(ALGERIA). Protestation contre toute tentative de Retrait du Décret du 24 Octobre 1870 sur le Naturalisation des ...

(ALGERIA). Protestation contre toute tentative de Retrait du Décret du 24 Octobre 1870 sur le Naturalisation des Israélites Algériens. WITH: Consistoire central des Israélites de France. Note sur le Projet de Loi. AND: Three related telegrams.

Paris, Charles Schiller, 1871.

Algiers, Imp. Bouyer.

On 24 October 1870, the French Parliament naturalized the Jews of Algeria, making them all  citizens of France en masse. This decision was so much identified with Isaac Adolphe Crémieux, initiator and chief advocate of the scheme, that it has been known ever since as the Decret  Crémieux. Right-wing Catholic agitation followed, aimed at repealing the act, and by the  summer of 1871 a parliamentary vote was pending. This ''note on the proposed legislation  relative to the naturalization of the indigenous Jews of Algeria''; represents an attempt by the  the Consistoire central--led by Crémieux's principal associates, Chief Rabbi Lazare Isidor and  Baron Alphonse de Rothschild--to influence members of the legislature to vote against repeal.

Their arguments are set out in nine compelling chapters; then follows a declaration from the  Muslim notables of the city of Constantine, who had been asked to respond to the question of  whether conferring French citizenship on the Jews ''had excited anger and animosity in the  hearts of Muslims'', as the Rightists were claiming. 

NO is the unanimous response  of the 21  signatories, who include the muftis of the Hanafi and Maliki traditions, the cadi of Constantine, and Ali ben Bahmed, tribal chief of the Hactaras and self-proclaimed caliph.On the contrary, hey say they welcome the measure as opening the door to the future emancipation of the  Muslim majority.

Together with this political pamphlet the present lot includes a petition and 3 telegrams.The  petition, dated 1871 and protesting any thought of repeal, contains a one-page case statement  and three pages of signatures of newly-French Algerian Jews. Of the 46 signatories, nine sign in  Roman script and 37 in Hebrew.

Remarkable, too, are the telegrams, updating Jewish  community leaders in Algiers on the progress of the high-powered diplomatic effort being made  to save the Decret Crémieux.

The telegrams are as follows:

31 July, 1871: Vuillermoz, Versailles, to Alphandery, Algiers. ''We have been having good luck. Letter by courier would be advisable''.

9 August 1871: Valensi, Paris, to Alphandery, Algiers. ''Arrived yesterday at 6:00 pm. Not a  brilliant event but saw plenty of people, Let's hope to make things better. Let me know what is  going on''.

22 August 1871 (10:30 am): Valensi, Paris to Isaac Levy Bram. Algiers ''The necessary steps have  been taken. Definitive result still not known''.

As to the lobbyists: Romuald Vuillermoz a liberal republican lawyer exiled to Algeria by  Napoleon III, was the current mayor of Algiers and leader of the recent settler uprising against  French military maladministration that briefly took control of the city, after which he had  become, on an interim basis, the first civilian governor of Algeria. Valensi we take to be General  Gabriel Valensi, theoretically the dragoman (interpreter) of the Bey of Tunis but in actuality his  foreign minister, and the North African Jew most at home in French official circles.

Pamphlet: pp. 12, 11 x 8.5 inches. Light surface dirt on title.

Petition: pp. 4, 17 x 10.5 inches. Inconsequential marginal tears at folds; two tiny holes with no loss of text. Telegrams: Each 6.5 x 10 inches.