DUMAS Alexandre père (1802-1870) - [MADAME LAFARGE-CAPELLE / ABOLITION DE LA PEINE DE MORT, 1863] TWO original MANUSCRITS on the abolition of the death penalty: 1/ A country ripe for the abolition of the death penalty. Autograph manuscript signed, n.d., 4 leaves on blue paper (tear on last leaf). Dumas comments on an exaction by brigands in the Naples region. 2/ Lafarge-Capelle affair Possibly a continuation of the first letter (identical paper) 48 single-sided leaves on blue paper (wrong pagination) (small stains, tear on last page). "Dear colleague, Thank goodness we've finished with Roman Law and are about to move on to something more curious and picturesque. We're going to move on to the trial of Madame Lafarge, to whom you address the following apostrophe...". It is then a question of explaining and demonstrating the attenuating circumstances in this case. Marie Fortunée Capelle, known by her married name Marie Lafarge, was born in Paris on January 15, 1816 and died in Ussat in the Ariège department on September 7, 1852, Charles Pouch-Lafarge, known as Charles Lafarge, thus giving rise to the Lafarge affair, the trial of which was the subject of much commentary, and was the source of numerous books describing or analyzing the affair, as well as cinema and television films. In 1840, she was sentenced by the Tulle Assize Court to forced labor for life, and to be exhibited in the town square. Some sources, mentioned at the time of the trial, make her the supposed great-granddaughter of Philippe Egalité and Félicité de Genlis. Her family ties to Louis-Philippe, the sovereign of the time, were not a factor in the magnitude of the affair. Marie Lafarge was granted a presidential pardon by Prince-President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, shortly before her death in 1852. Her grave is in the Ornolac-Ussat-les-Bains cemetery. Beginning with a pleading tone, this letter, written like a novel with many autobiographical aspects, is an attempt to rehabilitate a friend, Marie Capelle Lafargue. My dear Marie, Voltaire was convinced of Calas's innocence, and I'm not convinced of yours. But failing rehabilitation - there is grace. Je vais tacher de te faire grace." Alexandre Dumas writes at the end: "With the February Revolution - all my friends coming to power - I resumed my solicitations. And the Minister of Justice, Crémieux, signed the Grace I had been seeking for a year (...) Indeed, Marie Capelle came out of prison, thanked me, and died." Signed twice on last page, dated 29 7bre 1863, probably located in Naples. Addressed to "Mon bon ami Paillard de Villeneuve". Adolphe Victor Paillard de Villeneuve (1804-1874) was an influential 19th-century lawyer. Admitted to the Paris Bar in 1825, he became one of the lawyers on the civil list under Louis-Philippe, then editor-in-chief of the Gazette des Tribunaux in 1836. He acted as a lawyer for men of letters, defending Alphonse Karr in a lawsuit against the Paris newspaper in 1853. Victor Hugo himself called on his services, drafting a remarkable pleading on the subject of Hernani. In 1858, he handled the Goncourt case against Hachette and Vapereau. He played a major role in giving the legal press its importance. Alexandre Dumas thus exposes here, a posteriori, his knowledge of history and the case, waiting for the recognition of extenuating circumstances and the rehabilitation of the convict via his friend's newspaper. The addressee had probably solicited the writer for a kind of serial for his newspaper, in a case that caused a stir even years later. Almost 3 years after our letter, Alexandre Dumas published a serial in the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles, under the title Marie Cappelle, souvenirs intimes in 1866. A first volume was published in 2005 under the title Madame Lafarge. ATTACHED: Marie Alexandre DUMAS Autograph card signed and dated January 14, 1869, addressed to a journalist about a culprit who must be "talked about in your newspaper". 173 x 110 mm. Provenance: - Binoche Godeau sale, Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, January 24, 1993, lots 14 and 15 (expert: Bernard Perras) - Private collection, Basque Country.