The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-08-30
The Dreyfus Case.

stance of the inquiry and subjoined s
the substance of the answer.
Alfred Dreyfus, Jew, was in 1894 a
captain in the French army, in the ar
tillery arm of the service. He was OF
good family, wealthy and ambitious OF
promotion in his profession. He was
on duty in the war department in
Paris, in connection with the work OF
the general staff, when in October,
1894, he was suddenly arrested on the
charge of treason. He was accused of
furnishing foreign power, which was
understood to be Germany, with infor-
nation pertaining to the secret affairs
of the French army.
The basis of the charge and arrest
was document styled"the bordereau,"
name which has appeared in every
reference to the Dreyfus affair and re-
ours in the reports of the trial and the
rehearing now in progress at Rennes.
Put into English, bordereau is a
bordereau of the Dreyfus trial is a
memorandum or inventory of certain
documents concerning French military
secrets. This document, torn into
fragments, was found by French spy
in waste basket in the office of the
German embassy in Paris. The frag-
4n +al - h.
office and pasted together. The hand
writing was declared to be that of
Dreyfus and on this assumption his ar
rest was ordered. The bordereau set
forth that its writer possessed informa-
tion on the subjects enumerated, which
he would impart, either by loan of
documents or by sending copies. The
instrument was not signed.
The bordereau was examined by five
experts in handwriting, and two of the
number declared that, judged by this
test, it was not the work of Dreyfus.
The prisoners trial was yelled in the
deepest secrecy. When doubt was
thrown on the authorship of the bor-
dereau by the testimony of the hand
writing experts, Gen. MERCER, then
minister of war in the French cabinet,
brought into the trial a package the
designation of which has become equal
ly familiar with "the bordereau" in
the literature of the case, namely, "the
secret dossier." "Dossier" is French
for "budget," a term applied in Eng
lish to collection of public docu-
ments or reports. This "dossier," or
bundle of documents, it was alleged
by the accusers of Dreyfus, contain
ed undeniable proof of the guilt
of the prisoner. This evidence was
not, however, disclosed to Dreyfus or
his counsel. Neither of them was al
lowed to see the contents of the dos
sier, and to neither was the import of
the documents it contained disclosed.
Yet, on what this secret dossier was
said to disclose, and on General Mer-
cier's emphatic declaration that Dreyfus
was guilty, he was condemned. 1t is
this feature of the trial that renders
the whole proceeding 80 abhorrent-a
man accused of an odious crime, con-
victed and condemned to fearful pun
ishment, but denied the right or priv
ilege of being confronted by his accus-
ers and of examining the evidence they
present of the truth of their accusa-
tions. The reason given for this in
famous privacy was, that if the con-
tents of the dossier were made public,
it would involve France in war with
some of the powers of Europe.
Thus was Dreyfus tried and con-
demned. No motive for his crime
could be contrived. He was rich, so
that money could not be his object in
trading in national secrets. No word
or expression of his or reason of any
kind could be assigned for ranking him
with Judas Iscariot and Benedict Ar
mold. He was publicly disgraced,
stripped of the insignia of his rank and
his sword broken in the presence of his
comrades in the army, and sent for life
confinement to Devil Island, eff the
north coast of French Guiana. To the
natural hardships of his environment
in tropical climate and pestilen tial
region, was added the brutal harshness
of his keepers. 1t seemed clear thai
the death of the prisoner was much de-
sired by certain persons in France.
After Dreyfus' deportation Colone
Picquart came into charge of the bu
reau of intelligence in the war depart
ment. He had been believer in the
guilt of the man who was languishine
on Devil Island. The secret dossiel
came into his possession. He exam
ined its contents and was Mortified by
its utter lack of evidence of Dreyfus
guilt. So far from pointing to the lat