The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-09-08
GO / M BI7Az., s.. &C..
Thursday Morning. septembers, 1870.
The Fan OF Napoleon IN.

Ih1s great event, startling and unex-
pected, of course :<provokes much CON-
ment. AS usual, the misfortunes of the
man bring out in bold relief whatever of
weakness his character presents, and
throw in the shade whatever of greatness
he has illustrated. We cannot concur in
the disparaging criticisms that are in
dulged in by some of our cotemporaries.
Whatever nationality or passion or pre-
judice may now suggest, it will be i'm
possible for impartial HISTORY to treat
with scorn or leyity the name and the
services of the late ruler of France
10000, 000 of brave apd intelligent and
lberty-loving race. That Louis Napo-
leon had weaknesses and committed
errors, no ono will deny. But what ruler
has not shown himself more or less lia-
BILE to the same criticism? The question
is, how, in the main, has he borne him
self and in what proportion stand his
successes to his errors? One of our CO.
temporaries remarks that "the nephew
of his uncle is disgraced, dissonored, and
detbroned"
Dethrored he certainly is. but not,
do we see, does it follow thut he is 'dis-
graced and diahonored." Let lis review
his career briefly and partly though it
be. In 1850, he was elected President
of the Republic Of France by largo
majority. This was: 9 popular endorse
ment. It is true, that I've cannot ap-
prove the arbitrary method by which he
made the Republic give way to the EN-
pire. But it is also true, that after the
Empire was proclaimed, the French peo-
pie, with universal suffrage, by large
majority, sustained q plebiscituna. recog-
nizing the Imperial dynasty. He made
mistakes and committed political Of
fences, but these mistakes and these
offences were not greater than what
other rulers have committed. The New
York World, on this point. says:
''Those mistakes of his reign, which can
be clearly traced to errors of Judgment on
his own part, may easily be paralleled
alikeas to number and as to magnitude in
the career of any one of the very most
illustrious among the rulers Of man
kind. His greatest political blunders
have not been greater than those Of the
first Napoleon; his military misadvcnt-
ures have been much less numerous, and
it is still premature to pronounce them
more disastrous to his people. than those
of the great Frederic. The manner Of
his advent to power, however bitterly it
may be denounced, was less fragrant
outrage upon the principles of liberty
and sound government than the steps by
which Crom&eii seized the dictatorship
of England, or Caesar the helm Of the
Roman State. The wars upon which he
has entered have been undertaken in no
such fat contempt of the recognized
modern standards Of international right,
as the armed Adventures of his now
successful antagonist, Count Bismarck.
Even in that enterprise of his reign,
which has most drawn down upon him
the hostility of Americans, it should be
easy for temperate and considerate men,
viewing him now as o character in his
tory, not as power in politics, to admit
that there was an element of Quixotic
interest in decrepit race and dying
nationality, not the less creditablo to his
generous instincts as man, that it was
neither judicious nor practical on his
part as a ruler. The liberation and re-
constitution of Italy was his work. To
his action in the Crmean war, moro
than to any one other extrinsic cause,
Germany herself is indebted for her
emancipation from that overshadowing
domination of the Russian Czarism
under which the events of 1916 left her
blighted md powerless, and which was
made darker and more chilling than
ever by the failure of her ill-combined
and ill.considered efforts at revolution in
1848 Within the limits of the French
Empire an enormous development of
material prosperity, in the main judici-
ously fostered and profitably directed,
win be carried by impartial history very
largely to the credit of the imperial in
telligence which insisted, in the face Of
the traditions and the prejudces of the
French people, upon the authority of
great economic laws"
Napoleon the III. in spite of his sud-
den fall, must stand on tho pages of his
tory as great man, and ruler that had
at heart the interests of his people. For
twenty years, he gave to France stable
government and the blessings Of peace
80 T.