CARNOT, Hippolyte (1801-1888). French politician and writer, - Lot 14

CARNOT, Hippolyte (1801-1888). French politician and writer, son of Lazare Carnot, Minister of Public Instruction under the Second Republic, Republican deputy and senator. Autograph letter signed, on letterhead of the Mairie du VIIIe arrondissement de Paris, dated October 3, 1870, addressed "to M. Jules Simon". Important political letter written at the start of the Third Republic, in the immediate context of the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of the Second Empire. In it, Hippolyte Carnot discusses the future of the Strasbourg statue, proposing to keep it "in its place, in mourning, among the others", a particularly powerful symbolic reflection a few weeks after the loss of Alsace. The signatory also suggests a highly significant measure: To "use the imperial bronze on the Vendôme column for this purpose", thus transforming the Napoleonic bronze into a republican memorial dedicated to Strasbourg. The text closes with a remark that reveals the political and symbolic debates of the time: "especially if you are determined not to touch the bronze destined for the cannons". A fine historical piece, combining national memory, republican symbolism and the reuse of imperial bronze in the wake of the 1870 debacle. Two in-8 pages on a double leaf; very good condition; well contrasted ink.