Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1852-12-22
The Empire Of France-Napoleon,s
Address

The. Empire has at length been formally
declared. The counting of the votes was
finished on the second instant. Soon after,
NJ. Billault, President of the Legislative
Corps, presented the returns to the Empe-
Tor, accompanied by the following address:
SIRE-We lay before your majesty the
solemn expression of the National will. In
the midst of the Grafton which::were decreed
to you by popular enthusiasm, you showed
no anxiety to assume crown which was
offered to you on all sides, but desired that
France should have time for reflection
you wished that the supreme decision, by
which people master..it itself, disposes SOW
ereignly of its destiny, should only be
taken coolly, and in complete liberty.
Your wish, Sire, is accomplished free
ballot, secret. and open to all, has been
honestly examined under the eyes of all,
summing up 100000 votes. 1t gives the
Legitimacy of your government the widest
basis on which any government in the
world has ever been established. From the
day when 100000 votes collected for YOU
by the government itself, which they called
you to replace, deposited in your hands the
fate of the country, France, at each new
ballot, has marked, by additional billions
of votes, the increase of her confidence in
you.
Without, as within her municipalities, in
her fetes as in her votes, everywhere her
feelings have burst forth from one end of
the country to the other, focking in your
steps, bursting from all parts to salute the
man of their hopes and of their faith. Our
people have sufficiently made known to the
world that you are their Emperor-the EN-
peror chosen by the people, and that you
carry that national spirit which, on the day
marked out by Providence, crowns new dy-
nasties, and sends them in the place of
those which it no longer animates.
Taking shelter under an immense recol-
lection of glory, under what it holds most
precious, its honor abroad, its security at
home, and those immortal principles of
17s9-the firm basis of new French So
ciety so powerfully organized by the En-
peror your uncle-our nation again rises
up with proud love that dynasty of the b.
napartes which sprung from him, and
which was not overthrow by French hands.
But while preserving proud remembrance
of the great events of war, it hopes to find
from you the great things of peace. Hav
ing already seen you at work, it expects
from you resolute, prompt, and prospe-
rous government. In order to aid you, it
surrounds you with all its sympathies; it
delivers itself wholly up to you. Take.
then, Sire, take from the hands of France
that glorious Grown she offers you, Never
has royal brow worn one more legitimate
or more popular.
THE EMpERoR's INAUGRAL ADDRESS,
The Emperor replied as follows:
"Nessieurs.-The new reign which Won
this day inaugurate derives not its origin a.
so many others recorded in history have
done, from violence, from conquest or fraud.
it is what you have just declared 1.-THE
legal result of the will of whole peonle
who consolidate in calm that which thew
had founded in the midst Of agitation.
am penetrated with gratitude towards the
nation which three times in four wears
sustained me by its suffrages, and each
time has only augmented its majority to in
crease my power; but the more that power
increases in extent and vital power, the more
does it ne ed enlightened men, such as those
who every day surround me-independent
men, such as those whom [ address. to
guide me by their council, to bring back nv
authority within proper limits, if it could
ever quit them.
81 take from this day, with the crown,
the name of Napoleon the Third, because the
will of the people has bestowed it on me in
their acclamations, because the whole ma
ton has ratified it. Is it then to be inferred
that, in accepting the title fall into the