Naturalism For the CSET

proceedings for retrial and efforts by Dreyfus supporters like Emile Zola – with his celebrated public letter J’accuse…! (translated: I Accuse…!) in 1898 – the controversy unleashed political issues (nationalism, socialism, anticlericalism, antimilitarism, survival of the republican regime, separation of Church and State, etc.) as well as more moral ones (civic and human rights vs. anti-Semitism and intolerance, manipulation of public opinion, responsibility of the Press, limits of executive power over the judiciary, etc.).

J’accuse…!
January 13, 1898
Open Letter to the President of the French Republic
By Emile Zola
Letter to Félix Faure

Mr. President,

Would you allow me, grateful as I am for the kind reception4 you once extended to me, to show my concern about maintaining your well-deserved prestige and to point out that your star which, until now, has shone so brightly, risks being dimmed by the most shameful and indelible of stains.

Unscathed by the vilest slander, you have won over the hearts of all. You are radiant in the patriotic glory of our country’s alliance with Russia,6 you are about to preside over the solemn triumph of our World Fair, the jewel that crowns this great century of Labor, Truth, and Liberty. But what filth this wretched Dreyfus affair8 has cast on your name, or, might I say, your reign. A court martial, under orders, has just dared to acquit that character, Esterhazy, the supreme insult to all truth and all justice. And now the image of France is sullied by this filth, and History shall record that it was under your presidency that this crime against society was committed.

As they have dared, so shall I dare. Dare to tell the truth, as I have pledged to tell it, in full, since the normal channels of justice have failed to do so. My duty is to speak out, not to become an accomplice in this travesty. My nights would otherwise be haunted by the specter of an innocent man, far away, suffering the most horrible of tortures for a crime he did not commit.

And it is to you, Mr. President, that I shall proclaim this truth, with all the revulsion that an