face of the world; who made himself felt through powerful and civilized
nations; who sent the terror of his name across seas and oceans; whose
will was pronounced and feared as destiny; whose donatives were crowns;
whose ante-chamber was thronged by submissive princes; who broke down
the awful barrier of the Alps, and made them a highway; and whose fame
was spread beyond the boundaries of civilization to the steppes of the
Cossack and the deserts of the Arab,—a man who has left this record
of himself in history has taken out of our hands the question whether
he shall be called great. All must concede to him a sublime power of
action, an energy equal to great effects.”
“Whether we think of his amazing genius, his unparalleled power of
embracing vast combinations, while he lost sight of none of the details
necessary to insure success, his rapidity of thought and equally sudden
execution, his tireless energy, his ceaseless activity, his ability
to direct the movements of half a million of soldiers in different
parts of the world, and at the same time reform the laws, restore the
finances, and administer the government of his country, or whether we
trace his dazzling career from the time he was a poor, proud charity
boy at the military school of Brienne to the hour when he sat down on
the most brilliant throne of Europe, he is the same wonderful man,—the
same grand theme for human contemplation.”
In this short sketch we have no space for arguments; nor does Napoleon
need arguments to substantiate his claims to greatness. Facts
only can prove the supremacy of his fame, and _facts_ proclaim him
unparalleled in history. _Lies_ only defame him and make him out a
tyrant. That he was without fault or blemish we would not maintain;
that sad mistakes brought upon him evil consequences which he himself
was the first to trace to their source, we do not deny. But that
amongst all these famous rulers of the world, his is the greatest name,
unprejudiced history has decreed.
Of all these mighty conquerors of the world, Napoleon stands second to
none.
“When the sword of Alexander overthrew the Persian throne and
subjugated the East as far as the Indus, he did but extend the
civilization of Athens. The refinement of the age of Pericles, the
acquirements of Attica, the philosophy of the academy and the lyceum,
followed in the train of his victories.
“When Cæsar subjugated Parthia and Germany, and carried the Roman
eagles from the summit of Caucasus to the hills of Caledonia; when he
passed from Gaul to Italy, from Rome to Greece, from the plains of
Pharsalia to the shores of Africa, from the ruins of Carthage to the
banks of the Nile and the Euxine; when he traversed the Bosphorus and
the Rhine, the Taurus and the Alps, the Atlas and the Pyrenees,—in
all these triumphal courses lie propagated under the protection of
his personal glory, the name, the language, and manners of civilized
Rome. If Alexander carried with him the Age of Pericles, and Cæsar
that of Augustus, if they were accompanied in their triumphs by the
genius of Homer and of Sophocles, of Plato and Aristotle, of Virgil and
Horace, Napoleon carried with him an age that the arts, sciences, and
philosophy have rendered equally illustrious, and his enterprise is no
less than that of his predecessors.”
Though the aristocracy of Europe denounced him as an odious despot
and an insatiable conqueror, in the hearts of his people—the artisan,
the laborer, and the soldier—he is still cherished as the “Man of
the people, as the personification of that spirit of equality which
pervaded both his administration and the camp.” His name is still
religiously respected by the peasant in his cottage. His tomb is still
cherished as the most sacred spot on earth by the French people.
Never did mortal man inspire such love and adoration in the hearts
of his soldiers. This unprecedented idolatry of a nation is the best
refutation of the malign accusations of his enemies, “that Napoleon
_usurped_ the sovereignty of France; that having attained the supreme
power, he was a tyrant, devoting that power to the promotion of his
own selfish aggrandizement; that the wars in which he was incessantly
engaged were provoked by his arrogance.”
Should the testimony of disappointed sycophants, whose pens are dipped
in the venom of thwarted ambition and vanity, or the accusations of
bitter foes, whose opinions are biassed by political intrigues, be
believed against the character of Napoleon, rather than his own noble
utterances, and the testimony of his incorruptible friends?
That his invasion of Egypt was aggressive and unjust, we will admit;
but should England be the one to make the loudest outcry against
this expedition, when it was only following her own policy when she
increased her possessions by her conquests in India? And even the
superiority of English literature and English writers should not make
us blind to the unjust prejudices of English critics. Had Napoleon
not quelled the insurrection, and given the final death-blow to the
Revolution, how can any monarchy in Europe be certain that all thrones
in Europe might not have tottered and fallen; that all European
kingdoms might not have had to face a revolution? Had Napoleon died
upon the throne of France, even his English foes, who feared the lonely
exile, whom their duplicity and treachery had banished to the dreary
rock of St. Helena, more than they feared any European monarch, would
doubtless have joined the plaudits of the world in honor of the _Hero
of Success_, irrespective of methods or motives. It is only because
Napoleon outlived his marvellous and almost miraculous success that
the world condemns, and his enemies malign him. Had our own Washington
been unsuccessful, then would he have been hung as a rebel, and our own
glorious Revolution would have been called a rebellion, and none would
have been so loud in the outcry against us as England.
But our success has compelled her recognition, and our marvellous
growth in strength, power, and resources has gained her reluctant
admiration. It is hardly to be expected that England should ever forget
how Napoleon made her tremble, and how near she came to being the
conquered rather than the conqueror.
From an earthly point of view, his was the greatest life of mortal man;
but from a heavenly standpoint, even his greatness crumbles into dust,
and his own higher nature was true enough to realize and acknowledge
the instability of earthly renown, and the failure of even such
phenomenal greatness as his own, to satisfy the higher cravings of the
immortal soul.
To properly estimate the genius of Napoleon, and his achievements in
behalf of France, a glance must be given to the bloody background of
the Revolution, which rises up with all its ghastliness and horrors.
The rights and liberties of the French people had been trampled under
foot by despotic and profligate kings and nobles; and then brute force
arose against oppression; and brute force for a time conquered.
Mobs surge like a mighty ocean through the streets of Paris. Men,
women, and children are turned into wild beasts of fury, thirsting only
for blood. And blood they get—till Paris runs red like a river, and all
the demons of hades seem to have been let loose upon the world. Such
was the hydra-headed monster of bloody, lawless license and ignorant
defiance which confronted the dawning manhood of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Such was the ferocious fury which the genius of this small, slender,
pale-faced, smooth-cheeked youth of twenty-five encountered with
such dauntless courage and quelled by his irresistible foresight and
execution.
The monarchy of France had been dethroned. Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette had paid with their lives the forfeit of oppression which
was not all their own. The Royalists and the Jacobins had joined the
howling mob of insurgents, and all together were rushing onward to
attack the Convention, which was the only representative of government
then in France. The troops of the Convention had been sent to meet the
mob, but retired in fear and panic. The mob advanced with demoniacal
shouts of menace. The Convention trembled. In the midst of the terror
and confusion one member exclaims,—
“I know the man who can defend us if any can. It is a young Corsican
officer, Napoleon Bonaparte.” The Convention immediately sent for
him. All expected to see a stalwart soldier, of gigantic frame and
imperious bearing. Their surprise was unbounded, when a young slender
man of boyish presence appeared before them. The astonished president
incredulously inquired,—
“Are you willing to undertake the defence of the Convention?”
“Yes,” was the laconic and calm reply. With half-disdainful contempt
the president continued,—
“Are you aware of the magnitude of the undertaking?”
Sweeping the assembly with his magnetic glance, and fixing his eagle
eye upon the president, Napoleon replied, “Perfectly; and I am in the
habit of accomplishing what I undertake.”
And accomplish he did. But how? By the same measures he had declared
should have been taken when, a short time before, he had watched the
furious mob rush unrestrained through the palace of the imprisoned
monarch. Then he had exclaimed, “They should have swept down the first
five hundred with grapeshot, and the rest would have soon taken to
flight.” And his own successful quelling of the insurgents proved the
correctness of his plans and the marvellous executive force of his
genius. So Napoleon established the new government of France called
the Directory. We have space only for a glance at his boyhood. He was
born upon the island of Corsica, on the 15th of August, 1769. His
father died while Napoleon was quite young, and his mother, Madame
Letitia Bonaparte, was left with small means to provide for eight
children,—Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, Jerome, Eliza, Pauline, and
Caroline.
When Napoleon was about ten years of age, Count Marbœuf obtained his
admission to the military school at Brienne, near Paris. Regarded as a
charity student by his companions, he was here subjected to neglects
and taunts which stung his sensitive nature to the quick. When Napoleon
was fifteen, he was promoted to the military school at Paris. On one
occasion a mathematical problem of great difficulty was given to his
class. Napoleon secluded himself in his room for seventy-two hours
and solved the problem. Napoleon did not blunder into greatness. His
achievements were not accidents. That he possessed native genius cannot
be denied; but he also possessed that perseverance and application
which alone can win the success which genius aspires to, but which only
energy and perseverance can make possible. When Napoleon was sixteen
years of age, he was examined for an appointment in the army. At the
close of this examination, one of the professors wrote opposite the
signature of Napoleon, “This young man will distinguish himself in the
world, if favored by fortune.”
Napoleon secured the position of second lieutenant in a regiment of
artillery. He was ordered to Lyons with his regiment. While there,
the Academy at Lyons offered a prize for the best dissertation upon
the question, “What are the institutions most likely to contribute to
human happiness?” Napoleon won the prize. The English, uniting with the
Royalists of France, had seized Toulon, a naval depot and arsenal of
France. The Convention, the revolutionary government, promoted Napoleon
to the rank of brigadier-general, and gave him the command of the
artillery train at Toulon. It was here that his military abilities were
noticed by the member of the Convention who afterwards proposed him as
being the only man who could defend them against the mob, as we have
already narrated. After quelling this formidable insurrection, Napoleon
was enthusiastically received by the Convention. Five Directors were
now chosen by the Convention, who should constitute the new Directory,
and the Convention dissolved itself, surrendering the government
into the hands of the Directory. Napoleon was appointed by them
commander-in-chief of the Army of the Interior, and intrusted with the
military defence and government of the metropolis. Having attained this
high dignity, Napoleon placed his mother and the rest of his family in
comfort.
Famine was great in Paris. The Revolution had left all industries
paralyzed. The poor were perishing.
Napoleon immediately organized the National Guards, established order,
and distributed wood and bread to the perishing citizens. It was at
this time that he met his future wife, Josephine. She was a widow with
two children. Her husband, the Viscount Beauharnais, had perished on
the scaffold during the Revolution. On the 6th of March, 1796, Napoleon
and Josephine were married. Napoleon was twenty-six years of age,
Josephine being two years older. This marriage was one of ideal love.
When Napoleon was crowned Emperor, he was privately married again by
Cardinal Fesch, in accordance with the forms of the Church, which the
Emperor had re-established.
Napoleon turned with disgust from the profligacy and dissipation
which ever disgrace an army. To the defamations of his enemies who
endeavored to malign his character, by accusing him of immorality, let
his own words answer: “When I took command of the army of Italy, my
extreme youth rendered it necessary that I should evince great reserve
of manners and the utmost severity of morals. My supremacy could be
retained only by proving myself a better man than any other man in the
army. Had I yielded to human weaknesses, I should have lost my power.”
Napoleon was temperate in the extreme, and manifested the strongest
disapproval for gaming. Napoleon’s first campaign in Italy was one of
self-defence on the part of the French. France had renounced a monarchy
and established a republic. The kings of Europe trembled. England was
hovering around the coasts of France assailing every available point.
Austria had marched an army of nearly two hundred thousand men to
the banks of the Rhine. She had called into requisition her Italian
possessions, and in alliance with the British navy the armies of the
king of Sardinia together with the legions of Naples and Sicily,
prepared to attack the French Republic.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON IN THE PRISON OF NICE, 1794.]
The Directory said to the young commander-in-chief: “We can furnish you
only men. The troops are destitute of everything, but we have no money
to provide supplies.”
“Give me only men enough,” replied the undaunted Napoleon; “I will be
answerable for the result.”
Leaving his bride in Paris, Napoleon hastened to Nice, the headquarters
of the army of Italy.
Now the first of those wonderful proclamations rings out in the ears
of the astonished troops. “Soldiers, you are hungry and naked; the
government owes you much, and can pay you nothing. I come to lead you
into the most fertile plains the sun beholds. There you will find
abundant harvests, honor, and glory. Soldiers of Italy, will you fail
in courage?”
This apparent stripling then assembles his generals, all war-worn
chiefs. Amazed and speechless, they listen to his plans.
“The time has passed in which enemies are mutually to appoint the place
of combat, advance, hat in hand, and say, ‘_Gentlemen, will you have
the goodness to fire?_’ The art of war is in its infancy. Experienced
generals conduct the troops opposed to us. So much the better, so
much the better. It is not their experience which will avail against
me. Mark my words: they will soon burn their books on tactics and
know not what to do. Yes, gentlemen, the first onset of the Italian
army will give birth to a new epoch in military affairs. As for us,
we must hurl ourselves on the foe like a thunderbolt, and smite it.
Disconcerted by our tactics, and not daring to put them into execution,
they will fly before us as the shades of night before the uprising sun.”
And fly before him they did at the battle of Montenotte, regarding
which Napoleon afterwards proudly said, “My title of nobility dates
from the battle of Montenotte.”
The Austrians fled in one direction, the Sardinians in another, before
this invincible conqueror, and Europe, amazed, inquired, Who is this
young general who has blazed forth in such sudden and appalling
splendor?
Meanwhile Napoleon issues this stirring proclamation:—
“Soldiers, you have gained in fifteen days six victories, taken
one-and-twenty standards, fifty-five pieces of cannon, many strong
places, and have conquered the richest part of Piedmont. You have
gained battles without cannon; passed rivers without bridges; made
forced marches without shoes; bivouacked without bread. The phalanxes
of the republic, the soldiers of liberty, were alone capable of such
services.”
The humiliated king of Sardinia sued for peace. It was the evening of
the 10th of May, 1796. The Austrians had intrenched themselves on the
banks of the River Po. As the French were making the terrible passage
of the bridge of Lodi, in the face of the enemies’ fire, Napoleon
seized a standard, shouting to his men, “Follow your general!” and
plunging through the blinding smoke, he led his bleeding column
forward, and the bridge was carried.
“This beardless youth,” said an Austrian general, indignantly, “ought
to have been beaten over and over again; for whoever saw such tactics!
The blockhead knows nothing of the rules of war. To-day he is in our
rear, to-morrow on our flank, and the next day again in our front. Such
gross violations of the principles of war are insufferable.”
And more insufferable still would his enemies find the tactics of
the invincible Napoleon. Some of the veterans of the army jocosely
promoted Napoleon to the rank of corporal, in honor of his bravery at
the bridge of Lodi. When their general next appeared before his army,
he was greeted with the shouts, “_Long live our little corporal!_” and
even in the dignity of consul and emperor, Napoleon never lost this
affectionate nickname amongst his troops, of whom he was the idol.
We have no space for details; the battles of Castiglione, Arcola,
and the bloody conflict of Rivoli had been fought. The imperial
court had sent out five armies against the French Republicans, and
had encountered defeat and destruction at the hands of the beardless
general, who they had disdainfully declared knew nothing about war
tactics. Mantua had fallen, and the Austrians were driven from Italy.
The Pope implored the clemency of the conqueror. But the Italian people
everywhere hailed him as their deliverer. Still Austria refused to make
peace with republican France, and the march to Vienna was commenced.
Again one of those soul-stirring, inspiring proclamations was issued to
his troops.
“Soldiers, the campaign just ended has given you imperishable renown.
You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and seventy
actions. You have taken more than a hundred thousand prisoners, five
hundred field-pieces, two thousand heavy guns, and four pontoon trains.
You have maintained the army during the whole campaign. In addition to
this, you have sent six millions of dollars to the public treasury,
and have enriched the National Museum with three hundred masterpieces
of the art of ancient and modern Italy, which it has required thirty
centuries to produce. You have conquered the finest countries of
Europe. The French flag waves for the first time upon the Adriatic,
opposite to Macedon, the native country of Alexander. Still higher
destinies await you. I know that you will not prove unworthy of them.
Of all the foes that conspired to stifle the Republic in its birth, the
Austrian emperor alone remains before you. To obtain peace we must seek
it in the heart of his hereditary state. You will there find a brave
people, whose religion and customs you will respect, and whose property
you will hold sacred. Remember that it is liberty you carry to the
brave Hungarian nation.”
As he had to the Italian people, so also to the Austrian people
Napoleon issued one of his glowing proclamations, assuring them that
he was fighting not for conquest but for peace; that the _people_ of
Austria would find in him a protector, who would respect their religion
and defend all their rights.
All was consternation in Vienna. The people clamored for peace, and the
Austrian emperor sent ambassadors to Napoleon. A treaty was signed, and
Austria was conquered. Not a year had elapsed since this nameless young
man of twenty-six, with thirty thousand ragged, starving troops, had
dauntlessly undertaken this seemingly impossible enterprise. Now Italy
was at his feet. Austria was forced to come to terms. All his foes were
stunned into terror-stricken inaction.
Before the treaty of Campo Formio was signed, every possible endeavor
was made to bribe Napoleon to make terms which should conduce to the
advantage of his foes. The wealth of Europe was laid at his feet.
Millions upon millions of gold were offered to him, but his noble
spirit could not thus be tarnished.
Napoleon arrived in Paris on the 7th of December, 1797, having been
absent about eighteen months. The Directory, jealous of Napoleon’s
power and popularity, were forced by the enthusiasm of the people to
prepare a triumphal festival for the delivery of the treaty of Campo
Formio.
The magnificent palace of the Luxembourg was adorned for this
gorgeous show. The walls were hung with glittering trophies; the vast
galleries were crowded with those illustrious in rank; martial music
rang out upon the air, and the thunders of the cannon mingled with
the enthusiastic shouts of the rejoicing multitudes. Napoleon was
introduced by Talleyrand in an eloquent speech. Calmly the great hero
stood before the assembled multitude. His imposing presence required
not the trappings of the bedecked and bejewelled grandees of the court.
Majestic was his calm dignity as he addressed the people:—
“Citizens! the French people in order to be free had kings to combat.
To obtain a constitution founded on reason, it had the prejudices of
eighteen centuries to overcome. Priestcraft, feudalism, despotism, have
successively, for two thousand years, governed Europe. From the peace
you have just concluded dates the era of representative governments.
You have succeeded in organizing a great nation, whose vast territory
is circumscribed only because Nature herself has fixed its limits. You
have done more. The two finest countries in Europe—formerly so renowned
for the arts, the sciences, and the illustrious men whose cradle they
were—see with the greatest hopes genius and freedom issuing from the
tomb of their ancestors. I have the honor to deliver to you the treaty
signed at Campo Formio, and ratified by the emperor. Peace secures the
liberty, the prosperity, and the glory of the Republic. As soon as the
happiness of France is secured by the best organic laws, the whole of
Europe will be free.”
A wild burst of enthusiasm filled the air as Napoleon ceased speaking.
The people shouted, “Live Napoleon, the conqueror of Italy, the
pacificator of Europe, the saviour of France!”
Napoleon now laid aside the dress of a soldier. He attended constantly
the meetings of the Institute, and immediately assumed a pre-eminence
amongst those distinguished scholars as marked as he had already
attained as a general.