Traits of Character.
Literary Work -- The Lyons Prize -- Essay on Happiness --
Thwarted Ambition -- The Corsican Patriots -- The Brothers
Napoleon and Louis -- Studies in Politics -- Reorganization
of the Army -- The Change in Public Opinion -- A New Leave
of Absence -- Napoleon Again at Auxonne -- Napoleon as a
Teacher -- Further Literary Efforts -- The Sentimental
Journey -- His Attitude Toward Religion.
[Sidenote: 1791.]
On his return to Ajaccio, the rising agitator continued as before to
frequent his club. The action of the convention at Orezza in
displacing Buttafuoco had inflamed the young politicians still more
against the renegade. This effect was further heightened when it was
known that, at the reception of their delegates by the National
Assembly, the greater council had, under Mirabeau's leadership,
virtually taken the same position regarding both him and his
colleague. Napoleon had written, probably in the previous year, a
notorious diatribe against Buttafuoco in the form of a letter to its
object and the very night on which the news from Paris was received,
he seized the opportunity to read it before the club at Ajaccio. The
paper, as now in existence, is pompously dated January twenty-third,
1791, from "my summer house of Milleli." This was the retreat on one
of the little family properties, to which reference has been made.
There in the rocks was a grotto known familiarly by that name;
Napoleon had improved and beautified the spot, using it, as he did his
garden at Brienne, for contemplation and quiet study. Although the
letter to Matteo Buttafuoco has been often printed, and was its
author's first successful effort in writing, much emphasis should not
be laid on it except in noting the better power to express tumultuous
feeling, and in marking the implications which show an expansion of
character. Insubordinate to France it certainly is, and intemperate;
turgid, too, as any youth of twenty could well make it. No doubt,
also, it was intended to secure notoriety for the writer. It makes
clear the thorough apprehension its author had as to the radical
character of the Revolution. It is his final and public renunciation
of the royalist principles of Charles de Buonaparte. It contains also
the last profession of morality which a youth is not ashamed to make
before the cynicism of his own life becomes too evident for the
castigation of selfishness and insincerity in others. Its substance is
a just reproach to a selfish trimmer; the froth and scum are
characteristic rather of the time and the circumstances than of the
personality behind them. There is no further mention of a difference
between the destinies of France and Corsica. To compare the pamphlet
with even the poorest work of Rousseau, as has often been done, is
absurd; to vilify it as ineffective trash is equally so.
As may be imagined, the "Letter" was received with mad applause, and
ordered to be printed. It was now the close of January; Buonaparte's
leave had expired on October fifteenth. On November sixteenth, after
loitering a whole month beyond his time, he had secured a document
from the Ajaccio officials certifying that both he and Louis were
devoted to the new republican order, and bespeaking assistance for
both in any difficulties which might arise. The busy Corsican
perfectly understood that he might already at that time be regarded as
a deserter in France, but still he continued his dangerous loitering.
He had two objects in view, one literary, one political. Besides the
successful "Letter" he had been occupied with a second composition,
the notion of which had probably occupied him as his purse grew
leaner. The jury before which this was to be laid was to be, however,
not a heated body of young political agitators, but an association of
old and mature men with calm, critical minds--the Lyons Academy. That
society was finally about to award a prize of fifteen hundred livres
founded by Raynal long before--as early as 1780--for the best thesis
on the question: "Has the discovery of America been useful or hurtful
to the human race? If the former, how shall we best preserve and
increase the benefits? If the latter, how shall we remedy the evils?"
Americans must regret that the learned body had been compelled for
lack of interest in so concrete a subject to change the theme, and now
offered in its place the question: "What truths and ideas should be
inculcated in order best to promote the happiness of mankind?"
Napoleon's astounding paper on this remarkable theme was finished in
December. It bears the marks of carelessness, haste, and
over-confidence in every direction--in style, in content, and in lack
of accuracy. "Illustrious Raynal," writes the author, "the question I
am about to discuss is worthy of your steel, but without assuming to
be metal of the same temper, I have taken courage, saying to myself
with Correggio, I, too, am a painter." Thereupon follows a long
encomium upon Paoli, whose principal merit is explained to have been
that he strove in his legislation to keep for every man a property
sufficient with moderate exertion on his own part for the sustenance
of life. Happiness consists in living conformably to the constitution
of our organization. Wealth is a misfortune, primogeniture a relic of
barbarism, celibacy a reprehensible practice. Our animal nature
demands food, shelter, clothing, and the companionship of woman. These
are the essentials of happiness; but for its perfection we require
both reason and sentiment. These theses are the tolerable portions,
being discussed with some coherence. But much of the essay is mere
meaningless rhetoric and bombast, which sounds like the effusion of a
boyish rhapsodist. "At the sound of your [reason's] voice let the
enemies of nature be still, and swallow their serpents' tongues in
rage." "The eyes of reason restrain mankind from the precipice of the
passions, as her decrees modify likewise the feeling of their rights."
Many other passages of equal absurdity could be quoted, full of
far-fetched metaphor, abounding in strange terms, straining rhetorical
figures to distortion.[22] And yet in spite of the bombast, certain
essential Napoleonic ideas appear in the paper much as they endured to
the end, namely, those on heredity, on the equal division of property,
and on the nature of civil society. And there is one prophetic
sentence which deserves to be quoted. "A disordered imagination! there
lies the cause and source of human misfortune. It sends us wandering
from sea to sea, from fancy to fancy, and when at last it grows calm,
opportunity has passed, the hour strikes, and its possessor dies
abhorring life." In later days the author threw what he probably
supposed was the only existing manuscript of this vaporing effusion
into the fire. But a copy of it had been made at Lyons, perhaps
because one of the judges thought, as he said, that it "might have
been written by a man otherwise gifted with common sense." Another has
been found among the papers confided by Napoleon to Fesch. The proofs
of authenticity are complete. It seems miraculous that its writer
should have become, as he did, master of a concise and nervous style
when once his words became the complement of his deeds.
[Footnote 22: These phrases may nearly all be found in
the notes which he had taken or jottings he had made
while reading Voltaire and Rousseau: Napoléon inconnu,
II, 209-292.]
The second cause for Buonaparte's delay in returning to France on the
expiration of his furlough was his political and military ambition.
This was suddenly quenched by the receipt of news that the Assembly at
Paris would not create the longed-for National Guard, nor the ministry
lend itself to any plan for circumventing the law. It was, therefore,
evident that every chance of becoming Paoli's lieutenant was finally
gone. By the advice of the president himself, therefore, Buonaparte
determined to withdraw once more to France and to await results.
Corsica was still distracted. A French official sent by the war
department just at this time to report on its condition is not sparing
of the language he uses to denounce the independent feeling and
anti-French sympathies of the people. "The Italian," he says,
"acquiesces, but does not forgive; an ambitious man keeps no faith,
and estimates his life by his power." The agent further describes the
Corsicans as so accustomed to unrest by forty years of anarchy that
they would gladly seize the first occasion to throw off the domination
of laws which restrain the social disorder. The Buonaparte faction,
enumerated with the patriot brigand Zampaglini at their head, he calls
"despicable creatures," "ruined in reputation and credit."
It would be hard to find a higher compliment to Paoli and his friends,
considering the source from which these words emanated. They were all
poor and they were all in debt. Even now, in the age of reform, they
saw their most cherished plans thwarted by the presence in every town
of garrisons composed of officers and men who, though long resident
in the island, and attached to its people by many ties, were
nevertheless conservative in their feelings, and, by the instinct of
their tradition and discipline, devoted to the still powerful official
bureaus not yet destroyed by the Revolution. To replace these by a
well-organized and equipped National Guard was now the most ardent
wish of all patriots. There was nothing unworthy in Napoleon's longing
for a command under the much desired but ever elusive reconstitution
of a force organized and armed according to the model furnished by
France itself. Repeated disappointments like those he had suffered
before, and was experiencing again, would have crushed the spirit of a
common man.
But the young author had his manuscripts in his pocket; one of them he
had means and authority to publish. Perfectly aware, moreover, of the
disorganization in the nation and the army, careless of the order
fulminated on December second, 1790, against absent officers, which he
knew to be aimed especially at the young nobles who were deserting in
troops, with his spirit undaunted, and his brain full of resources, he
left Ajaccio on February first, 1791, having secured a new set of
certificates as to his patriotism and devotion to the cause of the
Revolution. Like the good son and the good brother which he had always
been, he was not forgetful of his family. Life at his home had not
become easier. Joseph, to be sure, had an office and a career, but the
younger children were becoming a source of expense, and Lucien would
not accept the provision which had been made for him. The next, now
ready to be educated and placed, was Louis, a boy already between
twelve and thirteen years old; accordingly Louis accompanied his
brother. Napoleon had no promise, not even an outlook, for the child;
but he determined to have him at hand in case anything should turn
up, and while waiting, to give him from his own slender means whatever
precarious education the times and circumstances could afford. We can
understand the untroubled confidence of the boy; we must admire the
trust, determination, and self-reliance of the elder brother.
Though he had overrun his leave for three and a half months, there was
not only no severe punishment in store for Napoleon on his arrival at
Auxonne, but there was considerate regard, and, later, promotion.
Officers with military training and loyal to the Assembly were
becoming scarce. The brothers had traveled slowly, stopping first for
a short time at Marseilles, and then at Aix to visit friends,
wandering several days in a leisurely way through the parts of
Dauphiny round about Valence. Associating again with the country
people, and forming opinions as to the course of affairs, Buonaparte
reopened his correspondence with Fesch on February eighth from the
hamlet of Serve in order to acquaint him with the news and the
prospects of the country, describing in particular the formation of
patriotic societies by all the towns to act in concert for carrying
out the decrees of the Assembly.[23] This beginning of "federation for
the Revolution," as it was called, in its spread finally welded the
whole country, civil and even military authorities, together.
Napoleon's presence in the time and place of its beginning explains
much that followed. It was February thirteenth when he rejoined his
regiment.
[Footnote 23: "I am in the cabin of a poor man whence I
like to write you after long conversation with these
good people." Nasica, p. 161.]
Comparatively short as had been the time of Buonaparte's absence,
everything in France, even the army, had changed and was still
changing. Step by step the most wholesome reforms were introduced as
each in turn showed itself essential: promotion exclusively according
to service among the lower officers; the same, with room for royal
discretion, among the higher grades; division of the forces into
regulars, reserves, and national guards, the two former to be still
recruited by voluntary enlistment. The ancient and privileged
constabulary, and many other formerly existing but inefficient armed
bodies, were swept away, and the present system of gendarmerie was
created. The military courts, too, were reconstituted under an
impartial body of martial law. Simple numbers were substituted for the
titular distinctions hitherto used by the regiments, and a fair
schedule of pay, pensions, and military honors abolished all chance
for undue favoritism. The necessity of compulsory enlistment was urged
by a few with all the energy of powerful conviction, but the plan was
dismissed as despotic. The Assembly debated as to whether, under the
new system, king or people should wield the military power. They could
find no satisfactory solution, and finally adopted a weak compromise
which went far to destroy the power of Mirabeau, because carried
through by him. The entire work of the commission was temporarily
rendered worthless by these two essential defects--there was no way of
filling the ranks, no strong arm to direct the system.
The first year of trial, 1790, had given the disastrous proof. By this
time all monarchical and absolutist Europe was awakened against
France; only a mere handful of enthusiastic men in England and
America, still fewer elsewhere, were in sympathy with her efforts. The
stolid common sense of the rest saw only ruin ahead, and viewed
askance the idealism of her unreal subtleties. The French nobles,
sickened by the thought of reform, had continued their silly and
wicked flight; the neighboring powers, now preparing for an armed
resistance to the spread of the Revolution, were not slow to abet
them in their schemes. On every border agencies for the encouragement
of desertion were established, and by the opening of 1791 the
effective fighting force of France was more than decimated. There was
no longer any question of discipline; it was enough if any person
worthy to command or serve could be retained. But the remedy for this
disorganization was at hand. In the letter to Fesch, to which
reference has already been made, Napoleon, after his observations
among the people, wrote: "I have everywhere found the peasants firm in
their stirrups [steadfast in their opinions], especially in Dauphiny.
They are all disposed to perish in support of the constitution. I saw
at Valence a resolute people, patriotic soldiers, and aristocratic
officers. There are, however, some exceptions, for the president of
the club is a captain named du Cerbeau. He is captain in the regiment
of Forez in garrison at Valence.... The women are everywhere royalist.
It is not amazing; Liberty is a prettier woman than they, and eclipses
them. All the parish priests of Dauphiny have taken the civic oath;
they make sport of the bishop's outcry.... What is called good society
is three fourths aristocratic--that is, they disguise themselves as
admirers of the English constitution."
What a concise, terse sketch of that rising tide of national feeling
which was soon to make good all defects and to fill all gaps in the
new military system, put the army as part of the nation under the
popular assembly, knit regulars, reserves, and home guard into one,
and give moral support to enforcing the proposal for compulsory
enlistment!
This movement was Buonaparte's opportunity. Declaring that he had
twice endeavored since the expiration of his extended furlough to
cross into France, he produced certificates to that effect from the
authorities of Ajaccio, and begged for his pay and allowances since
that date. His request was granted. It is impossible to deny the truth
of his statement, or the genuineness of his certificates. But both
were loose perversions of a half-truth, shifts palliated by the
uncertainties of a revolutionary epoch. A habitual casuistry is
further shown in an interesting letter written at the same time to M.
James, a business friend of Joseph's at Châlons, in which there occurs
a passage of double meaning, to the effect that his elder brother
"hopes to come in person the following year as deputy to the National
Assembly," which was no doubt true; for, in spite of being
incapacitated by age, he had already sat in the Corsican convention
and in the Ajaccio councils. But the imperfect French of the passage
could also mean, and, casually read, does carry the idea, that Joseph,
being already a deputy, would visit his friend the following year in
person.
Buonaparte's connection with his old regiment was soon to be broken.
He joined it on February thirteenth; he left it on June fourteenth.
With these four months his total service was five years and nine
months; but he had been absent, with or without leave, something more
than half the time! His old friends in Auxonne were few in number, if
indeed there were any at all. No doubt his fellow-officers were tired
of performing the absentee's duties, and of good-fellowship there
could be in any case but little, with such difference of taste,
politics, and fortune as there was between him and them. However, he
made a few new friends; but it was in the main the old solitary life
which he resumed. His own room was in a cheap lodging-house, and,
according to the testimony of a visitor, furnished with a wretched
uncurtained couch, a table, and two chairs. Louis slept on a pallet in
a closet near by. All pleasures but those of hope were utterly
banished from those plucky lives, while they studied in preparation
for the examination which might admit the younger to his brother's
corps. The elder pinched and scraped to pay the younger's board;
himself, according to a probable but rather untrustworthy account,
brushing his own clothes that they might last longer, and supping
often on dry bread. His only place of resort was the political club.
One single pleasure he allowed himself--the occasional purchase of
some long-coveted volume from the shelves of a town bookseller.[24]
[Footnote 24: Napoléon inconnu, II, 108 _et seq._]
Of course neither authorship nor publication was forgotten. During
these months were completed the two short pieces, a "Dialogue on
Love," and the acute "Reflections on the State of Nature," from both
of which quotations have already been given. "I too was once in love,"
he says of himself in the former. It could not well have been in
Ajaccio, and it must have been the memories of the old Valence, of a
pleasant existence now ended, which called forth the doleful
confession. It was the future Napoleon who was presaged in the
antithesis. "I go further than the denial of its existence; I believe
it hurtful to society, to the individual welfare of men." The other
trenchant document demolishes the cherished hypothesis of Rousseau as
to man in a state of nature. The precious manuscripts brought from
Corsica were sent to the only publisher in the neighborhood, at Dôle.
The much-revised history was refused; the other--whether by moneys
furnished from the Ajaccio club, or at the author's risk, is not
known--was printed in a slim octavo volume of twenty-one pages, and
published with the title, "Letter of Buonaparte to Buttafuoco." A copy
was at once sent to Paoli with a renewed request for such documents as
would enable the writer to complete his pamphlet on Corsica. The
patriot again replied in a very discouraging tone: Buttafuoco was too
contemptible for notice, the desired papers he was unable to send, and
such a boy could not in any case be a historian. Buonaparte was
undismayed and continued his researches. Joseph was persuaded to add
his solicitations for the desired papers to those of his brother, but
he too received a flat refusal.
Short as was Buonaparte's residence at Auxonne, he availed himself to
the utmost of the slackness of discipline in order to gratify his
curiosity as to the state of the country. He paid frequent visits to
Marmont in Dijon, and he made what he called at St. Helena his
"Sentimental Journey to Nuits" in Burgundy. The account he gave Las
Cases of the aristocracy in the little city, and of its assemblies at
the mansion of a wine-merchant's widow, is most entertaining. To his
host Gassendi and to the worthy mayor he aired his radical doctrines
with great complacence, but according to his own account he had not
the best of it in the discussions which ensued. Under the empire
Gassendi's son was a member of the council of state, and in one of its
sessions he dared to support some of his opinions by quoting Napoleon
himself. The Emperor remembered perfectly the conversation at Nuits,
but meaningly said that his friend must have been asleep and dreaming.
Several traditions which throw some light on Buonaparte's attitude
toward religion date from this last residence in Auxonne. He had been
prepared for confirmation at Brienne by a confessor who was now in
retirement at Dôle, the same to whom when First Consul he wrote an
acknowledgment of his indebtedness, adding: "Without religion there is
no happiness, no future possible. I commend me to your prayers." The
dwelling of this good man was the frequent goal of his walks abroad.
Again, he once jocularly asked a friend who visited him in his room,
if he had heard mass that morning, opening, as he spoke, a trunk, in
which was the complete vestment of a priest. The regimental chaplain,
who must have been his friend, had confided it to him for
safe-keeping. Finally, it was in these dark and never-forgotten days
of trial that Louis was confirmed, probably by the advice of his
brother. Even though Napoleon had collaborated with Fesch in the paper
on the oath of priests to the constitution, though he himself had been
mobbed in Corsica as the enemy of the Church, it does not appear that
he had any other than decent and reverent feelings toward religion and
its professors.