CARNOT, Hippolyte (1801-1888). Republican politician, former - Lot 18

CARNOT, Hippolyte (1801-1888). Republican politician, former Minister of Public Instruction under the Second Republic, member of parliament and publicist. Important signed autograph manuscript, entitled "Interrogatoires - 5 août 64", concerning political surveillance practices and electoral committees under the Second Empire. Set of three in-4 pages handwritten in brown ink, preserved in an old folder titled in red ink: "Carnot (Hippolyte), ancien ministre, député". A particularly interesting political text, in which Hippolyte Carnot responds to accusations or observations concerning the supposed creation of a democratic "electoral committee" to prepare for legislative elections. Carnot describes in detail the circumstances of the meeting in question: "In the early months of 1863 [...] several people belonging, like myself, to the liberal-democratic opinion deemed it useful to consult on the means of getting a certain number of their political friends into the new legislative body." He insists on the informal and legal nature of these meetings, while denouncing the police procedures of the imperial regime: "The police agent [...] penetrating the domestic sanctuary [...] imposed as confidant of all our family secrets and interests [...] to make a political opinion triumph..." The text takes a particularly vigorous turn when it evokes "these sad habits" of surveillance and political intrusion, denouncing a veritable "profanation" of private intimacy by the imperial police. A fine testimony to the political tensions and methods of control exercised under the Second Empire, revealing Hippolyte Carnot's constant involvement in liberal republican circles on the eve of the major political developments of the 1860s. Three signed autograph pages, with erasures and corrections. A few folds and minor marginal defects; very good condition.