The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-01-31
/ Paris Correspondence Of the London Tines
The AMERICAN BONAPARTES.
AN IMPORTANT SUIT, AND AN INTEREST
ING MEMOIR.

PARIS January Is.
=, A most Interesting case will come before tn
Tribunal of First Instance at Paris, on the 25th
tue present month. Madame Bonaparte first wifi
| OF the late Prince Jerome Bonaparte, ex-King O
"estphalia, and uncle of the Emperor Napoleon
ana her son by her marriage with the Prince claim
TO lhhert thelr part of the personal property lef
| by the Prince. Madame Bonaparte, who beliey,
Is now IN farls, was, as you are aware, an Ameri
| can lady, named Patterson, and the real object o
the present suit is to re-esabish the perfect legality
OF her marriage. "By attempts renewed durino
the last lew years." says the printed memoir
drawn up by Madame Bonaparte's legal advisers
NJ. Berryer, advocate. and Nj. Legrand, avGhe
by means of writings recently published it has
| been tried to annul the character and validity OF
Ihe most solemn acts in spite of the sanction they
nave received and the positive prescriptions of our
laws. The best established facts have been denied
! or mlsrepresented, and attempt will be made
before the Tribunal to the illegal acts of ar
! Dltrary power, and the opinions servely repeated
| by men without any judicial authority to prevail
over the fundamental principles of law and of So
| cial order"
short sketch ofthe early career of Jerome Bo-
| naparte Is then given. He entered the naval SER
vice IN 1903; his brother, the future Emperor be.
| ing then First Consul-and proceeded from Mar
Unique on board of a merchant vessel to the Uni
! ted States. If he were born, as he stated in 1884
| he would then have been only nineteen wears of
! age; butfrom a communication of Gen. Smith un-
| Gle OF Miss Patterson, his commission as officer
| showed him to have been twenty-five. He was in
troduced in the month of May to the family of Mr.
Patterson, cone of the richest and most Tespecta
Bile citizens of Maryland Jerome became enam.
! ored Of Mr.. Pattersons daughter and after some
| time proposed marriage.
After due inquiry as to whether any difficulties
legal or otherwise, existed, the suitor was accent
| ed jerome announced to his family in France his
| approaching marriage. The French Charge d'Af-
iares to the UntedStates communicated to his Gov
| ernment the particulars of the negotiations and
| the dispatches containing them are still in the
archives he
emony took place with great soemnity at Balti
more. on the oath of December. 1903 and the
contrat de marriage was signed by jerome, his Wife
and his wifes father, and witnessed by Mr. j. Car
roll, of Baltimore, bv the Vice Consul of France,
by NJ. de Camus, French citizen, afterwards Min
lister of Foreign Affairs in Westphalia and by Com
modore Barney, of the United States NAVY. The
ceremony was performed by the Roman Catholic
bishop of Baltimore, who delivered the following
certificate
''BALTIMoRE, Dec. "a, 1903.
with license, this day united in the holy bonds
OF OF marriage, in conformity with the rites of the
holy Catholic Church, Jerome Bonaparte, brother
OF the First Consul of France, with Elizabeth Pat
terson, daughter of William Patterson, ESQ, of
the city of Baltimore, and of Dorcas Spear, his
wife. "+J Bishop of Raltimore -
This certificate was verified by the French Vice
Consul, Henry Vernet.
"Such were the solemnites Of The marriage of
NJ. Jerome Bonaparte with Miss Patterson'' OBJ
serves the memoir. "No opposition was sent from
known
many months before. The whole year 1864 passed
over without protest, any sign of discomfort dis
turbiug the quiet and honor of the Patterson fami-
~, or troubling the happiness and mutual affection
| OF the young couple"
1t was only when the First Consul became En-
peror, and "when he was preparing for his family
| the distribution of so many Royal and sudden
grandeurs to impose respect and dread of his power
on the Sovereigns of Europe" that the marriage
! OF his brother jerome appeared in the words of
NJ Theirs "opposed in the last degree to bis poll
! teal designs"
The Emperor compelled his mother Madame
! Letiza, to sign Protest against her sons mar
rage, as being contracted without her consent pre-
viously obtained, and the Emperor himself issued
decree torbidding it to be entered in the register
OF the offices oe the State. The memoir shows al
! some length that all this was OF no effect towards
annuing the marriage.
Meantime Jerome Bonaparte and his young
wife left the United States for Europe They
! landed at Lisbon. jerome proceeded to meet his
brother, and sent his wife to Holland where she
was to wait for him. He left Lisbon on the 5th of
! April, 1905, and it was the last time she saw her
! husband. Several letters from Jerome to his wife
are given in the memoir all breathing the warmest
affection, and expressive of the most mistaken
| fidelity. On the 9th of May 1905, the Emperor
wrote thus to his brother:
Your union with Miss Patterson is null in the eyes
of religion and the law Write to Miss Patterson to re
turn to America. shall give her pension of 60 OOOf
on condition that in shall she bear my name
which she has right by of the non existence
the union Inform her. yourself that you have not been
able and that you cannot change the nature things
The "nature of things" which Jerome could not
change was the elevation of the Bonaparte family
| to the rank of sovereign families but of recent
date, and subsequent to the marriage
The Emperor addressed himself to the Pope (Piu
! Wiz, and demanded bull annulling the mar
riage of his brother Jerome He descended tc
| wiltul misstatements of the case. For instance
he said that Jerome had been ONLY one month ir
America when he married; whereas he arrived in
! May, and married on the oath of December He al
| legged scruples of conscience on the ground thai
| Miss Patterson was Protestant; 'and,'' he said
sit was important to France that Protestant cir
should not be near the Emperor" whereas thC
| Princess OF Wurtemberg, whom jerome after
wards married, at the instance of his brother wa
Protestant. The Pope refused to annul the mar
riage.
IF we usurped an authority he said, swhicl
| we do not possess, we should become guilty of ;
most abOminable abuse before Gods tribunal anC
| the whole Church; and your Majesty, in your jus
| tice, would not wish us to pronounce udrfrfen
| contrary To the testimony of conscience anC
the inyariabe principles of the Church" "
Again attempt was made to eYtort the bull
! and again the Pope refused.
Madame Jerome Bonaparte, who was ignorant o
| what was going On against her, proceeded to Eng
land and there, the 18th of July, 1885, gave birtt
to a son, the party TO the present suit Certificate
of his birth and baptism all given in full in thu
| memoir. Madame Bonaparte remained in Londor
| until November, 1905, where she continued to re
| ceivc the same afieciionate letters from her hus
| band. But she grew tired in the solitude in whcl
she was left and finding her position embarrassing
she resolved to return to America, which she dix
| in November, 1905
| Not long after this the letters of Jerome to hi
wife became less atfectionate, The memoir explain
| this change.
"Since the Treaty Of Peace of Presburg the Eector
Duke of Wuremburg, had obtained with the title of KIM
considerable territorial aggrandizement and the hand
his daughter, become Princess Royal, aread
Ot Emperor al
est brothers Was Jerome ignorant of these project
when, the 10th Of June, 1906 he wrote from Mart
nque to his wife letter reproaching her FOR having f
| Holland ?'
This letter az OF evil omen The reproach o
| having left Holland most unjust the part o
one who, having brought his wife from the United
States to Europe, had abandoned her at Lisbon; hat
| told her to repair to Amsterdam, and soon afte
| ordered her to return to America On the 18th Oi
July, 1906, he addressed his last letter to "Madam
! Bonaparte, at Batimore;" it made no announce
men Of the project of his brother it contained com
monplace compliments, and consisted of four or fy
| lines
On the 1st of June, 1906, an act was prepared
| which the memoir describes as 'a melancholy
| monument of the vices engendered by the servilt
| weakness and the guilty condescenslOn Of eccesi
| astical authorities to the exactions of Govern
ment" This sentence issued by the Arch
| bishop of Paris annuling the marriage of jerome
with Miss Patterson, act which the head of the
| Church to which the Archbishop belonged haC
| previously and repeatedly resisted illegal ant
| opposed to the dogmas of the Church. The Arch
bishop had the baseness to declare 'that there wa
no marriage contract between the minor jerome
! and Elizabeth Patterson that the alleged mar
riage was null and clandestIne, having taken plac
without the publication of bans, without the con
| sent of the minors mother, from which there re
suited presumable rapt de seduction, without thu
| presence of proper priest,f in foreign coun
| try, DC.
The Emperor having at last persuaded the King o
| Wurtemberg and the Emperor of Russia that hi
| brother was free to contract new union, jerome
was married on the 18th of August, 1907, to the
Princess Frederick Catherine, of Wurtemberg, an,
| in December of the same year, proclaime
! King of Westphalia.
F! In May, 1908, Jerome sent person to the Unite
States, to claim his son and bring him to France
From the letter which ne wrote to his father-in
law, Mr.. Patterson, it appeared what little Valu
he set on the acts which annulled his America
sition "sutable to his birth and rank" "bringin
him up in the rank which belongs to him, he shout
thus diminish the grief he felt at being far fror
his mother, and repair ali the evil which the grea
political interests he was bound to respect, ha
done us" &C. In a letter to his wife, of the sam
| date, he says he ''counts upon a more happ
| future" and ''nothing will ever make me forge
the bonds which unite me to you, and the tende
| attachment which | have vowed to you for life
| Madame Bonaparte refused to part with her child
Another long letter is given, dated Casse tn
22d November, 1908, from jerome, now King 0
| Westphalia, to his American wife, in which he pro
poses to give her for her residence and that of hi
son, ga noble palace, comfortable and in every re
| spect worthy Of you, at Smalcaiden, about thirt
| leagues from Casse and also, "the title of Prime
and Princess of Smacalden, for you and our son
| with a yearly revenue of 100000 francs" Fl
| also wrote to his son, who was then only thre
| wears old.