“At first, gentlemen, this was only a preoccupation, but it became a source of anguish for some, of whom I was one, when there appeared in ‘L’Eclair,’ of September 15, 1896, an article that seemed almost official, a mixture of revelation and falsehood, which did not seem to cause even a moment’s indignation among those in whom this country places the care of right and justice. The attorney-general has spoken to you of this article, and has attempted to attribute it to Colonel Picquart. We shall see presently whether it is difficult to answer him on that point. But, first, I am going to read to you, not the whole article, for it is too long, but a part of it. And you will see at once, now that you know what Colonel Picquart’s sentiments have been since September, 1896, whether the publication of this article can be attributed either to him or to his friends. Remember the name of this newspaper, ‘L’Eclair,’ gentlemen. We shall meet it frequently. It is among those that carry on today the most violent and unjust campaign against the defenders of M. Zola. It began long ago. I read from the article in question.
A French officer is expiating in imprisonment the crime of high treason. That his expiation may be absolute, not a single conscience must grant the traitor the benefit of a doubt. But such doubt is being manifested in repeated articles, and, if some one does not intervene to say frankly and courageously that which has been hidden, it will finally create around Dreyfus a scandalous legend.
“The fact to which the attorney-general alluded in his address, the serious fact that disturbed Colonel Picquart and led him to write to General Gonse that ‘perhaps it will soon be too late for us to do justice,’—was this fact, as has just been insinuated, the article that appeared in ‘L’Eclair’ of September 5, 1896? That cannot be maintained. The articles that raised the doubt of which I have just spoken to you were favorable articles, articles that marked the beginning of a very legitimate campaign, which ‘L’Eclair’ answers with a tissue of lies. Let it not be said that friends of the Dreyfus family could have originated such a story. Presently I will tell you why, but the article itself demonstrates it irrefutably.
That his guilt, attested by the verdict of his peers after a trial held behind closed doors, may appear clear to those minds which are readiest to believe in the possibility of error the entire truth must be known. We have asked the government to tell it. The government does not think that it can depart from the reserve dictated to it by a diplomatic prudence. We are not bound to be equally circumspect. Convinced that the reasons which militated in favor of silence no longer exist, we are persuaded that the proof may be spread before the public.
“Note the process, gentlemen! I do not know exactly from whom the article emanated, though I shall show you that it must have had its source with the staff. Was it given out by an officer or by a subordinate? I do not know, but compare these processes. When doubts spring up, when a campaign is beginning, they strike a blow resembling that which was struck at one of these sessions. We shall return to it; we shall examine its significance. At present I simply ask: Why this resemblance? For there certainly is a resemblance between the way in which they came here to try to close our mouths by declarations that we were not permitted to discuss or to verify, and the insertion in ‘L’Eclair’ of a pretended proof, of which we shall speak again, but which no longer weighs in the balance, because it is ridiculous, as are also those which are brought forward today,—brought forward in the same manner, at a similar moment, with the same intentions.
Irrefutable proof, proof in black and white of the treason, the proof that resulted in the unanimous verdict of the council of war made up of officers who have too long suffered under the cruel suspicion cast upon them by the skilfully-sustained legend of the innocence of Dreyfus. In our opinion, it is patriotic to break with the policy of reticence, and to produce all the documents which rigorously show that the judges of the military court declared their verdict with full knowledge of the facts, and that Dreyfus, in spite of his denials, was guilty, accused by numerous moral presumptions and by formal proofs, one of which bore his name.
“It is a lie, and yet they make the declaration. I pass over very long passages, and come to the essential part of the article. They tell the story of the circumstances under which the prosecution of M. Dreyfus in 1894 was undertaken, the discovery of the bordereau, and then they come to this matter which it is indispensable that I should make known to you.
They were not slow, however, in putting their hands on a document of exceptional importance, a document which later compelled the unanimous decision of the judges. In September the military attachés of the German embassy addressed to their colleagues of the Italian embassy a letter in cipher.
“This is another lie. The letter was not in cipher.
This letter left the hands of its authors to pass into the hands of those for whom it was destined. But between the point of departure and the point of arrival it was prudently photographed. It was a letter in the cipher of the German embassy. About September 20 Colonel Sandherr, chief of the statistical division, communicated to General Mercier this letter, which had been deciphered. It related to the spying service of Paris, and contained this phrase: “Decidedly, that animal Dreyfus is becoming too exacting.”