OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON AND THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE: INCLUDING LETTERS FROM THE TIME OF THEIR MARRIAGE UNTIL THE DEATH OF EMPEROR TO HIS BROTHER JOSEPH, AND OTHER WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES AND ANECDOTES. BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY MASON BROTHERS, 108 AND 110 DUANE STREET. Fr 1404.360 HARVARD B Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS B. SMITH, 82 & 84 Beekman Street. PRINTED BY C. A. ALVORD, 15 Vandewater St. PREFACE. THERE is still great diversity of opinion, respecting the true character of Napoleon: a diversity so great as to excite in many bosoms much angry feeling. It might be supposed that if any question could be discussed in the United States with calmness, it would be the merits of a European sovereign who, for nearly the third of a century has been in his grave. But it may still be said of Napoleon, as it has been said of the great Genevan reformer: "On Calvin, some think heaven's own mantle fell, The only way in which we can judge of the true character of a man, is to see what he has done, hear what he has said, and read what he has written. The deed, the word, and the writing, constitute the man, so far as man can judge. In the History of Napoleon the author has given a record of the deeds of the Emperor. In Napoleon at St. Helena, he has collected his words. In the volume now issued will be found his confidential letters. The authenticity of these letters are beyond all controversy. Hortense had received them from her mother, and authorized their publication. The French editor, to whom Queen Hortense intrusted these letters, says: "We publish them without change. Our love for truth would prompt to this course, when we know that, too often, to correct is to profane. However, as there are some persons perhaps a little too freely condemned, we have only given the initials of their names." The confidential correspondence of Napoleon with his brother Joseph has recently been translated and published in this country. "These perfectly unreserved and brotherly confidential letters," says the Hon. Charles J. Ingersoll, "several hundred in Napoleon's own hand-writing, written before he became great, will demonstrate his real sentiments and character when too young for dissembling, and quite unreserved with his correspondent. Joseph relied upon them to prove, what he always said, and often told me, that Napoleon was a man of warm attachments, tender feelings, and honest purposes." These are now before the public. They are mostly purely business letters. From them a few have been select ed, for the present volume, which reflect light upon the social and domestic character of Napoleon. Napoleon was so extraordinary a character that every thing which he has said or done excites lively interest. These letters present him in entirely a new aspect-in an attitude in which he has never before been seen by the American public. We are familiar with him as the warrior, the statesman, the great administrator-but here we behold him as the husband, the father, the brother, moving freely amid all the tender relations of domestic life. His heart is here revealed, with all its intense and glowing affections. These letters were written in the midst of the turmoil of the most busy and tempestuous career through which a mortal ever passed. They were often written on the field of battle, enveloped in the smoke of the conflict, and while the thunders of the retiring cannonade were still reverberating. Though often so overwhelmed with pressing responsibilities and cares that he could allow himself no quiet meal, no regular repose, sleeping in the open air for a fortnight, neither taking off coat or boots, galloping from post to post of the army, through mud, and rain, and snow, he seldom allowed a day to pass without writing to Josephine, and he often wrote to her twice a day. |