sentences:  France wanted civil peace and harmony on the eve of the Universal Exhibition of 1900 and before the big fight that the Republic was about to take for freedom of association and secularism.It was in this spirit that on 17 November 1899 Waldeck-Rousseau filed an amnesty law covering "all criminal acts or misdemeanours related to the Dreyfus affair or that have been included in a prosecution for one of these acts" excluding only Alfred Dreyfus himself who was instead pardoned to be able to still seek acquittal.Many Dreyfusards protested as this indemnified not only Zola and Picquart against (further) punishment but also protected the real culprits.