Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1804-08-01
,,orA flowed liberty, the more ] submitted

7 advanced very rapidly, but always from
grade to grade, without Overlapping any
~e6Iwavs serving my country, never tiatterc
80 he committees. Arrived at the chief
.connand when victory caused Us TO ad-
vance into the middle of hostile nations, |
did rot less apply myselfto make the cha
racter OF the French people respected, than
! to MAKE their armies dreaded. he war
under my orders was a scourge only IN the
fields Of battle. Even from the midst or
their ravagcd plains, more than once have
nations and hostile powers rendered me this
| testimony. This conduct believed as pro-
] per as our victories, TO make conquests TO
France.
At the time when even contrary maxims
| appeared to prevail in the committees OF
, government, this conduct did not excite a.
| gainst me either calumny or persecution.
No cloud ever arose 10 tarnish the military
glory which l had acquired, till that too
! famous day--the 18th FructJdor; those
I! who. with too mach rapid.tv ekt0iied that
| day, reproached me with being too slow to
| denounce a man, In whom | could see on
! ly a brother in arms, even at the moment
f: when the evidence of facts and Of proofs
| convinced nae that he was accused by ruth,
and not by unjust suspicious. The Dlrec.
tory, who alone knew the circumstance OF
| nay conduct sufficiently to judge OF it cor
| rectly, and who, eveiy one knows, could
| not be disposed to iadge me with indal-
| peuce, boldly declared that they found me
! irreproachable; they employed me in their
| service the post was not brilliant, but il
| soon became so.
/ dare to believe that the nation has not
| forgotten how much | Showed myself wor-
| thy of it; it has not forgotten With what
| facile devotedness | fought in Italy in sub.
ordinate stations; 1t has not forgotten how
was restored to the chief command by the
reverses of our armies, and renamed gene
raj, in ONE measure, by our mIsfortunes;
! it remembers how twice recomposed the
army of the wrecks Of those that had been
dispersed; and how, after having twice
sent it back in a condition to oppose the
Russians & Austrians, | twice resigned the
command of it to enter on one Of much
higher confidence.
/ was not, at that era Of my life, more
republican than in all the others; | appear
ed more so. saw fixed upon me, In a
more peculiar manner, the regards and the
confidence Of those whose province it was
to impress new movements, and new direc-
tons on the republic. They proposed, it
is well known, TO place ms at the head OF
.o-L~
Brumaire. My ambition, if | had had
much of it, could easily conceal itself from
all appearances, or even do honor to itself
by every sentiment Of the love Of coun-
try.
The proposition was made to me by men
celebrated in the revolution By their patri-
otism, and in our national assemblies by
their talents | believed myself made TO
command armies, and did not wish 10 com.
mand the republic.
This was enough to prove, in my opini-
on o,ctif I had an ambition, it was not
that OF authority, OFF power; very soon
after, | proved this still farther.
The 18th Brumaire arrv d, and was
at Paris. That revolution, provoked l.,
others as by me, could not alarm my con-
science. Directed by a man environed with
a blaze of glory, itmade me to hope for hap
Pyresul:s. began to second 1t when other
parties pressed ne to put myself at their
head to combat it. | received III Paris the
orders of general B~onaparte. In executing
them | concurred to elevate him to that
high degree OF power which circumstance
rendered necessary.
When sometime after, he offered me the
chief command OF the army Of the Rhine,
| accepted it from him with as much aevo-
ton as from the hand of the republic itself.
MY military successes were never more ra-