The dollar weekly bulletin. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1862-1864, 1863-03-26
From the Cincinnati ENQUIRER.


A Leaf from History---What Napoleon
paign OF 1912.
In the midst of his embarrassments in the
Russian campaign of 1872. when the great
NAPoLEoN lost nearly his whole army, it
was proposed to him to emancipate the
Russian serfs. There were forty or fifty
millions of them, aud they were eOhite men.
The Russians feared their slaves, and adopt.
ed every means in their power to prevent
instructions among them. HAzL1TT, in his
life of NAPOLEON, says: aa.
zone great fear of the Russians was, that
their slaves would rise up and throw of
their bondage; and it was, therefore, an OBJ
iect to prevent their having any commune
cation with the French. They made use of
the most improbable and disgusting fables
to excite their terror and hatred, and oftheir
Ignorance and degradation. 1t was their
dread that the doctrines of the revolution
might loosen their grasp on the wretched
serfs, who composed the population of the
country, that first made them send their
barbarous hordes against the French terri
tory, the consequences of which now came
back to themselves, to their infn;te horror
and surprise, in the shape of an invasion
which might produce the same effect"
Says another writer:
"The slaves were very favorable to the
French, for they expected to gain their lib
erty By their assistance. The bourgeois, or
slaves, who had been enfranchised, and who
inhabited the little towns, were we'll dis
posed to head an insurrectiou against the
noblesse. This was the reason why the Rus
slams resolved to set fire to al the towns on
the route of the army-an immense loss, in
dependent of that of w."-Ristory of
the Captivity of Napoleon, By Month0Ion, vol i.
iii, p. 2O2. -t.
ABBOTT, an American author, in his life of
NAPOLEON. speaking of the rising of the Rus
sian slaves, says:
"Thers were here and there among them
leading minds, who reused and guided heir
ambition. They made repeated offers to
come to the assistance of Napoleon in count
less numbers, if he would guarar tee their
emancipation and restoration to the rights
of manhood. Napoleon replied coldly to
these profers of services. He argued that
such a course could only lead to servile
war, which must inevitably defer the pros
pect Of peace with the Russian Governm ent,
aud which would deluge the whole country
: in blood. The serfs,' said he, ARE unfit to
be trusted with tho liberty they desire. II
1 encourage the subjects of the Gear to rise
against him, l can not hope that he will ever
again become my friend.'"
Sir ROBERT WILSON, an English historian,
says: ~ 50 6
} 'sThere is no doubt that a civil war could
have been fom ented in Russia; and it was
Bonaparte who rejected the offers of iBsur-
rection which were made to him during the
/, time he was in Moscow" s>
| NAPOLEON, after his return, said to the
/; Senate of France:e s-t. fs. 81 -st
/ "By proclaimiug the emancipation of the
slaves, / could have armed the greater por-
ton of the Russian population against b er-
self. In several villages the enfranchise-
ment was demanded of me. But the war
made on Russia POLITICAL; and, besides, the
brutality of this numerous class of Russian
peopleis such, that this measure would de
vote many families to the most horrid bar
barities. This latter consideration wa
sufficient to induce me to refuse to etnpio,
the means offered against my enemies"
! Mr.. ARBorT further says:
"He would not. arm barbarian, and, con
sequen.ly, merciless. pesssntry against thsi
masters. He chose rather to endure the hu
! initiation and the disasters of the retres
from Moscow"
i GYThe Charleston papers saw that bot