History
article | Reading time2 min
Georges Clemenceau was a committed man. Let's look back at two of his battles: amnesty for the Communards and the Dreyfus Affair.
Amnesty for the Communards
In 1876, Georges Clemenceau was elected deputy.
One of the major causes of his mandate was the amnesty of the Communards. He had the support of Victor Hugo, elected senator. Both had witnessed the desperation of the Parisian people during the siege of Paris by the Prussian army in the winter of 1870-1871. It was a terrible winter, the people were starving, and economic conditions were disastrous.
All these circumstances, combined with France's capitulation and the Parisian people's distrust of the new government, led to the insurrection of March 18, 1871. The crushing of the Commune in May 1871 led to the deportation of thousands of insurgents to New Caledonia, including Louise Michel, a mutual friend of Victor Hugo and Georges Clemenceau. She wrote to Clemenceau: "General amnesty or nothing! After the tabling of several bills, the combined efforts of the two men led to theamnesty of the Communards in July 1880.
This battle revealed Clemenceau to the world of politics.
© Musée Clemenceau
The Dreyfus Affair
When Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to military degradation and deportation on December 22, 1894, Georges Clemenceau didn't think the punishment was fair enough for the crime he had committed. Even though he fought against the death penalty, he asked that it be applied to Dreyfus.
Yet it was a denial of justice that triggered Clemenceau's entry into the Dreyfus affair. He wrote: "Iniquity against one is iniquity against all".
In January 1898, Émile Zola, then deeply involved in the affair, came to see Clemenceau to ask him to publish his "open letter to the President of the Republic" in the columns of the newspaper L'Aurore. The latter agreed, and gave the letter a title: the famous "J'accuse! The article was published on January 13, 1898.
Émile Zola and the manager of the newspaper L'Aurore were sued for libel. At the trial in February 1898, Georges Clemenceau was allowed to plead for L'Aurore alongside his brother Albert, a lawyer. The trial was an opportunity for Clemenceau to denounce the irregularities in the Dreyfus trial, with a view to having it reviewed. Georges Clemenceau made it his mission to publish daily on the affair in L'Aur ore and La Dépêche (around 700 articles).
It wasn't until the Court of Cassation's ruling on July 12, 1906 that Dreyfus was fully rehabilitated. Georges Clemenceau was Minister of the Interior at the time.
© Gallica BnF
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