The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-03-13
NAPOLEON III.


fatality has ever hung over that House
the domestic and delicate problem
scarcely known to history has hung as
dark pail over the entire lives of the Ma
poleons To the third and fourth gener-
atoms the punishment has followed
them. as a warning to the destroyers of
domestic fidelity and happiness. that on
" bliss of Paradise that has survived
the fall, aud which is the rewarder of all
virtue. Napoleon I'LL, himself child
of doubtful parentage. had all the vices
and none of the virtues of his uncle
He had but one attribute, ambition; he
had but one virtue, gratitude: graft
tude, however, which only hoped to re-
ceive as much again. Napoleon was not
a sold err; he was only a policeman. He
believed in 8 = millions slain that
Caesar might be great He lived in
obscurity for thirty years, deserving
nothing but exile He was near forty
before he was seriously thought of as
candidate to the throne, which he scaled
in right. and which toppled from IN
der him in day.
The revolution Of lS4S, and the ex-
pulsion of the Orleans family, gave him,
as we'll as many other needy men, an
opportunity. The force of circumstances
drove him into it. When the news
came to him in his garnet, of the convul-
sions in Paris, he saw field for more
substantial adventures than Strasburg
and Boulogne, and he hastened to occu
Ply it. France was the place for him.
It was dying carcass, and Napoleon
was It's vulture. He who had been a
Democrat, but cared nothing for Democ-
racy; he who claimed 20 be Liberal,
but who never exercised liberality, might
now carry his notions to q good market
and sell them at a good price. At the
most eventful crisis of his life, when he
gave the command by which FIVE thous-
and men, women and children were
butchered in the streets of Paris, it is
doubtful whether he was anything more
than tool Of wretched and unscrupul-
Gus knaves-of St. Arnaud and De Nor
ney, Of Persigny and of FL eury. When
he sent twenty-six thousand Frenchmen
to perish in Africa and in Cayenne, he
was still playing the game of his advis-
ers as well as bis own These events
are small and unheroic, and the man
grows no greater by his connection With
them. He plays not boldly for he new
Ell was bold), but unscrupulously. From
the fact that his acts were not his own
he faltered in them. The man never at
tempted to go alone. He traded upon
his name as a merchant upon his trade
mark He paraded himself as The
child of destiny. The scepter is to be
his, not by conquest, but by inheritance.
He attempted to revive tie dusty glories
of France, although these were precise
ly what France least needed. What the
Empire did need was Statesman-a
Christian hero, with sheet-anchor of
faith, and power to know the right
and 60 forward in it.
But Napoleon Ill never meant in all
his life what he said. His deeds were
Eot the outgrowth OF his thoughts. and
his words did not reflect his intentions
neither when he talked with youthful
fervor of the excellence of Republican,
ism; nor when he swore to be true to the
Presidency of the Republic; nor when
he professed to submit his own views TO
the will of the French people since at
the moment when his term Of Office was
about to expire, and when he feared the
success of a rival candidate, he took
those bloody measures which, through |
their terrible influence made him Pres
dent for ten years, and finally Emperor. |
After this his plebeianism was a mere |
mockery. Indeed he never was a man
of the people. He understood the peo-
pie, but the people did not understand |
him. France has no opinion of its own.
Napoleon fairly frightened her out of an |
opinion, and at that time out of the |
power to form one.
When the crown, through massacre
and terror had been secured, something
Of the same want of dignity character
zed the search for wife among the |
Courts of Europe. which ended in re-
pulse and a plebeian marriage. The
thief glories of France are of sordid
md perishable nature In war it did
)ut little in peace it cultivated but the
yrosSer arts, and in the mad pursuits of
prosperity, the Empire was
male to forget at once the glories Of war
md the blessings of peace.
II the Emperor still put his faith in
Dame Fortune, he had some reason for
lis weakness. AT one time all seemed
D go well with him, but he did not take
he tide of affairs at the food His al
lance with England (for as we have
aid he never did ANYTHING of himself)
lid much to elevate him to firm posi-
ion among the nations. This was Dor
owed capital upon which he could not
ray even the interest. And just here
he lost his one virtue, gratitude.
We now come to a niche in affairs
where the Court of ROME forms link
n the chain Of events. The NapoleoDic
dea, backed By the clerical power of
France and Rome, that imperialism
,ould be preserved only by perpetual vic
ories. misled him into frightful errors
which ended in his ruin. OF this mis-
axe, the Mexican war, ending in utter
allure, ignomiuy and personal dishonor
20 the Emperor, was one result; the
lther was the greatest and the last.
The first, was an attempt to strengthen
one Romish power by the annexation of
another; the second was an attempt to
destroy the seeds of Protesta tlsm and /
liberal opinion 10 Prussia and the North