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 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 following
characteristic anecdote of President Lincoln, as it so fully illustrates
the object in view in writing these histories. In a conversation which
the writer had with the President just before his death, Mr. Lincoln
said:

"I want to thank you and your brother for Abbotts' series of Histories.
I have not education enough to appreciate the profound works of
voluminous historians, and if I had, I have no time to read them. But
your series of Histories gives me, in brief compass, just that knowledge
of past men and events which I need. I have read them with the greatest
interest. To them I am indebted for about all the historical knowledge I
have."

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 achievements
of the illustrious personages of past ages.

A few years ago there was published in Paris a life of King Joseph, in
ten royal octavo volumes of nearly five hundred pages each. It was
entitled "_Memoires et Correspondance, Politique et Militaire, du Roi
Joseph, Publies, Annotes et Mis en Ordre par A. du Casse, Aide-de-camp
de S. A. I. Le Prince Jerome Napoleon._" These volumes contained nearly
all the correspondence which passed between Joseph and his brother
Napoleon from their childhood until after the battle of Waterloo. Every
historical statement is substantiated by unequivocal documentary
evidence.

From this voluminous work, aided by other historical accounts of
particular events, the author of this sketch has gathered all that would
be of particular interest to the general reader at the present time. As
all the facts contained in this narrative are substantiated by ample
documentary proof, the writer can not doubt that this volume presents an
accurate account of the momentous scenes which it describes, and that it
gives the reader a correct idea of the social and political relations
existing between those extraordinary men, Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is not necessary that the historian should pronounce judgment upon
every transaction. But he is bound to state every event exactly as it
occurred.

No one can read this account of the struggle in Europe _in favor of
popular rights_ against the old dynasties of _feudal oppression_,
without more highly appreciating the admirable institutions of our own
glorious Republic. Neither can any intelligent and candid man carefully
peruse this narrative, and not admit that Joseph Bonaparte was earnestly
seeking the welfare of the _people_; that, surrounded by dynasties
strong in standing armies, in pride of nobility, and which were
venerable through a life of centuries, he was endeavoring to promote,
under monarchical forms, which the posture of affairs seemed to
render necessary, the abolition of _aristocratic usurpation_, and the
establishment of _equal rights for all men_. Believing this, the writer
sympathizes with him in all his struggles, and reveres his memory.
The universal brotherhood of man, the fundamental principles of
Christianity, should also be the fundamental principles in the State.
Having spared no pains to be accurate, the writer will be grateful to
any critic who will point out any incorrectness of statement or false
coloring of facts, that he may make the correction in subsequent
editions.

This volume will soon be followed by another, "The History of Queen
Hortense," the daughter of Josephine, the wife of King Louis, the mother
of Napoleon III.

                         JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

 FAIR HAVEN, CONN.,
    May, 1869.




 CONTENTS


 Chapter                                                    Page

    I. SCENES IN EARLY LIFE                                  13

   II. DIPLOM