The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-04-06
ONE UNC0NQUERED BY MAN
A C1AUTAUQUA PAPER READ BEFORE THE
PIERIAN CIRCLE IN WHICH THE UNCON-
QUERABLE SPIRIT OF NAPOLEON is
ABLY PRESENTED

icon the Financier and say that Justice
taxation and commercial advancement sucf
i as France had never known were nov
brought to her people. His constructiv,
energy still stand in cities of France tn,
envy and admiration of all nations
| Pre-eminent as a Statesman, France i
this day governed by the Code of laws hi
gave to her and these laws will doubtless
always stand an enduring monument to hi:
memory. We may speak proudly of thi.
our own United States, yet there is but one
nation in the world to-day of whom it car
justly be said: she is ruled by laws ''of the
people. by the people, and for the people, y
and that country is the universally respected
land of France, now so nobly showing to all
that the spirit and strength of Napoleon
still lives and is daily revivihed in the hearts
OF his people. Human faults, withou,
doubt, you will find in his character, but
do not neglect to temper your judgment OF
| his frailtieS with a true understanding OF
| the time and conditions in which he lived
| and the almost super-human difficulties he
| had to overcome. Necessity forced him to
meet guile with guile and cunning with
cunning. Remember that Napoleon, be-
cause of his mental magnitude, realized
| that he was responsible, not for himself
| alone, but for the millions who blindly
yet with perfect content, trusted their all in
his tested hands. =
Circumstances demand the sacrifice of
many upon the Altar of Mars only that
more may be favored by smiling Ceres.
Prejudiced minds allege that unbound am
biton was Napoleon's God in life, but, in
making that unsupported and biased criti-
cism, they overlook the salient facts that he,
whose might is burdened with limited
goal will md that such an object, once at
tanned, is but the lowest plane upon the
steps that lead upward to breathless and
supreme heights. View the vast public
works Napoleon planned and executed. Not
only did he build road across the Alps
and make them a public highway, but he
also created and there guided the flow of
commerce that soon welded into unbroken
friendship the nation SO united by his bene-
icent science. He entered a country with
the people covering in fear, thinking a
modern Attila was coming upon them with
scourge in hand and ruin his wake. He
left with his name enshrined upon their
hearts for having freed them from their
bondage of surfdom and their heritage of
social unrest.
With power of mind, backed by might of
idolizing soldiery he proclaimed in clar-
ion voice that carried round the world
"You shall not press down the crown of
Feudalism upon the brow of suffering hu-
manity!"
Hannibal crossed the Alps with loss of
half his army Napoleon without the loss
of a man. Alexander conquered divisions
Napoleon conquered Kingdoms. His CAPT
toll and headquarters were thronged by sub
missive Generals, Princes and Kings.
Marengo, Jena, Austerlitz, they are but gems
in his crown of earthly glories. The thrones
of all Europe are but footstools for his
restless feet and at last his minds journeys
to the board plains and sterile Steppes Of
distant Russia. He dreams of converting
the tabled horrors of snow-bound Siberia into
realities of fertile fields, peopled by multi
tudes happy to do his will and made pros
porous by his activities. With an army,
vast and perfectly equipped, he marched
with scarcely a pause until he reached the
fortified home of absolute autocracy at
Moscow. He returned from this, to him,
charnal house of blasted hopes, depressed
and beaten, not by the hand of mortal man
but by the irresistible forces of outraged
Nature. AS yelping clan of NANCY ours
always bravely attact a helpless mastif, so
now did all Europe combine again this
fever shaken man and yet he, in his bitter
est hours of anguish, thought not of him.
self, but of his beloved France. Forsaken
by men he had raised to honor, held up to
the execration of all mankind, he at last
peace might come to his overburdened peo-
pie. Allied Europe banished him in ex-
| lie to the small island of Elba-a most un-
wise decision on their part, for here Napo-
| leon, but few miles from the main land,
was soon in active communication with
many of his still loyal legions. The re-
stored Bourbons continued their unbridled
and licentious overriding of all Napoleon S
Democratic Laws and at last, February L.,
1915 the ''LittIe Corporal landed, practic-
ally alone, on the shores of waiting France.
His retinue, at first but few of the loyal
old "Grand Guards was hourly increased
by an outpouring of the veterans of his
former armies until, as he approached Paris,
is seemed that as of old, he was but return
ing from a victorious campaign. Losing
| not minute in idle speculation, his enven-