First Lessons in Revolution.
French Soldier and Corsican Patriot -- Paoli's Hesitancy --
His Return to Corsica -- Cross-Purposes in France -- A New
Furlough -- Money Transactions of Napoleon and Joseph --
Open Hostilities Against France -- Address to the French
Assembly -- The Bastia Uprising -- Reorganization of
Corsican Administration -- Meeting of Napoleon and Paoli --
Corsican Politics -- Studies in Society.
[Sidenote: 1790.]
What was to be the future of one whose feelings were so hostile to the
nation with the fortunes of which he now seemed irrevocably
identified? There is no evidence that Buonaparte ever asked himself
such disquieting questions. To judge from his conduct, he was not in
the least troubled. Fully aware of the disorganization, both social
and military, which was well-nigh universal in France, with two months
more of his furlough yet unexpired, he awaited developments, not
hastening to meet difficulties before they presented themselves. What
the young democrats could do, they did. The town government was
entirely reorganized, with a friend of the Buonapartes as mayor, and
Joseph--employed at last!--as his secretary. A local guard was also
raised and equipped. Being French, however, and not Corsican, Napoleon
could not accept a command in it, for he was already an officer in the
French army. But he served in the ranks as a common soldier, and was
an ardent agitator in the club, which almost immediately reopened its
doors. In the impossibility of further action there was a relapse into
authorship. The history of Corsica was again revised, though not
softened; the letters into which it was divided were addressed to
Raynal. In collaboration with Fesch, Buonaparte also drew up a memoir
on the oath which was required from priests.
When Paoli first received news of the amnesty granted at the instance
of Mirabeau, and of the action taken by the French Assembly, which had
made Corsica a French department, he was delighted and deeply moved.
His noble instincts told him at once that he could no longer live in
the enjoyment of an English pension or even in England; for he was
convinced that his country would eventually reach a more perfect
autonomy under France than under the wing of any other power, and that
as a patriot he must not fail even in appearance to maintain that
position. But he also felt that his return to Corsica would endanger
the success of this policy; the ardent mountaineers would demand more
extreme measures for complete independence than he could take; the
lowlanders would be angry at the attitude of sympathy with his old
friends which he must assume. In a spirit of self-sacrifice,
therefore, he made ready to exchange his comfortable exile for one
more uncongenial and of course more bitter.
But the National Assembly, with less insight, desired nothing so much
as his presence in the new French department. He was growing old, and
yielded against his better judgment to the united solicitation of
French interest and of Corsican impolicy. Passing through France, he
was detained for over two months by the ovations forced upon him. In
Paris the King urged him to accept honors of every kind; but they were
firmly refused: the reception, however, which the Assembly gave him in
the name of liberty, he declared to be the proudest occasion of his
life. At Lyons the populace crowded the streets to cheer him, and
delegations from the chief towns of his native island met him to
solicit for each of their respective cities the honor of his landing.
On July fourteenth, 1790, after twenty-one years of exile, the now
aged hero set foot on Corsican land at Maginajo, near Capo Corso. His
first act was to kneel and kiss the soil. The nearest town was Bastia,
the revolutionary capital. There and elsewhere the rejoicings were
general, and the ceremonies were such as only the warm hearts and
willing hands of a primitive Italian people could devise and perform.
Not one true Corsican but must "see and hear and touch him." But in
less than a month his conduct was, as he had foreseen, so
misrepresented by friend and foe alike, that it was necessary to
defend him in Paris against the charge of scheming to hand over the
island to England.
It is not entirely clear where Buonaparte was during this time. It is
said that he was seen in Valence during the latter part of January,
and the fact is adduced to show how deep and secret were his plans for
preserving the double chance of an opening in either France or
Corsica, as matters might turn out. The love-affair to which he refers
in that thesis on the topic to which reference has been made would be
an equally satisfactory explanation, considering his age. Whatever was
the fact as to those few days, he was not absent long. The serious
division between the executive in France and the new Assembly came to
light in an ugly circumstance which occurred in March. On the
eighteenth a French flotilla unexpectedly appeared off St. Florent. It
was commanded by Rully, an ardent royalist, who had long been employed
in Corsica. His secret instructions were to embark the French troops,
and to leave the island to its fate. This was an adroit stab at the
republicans of the Assembly; for, should the evacuation be secured,
it was believed that either the radicals in Corsica would rise,
overpower, and destroy the friends of France, call in English help,
and diminish the number of democratic departments by one, or that
Genoa would immediately step in and reassert her sovereignty. The
moderates of St. Florent were not to be thus duped; sharp and angry
discussions arose among both citizens and troops as to the obedience
due to such orders, and soon both soldiers and townsfolk were in a
frenzy of excitement. A collision between the two parties occurred,
and Rully was killed. Papers were found on his person which proved
that his sympathizers would gladly have abandoned Corsica to its fate.
For the moment the young Corsicans were more devoted than ever to
Paoli, since now only through his good offices with the French
Assembly could a chance for the success of their plans be secured.
Such was the diversity of opinion as to ways and means, as to
resources, opportunities, and details, that everything was, for the
moment, in confusion. On April sixteenth Buonaparte applied for an
extension of his furlough until the following October, on the plea of
continued ill-health, that he might drink the waters a second time at
Orezza, whose springs, he explained, had shown themselves to be
efficacious in his complaint. He may have been at that resort once
before, or he may not. Doubtless the fever was still lingering in his
system. What the degree of his illness was we cannot tell. It may have
unfitted him for active service with his regiment; it did not disable
him from pursuing his occupations in writing and political agitation.
His request was granted on May twentieth. The history of Corsica was
now finally revised, and the new dedication completed. This, with a
letter and some chapters of the book, was forwarded to Raynal,
probably by post. Joseph, who was one of the delegates to meet Paoli,
would pass through Marseilles, wrote Napoleon to the abbé, and would
hand him the rest if he should so desire. The text of the unlucky book
was not materially altered. Its theory appears always to have been
that history is but a succession of great names, and the story,
therefore, is more a biographical record than a connected narrative.
The dedication, however, was a new step in the painful progress of
more accurate thinking and better expression; the additions to the
volume contained, amid many immaturities and platitudes, some ripe and
clever thought. Buonaparte's passion for his bantling was once more
the ardor of a misdirected genius unsullied by the desire for money,
which had played a temporary part.
We know nothing definite of his pecuniary affairs, but somehow or
other his fortunes must have mended. There is no other explanation of
his numerous and costly journeys, and we hear that for a time he had
money in his purse. In the will which he dictated at St. Helena is a
bequest of one hundred thousand francs to the children of his friend
who was the first mayor of Ajaccio by the popular will. It is not
unlikely that the legacy was a grateful souvenir of advances made
about this time. There is another possible explanation. The club of
Ajaccio had chosen a delegation, of which Joseph Buonaparte was a
member, to bring Paoli home from France. To meet its expenses, the
municipality had forced the authorities of the priests' seminary to
open their strong box and to hand over upward of two thousand francs.
Napoleon may have shared Joseph's portion. We should be reminded in
such a stroke, but with a difference, to be sure, of what happened
when, a few years later, the hungry and ragged soldiers of the
Republic were led into the fat plains of Lombardy.
The contemptuous attitude of the Ajaccio liberals toward the religion
of Rome seriously alienated the superstitious populace from them.
Buonaparte was once attacked in the public square by a procession
organized to deprecate the policy of the National Assembly with regard
to the ecclesiastical estates. One of the few royalist officials left
in Corsica also took advantage of the general disorder to express his
feelings plainly as to the acts of the same body. He was arrested,
tried in Ajaccio, and acquitted by a sympathetic judge. At once the
liberals took alarm; their club and the officials first protested, and
then on June twenty-fifth assumed the offensive in the name of the
Assembly. It was on this occasion probably that he was seen by the
family friend who narrated his memories to the English diarist already
mentioned. "I remember to have seen Napoleon very active among the
enraged populace against those then called aristocrats, and running
through the streets of Ajaccio so busy in promoting dissatisfaction
that, though he lost his hat, he did not feel nor care for the effects
of the scorching sun to which he was exposed the whole of that
memorable day. The revolution having struck its poisonous root,
Napoleon never ceased stirring up his brothers, Joseph and Lucien,
who, being moved at his instance, were constantly attending clubs and
popular meetings where they often delivered speeches and debated
public matters, while Napoleon sat listening in silence, as he had no
turn for oratory." "One day in December," the narrator continues, "I
was sent for by his uncle already mentioned, in order to assist him in
preparing his testament; and, after having settled his family
concerns, the conversation turned upon politics, when, speaking of the
improbability of Italy being revolutionized, Napoleon, then present,
quickly replied: 'Had I the command, I would take Italy in twenty-four
hours.'"[20]
[Footnote 20: Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, I,
47.]
At last the opportunity to emulate the French cities seemed assured.
It was determined to organize a local independent government, seize
the citadel with the help of the home guard, and throw the hated
royalists into prison. But the preparations were too open: the
governor and most of his friends fled in season to their stronghold,
and raised the drawbridge; the agitators could lay hands on but four
of their enemies, among whom were the judge, the offender, and an
officer of the garrison. So great was the disappointment of the
radicals that they would have vented their spite on these; it was with
difficulty that the lives of the prisoners were saved by the efforts
of the militia officers. The garrison really sympathized with the
insurgents, and would not obey orders to suppress the rising by an
attack. In return for this forbearance the regular soldiers stipulated
for the liberation of their officer. In the end the chief offenders
among the radicals were punished by imprisonment or banished, and the
tumult subsided; but the French officials now had strong support, not
only from the hierarchy, as before, but from the plain pious people
and their priests.
This result was a second defeat for Napoleon Buonaparte, who was
almost certainly the instigator and leader of the uprising. He had
been ready at any moment to assume the direction of affairs, but again
the outcome of such a movement as could alone secure a possible
temporary independence for Corsica and a military command for himself
was absolutely naught. Little perturbed by failure, he took up the pen
to write a proclamation justifying the action of the municipal
authorities. The paper was dated October thirty-first, 1789, and
fearlessly signed both by himself and the other leaders, including the
mayor. It execrates the sympathizers with the old order in France, and
lauds the Assembly, with all its works; denounces those who sold the
land to France, which could offer nothing but an end of the chain that
bound her; and warns the enemies of the new constitution that their
day is over. There is a longing reference to the ideal self-determination
which the previous attempt might have secured. The present rising is
justified, however, as an effort to carry out the principles of the
new charter.[21] There are the same suggested force and suppressed
fury as in his previous manifesto, the same fervid rhetoric, the same
lack of coherence in expression. The same two elements, that of the
eighteenth-century metaphysics and that of his own uncultured force,
combine in the composition. Naturally enough, the unrest of the town
was not diminished; there was even a slight collision between the
garrison and the civil authorities.
[Footnote 21: For the text see Napoléon inconnu, II,
92.]
Buonaparte was of course suspected and hated by Catholics and military
alike. French officer though he was, no one in Corsica thought of him
otherwise than as a Corsican revolutionist. Among his own friends he
continued his unswerving career. It was he who was chosen to write the
address from Ajaccio to Paoli, although the two men did not meet until
somewhat later. With the arrival of the great liberator the grasp of
the old officials on the island relaxed, and the bluster of the few
who had grown rich in the royal service ceased. The Assembly was
finally triumphant; this new department was at last to be organized
like those of the adoptive mother. It was high time, for the public
order was seriously endangered in this transition period. The
disturbances at Ajaccio had been trifling compared with the
revolutionary procedure inaugurated and carried to extremes in Bastia.
This city being the capital and residence of the governor, Buonaparte
and his comrades had no sooner completed their address to the French
Assembly than they hurried thither to beard de Barrin and
revolutionize the garrison. Their success was complete: garrison and
citizens alike were roused and the governor cowed. Both soldiers and
people assumed the tricolor cockade on November fifth, 1789. Barrin
even assented to the formation of a national militia. On this basis
order was established. This was another affair from that at Ajaccio
and attracted the attention of the Paris Assembly, strongly
influencing the government in its arrangements with Paoli. The young
Buonaparte was naturally very uneasy as to his position and so
remained fairly quiet until February, when the incorporation of the
island with France was completed. Immediately he gave free vent to his
energies. Two letters of Napoleon's written in August, 1790, display a
feverish spirit of unrest in himself, and enumerate the many uprisings
in the neighborhood with their varying degrees of success. Under
provisional authority, arrangements were made, after some delay, to
hold elections for the officials of the new system whose legal
designation was directors. Their appointment and conduct would be
determinative of Corsica's future, and were therefore of the highest
importance.
In a pure democracy the voters assemble to deliberate and record their
decisions. Such were the local district meetings in Corsica. These
chose the representatives to the central constituent assembly, which
was to meet at Orezza on September ninth, 1790. Joseph Buonaparte and
Fesch were among the members sent from Ajaccio. The healing waters
which Napoleon wished to quaff at Orezza were the influence of the
debates. Although he could not be a member of the assembly on account
of his youth, he was determined to be present. The three relatives
traveled from their home in company, Joseph enchanted by the scenery,
Napoleon studying the strategic points on the way. In order that his
presence at Orezza might not unduly affect the course of events, Paoli
had delicately chosen as his temporary home the village of Rostino,
which was on their route. Here occurred the meeting between the two
great Corsicans, the man of ideas and the man of action. No doubt
Paoli was anxious to win a family so important and a patriot so
ardent. In any case, he invited the three young men to accompany him
over the fatal battle-ground of Ponte Nuovo. If it had really been
Napoleon's ambition to become the chief of the French National Guard
for Corsica, which would now, in all probability, be fully organized,
it is very likely that he would have exerted himself to secure the
favor of the only man who could fulfil his desire. There is, however,
a tradition which tends to show quite the contrary: it is said that
after Paoli had pointed out the disposition of his troops for the
fatal conflict Napoleon dryly remarked, "The result of these
arrangements was just what it was bound to be." Among the Emperor's
reminiscences at the close of his life, he recalled this meeting,
because Paoli had on that occasion declared him to be a man of ancient
mold, like one of Plutarch's heroes.
The constituent assembly at Orezza sat for a month. Its sessions
passed almost without any incident of importance except the first
appearance of Napoleon as an orator in various public meetings held in
connection with its labors. He is said to have been bashful and
embarrassed in his beginnings, but, inspirited by each occasion, to
have become more fluent, and finally to have won the attention and
applause of his hearers. What he said is not known, but he spoke in
Italian, and succeeded in his design of being at least a personage in
the pregnant events now occurring. Both parties were represented in
the proceedings and conclusions of the convention. Corsica was to
constitute but a single department. Paoli was elected president of its
directory and commander-in-chief of its National Guard, a combination
of offices which again made him virtual dictator. He accepted them
unwillingly, but the honors of a statue and an annual grant of ten
thousand dollars, which were voted at the same time, he absolutely
declined. The Paolist party secured the election of Canon Belce as
vice-president, of Panatheri as secretary, of Arena as Salicetti's
substitute, of Pozzo di Borgo and Gentili as members of the directory.
Colonna, one of the delegates to the National Assembly, was a member
of the same group. The younger patriots, or Young Corsica, as we
should say now, perhaps, were represented by their delegate and leader
Salicetti, who was chosen as plenipotentiary in Buttafuoco's place,
and by Multedo, Gentili, and Pompei as members of the directory. For
the moment, however, Paoli was Corsica, and such petty politics was
significant only as indicating the survival of counter-currents. There
was some dissent to a vote of censure passed upon the conduct of
Buttafuoco and Peretti, but it was insignificant. Pozzo di Borgo and
Gentili were chosen to declare at the bar of the National Assembly the
devotion of Corsica to its purposes, and to the course of reform as
represented by it. They were also to secure, if possible, both the
permission to form a departmental National Guard, and the means to pay
and arm it.
The choice of Pozzo di Borgo for a mission of such importance in
preference to Joseph was a disappointment to the Buonapartes. In fact,
not one of the plans concerted by the two brothers succeeded. Joseph
sustained the pretensions of Ajaccio to be capital of the island, but
the honor was awarded to Bastia. He was not elected a member of the
general directory, though he succeeded in being made a member for
Ajaccio in the district directory. Whether to work off his ill humor,
or from far-seeing purpose, Napoleon used the hours not spent in
wire-pulling and listening to the proceedings of the assembly for
making a series of excursions which were a virtual canvass of the
neighborhood. The houses of the poorest were his resort; partly by his
inborn power of pleasing, partly by diplomacy, he won their hearts and
learned their inmost feelings. His purse, which was for the moment
full, was open for their gratification in a way which moved them
deeply. For years target practice had been forbidden, as giving
dangerous skill in the use of arms. Liberty having returned, Napoleon
reorganized many of the old rural festivals in which contests of that
nature had been the chief feature, offering prizes from his own means
for the best marksmen among the youth. His success in feeling the
pulse of public opinion was so great that he never forgot the lesson.
Not long afterward, in the neighborhood of Valence,--in fact, to the
latest times,--he courted the society of the lowly, and established,
when possible, a certain intimacy with them. This gave him popularity,
while at the same time it enabled him to obtain the most valuable
indications of the general temper.