Le Rappel

Le Rappel (French for "the Recall") was a French daily newspaper founded in 1869 by Victor Hugo's sons Charles and François-Victor and three others. It was published from the end of the French Second Empire until 1933. At the start of the Third Republic, it embodied a radical-republican tendency and as such was highly contested by the French government.

Publication history
The newspaper, which benefited from the law of 11 May 1868 on freedom of press, was founded on the initiative of Victor Hugo on the eve of the general elections of 1868. Le Rappel was started on 4 May 1869, with Charles and François-Victor Hugo, Auguste Vacquerie, and Paul Meurice as its principal contributors.

As a contribution to the first issue, Victor Hugo wrote a manifesto consisting of an address to the five co-editors: "It is a call. I love the word in every sense. It is the call to principle by conscience; the call to truth by philosophy; the call to duty by right; the call to the dead by reverence; the call to punishment by equity; the call to the past by history; the call to the future by logic; the call to action by courage; the call to idealism by thought; the call to science by experiment; the call to God in religion by the extirpation of idolatry; the call to the people’s sovereignty by universal suffrage; the call to humanity by free education; the call to liberty by the awakening of France and by the stirring cry Fiat Jus!."

- Victor Hugo

Impact and influence
Le Rappel quickly became one of the major organs of early radicalism, opposing Napoleon III's empire but also denouncing crimes happening around Europe at the time. On 29 August 1876, Victor Hugo denounced the massacre of Serbs by the Ottoman Empire in a long editorial called Pour la Serbie, protesting against the impassivity of European governments. On 27 April 1881, after Jews were slaughtered and driven out of the city of Yelisavetgrad in Russia, Victor Hugo used Le Rappel to denounce the pogrom and to express fury at the massacre.

Notable contributors
Notable contributors have included: • Arthur Arnould

• Ernest Blum

• Philippe Burty

• Albert Dalimier

• Georges Desplas

• Alfred Gaulier

• Charles Hugo

• François-Victor Hugo

• Édouard Laferrière

• Édouard Lockroy

• Henry Maret

• Adolphe Messimy

• Paul Meurice

• Camille Pelletan

• Louis Puech

• Félix Pyat

• Henri Rochefort

• Théodore Steeg

• Auguste Vacquerie