The Jewish South. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1893-1899, 1899-01-27


by the injection into the of race feeling. Up to
the opening of the Dreyfus there had been very
little of this in France The anti-Semitic leaders had
but a small following, much smaller than had been
the case in Germany during the Stoecker agitation,
than was actually the case in Austria under the
leadership of Dr. Lueger and Prinz Lichtenstein
But the Dreyfus made matters decidedly
in this respect. AntiSemtic newspapers pointed to
it proof that they were justified in their hatred
of the Jews They called attention to the fact that
all over the world, and even in France Hebrews were
ready to believe that French officers had
sentenced an innocent man than that Jew had been
proved traitor, and they soon found ears wlingto
listen to them when they accused the whole race OF
hatred against the French army. The almost unan-
lmous stand taken abroad especially in England and
Germany against the finding of the court did
help matters rather the reverse. 1t considered
an intrusion of foreigners into matters that did
concern them. 1t enabled the nt-Semitc papers to
state the case thus to the people: On side the
foreigners and Jews, on the other, generals;
choose between the two. As for the Government,
which was time and again questioned in the Cham
bers about the case its always the same
The Dreytus is adjudicata and unless an APP
plcatlon is made in due form the Minister of Jus
tice for revision of the case application based
upon new facts which not known at the time
the 1895 trial there is no longer any Dreyus
PcQUART REMOVED.
That there still was such case became however
evident when Lieutenant Colonel Pcquart who had
been for quite while at the head of the secret nor
nation department in the War Office was suddenly
removed from his post and sent to command a regi
ment IN Fun1sla, for it was known at that the
reason OF this decision difference OF opinion be
tween the Lieutenant Colonel and his brother officers
in regard TO the whole affair. About the same time
the rumor grew that Dreyfuss conviction had been
I1yI ~, IL
Judges of secret documents which had not been
placed in evidence during the trial and which had
never been shown to the defendant to his counsel
Finally in the fall of 1897 it announced that
one of the most eminent members of the Republican
party, NJ Scheurer- Kestner Vice President of the
Senate had become convinced of Dreyfuss innocence
and would ask the Government to grant him new
trial Events after that began to follow each other
in rapid succession
NJ Scheurer-K estners appeal to Prime Minister
Mene and to General Blot then Minister of War
was not followed by any practical results except
that in an Interpolation to the Cabinet ex- Minis
ter of War, M. Godefroy Cavaignac insisted that
there was in the hands Of the Minister report of
Captain Lebrun- Renault who had had Drevfus in his
keeping the day of the military degradaton and
that that report contained an admission of his guilt
by the ex-Captain. This, it must be said was at
once Indignantly denied by Dreyfuss friends and
family, but it was later shown that there was some
foundation for NJ. Cavaignacs assertion.
FOR ANOTHERS CRIME.
The next step IN the development of this dramatic
case letter from NJ Matthew Dreyfus brother
of Alfred Dreytus This letter addressed to the War
Minister, plainly stated that Alfred Drevfls had been
sentenced for another man S crime and it gave that
mans name. He was Count Ferdinand Valsin Ester
hazy, major in a regiment of infantry; and was de
clared to have been the author of the bordereau
which had played important part in the trial of
1894 At the same time facsimies of the bordereap
began to appear in the daily papers, together with
specimens Of the handwriting both OF DreYfus and