Victor HUGO (1802-1885) Autograph letter signed February 14 on laid paper on the letterhead of the Senate located in Versailles in 187[...] addressed to Hippolyte Charamaule, 1 folio in-4 "I am writing to you from here, from your home, from the house that is your home, and I want this letter to come to you where it should. The Senates of the Republic explain and justify it by the veterans' bench, and what veteran better than you, what wrestler more tried and tested than Charamaule! To this name I add only this. Victor Hugo" (Freckles and small folds) Enclosed is a card on card stock "Madame Victor Hugo will remain at home on Sunday evenings during the month of April". Condition report available on request: [email protected] PROVENANCE By descent BIOGRAPHY After the events of 1848, Victor Hugo rallied to the Republic and spoke out in favor of reform of the national workshops, freedom of the press and abolition of the death penalty. He was elected to the single National Assembly set up by the 1848 Constitution, which established the Second Republic, as representative of the Seine until the coup d'état of December 2, 1851. Victor Hugo spent eighteen years in exile under the Second Empire, returning to France in 1870. In January 1876, he returned to the Palais du Luxembourg when delegates elected him Senator for the Seine. Until 1879, the Senate sat in Versailles. NOTICE This autograph letter is addressed to Hippolyte Charamaule, a lawyer elected to the Assembly in 1848, who voted in favor of the total abolition of the death penalty and actively fought for freedom of the press alongside Victor Hugo. He is quoted in Victor Hugo, Histoire d'un crime, Tome 1: "Charamaule is a tall man with an energetic figure and a convincing speech; he voted with the left but sat among the right" and "Charamaule showed from the very first moments a courage which, in the four days of the struggle, never wavered for a moment" in reference to the coup d'état of 1851.