Laws of Emotion: The Influence of Emotion on Espionage Legislation and Trials in Fin-de-Siècle France

In the last several decades of the nineteenth century, espionage became an increasing concern for militaries, leaders, and the public across Europe. This was a time when nations worked to professionalize intelligence within armies and foreign affairs ministries, resulting in a growing recognition of the place that spies and information gathering could play in international competition and warfare. As knowledge of the use of intelligence grew, so too did public concern with the ramifications of foreign spies learning national secrets. In response, leaders passed legislation aimed to counter espionage, introducing laws within the civilian sphere that had previously appeared only in military codes.

This presentation suggests that reactions to intelligence in the legal sphere took place within a communal emotional space. Espionage laws appeared in response not to the actual threat of foreign spies, which was minimal, but rather to emotions engendered by public discourse presenting an imagined invasion of foreign spies as an existential threat. In France, emotions such as fear, envy, and insecurity directed a public to support the passage of new laws against spying and to encourage the strengthening of the laws as the years passed. Further evidence of public emotions surrounding espionage emerges with a number of trials in the final decades of the nineteenth century that captivated public attention. This included famous trials like that against Captain Alfred Dreyfus, and lesser-known trials such as those against a French agent, Guillaume Schnaebelé, and an American in French colonial Madagascar, John Lewis Waller. Examining the public discussion around these cases, this presentation argues that shared emotion in connection with new ideas of espionage influenced the French public to seek harsh sentences for those appearing to endanger France, while claiming heroic status for Frenchmen accused of spying against foreign nations in France’s name.