The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1910-03-17
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Secret History Made at Emper-
or's Breakfast Table.
Gen. Webb's Advice to Napoleon III.
That Brought About the With
drawal Of the French Troops
from Mexico.
BY e. J. EDWARDS.

BY e. j. EDWARDS.
Recently I told the story Of how
Louis Napoleon, when an exile in this
country, ives befriended by the late
Gen. James Watson Webb, and how
Napoleon III, on learning 80 years
later that Gen. Webb had just landed
In France, sent him an urgent tele-
gram to dine with him Informally the
next day.
At the hour named in the emperor's
telegram the latter, with all ordinary
court etiquette dispensed with, greet
ed his old benefactor in the palace of
st. Cloud. They met as old friends
who stood upon an equality, and they
were friends, for after Louis Napoleon
had become emperor of the French,
he had remembered and redeemed the
money loans which Gen. Webb had
made to him when he was an exile
and since then an intimate CORE
spondence had been maintained be-
tween the two.
In the course of the breakfast the
matter of state that was then upper
most in the emperor's mind was
brought up.
II am much distressed" said the
emperor to his old friend, chat the
presence of the French troops in Mex
leo should have been an irritation to
your president and your people,"
(This was at the time that French
bayonets were keeping Macmillan on
the Mexican throne.) "My troops are
there, not because I was anxious to
conquer Mexico and make of it a col
ony, but on account Of important dip
lomatic reasons in Europe. I will say
to you that I I'm ready and anxious to
withdraw my troops, but I cannot do
so under threat or compulsion. 1 have
thought that you might suggest a way
by which there could be an agreement
between your president and myself,
so that I can in ~self-respect and
without appearance of coercion on the
part of your country withdraw the
troops"
Gen. Webb thought a moment, then
suggested, not exactly a treaty, but
an agreement to be entered into di-
rectly between the emperor and the
president of the United States, in
volving the withdrawal of the French
troops from Mexico without the ap
pearance of coercion or threat on the
part of our government.
The emperor gratefully expressed
his appreciation of the idea, called
for a writing tablet, and thereupon,
as they were seated at the breakfast
table, Gen. Webb drew up what he
thought the agreement he had in
mind should be. Finishing it, he
handed it to the emperor, who read it,
gave his hearty approval to the docu-
ment, and declared that he was will
ing to sign it at once.
But" added the emperor, "the
agreement must be signed by your
president, for, as I am doing this
without the knowledge of any Of my
ministers, SO, also, your president
should do it without any intermediary
act of his cabinet"
Gen. Webb, realizing that here was
a possible way out Of the great diff
ficulty confronting the two nations
a situation that might end in an
armed clash, unless %delicately handled
agreed to lay the agreement before
no ones eyes other than President
Johnson's. Within a month or six
weeks thereafter he did so, explaining
to the presidents ears only just how
the agreement had come to be drawn.
Immediately Mr.. Johnson realized the
Importance of the agreement, ex-
pressed himself as being greatly graft
fled with it, and signed it. Not until
the document was carried over to the
state department to be filed away in
the secret archives there did Secre-
tary of State Seward dream of the ex-
istence of what was in reality a secret
treaty between the heads of two great
nations--a treaty that removed all
possibility Of val between them, ef-
fected the removal of the French
troops from Mexico without coercion
OF threat on u part, and left Maxi
milan there alone to meet his tragic
fate, although that was a condition
which neither Napoleon III. mol Gen.
Webb, when the agreement was
drawn up, expected to arise.
Gen. Alexander S. Webb, son of
Gen. James Watson Webb, tells. me
that, SO far as he knows, this bit of
secret history of a famous event is
NOM ro11@ 1,,17s- g. H. 49, H.
And it may truly be said. that the
%peaceable solution Of this serious in
ternational problem of the late sixties
had its origin in the b%efriending of the
stranger exile Louis Napoleon, by Gen.
James Watson Webb, 80 years before.
Thus, strangely, is history sometimes
made.
Copyright. 1909, by E. j. Edwards.)
na,I.~~y> NAE>-I.e e~us-,A -s.