87. SIEYÈS (Emmanuel-Joseph). Autograph minute signed with h - Lot 87

Lot n° 87
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87. SIEYÈS (Emmanuel-Joseph). Autograph minute signed with h - Lot 87
87. SIEYÈS (Emmanuel-Joseph). Autograph minute signed with his initial of letter to Jean Debry, then plenipotentiary at the Congress of Rastatt. Berlin, 16 thermidor year VI [3 August 1798]. 1 p. 1/4 in-4. Close friend of Jean Debry, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès was then ambassador of the French Republic to the Court of Berlin. "I have received, my dear de Bry, the letter of the 5th... I think as you do, THERE ARE TOO MANY INTRIGUES AND FORMALITIES IN RASTADT. BUT THE GREATEST EMBARRASSMENT IN YOUR AFFAIRS, IN OURS, IN THOSE OF EUROPE, COMES EVIDENTLY FROM THE ARTICLES OF CAMPOFORMIO [TREATY NEGOTIATED IN COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE BY NAPOLEON BONAPARTE]. How can this be done? Do you not believe that it is in Vienna or Berlin that we can only cut the cable that ties you to the shore? Thank you very much for the good memory of your wife and children. Give them my regards and friendship. Farewell, I embrace you with all my heart..." JOINT: DEBRY (Jean). Autograph letter signed to Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès. 5 thermidor year VI [23 July 1798]. "I waited to write you, my dear Sieyès, that I had found a sure way which allowed me to speak without fear of being intercepted... I will therefore tell you... that NEGOTIATION ALWAYS REMAINS IN FAILURE. THE PRETENTIONS OF AUSTRIA AND THE INDECISION OF PRUSSIA HAVE ENTIRELY DELIVERED THIS AFFAIR TO INTRIGAILLERIES WHICH DECONSIDER IT MORE THAN A BAD WILL MARKED, one swings at each other, one does not want to explain oneself first, perhaps one has no right to do so, and one finds oneself absolutely limited and hampered by one's instructions. As for us, you know what makes our position so difficult; we only ask to be able to act. The Prussian agents made me understand that they would not move away from consenting to the demolition of Erhenbrestein [fortress on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite the city of Coblence which had just been annexed by the treaty of Campo Formio], if that of Cassel were also granted, this condition seems to me inadmissible because as long as the fort of Erhenbreistein exists, the possession of Coblentz is precarious, and if Cassel is destroyed, Mainz is open on the side of the Empire. Besides, you feel that all these difficulties raised either by Prussia or by Austria are subordinated to solutions of a much more important interest, of which they will only be the consequences. The Empire is null and void; it is quite astonishing that those who could give it life to their advantage do not take a stand... My wife and my children remember you, I greet you and kiss you with all my heart..." (2 pp. in-4) (2 pp. in-4). THE DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS FOLLOWING NAPOLEON BONAPARTE'S ITALIAN CAMPAIGN. At the end of the siege of Mantua (February 1797), Napoleon Bonaparte advanced towards Vienna while continuing operations in Italy, forcing Austria to sign a provisional armistice at Judenburg on 7 April, preliminaries at Leoben on 18 April, and a treaty at Campo Formio on 18 October 1797. Austria ceded its Netherlands to France, recognized the independence of the Cisalpine Republic, and gave up Lombardy to the latter, but divided Venetia between Austria, France and Cisalpine, in a spirit contrary to the revolutionary principles of the right of peoples to self-determination. On 27 October 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte was appointed plenipotentiary to the Congress of Rastatt (in the Margraviate of Baden) convened to discuss the transfer of sovereignty and compensation to the German princes who had been ousted from the left bank of the Rhine by the Treaty of Campo Formio. He negotiated with Cobenzl and Metternich the signature on December 1, 1797 of a convention providing for the reciprocal evacuation of Mainz and Venice, then left Rastatt so as not to get caught up in uncertain diplomatic meanderings likely to harm his popularity. The congress was held until April 23, 1799 without reaching a definitive result, while the second coalition against France was already being formed.
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