Jameson Raid: Papers on The Political Situation by Charles Leonard (1903)

The Author at the Centre of the Jameson Raid

Charles Leonard was a prominent Johannesburg attorney and the President of the Transvaal National Union. This organization was formed to fight for the political franchise and rights of the Uitlanders (mainly British and foreign fortune-seekers who had flooded into the Witwatersrand after the 1886 gold rush).

Leonard was one of the key conspirators behind the infamous Jameson Raid (1895). He drafted the famous "Uitlander Manifesto" (often called the Leonard Manifesto), which detailed the grievances against President Paul Kruger’s Boer government. The plan was for the Uitlanders to stage an uprising in Johannesburg, which would give Dr. Leander Starr Jameson the pretext to ride in with an armed force from Rhodesia.

A Convenient Escape from Treason Trials

When the plot began to fracture due to disagreements over which flag to raise (British vs. Transvaal Republic), Leonard was sent to Cape Town to consult with Cecil John Rhodes. Because he was in Cape Town when Jameson prematurely launched the disastrous, failed raid, Leonard avoided being arrested in Johannesburg alongside the other members of the "Reform Committee" (such as Frank Rhodes and John Hays Hammond), many of whom were sentenced to death for treason (later commuted). Leonard promptly fled to England to escape prosecution.

Self-Funded Vindication

As noted in his own preface to this volume, Leonard published these collected manifestos, speeches, and legal arguments at his own expense in 1903. Having spent years in exile, he published this material through Arthur L. Humphreys in London specifically to serve "as the evidence of a witness" for future historians. It was an explicit attempt to justify the political agitations of the pre-war era and to counter Boer narratives that the Uitlanders' demands were merely an insolent imperialist land-grab.

High-Powered Legal Contributors

The title page notes additional papers by Advocate Wessels and Advocate Auret.

Advocate (later Sir) Johannes Wilhelmus Wessels is particularly notable; despite being an Afrikaner, he defended the Jameson Raiders during their high-profile trial in Pretoria. He went on to become one of South Africa's most brilliant legal minds, eventually serving as the Chief Justice of South Africa in the 1930s.

170mm x 235mm x 45mm

Half leather; spine faded; slightly staining to boards; prelims and edges foxed.

R1,000