CARNOT, Hippolyte (1801-1888). Republican politician, former - Lot 19

CARNOT, Hippolyte (1801-1888). Republican politician, former Minister of Public Instruction, Member of Parliament. Very important autograph manuscript on "electoral committees" and political prosecutions under the Second Empire. Manuscript set of seven pages in-4, dated "Interrogatoire - 5 août 64", preserved in old folder titled in red ink: "Carnot (Hippolyte), ancien ministre, député". A long text of political and moral defense in which Hippolyte Carnot describes in detail the preparatory meetings held prior to the legislative elections of 1863-1864, as well as the accusations made against liberal and democratic circles. Carnot meticulously describes the genesis of the "electoral committees", their mode of operation, the internal debates over their legality, and the surveillance methods deployed by the imperial administration. He emphasizes the purely consultative nature of these meetings: "The new committee was purely consultative [...]". and strongly denounces police and administrative interpretations: "The administration, astonished and irritated at having been defeated in the Paris elections [...] goes to the expense of imagination; it looks for clever combinations, monstrous alliances, an occult government; it conjures up ghosts [...]" The text is also a remarkable profession of liberal and democratic faith: "France has once again become what it will always be, liberal and democratic [...]". Carnot develops a particularly interesting reflection on the role of electoral committees in modern parliamentary life, which he sees as the natural expression of organized public opinion in the face of administrative power. The set contains numerous autograph erasures, corrections and repentirs, testifying to a working text probably intended as an official statement or defense in the context of the prosecution of republican circles. A very important political document on electoral mechanisms and the tensions between the liberal opposition and the imperial administration during the Second Empire. 7 autograph or handwritten pages, in-4. A few folds and slight traces of use; well preserved.