Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1817-03-31
From the Eclectiek Review for Janu'
airy 1917.


lished in Phila. by MIR. Thomas.
"As we are no longer at war wit b
Napoleon Bonapartet it has ceased o
he necessary to render his characte r
an object of indefinite horror, to
dress it up in flames and demons. as
1.-THE devoted victims ofthe inquisltion
are arrayed, preparatory to their be-
inc delivered over, as it is fondly
hoped, to everlasting destruction.
There can be no harm now in letting
the world know the simple truth, as
r; spects the moral and intellectual
qualities of man whom broadyed
wonder so long contemplated at dis
lance, as something more or less than
human the fascination of his eye Is
no longer terrible the fang is ex-
|tracted, and the poison is spent.
Bonaparte was bold, bad man !;
la man Invested Of all moral principle,
and all sense of religious obligation.
The circumstanc which prepared
the way for his extraordinary sleva'
t;on. we're OF tie most demoralizing
tendency. in times of revolutionary
ANARCHY, the bonds of political obli-
cation are weakened, If not destroy
ed war suspends no less the rules OF
moral obligation, and to adopt the
remark OF Burk /; what islong sls-
Ipended is in danger OF being totally
|abrogatcd.' He that makes war his
fIprolession,' remarks Machlavei,
f. cannot be otherwise than Vicious
lhe that aims at power finds his dead
Ilicst foe in liberty. and must be the
lparricide of his country, in order to
inherit the crown. Bonaparte was
a soldier, an adventurer, q usurper ::
lin other words, he was unteellnS,idar.
ling. desperate. Yet so debased and
prostrate we're the people whomhe sue
decided in cnslaving, that all that
would have rendered the adventure
difficult, the puslic virtue which
would have sternly rcproached his
ambition, the public freedom which
would have opposed his progress. the
moral principleswhich he woald have
had to countei'mine, the social inte-
lrests through which he would have
had to cut ms way, were previously
launihilated he had less to destroy,
Ito raise, and to subvcrt. than perhaps
|any previous tylant. He found to
luse his own expression, "a crown IN
lthc kennel : he cleansed it from its
filth, and placed it on his own head
His swords was bloody, but his scep-
tire more innocent than the rod OF the
Anarchist whom he displaced. lie
found France prey to every foul d
malignant passion, he was the mas
tier demon whom the rest Obeyed.
The greaest aggravation of Bona
lparte's criminality was, that when
= the most glorious opportunity ever
perhaps afforded to an individual, OF
; becoming the political beneiactor OF
la nation, presented itself. and he
might have established his power the
: liberty and happiness efan enfranch.
Used and grateful people, he showed
lal, the littlcness of a tyrant's soul IN
1.-The preference of selfish ends; he
chose the evil, and rejected the good
Ihe determined to render abortive all
, THE struggles of France for liberty,
!. land to make it appear that all the
blood that had flowed on the scaffold,
land all the suffcrings of the reign OF
terror. had been in vain he volun-
jtarily descended among the herd OF
conquerors and usurpers. the imperial
..lvulcar that have spoiled, and in
Tested, and destroyed mankind.
But jim all this we discover nothing
monstrous. 1t required neither sa-
perhuman faculties, nor the operation
of motives foreign to'human nature.
Had it been psssible for him TO have
made England. instead of France,
the theatre of his ambition, then, in
order to have succeeded, he must
have been either better or worse
man than il was necessary he should
lbe, to become the despot of the Con-
Itinent. We would not attempt to de-
preciate the abilities Bonaparte all
such attempts recoil on those who so
long endured his slavery, or trem-
ibled at his name. We lend rather
ieredulous ear TO the Able de Pradts
IdroIl stories about his quondam mas
ter, and are equally suspicious as to
the accuracy of other retailers of ca
lr;cature anecdote. But still, it should