The Dickinson press., 1899-09-23

have fought every step of the way since
an effort was made to have the case pass.
ed upon again.
General Mercier. Mercier wa minis
ter OF war when in 1894 the Dreyfus trial
began. 1t was he who first assigned
Major du Patty de Clam to investigate
the case. He has always been bitterly
opposed to any r%e-opening thereof. lola
in his famous %"J'accuse," an open letter
in the Aurora, specified Mcrcier as "an
accomplice, through weakness, in one of
the greatest iniquities of the age" 1t
was General Mercier who made such a
sensation in the trial at Rennes, August
10, 1899. 1t was he whom Dreyfus adj
dressed so vehemently, and whom the
audience insulted SO openly as he left
the courtroom after testifying.
Lieutcnant-C Colonel Picquart. This
chief of the bureau of secret intelligence
from 1904 to 1897 was the official custo-
dian OF the documents relating to the
trial. With all other French officers, he
believed Drcyfus guilty and his de-
graduation and punishment deserved,
He was the first to entertain a doubt,
and it was by accident, nearly two years
alter the affair happened, that his sus-
plcions were aroused. 1t was on May /,
1896, that in the regular order of things
one OF the spies turned in a torn visiting
card with some unimportant writing on
it. AS Picquart glanced at it there was
a momentary shudder, for it was the
handwriting of Dreyfus, who had been
on Devils island for more than a year.
1t was the card Of Esterhazy, on which
he expressed regrets that he could not
meet as per appointment Schwarzkoppen,
the German military attache.-thc very
man with whom the original bordercau
was discovered by the spy in 1904. This
circumstance and the fact that the pen
manship had deceived Picquart decided
him at once that E,sterhazy, an not
Dreyfus, was the traitor. He made an
exhaustive personal investigation and
his conviction was complete. He pre-.
senscd the facts to various civil and mill
tary parties, but little interest was taken
in his view O. TIE case until the vice
president OF the senate, Scheurer-Kest-
ner, expressed his belief that Drevfus
did not write the bordereau. This was
in September of 1896, on November 10
a fac-simile of the bordercau was pub,
llshed tor the experts of the world to see,
and the feeling grew with the people
that E%sterhazy wrote the bordereau, but
there seemed no occasion or opportunity
TO do anything about it. August 1867
Picard, a detective in the Dreyfus case
was found dead in his Paris lodgings
In October, Scheurer-Ke stn publicly
announced that he had proof that Drey.
fus did not write the bordereau. Early
in November he laid his proofs before
the war department, and still there seem.
ed to be no disposition or excuse for Civ.
ing the matter public attention. But the
vice-president would not let the matter
rest He is a life member of the senate,
is neither a friend nor a foe of the lew,
did not know Dreyfus or any of his
family. All that he has done has been
in the interest of justice.
November II, 1897, Matthew Dreyfus
publicly and explicitly charged Ester
hazy with the authorship of the bordereau.
November l6, Esterhazy demanded a
court-martial. This trial was generally
considered a farce, and he was acquitted
January IL. The public felt very keenly
the farcial nature of this court-martial.
That which did more than anything else
to satisfy the military that Dreyfus was
guilty was the presentation of what is
known as the letter of 1896, a note which
passed between the German attache,
Schwarzkoppen, and the Italian minister,
in which Dreyfus' name is mentioned in
a compromising way. This was un-
answcrable, and entirely relieved Ester
hazy in the eyes of his brother officers.
On November IS, 1907, five days after
Esterhazy demanded a court-martial,
lola wrote a evere letter for the Aurora
reviewing the Dreyfus case. Esterhazy
was acquitted January IL, 1893, and on
the 18TH zola's famous letter "J'accuse"
appeared in the Aurora. This was an
open letter to the president of France,
Francois Felix Faure, IN which he assert
ed that Esterhazy's acquittal was not ur.
on evidence, but "by order" of the civil
authorities. as we'll as of the military.
The lola Trial. Emile lola was tried
with the publisher of the Aurora for say
ing that Esterhazy was acquitted "by or
der" Boisdeffre, chief of staff of the
French army, appeared at the trial in
full uniform and made a special plea to
the military jury to have confidence in the
head of the French army when he said
that Dreyfus was guilty. General de
Pellieux advanced to the railing and
stated the contents of the letter of 1906,
and assured the jury that it was genuine.
M. C%avaignac, then minister of war, made
a thrilling speech in the French chamber,
telling them of the letter of 1896, and as
surfing them that it was genuine. By
their W act they practically admitted
that there was no sufficient proof that
Dreyfus wrQte the bQrdereap, but there
was indisputable proof that he was chum-
my with schwarzkoppen and this was all
sufficient. The bordereau was found in
the w~astebasket, so to speak, of Schwarz-
koppen, and in the 1896 letter Schwartz
koppen referred to Dreyfus in a most
friendly and compromising manner
Colonel Sandherr. Colonel Sandherr
a chief in the war department at the
time. He was aleading anti semitic, and
he had a horrible fear lest it SHOULD event
ually come out that Dreyfus was innocent
and some anti-Semite guilty. He died of
paralysis, and a little before his death
he charged +ieutenant-C Colonel Henry,
then chief of the intelligence depart
ment of the war Office, to guard sacredlv