Part 44 (1/2)

PIUS VII.--Pope _Pius VII_., who, after 1809, was a virtual prisoner at _Savona_, refused to comply with Napoleon's demands. He could not be moved to invest the bishops whom the emperor had appointed. This was a princ.i.p.al point in the dispute. Napoleon called a national council of French bishops (1811). In 1812 the Pope was taken to _Fontainebleau_, and treated by him with harshness. When the pontiff refused to give a full and final sanction to the proposed agreement, until he should be free to confer with his cardinals, he was treated with still greater severity. The fall of Napoleon set him free, and he entered Rome, May 24, 1814.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA.--In September, 1814, the congress of Vienna met to readjust the map of Europe after the whirlwind of change and revolution. There were present the emperors of Russia and Austria, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, and a great number of German princes. _Castlereagh_, and later _Wellington_, represented England, and _Talleyrand_ was one of the representatives of France. The conferences were far from being harmonious. In particular, the claims of Russia upon Poland, and the claims of Prussia on Germany, threatened another war. While the debates, alternating with gay festivities, were still proceeding, the partic.i.p.ants were startled by the news of the reappearance of _Napoleon_ in France.

RETURN OF NAPOLEON FROM ELBA.--The new Bourbon rule was unpopular with the French. It was felt to be the effect and sign of national humiliation. The offensive conduct of the returned emigrant n.o.bility, and measures looking towards a restoration of bygone abuses in government, fomented the disaffection. _Napoleon_, while apparently busy in laying out roads and ca.n.a.ls, and regulating the affairs of his little kingdom, which was only sixty miles in circ.u.mference, kept himself well informed as to the state of public opinion in France. With a few hundred men of the Imperial Guard, he landed at _Cannes_ (March I, 1815), and was joined by one regiment after another which were sent out to crush him. _Ney_, one of the best of his marshals, was carried away by the common feeling, and went over to the side of his old commander. _Louis XVIII_. fled from Paris; and, on March 20, _Napoleon_ was again installed in the Tuileries.

WATERLOO.--Napoleon offered to the country a more liberal const.i.tution, but the Bourbons were more hated than he was trusted. He professed to the great powers his desire for peace, but they did not listen to these a.s.surances. Each agreed to furnish an army of one hundred and eighty thousand men to serve against him. He put forth prodigious exertions to gather a force with which to meet the host of his enemies; and although he could appeal to no warm national feeling, such as had called into being the armies of the Revolution, he succeeded in bringing together a force of over one hundred thousand men. He decided not to wait for the attack, but to a.s.sail the two armies of _Blucher_ and _Wellington_ in Belgium. His plan was to attack them separately.

_Blucher_ so far fell into the trap, that, in his eagerness to meet the detested foe, he offered battle to Napoleon at _Ligny_ (June 16), and, after a desperate contest, was forced to retire from the field. On the same day, _Wellington_ so far checked _Ney_ in his attack at _Quatre Bras_, that he could not strike the Prussians on the flank, as Napoleon had designed. Napoleon thought that the Prussians would not be able, after their defeat, at once to aid Wellington. He sent _Grouchy_, however, with thirty-four thousand men, to observe them and inflict on them a final blow. On the forenoon of June 18, he himself attacked the British forces at _Waterloo_. The French got possession of _La Haye Sainte_, a farmhouse in front of Wellington's center, the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y contest; but all their charges on Wellington's main line were met and repelled by the immovable squares of the British infantry. In the afternoon Napoleon's right began to be a.s.sailed by the Prussians; and finding, at seven o'clock, that they were coming in great force, he ordered a charge of the Imperial Guard on Wellington's forces. After a fierce struggle, the Guard was compelled to recoil and retire. The Prussians, piercing the right flank of the French army, turned its defeat into a rout. _Grouchy_ was at _Wavre_, fighting the Prussian corps of _Thielmann_, which he seems to have mistaken for the entire Prussian army.

ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON: ST. HELENA.--On the 22nd of June _Napoleon_ again abdicated in favor of his son. _Carnot_ was for a dictators.h.i.+p. The French a.s.sembly, with _La Fayette_ at its head, insisted on the abdication. On July 7 _Blucher_ and _Wellington_ entered Paris. Napoleon fled to _Rochefort_, and, finding himself unable to escape to America, surrendered to the British admiral, and was taken on board the war-s.h.i.+p _Bellerophon_. _Louis XVIII_. was brought back to Paris. _Napoleon_, by the agreement of the allies, was conveyed to the island of _St. Helena_, where he remained, a fretful captive, until his death (May 5, 1821). _Ney_ escaped, but was captured, condemned, and shot (Dec. 7, 1815). France engaged to pay a war indemnity of seven hundred million francs. Its boundaries were fixed as at 1790.

CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON.--Respecting certain traits of Napoleon, there is no dispute. His military genius all allow, although his daring was sometimes over-daring; and there are critics who profess to discern, after the beginning of the Russian campaign, and especially in the last contest in Belgium, signs of a decline in his almost superhuman vigilance and energy. Yet all must admit ”that transcendent geometrical faculty,” as _Sainte-Beuve_ calls it, ”which characterized Napoleon, and which that powerful genius applied to war with the same ease and the same apt.i.tude that Monge [a great French mathematician]

applied it to other subjects.” No general ever had greater power to fascinate soldiers, and secure their devotion to him. One reason was, that he recognized and rewarded merit wherever he saw it. His intellectual movements were as much swifter than the ordinary as his marches were more rapid than those to which armies had been accustomed. For civil organization and administration he had rare talents, and in many directions enlightened views. Europe owes much to his innovations in this sphere. He was not incapable of warm personal attachments; as was manifested, for example, in his grief over _Duroc_, the favorite general, who fell at _Bautzen_. But an insatiable appet.i.te for war, and, still more, a conviction, which he sometimes confessed, that he could retain and fortify his authority only by dazzling France, and continuing to astonish mankind by brilliant achievements, drove him forward on a path of aggression and bloodshed. He had an unpitying nature: he was careless of human suffering. Early in his career, in Italy, he ordered a needless and useless attack on the outposts of the enemy, ”to treat a lady to a sight of real war.” He did not shrink from ordering two thousand prisoners at _Jaffa_ to be shot. He shocked all Germany by causing _Palm_, a bookseller of Nuremberg, to be shot for refusing to tell the name of the author of a publication offensive to him. He frequently displayed a petty rancor,--as, for example, in leaving a legacy in his will to the man who was accused of an attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate the _Duke of Wellington_. His violence of temper, as in the murder of the _Duke d'Enghien_, hurried him into acts that were not less impolitic than criminal. His tyrannical will would brook no contradiction, even in matters o trifling importance. He broke away from engagements when he thought it advantageous to do so. It is not an injustice to say, that he was habitually untruthful: his bulletins were disfigured by flagrant falsehoods, as well as gross exaggerations. In a letter to _Talleyrand_ from Italy (Oct. 17, 1797) he says, ”This is history: what I say in my proclamations and speeches is a romance.”

With his wonderful intellectual powers, inexhaustible energy, and amazing achievements, he never quite loses the characteristic spirit of an adventurer. He is haunted by a secret consciousness that this character belongs to him.

The judgment Of an adversary must be taken with allowance; but _Wellington_ spoke at least without pa.s.sion when he said, ”Bonaparte's whole life--civil, political, and military--was a fraud. There was not a transaction, great or small, in which lying and fraud were not introduced.” His ”foreign policy was force and menace, aided by fraud and corruption.”--Croker's Correspondence, etc., vol. ii. p. 86.

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.--The Congress of Vienna was dissolved in June, 1815. Its Acts were finally signed by the five great powers,--Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia,--and by Spain, Portugal, and Sweden. The Austrian and Prussian monarchies were restored. Austria received back _Venice_ with _Milan_,--forming the subject Lombardo-Venetian kingdom,--besides receiving the _Illyrian provinces_ and the _Tyrol_. The old possessions of Prussia were restored. She received the _Rhenish provinces_, a part of the duchy of Warsaw (_Posen_), and a great part of Saxony, besides other important additions. Holland and Belgium were formed into the one kingdom of the Netherlands, which had also a part of _Luxemburg_, and was ruled by the stadt-holder _William I_. The German Confederacy was inst.i.tuted, with thirty-nine sovereign states, including the four free cities,--Austria being the presiding state. The greater part of the _duchy of Warsaw_ fell to Russia, under the name of the Kingdom of Poland. Sweden retained _Norway_, which, however, kept its own free const.i.tution; and Denmark acquired _Lauenburg_. England had vastly enlarged her colonial possessions. The present Swiss Confederation, consisting of twenty-two cantons, was established; three new cantons having been added to the former nineteen. The old dynasties were restored in Spain, in Tuscany, Modena, and the Papal States, in Naples, and in Sardinia. To Sardinia, _Genoa_, against its will, was annexed.

CHRONOLOGICAL STATEMENT.--The _First Coalition_ was formed in 1793, when all Europe, except Sweden, Denmark, Tuscany, Switzerland, Venice, and Genoa, and Turkey, joined against France. In 1792 France had been at war with Austria and Prussia. In 1795 the coalition was broken: Prussia and Spain made peace with France. In 1797 Austria also concluded peace with France (the Peace of _Campo'Formio_). In 1798 the Second Coalition was formed, in which Turkey was included. Prussia and Spain were not parties to it. The Peace of Amiens, made with England (1802), ended the contest following it. The Third Coalition was formed in 1805, by England, Russia, Austria, and Sweden. Peace was concluded between Austria and France (Dec. 26, 1805). War followed in 1806-7, between France on one side, and Prussia and Russia on the other. These allies, with England, made a _Fourth Coalition_. In 1807 France and Russia were allies. The rupture between Austria and France in 1809 gave rise to what is often called the _Fifth Coalition_. In 1813 the _Sixth Coalition_, made up, after the accession of Austria, of all the princ.i.p.al powers, was in arms against France. On March 25, 1815, after _Napoleon's_ return from Elba, the powers again declared war against him. As there was a fresh treaty, this may be called a _Seventh Coalition_.

CHAPTER VI. AMERICAN HISTORY IN THIS PERIOD (1789-1815).

THE TWO PARTIES.--The cabinet of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ consisted of four members. The secretary of the treasury was _Alexander Hamilton_ of New York. The secretary of state was _Thomas Jefferson_ of Virginia. The seat of government was placed at _Philadelphia_; but in 1800 it was removed to the _District of Columbia_, which was ceded for the purpose by Virginia and Maryland. Almost from the beginning, there were two political parties. The _Federalists_ were made up of those who had been most in favor of the new Const.i.tution, and desired to build up a strong central government. Accordingly they advocated a liberal construction of the Const.i.tution as regards the extent of federal authority. They cherished the traditional spirit of the English laws and English political inst.i.tutions. _Was.h.i.+ngton_ and _John Adams_ belonged to this cla.s.s, and _Hamilton_ was their most active leader. The _Anti-Federalists_, of whom _Jefferson_ was the chief, were for a careful guarding of the rights of the States, and a strict interpretation of the powers allotted to the General Government. They had more sympathy with the political ideas at that time fast coming into vogue in France. They had a warm faith in the capacity of the ma.s.s of the people for self-government and for suffrage. They were called _Republicans_, and were sometimes styled _Democrats_.

HAMILTON'S MEASURES: THE CONFLICT OF PARTIES.--_Hamilton_ proposed and carried highly important measures for the restoration of public credit and for the revival of industry and commerce. Under his leaders.h.i.+p, the debts of the old confederacy, and the debts of the separate States which they had incurred in the common defense, were a.s.sumed. To provide revenue, a protective tariff and a system of internal taxation were ordained. A national bank was incorporated (1791), and a mint was established at _Philadelphia_. These measures had a great effect at home, and made a strong impression favorable to the new government abroad; but they were opposed by the _Anti-Federalists_ as an unwarrantable a.s.sumption of power by the General Government. The excise on domestic spirits provoked an insurrection, called ”the Whisky Rebellion,” in _Western Pennsylvania_, which was put down by the militia. As the French Revolution advanced from step to step, the division of parties in America became more marked, and their mutual hostility more intense. At first all were in sympathy with France. _La Fayette_ sent the key of the fallen Bastille as a gift to _Was.h.i.+ngton_. But the Federalists were determined to maintain a strict neutrality in the conflict between France and England. As the Revolution proceeded, a strong antipathy was awakened in America to the radical theories, as well as to the b.l.o.o.d.y deeds, of its promoters. This was enhanced by the strenuous efforts of the French Republic, aided by the Anti-Federalists, to induce the United States to take an active part in the war, on the side of France. _Genet_, the French minister, undertook to fit out privateers in _Charleston_. Was.h.i.+ngton issued a proclamation of neutrality (1793), which was followed by a Neutrality Act of Congress (1794). When _Genet_ had the effrontery to appeal from the President to the people, at the demand of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ he was recalled.

JAY'S TREATY.--The contest of parties reached its climax in connection with Jay's Treaty with Great Britain (1794),--a treaty negotiated by _John Jay_, chief justice, whom _Was.h.i.+ngton_ had sent as envoy to London. There were mutual grounds of complaint between the two countries. The British had not surrendered the Western military posts, and were in the habit of ”impressing seamen.” 'This last practice was founded on the claim that a British subject can never become the subject of another country, and that, moreover, his military service may be always called for by his sovereign. When almost all Europe was at war, the carrying trade naturally fell, to a large extent, into American hands; hence, it was alleged, many English sailors deserted to get employment in American s.h.i.+ps. The British claimed and exercised the right to visit foreign vessels, and to take from their decks the sailors who were a.s.serted to be British subjects. The English, on their part, complained that the treaty stipulations as to debts due in America to British subjects had not been observed. Jay's Treaty provided for the giving-up of the Western posts, according to the previous stipulation; but said nothing respecting the right of impressment, which the British at that time would never have consented to relinquish. It was alleged, also, that in other features the treaty favored England unwarrantably, and unfairly in relation to France. It encountered violent opposition from the Republicans; but it was approved by _Was.h.i.+ngton_, and the legislative measures for carrying it out were pa.s.sed in the House of Representatives by a slender majority, obtained through the eloquence of _Fisher Ames_, a member from Ma.s.sachusetts.

NEW STATES: INVENTIONS.--According to the census of 1790, there were somewhat less than four millions of people in the United States. _Virginia_ was the most populous State; next to Virginia stood _Pennsylvania_, then _North Carolina_, and, fourth in order, _Ma.s.sachusetts_. A little more than one-fifth of the population were negro slaves. _Vermont_, the territory of which had been claimed by both New York and New Hamps.h.i.+re, was the first new State admitted to the Union (1791). A genius for mechanical invention early manifested itself in the country. _Eli Whitney_ invented the cotton-gin (1792), for separating the seed from the fiber of the cotton-plant,--a machine which indirectly lent a powerful impulse to the production of cotton. In 1788 _John Fitch_ was running a steamboat on the Delaware River; but the construction of a steamboat with side-paddles was due to the inventive talent of _Robert Fulton_ (1807). Emigration from the Atlantic border to the West took three princ.i.p.al routes,--one from New England and New York, through the valley of the Mohawk; the second, through the pa.s.ses of the Alleghanies; and the third, across the Blue Ridge to the rivers flowing from the south into the Ohio. In 1792 _Kentucky_, settled mainly by emigrants over the last-mentioned path, was made a State. The next State to be admitted was _Tennessee_ (1796). The new settlers carried into the West the spirit and inst.i.tutions of the several communities which they had left. South of the Ohio, negro slavery was introduced. A treaty with Spain (in 1795) secured the free navigation of the Mississippi.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S RETIREMENT AND DEATH.--_Was.h.i.+ngton_ himself was not exempt from bitter partisan attack in public prints. On his retirement from office, he prepared, with the a.s.sistance of _Hamilton_, a Farewell Address to the people, in which he exhorted them to maintain the Union as the only safeguard of liberty, and warned them against ”entangling alliances” with European powers. The deep and universal sorrow which was felt when he died (1799) was a tribute as exalted as any nation ever paid to a fallen hero and benefactor.

ADAMS: RUPTURE OF THE FEDERAL PARTY.--_John Adams_, a Federalist, succeeded _Was.h.i.+ngton_ as president; and _Jefferson_ became vice-president (1797). The French had seized a large number of American vessels, on the pretense that they were affording aid to England. In order, if possible, to prevent war, the President sent out a special mission to France; but the commissioners--_Pinckney_, _Gerry_, and _Marshall_--were told by the Directory that they must pay money as a bribe before they could be received, and were finally ordered to quit the country (1797). The phrase of _Pinckney_, ”Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute,”

expressed the universal feeling. The report of the insulted envoys roused the indignation of the American people, and moved Congress to prepare for war. _Was.h.i.+ngton_ was made general of all the forces to be raised, and he appointed _Hamilton_ to be second in command. Hostilities had really commenced; the Federalists were eager for a declaration of war; but President _Adams_, without the knowledge of his cabinet, suddenly nominated to the senate another amba.s.sador to France. He had previously become a.s.sured that such a messenger would be well received. _Napoleon_ having come into power, a treaty was concluded with him (1800). The course of the President, however, gave mortal offense to the adherents of _Hamilton_, and fatally divided the Federal party. Hamilton and his supporters became wholly alienated from _Adams_, so that the triumph of the Republicans was rendered certain.

”RESOLUTIONS OF '98.”--The violence of the attacks upon the administration, which were made partly by foreign emissaries, had caused the Federalists (1798) to pa.s.s the _alien_ and _sedition laws_. The first authorized the President to order out of the country aliens who were conspiring against its peace. Its operation was limited to two years. The second punished seditious libels upon the government with fine and imprisonment. These acts provoked a storm of opposition. Under the auspices of _Jefferson_, and of _Madison_, who was now one of his supporters, the _Virginia_ and _Kentucky Resolutions_ of 1798-99 were pa.s.sed by the Legislatures of those States. These resolves affirmed the right of a State to judge of the const.i.tutionality and validity of an Act of Congress. They were interpreted as an a.s.sertion of the extreme doctrine of State rights.

PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.--In 1800 Jefferson was elected to the presidency, and _Aaron Burr_, a scheming politician of the Republican school, was made vice-president.

At that time, and until the amendment of the Const.i.tution (1804), the electors voted for two persons, without designating either for the presidency or the vice-presidency. The candidate having the highest number of votes became president. As Jefferson and Burr had an equal number, the choice between them for the highest office was made by the House of Representatives.

The obnoxious laws of the preceding administration disappeared with it. One of the most important events under _Jefferson's_ administration was the purchase of _Louisiana_ from France, which had acquired it from Spain. _Napoleon_ knew that he could not keep it from falling into the hands of England, and readily sold it for fifteen millions of dollars. Thereby the territory of the United States was doubled in its extent. The whole region between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, with New Orleans, was added to the country, together with whatever claim France had to _West Florida, Texas_, and the district west of the Rocky Mountains. _Ohio_, composed of the south-eastern portion of the northwest territory, was admitted to the Union in 1803.

In the first fifteen years after the government was organized, there are four things that affected powerfully the character and career of the United States. The first was the influence of _Was.h.i.+ngton_ in inspiring attachment to the Union. The second was the genius of _Hamilton_ in creating an efficient administration of the new civil polity. The third was the democratic political tendency fostered by _Jefferson_. The fourth was the vast expansion of the national territory by the Louisiana Purchase, insuring the extension of the _Union_, and preventing the rise of rival political communities in its neighborhood.

WAR WITH THE ALGERINES.--The pirates of _Algiers, Morocco_, and the other Barbary States, demanded tribute of American vessels on the Mediterranean. The first exploits of the navy of the United States were in combats with these marauders (1801-5). _Decatur_ performed the exploit of burning in the harbor of _Tripoli_ the American s.h.i.+p _Philadelphia_, which the Tripolitans had captured (1804). _Derne_ was captured, and _Tripoli_ bombarded. Finally a treaty put an end to the exaction of tribute (1805).