouting anti-semitic comments everyplace. Among the crowd was the Paris letter writer for the Vienna Neue Freie Presse, Theodore Herzl. He was so disturbed by the crowd that he when he returned place he wrote Der Judenstaat, an essay whose exclusive intent was the # 8220 ; Restoration of the Jewish state. # 8221 ; Within 18 months, Herzl organized the first Zionist Congress, made up of two 100 delegates from 15 states. Suddenly the Dreyfus matter took on a whole new intent, which the Judaic people have been waiting for 18 hundred old ages. Two hebdomads subsequently, Alfred Dreyfus was humiliated, by being stripped of his decorations and uniform, and made to walk down a line of officers, who looked on with disgust. In the summer of 1895, Lieutenant Colonel George Picquart, was appointed head of the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff. Picquart accepted Dreyfus # 8217 ; s guilt, and did non analyze the instance. After about eight months he stumbled on an unsettling happenstance one twenty-four hours in March of 1896. Picquarts # 8217 ; officers brought him a missive, written by Colonel Schwartzkoppen to a Gallic foot officer, Esterhazy. This missive, known as petit blue cheese, was a major accelerator for Picquart and his renewed probe. The more Picquart thought about the missive the more intrigued he became. He re- opened up the Dreyfus file, and to his daze he found nil but counterfeits, and rumours. Picquart investigated further, and came to the decision that the existent treasonist was an Infantry Major named Walsin Esterhazy. Esterhazy seemed a much better campaigner for a undercover agent. He drank, whored, was a bad male parent, and had gaming debts. He brought his findings to the Chief and Assistant Chief of the General Staff, Generals Boisdeffre and Gonse. Picquart shortly realized, due to Boisdeffre and Gonse # 8217 ; s unwillingness to either prosecute Esterhazy or release Dreyfus, that the Gallic Army # 8217 ; s award was at interest. He