He found the evidence unconvincing until General Mercier handed in to the Judges a secret dossier. The court-martial began on December 19, and Major Picquart reported the proceedings for the headquarters staff. At once a tremendous campaign was opened by the anti-Semitic press, and Mercier, yielding to the clamour, persuaded the Ministry to prosecute. The Ministry had not yet decided to prosecute, when on October 28 Henry revealed to the anti-Semitic “Libre Parole” the arrest of Dreyfus. Three more expert graphologists were consulted one decided against identity, the other two, influenced by Bertillon, for. The arrest was kept secret while the search for further proofs was continued. Then, on October 15, Mercier ordered the arrest of Dreyfus. Then Bertillon, who hitherto had not professed a knowledge of graphology, was called in and gave a contrary opinion. He decided that the handwriting of the documents revealed many differences and need not have been the work of one man. General Mercier, the Minister for War, was informed of the situation, and after consultation with the Cabinet, the bordereau, together with some letters of Dreyfus, was submitted to an expert. Major Henry, a close friend of Esterhazy’s, was entrusted with the investigation, and suspicion fell upon Captain Dreyfus, a distinguished young officer in the Intelligence Department, whose handwriting was found to bear a vague resemblance to that of the bordereau. There had already been several disturbing leakages of information, so that there was great anxiety to discover the writer of the bordereau. But there is good reason to believe that it never passed through the hands of Colonel Schwarzkoppen, the Germany Attach?, but was torn in pieces and brought to the office by Esterhazy, its author.
It was originally claimed that this document was found by a charwoman employed at the German Embassy, who was paid to bring to the French Intelligence Department the contents of the embassy’s waste-paper basket. The Dreyfus affair The arrest of Captain Dreyfus on the charge of high treason was due to the discovery by the French Intelligence Department in September 1894, of the bordereau, an unsigned letter promising to forward certain secret information as to French military matters. Consequently the Court quashed the judgment of the Rennes court-martial convicting Dreyfus, stating that that conviction has been pronounced erroneously and wrongly.
#Alfred dreyfus descendants trial#
Since the charge against Dreyfus had completely broken down no fresh trial ought to be ordered.
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