Lot 348

Frédéric Passy Re: 1890 Post-Franco-Prussian War Tension Foreshadowing WWI - Future Nobel Peace Prize Winner!

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Frédéric Passy Re: 1890 Post-Franco-Prussian War Tension Foreshadowing WWI - Future Nobel Peace Prize Winner!

Estimate: $500 - $700

Starting Bid: $160

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June 17, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
Wilton, CT, US

Description:

Frédéric Passy
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, August 6, 1890
Frédéric Passy Re: 1890 Post-Franco-Prussian War Tension Foreshadowing WWI - Future Nobel Peace Prize Winner!
ANS with ML

A 4pp manuscript letter in French by Frédéric Passy (1822-1912), a longtime pacifist and the future co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, complete with a 50-word inscription in Passy's hand signed by him as "Frédéric Passy" along a vertical orientation in the margins of the second, third, and fourth pages. August 6, 1890. Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Secretarially inscribed on laid bifold paper with "Société Française pour l'Arbitrage Entre Nations" letterhead. Expected wear including toning, isolated edge darkening and minor foxing, with flattened transmittal folds. Else very good to near fine. 5.25 x 8.25".

Passy wrote this letter to an unidentified correspondent, one "cher Monsieur." From context, we know that Passy and this letter-recipient had insuperable philosophical differences regarding current European politics. Even though Passy and his correspondent disagreed, however, Passy presents his arguments in a respectful tone. His words are imbued with an intrinsic assurance in success - the sort of humanitarian optimism that would win Passy the joint Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. Passy had founded La Ligue Internationale et Permanente de la Paix in 1867; this would later become the Société Française pour l'Arbitrage Entre Nations in 1889, the year preceding this letter.

This historically important manuscript concerns Franco-German relations, the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, and the future of peace in Europe. In this remarkable correspondence, Passy discusses the highly sensitive question of Alsace-Lorraine, advocating reconciliation and neutrality over continued nationalism and military conflict. Written only two decades after the Franco-Prussian War, the letter reveals Passy's early vision of international arbitration and European pacification decades before the First World War.

In 1890, Passy - indeed along with many others - understood that the political stability of Europe was threatened by post Franco-Prussian War resentment and tensions. One idea advanced to diffuse this tension, as discussed in this letter, involved exchanging Tonkin for Alsace-Lorraine; Tonkin, in modern day northern Vietnam, was a French protectorate after 1883. Another idea proposed granting Alsace its independence so that it could not belong to either Germany or France.

Translated in part, with punctuation silently added, along with paragraph breaks, to improve clarity:

"Dear Monsieur,

It is a long time that I have known, contrary to what many people think, that one can have very different opinions, very opposite in fact, without considering each other as morons or rascals. Your letter would prove it to me, if necessary, once more. This is to tell you that I am not injured by what you call the violence of your language; that I respect your sincerity, but I wonder at the same time how to act against what I believe is inexact and unjust.

First, I scarcely speak, in regards to myself at least, in public spaces, about neutralization, nor of other means to spark an acceptable arrangement between the two nations [France and Germany.] I believe that these are things that one must prepare in silence, things are still so bitter between the two nations and they must be presented to them to swallow in a way that would result in the least possible bitterness.

Next, I don't pretend that there would be a single possible solution or, as you say, a panacea. If one could exchange Tonkin for Alsace and Lorraine and that would genuinely be accepted on the part of the other as a definitive arrangement, no longer leaving any desire to return to the past… I doubt a little, I confess, that the result would be as satisfying as you suppose, and I am really not sure that that would end, without recourse, all thoughts of claiming Alsace by Germany as German land.

I further believe, without permitting myself absolute affirmations, in neutralization first, because whatever is said, neutrality is very generally respected, neither that of Belgium, not that of Switzerland, nor that of Luxembourg, has been up to the present effectively violated; then because neutralization, precisely because it isn't francization or germanization… It is a compromise; from one point of view it is an inferiority, from another a superiority... We would wish for Alsace to become French again, and it would be a great sacrifice for us to see it merely neutral and independent; but the Germans would wish for it to remain German; they have their historical claims and twenty years of possession by force, and it would likewise be a great sacrifice for them to allow it to become neutral and independent.

Thus, on both sides, there is a painful effort to be made and a difficult renunciation to accept; but would not the result be worth the sacrifice for all parties involved? Would it not already be something to deprive the conqueror of the reputation of conquest, to recognize to which peoples these lands belong, and to remove from the center of Europe a perpetual cause of anxieties and dangers?...

I am convinced, for my part, that the matter is extremely difficult to achieve and even more difficult to make acceptable, yet I am not less convinced that if it were accomplished, it would very quickly open an era of general appeasement and make it impossible for governments to drive peoples into new wars.

I understand perfectly the warm and generous sentiment which revolts you; but is there not also something noble and great in the resignation of a Jean Dollfus, of a Lichtenberger - men so patriotic and courageous - declaring that they do not wish to burden the world with new massacres, and as I wrote in my notice concerning Jean Dollfus, which I am sending back to you: would it not be a great honor for Alsace, so long trampled underfoot by the armies of two nations, finally to become the peaceful pledge of reconciliation, and for the land of war to spread afar the spirit of pacification?...

[In Passy's hand:]

I throw, dear Monsieur, these ideas at you in haste at this moment of leaving for the Congress…

Frédéric Passy."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 5.25" x 8.25"
  • Medium: ANS with ML

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