ANDRE (Louis Joseph Nicolas) - Lot 18

ANDRE (Louis Joseph Nicolas) Born in Nuits-Saint-Georges. 1838 - 1913. French general, Minister of War. L.A.S. "L. André" to a friend. Gevrey-Chambertin, July 20, 1905. 3 pages in-8. Involved in the "Affaires des fiches" (political and religious segregation in the French army) which led to the fall of the Combes ministry, General André was forced to resign in November 1904. So it was as a private individual that he replied to his correspondent, whose approach to Brisson (President of the Chamber) came as no surprise. ...The general aspect of the Chamber was interesting, it seems, while he was proclaiming himself my friend... he writes wryly. However, the way he was received ...by deputies who at present look only to their constituencies, tells us that the state of mind of the provinces, at least as far as I am concerned, differs from that of Paris... But the efforts of those who try to justify General André's actions in the face of the deputy Syvetot, who had insulted him in the middle of the Assembly, seem to him to be in vain. ...This persistence and unusual violence of the attacks against a resigning minister have an explanation which escapes you no more than it escapes me; but where does the inertia of the Paris newspapers, small republics among them, come from?...He then gives news of his family, before adding in a P.S.: ...And the resumption of the affair? (The Dreyfus affair, which is back in the news with the prospect of a retrial), isn't it time to think about it, and to ask ourselves whether we might not find in it some of the explanations we're missing?...