Lot n° 209
Estimation :
3000 - 3500
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 12 740EUR
SCHOELCHER Victor (1804-1893)
Autograph MANUSCRIT, 1870- 1893; large small in-4 notebook of 85 leaves, that is, more than 80 in-4 handwritten pages and about 90 pages of clippings, original hardback, combed paper boards, blue basane spine.
Precious manuscript of his diary and memorandum, mentioning his struggle for the abolition of slavery. Schoelcher details his activities and meetings, his reflections on the facts of the day, sometimes in English; he has pasted in numerous press clippings. We can only give a quick overview here. The first entry dates from February 10, 1870, and attests to a brief visit of the exile to Paris: "Arrived at Étienne Arago's at 10 a.m. by the magnificent thoroughfare of Rue Lafayette.
Lunch at the Grand Hôtel with Schœrer, his wife, Laurent Pichat, Clemenceau. The Opera is a real monument, with originality. Façade and festive entrance. The three arches of the courtyard of the Carrousel as big as Egyptian things. Went to Legouvé's, Mrs Sandrier's and the Rappel. Saw there Meurice, Vacquerie and the son Laferrière talented lawyer. Refused to contribute because I do not want to write where a woman like Madame Sand writes"... The following entries evoke the discovery of recent Parisian monuments and the meeting of many personalities: Albert, Wolf, Mrs. Floquet (Kestner's daughter), Peyrat, Bresson, Seigneuret, Bouilhet, Amaury-Duval, Huet and Hetzel's sons... On February 16, he visited with Ernest Legouvé the new buildings of the Palace of Justice; on the 17th, he had lunch at Laurent-Pichat's, discovered the church of the Trinity of Ballu, dined with Legouvé and accompanied him to the Italians... On the 20th, he goes to a concert at the Conservatoire: "The Schoeners say that Guillaume Tell is full of banalities. Mr Théophile Gautier said at Legouvé's that Molière did not know how to write verse. Mr. Protet, a painter, said at Madame Chabrier's that he did not like Murillo. There is nothing sacred anymore. Dinner at Madame Chabrier's with Robin, good music"... He left Paris on February 23 and returned home to London the next morning. Schoelcher then drafted letters written between 1870 and 1872 to Berlioux on the slave trade, Melvil Bloncourt against the annexation of Haiti by the United States, Chameravzon ("Poor, great, noble Spain!"), Lennard on political corruption and degradation in England and France, Alex. Verdet (on the rumor that he was a candidate to represent Martinique, with the text of an open letter), Louis Blanc on the "monstrous" declaration of war), Saint-Léger, president of the electoral committee of Pointe-à-Pitre, etc. A long development is devoted to his own political commitments. Its conclusion attests that at the time when there was much talk of the "liberal Empire," Schoelcher was considering a political comeback: "Still very young, I joined the secret societies that conspired against the government of the elder branch of the Bourbons. After the July Revolution I soon saw that the younger branch was no better than the elder. I was a member of the Society of the Rights of Man, I contributed with my pen and my purse to the republican reviews and newspapers at the same time that I devoted myself to the cause of the emancipation of the Negroes. After the February Revolution, I served under the magnanimous provisional government which I admire and will always honor, I contributed to two of its noblest acts: the abolition of slavery in our colonies and of corporal punishment which still stained our Maritime Code"... He evokes his activity in the Constituent Assembly and in the Legislative Assembly, where he was one of the vice-presidents of the Mountain, then his conduct during the Two Decades: "I resisted with all my strength to the triumph of the bloodthirsty conspirators, I was at the barricade of the Faubourg St Antoine where Baudin found a glorious death. Exiled, I wrote in two large volumes the history of the crimes of those nefarious days, and I stayed at the border wanting to keep the flag of the Republic raised. Today, I am what I have always been, a democratic socialist republican"... He specifies his priority political goals: free and compulsory education, unlimited freedom of speech and of the press, subject to legal proceedings for any slander, and ends this profession of faith with a warning: "I accept the imperative mandate, my conscience making me an imperious duty to remain faithful to the commitments that the voters would have required of me and that I would have accepted. Finally I refuse the oath because I am decided to use all the means compatible with the honor to overthrow the odious power come out of the forfeits of December two "... One also reads interesting comments on the plebiscite of May 10, 1870, the Franco-Prussian war, the fall of the Empire, the declarations of Napoleon III, the elections of 1871, the devastation seen from the trai
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