Makers of History
Joseph Bonaparte
BY
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT
WITH ENGRAVINGS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1902
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New York.
Copyright, 1897, by Susan Abbott Mead.
PREFACE.
The writer trusts that he may be pardoned for relating the followingcharacteristic anecdote of President Lincoln, as it so fully illustratesthe object in view in writing these histories. In a conversation whichthe writer had with the President just before his death, Mr. Lincolnsaid:
"I want to thank you and your brother for Abbotts' series of Histories.I have not education enough to appreciate the profound works ofvoluminous historians, and if I had, I have no time to read them. Butyour series of Histories gives me, in brief compass, just that knowledgeof past men and events which I need. I have read them with the greatestinterest. To them I am indebted for about all the historical knowledge Ihave."
It is for just this purpose that these Histories are written. Busy men,in this busy life, have now no time to wade through ponderous folios.And yet every one wishes to know the general character and achievementsof the illustrious personages of past ages.
A few years ago there was published in Paris a life of King Joseph, inten royal octavo volumes of nearly five hundred pages each. It wasentitled "Mémoires et Correspondance, Politique et Militaire, du RoiJoseph, Publiés, Annotés et Mis en Ordre par A. du Casse, Aide-de-campde S. A. I. Le Prince Jerome Napoleon." These volumes contained nearlyall the correspondence which passed between Joseph and his brotherNapoleon from their childhood until after the battle of Waterloo. Everyhistorical statement is substantiated by unequivocal documentaryevidence.
From this voluminous work, aided by other historical accounts ofparticular events, the author of this sketch has gathered all that wouldbe of particular interest to the general reader at the present time. Asall the facts contained in this narrative are substantiated by ampledocumentary proof, the writer can not doubt that this volume presents anaccurate account of the momentous scenes which it describes, and that itgives the reader a correct idea of the social and political relationsexisting between those extraordinary men, Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte.It is not necessary that the historian should pronounce judgment uponevery transaction. But he is bound to state every event exactly as itoccurred.
No one can read this account of the struggle in Europe in favor ofpopular rights against the old dynasties of feudal oppression,without more highly appreciating the admirable institutions of our ownglorious Republic. Neither can any intelligent and candid man carefullyperuse this narrative, and not admit that Joseph Bonaparte was earnestlyseeking the welfare of the people; that, surrounded by dynastiesstrong in standing armies, in pride of nobility, and which werevenerable through a life of centuries, he was endeavoring to promote,under monarchical forms, which the posture of affairs seemed to rendernecessary, the abolition of aristocratic usurpation, and theestablis