George SAND (1804-1876). L.A.S., Nohant March 19, 1857, "to Messieurs Manin, Ulloa and Ary Scheffer"; 3pages in-8 in blue ink, with erasures and corrections. Open letter in response to the controversy surrounding her novel La Daniella. [The novel La Daniella, published in La Presse from January 6 to March 25, 1857, provoked a fierce polemic, with many readers, particularly among Italian exiles, criticizing Sand for attacking unfortunate, oppressed Italy; particularly chapter XXXVIII (February 25 serial), where Sand stigmatized the Neapolitan people as "a people of beggars [...married to laziness and all kinds of cowardice", with the narrator alleging that "a people always has the government it deserves to have", earned her a deluge of protests. In its March 12 issue, Le Siècle published a letter from Anatole de La Forge (1821-1892), dated March 6, containing the following passage: "The friends of Italy, astonished and distressed as I am to find you in the ranks of her adversaries, Manin, Ary Scheffer, Henri Martin, General Ulloa, and others whom it is useless to name here, authorize me to express their regrets to you". La Presse on March 17 (and Le Siècle on March 18) published a letter from Sand dated March 14, expressing surprise that these personalities had used "the pen of an intermediary" to write a manifesto against her. On March 19, Le Siècle inserted, in addition to a reply from Anatole de La Forge, a note from Manin, Scheffer and Ulloa, declaring that they had authorized La Forge to speak on their behalf (and a letter from Henri Martin dissociating himself from the polemic); Sand immediately replied with this open letter, published in La Presse and Le Siècle on March 22. Girolamo Ulloa (1810-1891) had been involved in a conspiracy in 1833; placed under the command of General Pepe in 1848 at the capture of Venice, he was appointed colonel and then brigadier general, resisting the Austrians the following year, despite being outnumbered; after the fall of Venice, he went into exile with Daniele Manin, residing in Paris from 1849 to 1859. Back in Italy, he commanded the Tuscan army until the Peace of Villafranca. Daniele Manin (1804-1857) had led the Venetian liberation movement in March 1848, and became President of the Republic. Forced into exile after the return of the Austrians (August 21, 1849), he lived in Paris, giving Italian lessons. The third figure is the painter Ary Scheffer (1795-1858)]. Sand reminds her interlocutors that they have signed the declaration regretting Sand's remarks about Italy, and asks them "if it would be convenient for you to sign the complete declaration: namely that it results from the entire reading of the novel entitled La Daniella. "that Mme Sand's opinions have undergone a sad metamorphosis; that she insults the misfortune of an oppressed people; that she lends the support of her pen to the detractors of Italy; that she adds her signature to the indictment that blind and unjust persecutors are drawing up against Italy; that the friends of Italy are distressed to find her in the ranks of her adversaries; and that, in all cheerfulness, she hurls contempt upon the foreheads on which she should be placing crowns". Gentlemen, you owe this statement to M. Anatole de la Forge, or you owe me, a reparation of honor. Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean you'll have the grace to refuse. If it pleases you to take upon yourself the responsibility for the expressions used by your interpreter in speaking of me, and to make it known that his sentiments on my account are your own, I will take it as read and not reply a word; having then only to forgive a horrible injustice to men who have done much, one for his art, the others for their country. This silence and forgiveness will be more striking justification than words. Upright hearts will not see in it an end of refusal, but an act of respect towards you as well as towards myself"... Correspondence, t.XIV, n°7418.