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General SummaryThe most important source for the life of Napoleon is his Correspondence. This was published in 1858–1869 by a commission appointed by Napoleon III, then emperor of the French. There are over twenty thousand letters, dispatches, and proclamations in the collection, which fills thirty-two volumes. The Correspondence covers the period 1793–1815; it is not complete, for some letters have been omitted, and others more or less garbled by the editors. Even in its present form the work affords an idea of the prodigious activity of Napoleon, who in twenty-two years, despite incessant campaigning and the heavy burden of administration, found time to dictate so many documents. As might be expected, these throw light upon almost every aspect of the emperor’s career.
Historical SummaryWhile still a child Napoleon determined to be a soldier. His father did not oppose his resolve and sent him in 1779 to the French military school of Brienne, where cadets of noble families received a free education. Napoleon was then ten years of age. He went through the ordinary curriculum with credit and showed proficiency in mathematics. We are told that he devoted much of his spare time to history, especially Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and Cæsar’s Commentaries. The small Corsican boy, moody, silent, and solitary, made few friends among his schoolmates. In 1781, after two years’ residence at Brienne, he wrote to his father the following letter. It is the earliest specimen of his correspondence which has been preserved. Having passed his examinations in 1785, Napoleon joined a French artillery regiment and learned in practice all the duties of an officer. He took a keen interest in the reform movements which were beginning to agitate France, adopted republican sentiments, and for a time, at least, became a Jacobin. But the following letter to his elder brother, Joseph, written from Paris in 1792, indicates that he placed little confidence in the Revolutionary leaders. From his viewpoint in Paris, Napoleon witnessed some of the great "days" of the Revolution, including the humiliation of Louis XVI at Versailles and the "September massacres." His sound common sense revolted against such scenes. "Why don’t they sweep off four or five hundred of that rabble with cannon?" he exclaimed. "The rest would then run away fast enough." Two years later he proved the truth of his words. On October 5, 1795, a mob advanced to the attack of the Tuileries, where the Convention was sitting. The young artillery officer, now become a general, met them with a "whiff of grapeshot" and crushed once for all the royalist reaction. Napoleon described the scene in a brief letter to Joseph.
CHAPTER XXIII
Letters and Proclamations of Napoleon1
114. Napoleon’s Early Years2
If you or my protectors do not give me the means of supporting
myself more honorably in the house where I am, let me
return home immediately. I am tired of exhibiting indigence
and seeing the smiles of insolent scholars who are only superior
to me by reason of their fortune; for there is not one capable
of feeling the noble sentiments with which I am animated.
What! sir, your son is to be the laughing-stock of some popinjays,
who, proud of the pleasures they give themselves, make fun
of the privations I endure! No, my father, no! Should fortune
absolutely refuse the amelioration of my lot, remove me from
Brienne, and if necessary give me a mechanical profession. By
these offers judge of my despair. This letter, believe me, is not
dictated by any vain desire to indulge in expensive amusements;
I am not at all fond of them. I simply experience the want of
showing that I have the means of procuring them like the rest of
my comrades.
The men at the head of the Revolution are a poor lot. It must
be acknowledged, when one views matters closely, that the
people do not deserve all the trouble taken about them. You
are acquainted with the history of Ajaccio;1 that of Paris is the
same. Perhaps here men are meaner, worse, and greater
liars. . . . Every one pursues his own interest and searches to
gain his own end by dint of all sorts of crimes; people intrigue
as basely as ever. All this destroys ambition. One pities those
who have the misfortune to play a part in public affairs. . . .
To live tranquilly and enjoy the affections of one’s family is what
one should do when one has five thousand francs a year and is
between twenty-five and forty years of age; that is to say, when
the imagination has calmed down and no longer torments one.
I embrace you, and recommend you to be moderate in all things — in
all things, mind, if you desire to live happily.
At last all is over. My first idea is to think of you and to send
you news concerning myself.
The royalists, formed into sections, became daily more insolent.
The Convention ordered that the Lepelletier section should
be disarmed, and it resisted the troops. Menou, who commanded,
is said to have played the traitor, and was at once dismissed.
The Convention appointed. Barras to command the
army, and the Committees appointed me second in command.
We posted the troops; the enemy marched to attack us at the
Tuileries; we killed a great number of them, losing on our side
thirty men killed and sixty wounded. We have disarmed the
sections, and all is quiet. As usual, I was not wounded.
1 , edited by
D. A. Bingham. 3 vols. London, 1884. Chapman and Hall.
2 vol. i, pp. 5, 27, 58.
1 Napoleon’s native town in Corsica.
Chicago: D. A. Bingham, ed., Letters and Despatches, in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 242–243. Original Sources, accessed November 23, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8LYT3CVQFSCKN6S.
MLA: . Letters and Despatches,, edited by D. A. Bingham, Vol. i, in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, pp. 242–243. Original Sources. 23 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8LYT3CVQFSCKN6S.
Harvard: (ed.), Letters and Despatches,. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.242–243. Original Sources, retrieved 23 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8LYT3CVQFSCKN6S.
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