Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1903-04-24
|DREYfus ASKS
| FOR REHEAR|NG
Makes Dramatic Appeal to the
French Minister Of War
for Justice.
DECLARES ESTERHAZY GUILTY
Graphic Description Of the Mental and
+ Physical sufferinas Of a Soldier
Who Is innocent, Vet Bears the
Burdens Of Others.

Paris, April 23.--Dreyfus In q let
.er to Gen. Andre, minister of war.
makes a dramatic appeal for the re-
opening of his case.
In legal and political circles it is
generally believed that the appeal will
- granted by the cabinet,
Dreyfus pleads for an investigation
Dy the minister of war, and alleges
since his second conviction, sentence
and pardon in 1899 he has gathered
evidence to prove that he was twice
the victim Of criminal tactics and VIC
lations of law. He declares Esterhazy
stands before the entire world as the
real culprit.
Says Court Was Influenced.
The first part of the letter is an
earnest plea that the court which con-
demned him at Rennes was improp-
erly Influenced, first by the annotated
document ascribed to Emperor Will.
lam, and, second, by the false testi.
mony of the witnesses, Czernuski.
After arguing on the extent to
which these contributed to his con-
demnation, Dreyfus recalls in graphic
terms the long series of horrors to
which he had been subjected.
The letter throughout is couched in
q highly dramatic style, which is like
ly to make it one Of the notable pa
pers of the case. One of the leading
passages is as follows:
Soldiers Plea.
II will not recall, Mr.. Minister,
what have endured since 1894. Pic
ture to yourself the horrors of SOL
der whose whole life was devoted to
duty, to work, to loyalty and to pro-
found devotion for his country, and
who in an instant is stripped of his
good name and despoiled of the honor
Of himself and his children.
"F'or five years this soldier is sub.
jected to horrible sufferings. They
seek to crush him physically, to ami
hilate him morally. He is absolutely
innocent of all crime, and struggles in
vain to penetrate the mystery, pro.
claiming his innocence and struggling
with all the forces of his mind and
body for that supreme pleasure of vim
dcating his good name and character.
Hopes Are Shattered.
Days, months, years pass thus in
most cruel agony, amid the tortures of
a murderous climate. At last he is
brought back to France. the guilty one
is discovered, and the soldier hears
himself proclaimed innocent by those
who before reyiled him as q traitor.
It was thus, Mr.. Minister, that hoped
to see my martyrdom ended.
But, alas. If I returned to find the
devotion of friends who had battled
for the truth it was to find also that
deadly hatreds had been Embossed.
Stabbed in the Back.
"In the processes Of 1894 was
stabbed in the back. cannot ina CINE
how such conditions can prevail
through falsehood and deception. But
SO it was, and my second conde1nna-
ton was but an aggravated reafirma-
ton of what occurred in 1894. When
the guilty one was known and un-
masked and Esterhazy was recognized
as the author of the treason the same
men who had cheated justice in 1894
again sought in 1899 to cheat justice
for the second time by the same grim
nal maneuvers. Conscious OF these
methods, the government of the re-
public will not permit itself to keep
In prison one who is known to be in
nocent. -..e
Sure Of Justice.
In constant thought of ultimate
legal revision ! have reassembled lit
tie by little all the divergent elements
Of testimony contributed to my con-
viction. I have scorned calumnies and
have remained silent
with the firm conviction that Justice
would surely have it's day of triumph.
1.-THE victim of criminal tactics and
violation of the law twice committed
against me, l now address myself to
The supreme. chief of military justice,
and, supporting myself by new facts
which have been elected and by the
existence of the pretended bordereau
annotated by Emperor William, I beg
irst, upon the uses made Of this false
document at Rennes and the conse-
luences it produced on those render
ng Judgment; second, upon the false
md fraudulent fastimOnv IF C!zarnus.