Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-03-06
Abd-EI.Kader.

brilliant captains Of the century, if the
estimates made of him by his enemies be
correct is now, in all probability, APP
preaching the end of his stormy career.
Abd-el- Kader is dangerously i'll, and his
advanced age, and the hardships of six
teen years of campaign life, leave little
room for the anticipation that he will
long survive.
The wars Of the last twenty years, so
destructive of life and so important in
their results, have nearly obliterated the
memory Of the petty campaigns in AL
giers, wherein the memory of Louis
Philippe gained its whole knowledge Of
actual warfare and the French Generals
of the last generation won their laurels.
And yet insignificant as the Algerian
battles now seem, in comparison with
Magenta, Sadowa, and Sedan, they were
sufficient to demonstrate that under the
leadership of a born soldier, like ADD
el-Kader, the barbarous Tribes of
Northern Africa wers able to cope with
the picked troops of France. Originally
the lEmir or chief of small Bedoun
tribe. Abd.el Kader, at the age of twenty
three. raised himself by the mere force OF
his native genius to the supreme anthor-
ity over thirty-two tribes. From 1892 to
| lS4S he maintained, except at brief in
tervals, continuous struggle with the
French invaders of Algiers. At ope
time he was at the head of 10000 men,
and at another contrived TO induce the
Emperor of Morocco TO join him in the
holy war against the inhdels. The best
French generals were sent against him
but he repeatedly defeated them in
pitched battles. When defeated himself,
he was hardly less dangerous than when
yictorioas, for he would appear in unex.
pected places at the head of a small
band of Arab hofsedsep, and striking
swift and hard, would vanish again into
the mountains. His final defeat was
due, not TO the prowess of French arms
but to the e9nping of his traitorous ally
the Emperor of Morocco, who, after hav-
ing induced many Of Aba,el- Kader' S
adherents to desert him, finally dpoYe
him by force of numbers over the FRENCH
frontier.
The Frenchmen, who were at the time
meyer weary of denouncing the perfid
ious cGEdpct of the English toward Ma
poleon l., d.d not hesitate to treat the
Moorish chieftain With shameful treach-
cry. He surrendered 70 IJamoriciere
upon tho express condition that he
should be sent TO Egypt or st. Jean
d'Acre, and the cnpitRlation was signed
by the Governor General of Algiers,
the Duke d'AnmGle. The French Gen
erals, however, preferred safety to honor,
and. in order 10 make sure that the
Emir would give them no farthar trouble,
broke their plighted word, and sent their
nrjsoner TO France. The betrayed hero
landed in France on the 29th Of January,
l849. and neither Louis Philippe nor the
Republic of February ventuFed 10 re-
deem the national honor by releasing
hi;n. He was kept a prisoner until
December, 1852, when the late En-
peror Napoleon III. gave him his lib
stty upon the conditions that Re
sboau never again visit Algeria or take
nm arms against the French. Since
then he has resided in the East, and
latterIy has ruaSe his home in Damascus,
where few years since ne distinguished
himself by protecting the Ckyistians
against IuOU hNoiCnNEs rHN f.Niflt...Tt y 1
his character, no less thaD the brilliancy
of his exploits in the 6eld, long ego won
for him the admiration of the world
and if he still cherishes any resentment
against the people that treated him with
such cowardly treachery, he has been
amply avenged by the humiliating de-
feat of Lamoriciere in Italy, and the
of France by the German ar
mics.
Great men ore not so abundant that
we can afford to lose them without a
word. II to be an ardent patriot, a sol
der whose genius is unquestiOued, and
whose honor is stainless; a statesman
who could weld the wild tribes of Africa
10 a formidable ssE,y, aud a hero who
could accept defeat and disaster without
a murmar-if TO be all these constitutes
4 great mau, Abd-el kader deserves TO
be ranked among The foremost Of the
few great men Of the eoAnuy.