The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-09-13
ARTHUR ROPES, General Bditor.
UnrighteOus France.


determined by the acts of it's govern
ment. frances standing at the pres
ent time is very low, measured by the
revelations of the court martial recent
ly sitting at Rennes, and the verdict of
that court, in the face of the truth and
the evidence convicting man Of the
chief of public crimes.
What was the interest that for weeks
kept the eyes and hearts of the worlds
millions of people on the trial at
Rennes, whose proceedings and incl
dents a regiment of newspaper report
ers recorded, and sent across CONT
nents and under the seasp AS an indi-
vidual Dreyfus himself did not awaken
this all.pervading interest. In him
seemed to be personified monstrous
wrong, an injustice 30 cruel and for
bidding that all creation cried out
against it, and became interested in the
fate of its victim.
Before the world the culprit in the
presence of the judges at Rennes was
France. Dreyfus, French army Off
Ger, had been in 1894, before tribunal
France had created, charged by France
with the crime of treason. He was
tried and condemned on evidence
which neither he nor his counsel was
permitted to examine, nor was he al.
lowed to confront his accusers and
prove his innocence. His arrest, trial
and condemnation were acts of medley
al cruelty and persecution. The meth
DDS of the inquisition were revived to
find and punish victim for the crimes
of others. Dreyfus endured for five
years, on pestilential island of the
tropics, such punishments as absolute
despotism was wont to infict upon the
objects of its malevolence and displeas-
ure. The author of all this wickedness
was the government of France. 1t
was an echo from the times of the old
Bourbon monarchy.
While this victim of republican
Frances wickedness was suffering on
DEVILS Island, his manifest innocence
was moving for revision of his case.
Scrap by scrap, event by event, the
details of the conspiracy came out.
Forgery and perjury, it appeared, had
been employed to secure his condemna-
ton. One by one the personnel of the
conspiracy was disclosed. So clear be-
came the evidence of Dreyfus' inno-
cence the supreme court of France, on
a hearing of the evidence of wrong and
injustice the champions of the prisoner
had accumulated, ordered a retrial of
the case.
The events of the revision, and the
issue, the press has make known to all
who read. The court of cessation had
decided that Dreyfus was not the au-
thor of the bordereau. The question it
sent to the court martial for answer
was, Had Dreyfus delivered French
military secrets to foreign power?
But the case, in all its ramifcations,
was reviewed at Rennes. Every in
discriminating circulnstance-such as
they were-the prosecution presented
and enforced. There was much af-
frmation by certain generals of the
French army and other persons that
Dreyfus was guilty of every thing
charged against him, but these were the
expressions of men who had an inter-
est in judgment against the prisoner.
1t is entirely within the facts to say
that not only was no proof of Dreyfus'
guilt presented, but proof of his inno-
cence, voluminous and clear as the sun.
light was placed before his judges.
The fabric of perjury, misrepresen.
tation, fraud and forgery which made
up the case against the prisoner was
torn to tatters. Not a shred of truth OF
discriminating fact was left in it.
But innocence and justice were con
tending for vindication against nc
power of ordinary strength. The ha
tired OF his race throughout France
poisoned the sense of justice at it,
source. There was wild unreason
ing clamor for conviction because Drey
fus was Jew. The reputation, ant
indeed the personal freedom, of higl
officials OF the army was in the bal
ance. If Dreyfus was acquitted Ger
tain of these became the proper sub
jects for the gridiron of justice. Th'
members of the court, officers of tn
rank of colonel or lower, if they ha,
any sense of right and justice, weE
overawed by the circumstance tina
their superiors, the generals of tn
staff, were the chief witnesses of tn
prosecution. The president of the tri
bunal, at the beginning of the tria
masking his predetermination to kee
guard over the real culprits in the case
at the last, when the evidence of innC