LIFE IN EXILE.
1815-1832
Attempt to assassinate Napoleon.--Landing of Napoleon in France.
--Attempt to Escape.--Vigilance of the Allies.--Generosity of
Joseph.--Joseph escapes from France.--Selects Point Breeze.--Calumnies
of the Allies.--Noble Character of Joseph Bonaparte.--Death of the
Emperor.--Letter of General Bertrand.--Marriage of Princess Charlotte.
--The Crown of Mexico.--Visit of La Fayette.--General Lamarque.--Letter
from General Lamarque.--Letter to Francis Leiber.--Letter to La
Fayette.--Letter to Maria Louisa.--Letter to Prince Metternich.--Letter
to the Emperor of Austria.--Appeal to the Chamber of Deputies.--Letter
to General Lamarque.--Letter to General Bernard.--Letter to La
Fayette.--Letter to the Duke of Reichstadt.
While Joseph was enjoying his peaceful residence upon the shores of
Europe's most beautiful lake, Madame de Stael hastened to inform him
of a plot which had been revealed to her for the assassination of the
Emperor at Elba. The evidence was conclusive. Joseph was at breakfast
with the celebrated tragedian Talma. Both Talma and Madame de Stael
were anxious to hasten to Elba to inform the Emperor of his danger.
But Joseph sent a personal friend, and two of the assassins were
arrested.[AB]
[Footnote AB: "I thanked them for their generous offer, but preferred to
charge with that difficult commission M. Boisneau, whose patriotism and
personal attachment to Napoleon I had known at the siege of Toulon. You
know with what success he fulfilled his commission."--Memoires du Roi
Joseph, tome dixieme, p. 342.]
At Prangins, in 1815, Joseph learned that Napoleon had landed in France,
had advanced as far as Lyons, and was desirous of seeing him in Paris
as soon as possible. Joseph's wife, Julie, was then in Paris, having
been drawn there by the sickness and death of the mother, Madame Clary.
He immediately left his chateau, after having buried all his valuable
papers in a box in the forest, setting out secretly at ten o'clock at
night, accompanied by the two princesses, his daughters. A few hours
after his departure, an armed band, sent by the influence of the Allies,
arrived at the chateau to arrest him. Joseph upon his arrival in France,
immediately, with characteristic devotion, placed himself entirely at
the disposition of the brother he loved so well.
As Joseph traversed France, he was everywhere met with great enthusiasm,
the people shouting, "Napoleon the Emperor of our choice;" "The nation
desires him alone;" "No aristocracy;" "Away with the old regime."
Before the departure of the Emperor for Waterloo, many distinguished
persons, among others Benjamin Constant, who assisted in drawing up the
celebrated Additional Act, were introduced to him by Joseph. One day he
conducted to the Tuileries the son of Madame de Stael, who bore a letter
from his mother to the Emperor, in which, speaking of the _Additional
Act_, she said, "It is every thing which France can now need; nothing
but what it needs, nothing more than it needs."
In speaking of the "_Acte Additionel_" Mr. Alison says, "It excited
unbounded opposition in both the parties which now divided the nation,
and left the Emperor in reality no support but in the soldiers of the
army." A few paragraphs later, when stating that the "_Acte_" was
submitted to the people to be adopted or rejected by popular suffrage,
he says truthfully, though in manifest contradiction to his former
statement:
"The '_Acte Additionel_' was approved by an immense majority of the
electors; the numbers being fifteen hundred thousand to five hundred."
After the disaster at Waterloo, Joseph was the constant companion of his
brother during those few days of anguish in which he remained in Paris.
On the 29th of June he left the metropolis to join his brother, who had
preceded him, at Rochefort, where the two intended to embark for America
in two different ships, the _Saale_ and the _Medusa_. After several days
of necessary delay, at four o'clock in the afternoon of July 8th
Napoleon was rowed out to the _Saale_, which was anchored at a distance
from the quay. But the Bourbons and the Allies were now in power in
France, and British guard-ships were doubled along the French coast. No
vessel was allowed to leave.
Joseph, who had received letters from his wife informing him of all that
had transpired in Paris, proposed that the Emperor should return to
land, place himself at the head of the Army of the Loire, summon the
population of France to rise _en masse_, and again appeal to the
fortunes of war. But the Emperor could not be persuaded to resort to a
measure which would enkindle the flames of civil war in France, and
which might also expose the kingdom to dismemberment, since the Allies
already held a considerable portion of its territory.
Joseph then urged his brother to embark in a small American vessel which
chanced to be in the port, while Joseph, personating Napoleon, whom he
strongly resembled, should surrender himself as the Emperor. It was
thought that the British cruisers, thus deceived, would allow the
American vessel to sail without a very rigid search. But the Emperor
declined the offer to escape at the hazard of his brother's captivity.
Neither would his pride of character allow him to seek flight in the
garb of disguise. He therefore urged Joseph to leave him to his destiny,
and to provide immediately for his own safety.
During the whole of Napoleon's career there were always multitudes ready
to lay down their lives at any time for his protection. The captain of
the _Medusa_, a sixty-gun frigate, offered to grapple the English
frigate _Bellerophon_, of seventy-four guns, and to maintain the unequal
and desperate conflict until the _Saale_ could escape with the Emperor.
But as this would be sacrificing many lives to his personal safety,
Napoleon declined the magnanimous offer.
Leaving matters in this state of uncertainty, Joseph retired from
Rochefort to the country-seat of a friend, at the distance of a few
leagues. He left his secretary behind, to keep him informed of all that
transpired. Two days after he received a letter announcing that the
Emperor had taken the fatal resolution to surrender himself to the
British Government. Joseph could no longer be of any assistance to his
brother, and he decided to leave France as soon as possible. Under the
assumed name of M. Bouchard, he embarked at Royan on the 29th of July,
with four of his suite, on board the bark _Commerce_, bound for the
United States. The vessel was visited several times by the British
cruisers without his being recognized. On the 28th of August, 1815,
Joseph landed at New York. Captain Misservey, of the bark, was not aware
of the illustrious rank of his passenger, but supposed him to be General
Carnot. The Mayor of New York, under the same impression, called upon
him as General Carnot, to congratulate him upon his safe passage.
There were at the time two English frigates cruising before the harbor
of New York, to search all vessels coming from Europe. One of these
frigates bore down upon the _Commerce_, but the wind, and the skill of
the American pilot, saved the ship from a visit. If the English had
succeeded in seizing the person of Joseph, they would have taken him
back to England, and thence to Russia, where the Allies had decided to
hold him in captivity.
It was not known in America until Joseph's arrival that Napoleon had
confided himself to the English. The illustrious exile, much broken
in health by care and sorrow, assumed the title of the Count of
Survilliers, the name of an estate which he held in France, and sought
the retreat of a quiet, private life, as a refuge from the storms by
which he had so long been tossed.
After having travelled through many of the States of the Union, and
having visited most of the principal cities, he purchased in New Jersey,
upon the banks of the Delaware, a very beautiful property, called _Point
Breeze_. Here he lived the sad life of an exile, reflecting upon the
ruin and dispersion of his family, and exposed to every species of
contumely from the European press, then controlled by the triumphant
dynasties of the old feudal oppression. It was for the interest of all
these regal courts to convince the world that the Bonapartes were the
enemies, not the friends of humanity; that they were struggling, not for
the rights of mankind, but to impose upon the world hitherto unheard-of
despotism; and that in principles and practice they were the most
godless and dissolute of men. In this they succeeded for a time, and
there are thousands who still adhere to the senseless calumny. Terrible
indeed is the condition of a family when it is for the vital interests
of all the crowns of Europe to consecrate their influence, and lavish
their money to blacken the character of all its members.
But the noble character of Joseph Bonaparte could not be concealed. His
record had been written in ineffaceable lines. His illustrious name,
purity of morals, large fortune, simple and cordial manners, and his
wide-reaching liberality, endeared him greatly to his neighbors and
multiplied his friends. His wife was in such extremely delicate health
that it was not deemed safe for her to undertake a voyage across the
ocean. But his two daughters, the Princess Zenaide and Charlotte, and
subsequently his son-in-law, Charles Bonaparte, elder brother of the
present Emperor, Napoleon III., shared with him his exile.
The entire overthrow of the popular governments which had been
established by the aid of Napoleon, and the relentless spirit manifested
by the conquerors, filled all lands with exiles. Many of the most
distinguished men of Europe sought a refuge with Joseph, where they were
received with the most generous hospitality. When the tidings reached
Point Breeze of the destitution in which Napoleon was living in the
dilapidated hut at St. Helena, Joseph immediately placed his whole
fortune at the disposal of his brother. It was, however, too late, and
the Emperor profited but little from this generous offer. A few years
passed wearily away, when in May, 1821, Napoleon, through destitution,
insults, and anguish, sank sadly into his grave. General Bertrand, who
had so magnanimously accompanied the captive in his imprisonment at
Saint Helena, and had shared in all his sufferings, communicated the
tidings of the death of the Emperor to Joseph in the following touching
letter. General Bertrand had returned from Saint Helena, and his letter
was dated London, September 10, 1821:
"PRINCE,--I write to you for the first time since the awful misfortune
which has been added to the sorrows of your family. Your Highness is
acquainted with the events of the first years of this cruel exile. Many
persons who have visited Saint Helena have informed you of what was
still more interesting to you, the manner of living and the unkind
treatment which aggravated the influence of a deadly climate.
"In the last year of his life, the Emperor, who for four years had taken
no exercise, altered extremely in appearance. He became pale and
feeble. From that time his health deteriorated rapidly and visibly. He
had always been in the habit of taking baths. He now took them more
frequently, and staid longer in them. They appeared to relieve him for
the time. Latterly Dr. Antommarchi forbade him their use, as he thought
that they only increased his weakness.
"In the month of August he took walking exercise, but with difficulty;
he was forced to stop every minute. In the first years he used to walk
while dictating. He walked about his room, and thus did without the
exercise which he feared to take out-of-doors, lest he should expose
himself to insult. But latterly his strength would not admit even of
this. He remained sitting nearly all day, and discontinued almost all
occupation. His health declined sensibly every month.
"Once in September, and again in the beginning of October he rode out,
as his physicians desired him to take exercise; but he was so weak that
he was obliged to return in his carriage. He ceased to digest; shivering
fits came on, which extended even to the extremities. Hot towels applied
to the feet gave him some relief. He suffered from these cold fits to
the last hour of his life. As he could no longer either walk or ride, he
took several drives in an open carriage at a foot pace, but without
gaining strength.
"He never took off his dressing-gown. His stomach rejected food, and at
the end of the year he was forced to give up meat. He lived upon jellies
and soups. For some time he ate scarcely any thing, and drank only a
little pure wine, hoping thus to support nature without fatiguing the
digestion; but the vomiting continued, and he returned to soups and
jellies. The remedies and tonics which were tried produced little
effect. His body grew weaker every day, but his mind retained its
strength. He liked reading and conversation. He did not dictate much,
although he did so from time to time up to the last days of his life. He
felt that his end was approaching, and frequently recited the passage
from 'Zaire,' which closes with this line:
"'A revoir Paris je ne dois plus pretendre.'
"Nevertheless the hope of leaving this dreadful country often presented
itself to his imagination. Some newspaper articles and false reports
excited our expectations. We sometimes fancied that we were on the eve
of starting for America. We read travels, we made plans, we arrived at
our house, we wandered over that immense country, where alone we might
hope to enjoy liberty. Vain hopes! vain projects! which only made us
doubly feel our misfortunes.
"They could not have been borne with more serenity and courage--I might
almost add gayety. He often said to us in the evening, 'Where shall we
go? to the Theatre Francais or to the Opera?' And then he would read a
tragedy by Corneille, Voltaire, or Racine; an opera of Quinault's, or
one of Moliere's comedies. His strong mind and powerful character were
perhaps even more remarkable than on that larger theatre where he
eclipsed all that is brightest in ancient and in modern history. He
often seemed to forget what he had been. I was never tired of admiring
his philosophy and courage, the good sense and fortitude which raised
him above misfortune.
"At times, however, sad regrets and recollections of what he had done,
contrasted with what he might have done, presented themselves. He talked
of the past with perfect frankness, persuaded that, on the whole, he
had done what he was required to do, and not sharing the strange and
contradictory opinions which we hear expressed every day on events which
are not understood by the speakers. If the conversation took a
melancholy turn, he soon changed it. He loved to talk of Corsica, of his
old uncle Lucien, of his youth, of you, and of all the rest of the
family.
"Toward the middle of March fever came on. From that time he scarcely
left his bed except for about half an hour in the day. He seldom had the
strength to shave. He now for the first time became extremely thin. The
fits of vomiting became more frequent. He then questioned the physicians
upon the conformation of the stomach, and about a fortnight before his
death he had pretty nearly guessed that he was dying of cancer. He was
read to almost every day, and dictated a few days before his decease.
He often talked naturally as to the probable mode of his death, but
when he became aware that it was approaching he left off speaking on
the subject. He thought much about you and your children.
"To his last moments he was kind and affectionate to us all. He did not
appear to suffer so much as might have been expected from the cause of
his death. When we questioned him he said that he suffered a little, but
that he could bear it. His memory declined during the last five or six
days. His deep sighs, and his exclamations from time to time, made us
think that he was in great pain. He looked at us with the penetrating
glance which you know so well. We tried to dissimulate, but he was so
used to reading our faces that no doubt he frequently discovered our
anxiety. He felt too clearly the gradual decline of his faculties not to
be aware of his state.
"For the last two hours he neither spoke nor moved. The only sound was
his difficult breathing, which gradually but regularly decreased. His
pulse ceased. And so died, surrounded by only a few servants, the man
who had dictated laws to the world, and whose life should have been
preserved for the sake of the happiness and glory of our sorrowing
country.
"Forgive, prince, a hurried letter, which tells you so little when you
wish to know so much; but I should never end if I attempted to tell
all. I must not omit to say that the Emperor was most anxious that his
correspondence with the different sovereigns of Europe should be
printed. He repeated this to us several times.[AC] In his will the
Emperor expressed his wish that his remains should be buried in France;
however, in the last days of his life, he ordered me, if there was any
difficulty about it, to lay him by the side of the fountain whose waters
he had so long drunk."
[Footnote AC: The Emperor was very desirous that his correspondence with
the allied sovereigns should be published. He wrote to Joseph from Saint
Helena to secure their publication in the United States if possible. "It
will be the best response," he said, "to all the calumnies which have
been uttered against me." During Joseph's sojourn in England, he learned
from Dr. O'Meara that the autograph originals of these letters addressed
by Napoleon to the sovereigns had been offered for sale in London in the
year 1822; that they had been in the hands of Mr. Murray, a well-known
publisher; that the letters relating to Russia had been purchased by
a diplomatic agent of that power for ten thousand pounds sterling.
There was no longer any hope of obtaining them, since they were in
the hands of those interested in having them destroyed.--_Memoires et
Correspondence, Politique et Militaire du Roi Joseph, tome dixieme_, n.
231.]
Joseph loved his brother tenderly, and he never could speak without
emotion of the indignities and cruelties Napoleon suffered from that
ungenerous Government to whose mercy he had so fatally confided himself.
Anxious to do every thing which he thought might gratify the departed
spirit of his brother, he implored permission of Austria to visit
Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt, that he might sympathize with
him in these hours of affliction. The Court of Austria refused his
request.
In 1824, Joseph's youngest daughter, the Princess Charlotte, left Point
Breeze to join her mother in Europe, where she was to be married to
Charles Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, the son of Louis and Hortense, and
the elder brother of the present Emperor of the French. The tastes of
Joseph inclined him to the country, and to its peaceful pursuits. He
had, however, a city residence in Philadelphia, where he usually passed
the winters. While thus residing on the banks of the Delaware, sadly
retracing the memorable events of the past and recording its scenes, he
received a proposition which surprised and gratified him. A deputation
of Mexicans waited upon him at Point Breeze, and urged him to accept the
crown of Mexico. The former King of Naples and of Spain in the following
terms responded to the invitation:
"I have worn two crowns. I would not take a single step to obtain a
third. Nothing could be more flattering to me than to see the men who,
when I was at Madrid, were unwilling to recognize my authority, come
to-day to seek me, in exile, to place the crown upon my head. But I do
not think that the throne which you wish to erect anew can promote your
happiness. Every day I spend upon the hospitable soil of the United
States demonstrates to me more fully the excellence of republican
institutions for America. Guard them, then, as a precious gift of
Providence; cease your intestine quarrels; imitate the United States and
seek from the midst of your fellow-citizens a man more capable than I am
to act the grand part of Washington."[AD]
[Footnote AD: Quelque Mot sur Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, par Napoleon
III.]
When La Fayette in 1824 made his triumphal tour through the United
States, he visited Point Breeze to pay his respects to the brother of
the Emperor. Upon that occasion the marquis expressed deep regret in
view of the course he had pursued at the time of the abdication of
Napoleon.
"The dynasty of the Bourbons," said he, "can not maintain itself. It too
manifestly wounds the national sentiment. We are all persuaded in France
that the son of the Emperor alone can represent the interests of the
Revolution. Place two million francs at the disposal of our committee,
and I promise you that in two years Napoleon II.[AE] will be upon the
throne of France."[AF]
[Footnote AE: The Duke of Reichstadt, son of the Emperor, then thirteen
years of age, living at Vienna, in the Court of the Emperor of Austria,
his grandfather. He died of consumption in July, 1832.]
[Footnote AF: Oeuvres de Napoleon III., tome deuxieme, p. 439.]
Joseph, however, did not think it best to embark at that time in any new
enterprise for the restoration of popular rights to France. The Bourbon
throne seemed to be for a time firmly established. Joseph was getting to
be advanced in years. The storms of his life had been so severe that he
longed only for repose.
The following extracts from the correspondence of Joseph, while he
was an exile in America, throw interesting light upon his political
principles and upon his social character. General Lamarque was one
of the veteran generals of the Empire. After the restoration of the
Bourbons, he was highly distinguished for his eloquence in the Tribune
as the antagonist of aristocratic privilege. Napoleon, when on his
death-bed at Saint Helena, in view of his earnest support of popular
rights, both on the battle-field and in the Chamber of Deputies,
recommended him for a marshal of France. Those friends of the Empire who
had been prosecuted for the part they took in the _Hundred Days_, had
found in him a zealous friend. His devotion to the interests of Poland
had secured for him the homage of that chivalrous people. The liberal
party in France, with great unanimity, regarded him as their leader.
Upon the occasion of his funeral, in June, 1832, the Liberals in Paris
made a desperate endeavor to overthrow the government of Louis Philippe.
The insurgents numbered over one hundred thousand. The attempt was
bloodily repulsed by the royalist troops. On the 27th of March, 1824,
General Lamarque wrote a letter from Paris to Joseph, from which we make
the following extracts:
"MONSIEUR LE COMTE,--The memory of your kindnesses lives as vividly
in my heart as on the day in which I received them, and I ever seek
occasions to prove this to you. Already I have refuted, in many articles
of the journals, the atrocious calumnies which have been published
against you, and I ever avow myself to the world as your admirer and
grateful friend. Be assured that your reputation is honorable and
glorious. Truth has already dispelled many clouds; soon it will shine
forth in all its brilliance.
"You do well to consecrate a portion of your time to writing your
memoirs. It seems to me that the part most interesting will be your
reign in Naples. You were there truly the philosopher upon the throne,
which Plato desired for the interests of humanity. I recall your
journeys in which you urged upon the nobles love for the people; upon
the priests tolerance; upon the military, order and moderation. Not
being able to establish political liberty, you wished to confer upon
your subjects all the benefits of municipal regime, which you regarded
as the foundation of all institutions.
"Under your reign--too short for a nation which has so deeply
regretted you--feudalism was destroyed, brigandage disappeared, the
system of imposts was changed, order was established in the finances,
administration created, the nobles and the people reconciled, new routes
opened in all directions, the capital embellished, the army and marine
reorganized, the English driven out of the whole realm, and Gaeta,
Scylla, Reggio, Manthea, and Amanthea taken.
"Your memoirs will be a lesson for kings. But that they may be received
with the religious respect due to a great misfortune, it seems to me
that you ought to efface yourself from the scene of the world, that
your writings should be like a voice coming from the depths of the tomb,
and that you should only ask of your contemporaries not to calumniate
and hate the memory of a man who, having attained the height of all
dignities, has descended from it with serenity, with resignation, and
almost with pleasure. As to Spain, were I in your place, I should say
but one word; that word would be regret in not having been able to
accomplish for Spain the good which was accomplished for Naples.
"Like you, I have been proscribed. Like you, I have wandered in foreign
lands, breathing always wishes for my country. I know how irritable
and sensitive one thus is, and how keenly one feels the attacks of his
enemies. But upon my return I perceived that in exile we exaggerate the
importance of such attacks. Let not the calumnies which reach you, after
having traversed the seas, disturb for a moment your domestic happiness,
and the calm of your situation. They are the last gusts of the tempest,
the last noise of the expiring waves."
In a letter to Francis Leiber, dated July 1, 1829, Joseph writes:
"Walter Scott wrote for the English Government, and from information
furnished him by the Government which succeeded that of the Emperor
Napoleon. Napoleon found France in delirium. He wished to rescue it
from the anarchy of 1793, and from a counter-revolution. That he well
understood the national will, his miraculous return from the isle of
Elba will prove sufficiently to posterity. The English Cabinet always
prevented the surrender of his dictatorship by perpetuating the war.
Napoleon was thus under the necessity of assuming the forms of the other
governments of Continental Europe, to reconcile them with France. All
that which Napoleon did, his nobility (which was not feudal), his family
relations, his Legion of Honor, his new realms, etc., he was under the
necessity of doing. The English ever forced him to these acts, that he
might put himself in apparent harmony with all those governments which
he had conquered, and which he wished to withdraw from the seduction of
England. Napoleon often said to me, 'Ten years more are necessary in
order to give entire liberty. I can not do what I wish, but only what
I can. These English compel me to live day by day.'"
As the tidings reached the ears of Joseph of the great Revolution of
1830 in France, in which the throne of Charles X. was demolished, he
wrote to La Fayette under date of Sept. 7, 1830:
"MY DEAR GENERAL,--General Lallemand, who will hand you this letter,
will recall me to your memory. He will tell you with what enthusiasm the
population of this country, American and French, have received the news
of the glorious events of which Paris has been the theatre. If I had
not seen at the head of affairs a name[AG] with which mine can never
be in accord, I should be with you immediately with General Lallemand.
You will recall our interview in this hospitable and free land. My
sentiments are as invariable as yours and those of my family. _Every
thing for the French people._
[Footnote AG: Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans.]
"Doubtless I can not forget that my nephew, Napoleon II.,[AH] was
proclaimed by the Chamber which, in 1815, was dissolved by the bayonets
of foreigners. Faithful to the motto of my family, _Every thing by
France and for France_, I wish to discharge my duties to her. You know
my opinions, long ago proclaimed. Individuals and families can have only
_duties_ to fulfill in their relation to nations. The nations have
_rights_ to exercise. If the French nation should call to the head of
affairs the most obscure family, I think that we ought to submit to its
will entirely. The nation alone has the right to destroy its work.
[Footnote AH: Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt.]
"I ask for the abolition of that tyrannic law which has shut out from
France a family which had opened the kingdom to all those Frenchmen whom
the Revolution had expelled. I protest against any election made by
private corporations, or by bodies not having obtained from the nation
the powers which the nation alone has the right to confer.
"Adieu, my dear general. My letter proves to you the justice I render to
the sentiments you expressed to me during the triumphal journey you made
among this people, where I have seen, for fifteen years, that liberty is
not a chimera, that it is a blessing which a nation, moderate and wise,
can enjoy when it wishes."
To Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor of Austria, and mother of the
Duke of Reichstadt, Joseph wrote the next day, September 10, as
follows:
"MADAME MY SISTER,--The events which transpired in Paris at the close of
July, and of which we have received intelligence, through the English
journals, to the 1st of August, remove the principal difficulties in
the way of the return of Napoleon II. to the throne of his father. If
the Emperor, his grandfather,[AI] lends him the least support, if he
will permit that, under my guidance, he may show himself to the French
people, his presence alone will re-establish him upon the throne. The
Duke of Orleans can rally around him partisans, only in consequence of
the absence of the son of your Majesty. It is his re-establishment in
France which alone can reunite all parties, stifle the germs of a new
revolution, and thus secure the tranquillity of Europe.
[Footnote AI: The Emperor of Austria.]
"If I were in a position to unfold to your august father the reasons
which render this step indispensable on his part at this moment, he
could have no doubt of its imperious necessity. His ministry would
perceive that the happiness of his grandson, that of France, the
tranquillity of Italy, and perhaps of the rest of Europe, depend upon
the re-establishment of the throne of Napoleon II. He is the only one
chosen by the voice of the nation. He alone can prevent a new revolution
the results of which no mortal can foresee. I hope that the many
misfortunes which we have encountered have not effaced from the heart
of your Majesty the affection she has manifested for me under diverse
circumstances. I can only offer to her myself for her son. For a long
time I have been disabused of the illusions of human grandeur; but I
am more than ever the slave of that which I deem to be my duty."
On the 18th of September, 1830, Joseph wrote a letter to the Emperor
of Austria, which he inclosed in a letter of the same date to Prince
Metternich. In his letter to Metternich, Joseph wrote:
"I do not doubt, sir, that you desire the welfare of the grandson
of the Emperor whom you have so long served, the welfare of Austria,
the tranquillity of Europe, and even of France, if these are
all reconcilable. I am convinced that they are to-day perfectly
reconcilable, and that Napoleon II. restored to the wishes of the
French people can alone secure all these results. I offer myself to
serve him as a guide. The happiness of my country, the peace of the
world, will be the noble ends of my ambition.
"Napoleon II. arriving in France under the national colors, conducted
by a man whose sentiments and patriotic affections are well known, can
alone prevent the usurpation of the Duke of Orleans, who, being neither
called to the throne by the rights of succession nor by the national
will, clearly and legitimately expressed, can maintain himself in power
only by caressing all parties, and finally becoming subordinate to the
one which offers him the best chances of success, whatever may be the
means to be employed for that end."
Joseph's letter to the Emperor of Austria contained the following
expressions: "The particular esteem with which the virtues of your
Majesty inspire me, embolden me to recall myself to his recollection
under circumstances in which the general welfare appears to me to be
in accord with the sentiments of his heart, that he may restore to the
wishes of the French people a prince who alone can confer upon them
internal peace, and assure the tranquillity of Europe. This peace and
tranquillity would be disturbed by the efforts which must be made to
sustain in France a government of usurpation like that of the Duke of
Orleans, or even a republic, if the absence of the son of Napoleon, the
grandson of your Majesty, should constrain the nation, thus abandoned
by the prince of its choice, to surrender itself to another form of
government. Sire, if you will entrust to me the son of my brother,
that son whom he enjoined, upon his death-bed, to follow my advice in
returning to France, I guarantee the success of the enterprise. Alone,
with a tri-color scarf, will Napoleon II. be proclaimed.
"Will it be necessary for me to speak of myself to your Majesty to
give him confidence in my character? Must I recall to his remembrance
that, after the treaty of Luneville, he communicated to me, through an
autograph letter to Count Cobentzl, that the opinion he had formed of
my moderation was such that he would with pleasure see me placed upon
the throne of Lombardy? I refused that throne. I preferred to remain
in France. Since then, at Naples, in Spain, has that character been
falsified?
"To-day, as then, I am guided by the single sentiment of duty. My
ambition limits itself to doing what I ought for France, for the
memory of my brother, and to die upon my native soil a witness of
the happiness of the grandson of your Majesty, which is inseparable
from that of France and from the tranquillity of Europe. I can only
contribute to that to-day by my wishes. May your Majesty second them by
his powerful influence, and thus consolidate the peace of the world and
the eternal glory of his name."
On the same day, September 18, Joseph wrote an earnest appeal to the
French Chamber of Deputies.[AJ] The following extracts will show its
character. "It is impossible that a house, reigning through the
principle of divine right, should maintain itself upon a throne from
which it has been expelled by the nation. The divorce between the House
of Bourbon and the French people has been pronounced, and nothing can
destroy the souvenirs of the past. In vain the Duke of Orleans abjures
his house in the moment of its misfortunes. A Bourbon himself, returning
to France, sword in hand, with the Bourbons, in the train of foreign
armies, what matter is it that his father voted for the death of the
King, his cousin, that he might take his place? What matter is it that
the brother of Louis XVI. named him lieutenant-general of the realm,
and regent of his grandson? Is he the less a Bourbon? Has he the less
pretension of being entitled to the throne by the right of birth? Is it
through the choice of the people, or the right of birth, that he claims
to sit upon the throne of his ancestors?
[Footnote AJ: Oeuvres de Napoleon III. tome deuxieme, p. 441.]
"The family of Napoleon has been elected by three million five hundred
thousand votes. If the nation deem it for its interest to make another
choice, it has the power and the right to do so; but the nation alone.
Napoleon II. was proclaimed king by the Chamber of Deputies in 1815,
which recognized in him a right conferred by the nation. That he may be
the legitimate sovereign, in the true acceptation of the word, that is
to say, legally and voluntarily chosen by the people, there is no need
of a new election so long as the nation has not adopted any other form
of government. Still the nation is supreme to confirm or reject the
titles it has given according to its pleasure. Till then, gentlemen, you
are bound to recognize Napoleon II. And until Austria shall restore him
to the wishes of France, I offer myself to share your perils, your
efforts, your labors, and, upon his arrival, to transmit to him the
will, the examples, the last dispositions of his father, dying a victim
of the enemies of France upon the rock of Saint Helena. These words the
Emperor addressed to me through General Bertrand:
"'Say to my son that he should remember, first of all, that he is a
Frenchman. Let him give the nation as much liberty as I have given it
equality. Foreign wars did not permit me to do that which I should have
done at the general peace. I was perpetually in dictatorship. But I ever
had, as the motive in all my actions, the love and the grandeur of the
great nation. Let him take my device, _Every thing for the French
people_. It is to that people we are indebted for all that we have been.
"'The liberty of the press is the triumph of truth. It is that which
should diffuse general intelligence. Let it speak, and let the will of
the great mass of the people be accomplished.'"
Again, on the 26th of September, Joseph wrote to General Lamarque: "The
Duke of Orleans, by his birth, by his connection with the reigning
branches of the family of Bourbon, which he in vain attempts to ignore,
will soon be suspected by the patriots of France, and by the liberals
of Italy and of Spain. The act which places him upon the throne, not
emanating from the nation, can not constitute him king of the French.
A few capitalists in Paris are not France. He can not therefore have
the cordial assent of the liberals of any country. He can not have the
support of those who believe in the legitimacy of the elder branch of
his house. He can not have the assent of those who have not lost the
memory of the votes which the nation gave to Napoleon, and to Napoleon
II., whom the Chamber of Deputies proclaimed in 1815.
"The Duke of Orleans, was he not a pupil of Dumourier? Did he not, like
Dumourier, desert the cause of the nation? Did he not, in London, in
the presence of all the emigrant French nobility, ask pardon and make
the _amende honorable_ for having, for one instant, borne the national
colors? Did he not go to Cadiz, sent by the English, to fight the French
troops who did not then wear the white cockade of the Bourbons? Did he
not enter France in the train of the Allies, sword in hand, with his
cousins? Was he not rescued with them, and did he not owe to the
disaster at Waterloo his return to France?
"The thirty-two individuals who called him first to the
lieutenant-generalship of the realm would have called some one else if
they had not been greatly influenced by his rights of birth. Was there
no other man in France more worthy to take temporarily the helm of
state? General La Fayette, who was at the head of the provisory
government, would he not have given to the nation, and to the friends
of liberty and of order in the two worlds, stronger guaranties than a
prince of the House of Bourbon? The enthronement of the Duke of Orleans
can be approved only by the enemies of France. His illegitimacy, both in
view of the sovereignty of the people and of the partisans of divine
right, is so evident that he can only govern by being submissive to the
will of the factions, whom he will be compelled to obey, now one, and
now another. The time for representative governments has arrived.
Liberty, equality, public order can not exist where those governing are
of a different species from those who are governed."
In a letter to General Bernard, on the 29th of September, Joseph uttered
the following prophetic sentiment: "You were deceived by your informants
when you said that the name of Napoleon was not pronounced by the
combatants. It was pronounced by them. It was pronounced by the Army of
Algiers. It is to-day pronounced by the people in the departments and
will soon be by entire France. The artifices of intrigue and deception
are temporary. The national will, sooner or later, must triumph."
La Fayette had been mainly instrumental in placing the Duke of Orleans
upon the throne of France. He wrote to Joseph Bonaparte explaining his
reasons for this. In allusion to the fact that he was compelled to
yield to the pressure of circumstances, he said, "You know that in home
affairs, as in foreign affairs, no one can do just what he wishes to
have done. Your incomparable brother, with his power, his character,
his genius, experienced this himself." He also expressed his strong
disapproval of the dictatorship of Napoleon, and of the aristocracy
which he introduced. Joseph replied from Point Breeze, under date of
January 15, 1831:
"MY DEAR GENERAL,--I have received your letter of the 26th of November.
I am satisfied that under the circumstances you did that which you
conscientiously thought it your duty to do. You have thought, as have I,
and as did the Emperor Napoleon, that a republic could not, at present,
be established in France. You have recoiled before the confusion which
it would introduce in the interior. You could undoubtedly have found a
remedy for that in the family which the nation had called to such high
destinies. But the hatred of foreigners against that family which France
had chosen, inclined you to a prince between whom and legitimacy there
was but a single child.[AK]
[Footnote AK: Charles X. abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Duke of
Bordeaux, a child seven or eight years old. Should that child die, the
Duke of Orleans would be the _legitimate_ Bourbon candidate for the
throne.]
"My reply is short. Let France preserve peace and liberty with that
family. Let such become the _national will legitimately expressed_, and
the conduct of the sixty-two Deputies, who have called the second branch
of the House of Bourbon to power, will no longer be discussed by any
one. Will this be done? Time alone can tell us.
"The portion of your letter in which you speak of the Napoleonic system
as impressed with despotism and aristocracy merits, on my part, a more
detailed response. While I render justice to your good intentions, I can
not but deplore the situation in which you found yourself when released
from the prisons of Austria. That imprisonment did not permit you to
judge the influence exerted upon the national opinion and character
by the wretched Reign of Terror. You had only seen the liberal system
of America, and you have condemned the all-powerful man who did not
transfer that system to France. I remember that one day my brother, in
coming from an interview with you, my dear general, said to me these
words:
"'I have just had a very interesting conversation with the Marquis de la
Fayette upon the subject of the disorderly persons whom the police have
sent from Paris. I have said to him that this was done that they might
not disturb the tranquillity of good men like himself, whose residence
in France appeared to them one of my crimes.[AL] The Marquis de la
Fayette does not know the character of these people in whom he interests
himself. He was in the prisons of despotism when these people made all
France to tremble. But France remembers this too well. We are not here
in America.'
[Footnote AL: The Jacobins wished all whom they termed aristocrats
guillotined or expelled from France.]
"Napoleon never doubted your good intentions. But he thought that you
judged too favorably of your contemporaries. He was forced into war by
the English, and into the dictatorship by the war. These few words are
the history of the Empire. Napoleon incessantly said to me, 'When will
peace arrive? Then only can I satisfy all, and show myself as I am.'
"The aristocracy of which you accuse him was only the mode of placing
himself in harmony with Europe. But the old feudal aristocracy was never
in his favor. The proof of this is that he was its victim, and that he
expiated, at Saint Helena, the crime of having wished to employ all
the institutions in favor of the people; and the European aristocracy
contrived to turn against him even those very masses for whose benefit
he was laboring. The French nation renders him justice; and the European
masses will not be slow to say that Napoleon had ever in view the
suffrage of posterity, whose verdict is always in favor of him who has
only in view the happiness of his country."
On the 15th of February, 1832, Joseph wrote from Point Breeze to the
Duke of Reichstadt as follows:
"MY DEAR NEPHEW,--The bearer of this letter will be the interpreter of
my sentiments. He has passed several weeks in my retreat. They have
been occupied with the souvenirs of your father, and of your future
lot. I was born eighteen months before your father. We were brought up
together. Nothing has ever diminished the warm affection which united
us. At his death he entrusted to me the care of communicating to you his
last wishes. But before my distance from you enabled me to fulfill that
duty, his testament had been published in all the leading journals of
Europe.
"When, in 1830, the house imposed upon France by foreigners was again
expelled by the nation, I hastened to address to the Chamber of
Deputies, and to his Imperial Majesty, your grandfather, the inclosed
letters. But my distance from France still thwarted my wishes, and the
younger branch of that same house was again imposed upon France by a
factious minority. Innumerable calumnies, intended to alienate the
nation from you, were scattered abroad with profusion. A chamber,
controlled by the Government usurping the rights of the nation,
proscribed us anew. But the voice of the people called you. Of that
I have conclusive evidence.
"Let his Imperial Majesty consent to entrust you to my care; let him
send me a passport that I may come to him and to you, I will quit my
retreat to respond to his confidence, to yours, to the sentiment which
commands me to spare no efforts to restore to the love of the French the
son of the man whom I have loved the most of any one upon earth. My
opinions are well known in France. They are in harmony with those of the
nation. If you enter France with me and a tri-color scarf, you will be
received there as the son of Napoleon.
"When you were born in Paris, the 20th of March, 1811, your father had
become, through the love of the French people as well as through the
obstinacy of the English oligarchy making war upon him, the most
powerful prince in Europe. The English oligarchy foresaw the prosperity
which France, governed in accordance with the liberal doctrines of the
age, would attain if she had peace. That oligarchy feared the contagion
of the example upon other states. Therefore it did not cease to employ
the immense resources which the monopoly of the commerce of the world
placed at its disposal to excite against Napoleon enemies at home and
abroad, and to stifle, at its birth, the union of the peoples and the
kings for the reform of the anti-social privileges of the oligarchy. It
therefore provoked incessant war, and thus rendered France every day
more powerful, through the victories she obtained under the direction of
your father, whom it accused of the calamities inseparable from a war
kindled by itself, and with the sole object of maintaining its unjust
privileges.
"It was at the close of a strife incessantly renewed, excited by the
Government of a nation sufficiently rich to pay the soldiers of the
others, and sheltered by its insular position against all attempts
against itself, that, after the triumphs of twenty years, your father
succumbed beneath the united efforts of the Allies of England, who
perceived too late their fatal errors.
"Napoleon was the friend both of the peoples and of the kings. He wished
to reconcile them to each other. He wished to save other states from the
misfortunes which a bloody revolution had inflicted upon France. These
were the reforms which he desired, voluntary ameliorations, commended
by the increasing civilization of the world, and the widely-extended
interests of all classes, and not violent commotions, which always pass
beyond the end desired. His greatest vengeance against England did not
exceed that which the advocates of the bill of reform seek for to-day.
"I think that now you are placed in a position to continue the work with
which a divine genius inspired your father. France will accept you with
enthusiasm. Factions will subside. The power with which your father was
invested is no longer needful for the accomplishment of his designs. It
was war which elevated upon the thrones of Europe the princes of his
family. But it was not that he might give them thrones that he engaged
in war. They were military positions occupied during the general
struggle which the oligarchies had decided never to close but by the
abasement of France. It was necessary to allow the conquered countries
to be invaded by the republican system for which they were not prepared,
or to cause them to be governed by men of whose devotion to France and
to himself he was fully assured. And where could he find better
guaranties than in his brothers, whom nature, as well as the favors
which they had received from the nation, had destined to share his
adverse as well as his good-fortune, both inseparable from that of
France?
"To-day time has borne its fruits. Nations are more enlightened
respecting their interests. They know well that the most happy nation
is that in which the greatest number of men enjoy the most prosperity;
which obeys a supreme magistrate whom it loves, and who himself has not
the baleful power to abuse the life, the property, the liberty of the
people, whom he represents only that he may protect the rights which
they have entrusted to him. Such were the opinions, and especially the
instinct, of your father. _Every thing for the people!_ And at the
general pacification which he desired with all his heart, _Every thing
by the people, and for the people_. He did not live long enough.
"May I live long enough to see you return to our country, restored to
herself, the worthy heir of his heart, all French, of his generous
intentions. As for his immense genius, it is no longer necessary for
France or for Europe. You are destined, by your birth, to unite peoples
and kings, and to reconcile the old and the new civilization; to prevent
new upheavings, to moderate all political passions, and thus to bring
forward that prosperity of individuals and of nations which can only
arise from justice, from the free development of all rights, from the
equilibrium of all duties.
"Your father was accustomed to say to me, 'When will the time arise when
justice alone shall reign? When shall I finish my dictatorship? We do
not yet see that time. The English oligarchy will not have it so. My son
perhaps will see it. May that presage be soon accomplished.'
"This is also the fondest wish of my heart. Receive it with the
tenderness of the old friend of your glorious father, at Point Breeze,
State of New Jersey, in the United States of America, where I live as
happy as one can be far from his country, in the most prosperous land
upon the earth, under the name which I have adopted, of the Count of
Survilliers."
The elder brother of the present Emperor, Napoleon III., who had married
the youngest daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, died in Italy in March, 1831.
With his younger brother, Louis Napoleon, he had joined the Italians in
their endeavor to throw off the yoke of Austria. The young prince, who
had developed a very noble character, fell a victim to the fatigues of
the campaign. _By the vote of the French people_, the Duke of Reichstadt
was the first heir to the throne of the Empire. In case of his death,
the crown passed to Joseph Bonaparte. As Joseph had no children, his
decease would transfer the sceptre to his brother, Louis Bonaparte, and
from Louis it would pass to Louis Napoleon, his only surviving son.
When, in 1832, Joseph heard of the dangerous sickness of the Duke of
Reichstadt, whose death, as we have mentioned, would constitute Joseph
first heir to the throne, he with some hesitancy decided to leave his
peaceful retreat at Point Breeze and repair to England. He hoped to
obtain permission to visit his dying nephew in Vienna, and then to
reunite himself in Italy with his wife, and with his revered mother, who
was still living. Upon his landing in Liverpool he received the sad
tidings that the Duke of Reichstadt had breathed his last on the 22d of
July. He was twenty-one years of age, tall, graceful, affectionate, and
of marvellous beauty. His mother and other friends wept at the side of
his couch. Devoutly he partook of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
and, with a smile lingering upon his cheek, fell asleep. We trust
"Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep,
From which none ever wake to weep."
[Illustration: DEATH OF THE DUKE OF REICHSTADT.]