PROUDHON PIERRE-JOSEPH: (1809-1865)

PROUDHON PIERRE-JOSEPH: (1809-1865)

‘I therefore come to ask you….to put an end to a state of affairs
which is for me a terrible torture, physical and moral,
 and of which I am yet to understand the usefulness as well as the justice’

 

PROUDHON PIERRE-JOSEPH: (1809-1865) French philosopher, socialist and politician, the founder of mutualist philosophy and the first person to declare himself an anarchist. A.L.S., P.-J. Proudhon, two pages, 8vo, Citadel of Doullens, 4^th May 1850, to 'Monsieur le Directeur', on the printed stationery of La Voix du Peuple, in French. The imprisoned Proudhon writes to plead with his captor, in full, 'D'apres un mot que m'a dit hier le major, et cela, autant que je puis presumer, de votre part, il dependrait de vous de faire cesser mon isolement. Si j'avais cru que cette affaire etait laissee a votre discretion, il y a longtemps, Monsieur le Directeur, qu'au lieu de solliciter le ministre, qui ne repond pas, je me serais adresse directement a vous. Je n'aurais pas cru plus indigne de moi, je vous jure, de frapper a la porte du subordonne qu'a celle du superieur. Je viens donc vous prier, Monsieur le Directeur, de mettre fin a un etat de choses qui est pour moi un terrible supplice, physique et moral, et dont je suis encore a comprendre l'utilite ainsi que la justice. Depuis quinze juurs que je suis sequestre, les agitations nerveuses, les transports au cerveau, auxquels je suis d'ailleurs sujet, se sont multiplies chez moi d'une maniere inquietante. D'autres infirmites m'arrivent encore, a la suite de ce regime debilitant, a tel point que s'il se prolongeait, je serais force de croire que l'administration n'en veut pas seulement a ma plume, mais a ma vie. Jusqu'ici je me suis efforce de tromper les heures par la lecture et le travail: mais la lecture et le travail, chez un homme sequestre, deviennent vite des causes de malaise et d'impossibilite de lecture et de travail: aujourd'hui je suis hors d'etat de m'occuper et de rien faire. Daignez donc, Monsieur le Directeur, porter remede a mon etat, me permettre de me promener et de voir mes amis. Songez aussi, je vous en supplie, que j'ai une malheureuse femme qui pleure pour moi quand je ne puis que souffrir et qu'elle serait heureuse d'apprendre que j'ai ete enfin rendu a la liberte....de la prison' (Translation: 'According to a word that the major said to me yesterday, and that, as far as I can presume, on your part, it would depend on you to put an end to my isolation. If I had believed that this matter was left to your discretion, a long time ago. Monsieur le Directeur, that instead of soliciting the Minister, who does not answer, I would have addressed myself directly to you. I would not have thought it more unworthy of me, I swear to you, to knock on the door of the subordinate than on that of the superior. I therefore come to ask you, Monsieur le Directeur, to put an end to a state of affairs which is for me a terrible torture, physical and moral, and of which I am yet to understand the usefulness as well as the justice. During the fifteen days that I have been sequestered, the nervous agitations, the transports of the brain, to which I am moreover subject, have multiplied in me in a disquieting manner. Other infirmities still happen to me, as a result of this debilitating regime, to such an extent that if it were prolonged, I would be forced to believe that the administration does not only want my pen, but my life. So far I have tried to deceive the hours by reading and working: but reading and working, in a sequestered man, quickly become causes of discomfort and of the impossibility of reading and working: today I am in no condition to occupy myself and do nothing. So deign, Monsieur le Directeur, to remedy my condition, allow me to walk around and see my friends. Consider also, I beg you, that I have an unhappy wife who cries for me when I can only suffer and that she would be happy to learn that I have finally been set free….from jail.'). With blank integral leaf. Some very light age wear and a few extremely small, minor tears to the lower edge, otherwise VG

 

In June 1849 Proudhon had been arrested for insulting Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon III), the first President of France (1848-52) and was imprisoned for three years. In December 1849, whilst in prison, he married 27 year old Euphrasie Piegard, with whom he had four daughters.