Napoleon Man of Peace

Napoleon's Consistent and
Persistent Endeavours in Pursuit of Peace

by Ben Weider, Canada

March 1795

A 25-year old General, he categorically refuses the command of the Army of the West. He will be removed from the ranks and threatened with the scaffold by Letourneur of the Committee of Public Safety. Nothing can make him change his decision. "Never my sword against the people," he says. He will live in misery. His gauntness is deplorable, his complexion yellow, and his clothes threadbare.

18th of April 1797

He writes to Archduke Charles of Austria, who he has just defeated hands down, to propose a peace that would salvage the remnants of the Austrian army: "Have we not killed enough people and committed enough harm to poor humanity? As for me, should the opening that I have the honour to offer you save the life of even one man, I consider myself prouder than the sad glory that can come from military success."

4th of September 1797

The Directory wants to conquer everything. It wants all of Italy. It wants to overturn the Emperor of Austria and replace him in Vienna with a Republic. In addition to Belgium, it wants the left shore of the Rhine up to its mouth. It has sights on Turkey and Egypt. Napoleon is the one who stops it and demands peace under threat of his resignation. Talleyrand is the buffer between the warmongering government and the pacifist General.

25th of December 1799

The very day he takes up his duties as First Consul, Bonaparte writes to the King of England and the Emperor of Austria, praying them "not to deny the happiness of bringing peace to the world." England does not reply. In May, the Austrian army crosses the southeast border of France and invades the French Riviera. Napoleon must then leave his exhausting work as an administrator and make extreme haste to save France from the invasion. He is worn out by the days and nights of work, he is lean, his wrinkled skin has become transparent and taken on a pallid hue; he can barely stay standing. This is the condition he was in when he crossed the St. Bernard pass and defeated Melas' Austrians at Marengo on the 14th of June 1800. This victory led to the Treaty of Luneville with Austria and that of Amiens with England. William Pitt was overthrown in London.

This peace endows the Consulate with a radiance and splendour that will span the century, that will make it a blessed era, a golden age, one of those privileged periods that are so rare in the history of France. 1801, 1802, 1803 and 1804 are fortunate times for France, when just a year earlier, she was at the bottom of the abyss. And France revelled in the brightest dreams, for she had reached safe harbour, she had found peace. Napoleon had delivered a tall order on time. In applauding him, France applauded herself for choosing so wisely, for calculating so well that she was in the charge of a man who fulfilled her desires: peace within, peace without, greatness, prosperity, and repose. These were the rewards for the lengthy efforts, and the end of a nightmare. An all but inexpressible sensation of happiness for a people that, for ten years, had been living through the tumult of the civil war and the war abroad.

Napoleon would have wanted, in fact it was his most ardent desire that this peace endure forever. His duty performed, he too would have liked a little rest, a little happiness, a small share of the happiness he had worked so hard to achieve for others, and which he had never had time to stop and enjoy for himself.

The English people, for their part, welcomed the Treaty of Amiens with delirious enthusiasm. The French general who brought the preliminaries of the treaty to London, Lauriston, was received in triumph and the crowd unharnessed his carriage to pull it themselves "with the greatest signs of delight."

Alas! On the 16th of May 1803, William Pitt, now back in power, declared war on France and strove to unite Europe against her.

January 1805

One month after his coronation, Napoleon sends letters to all the sovereign heads of Europe, including England, to present "the advantages of peace and the stupidity of the war, the stupidity of futilely spilled blood."

End November 1805

Before Austerlitz, Napoleon tries to avert the battle through a negotiation with the Tsar. He waits, still hoping for peace. It is the Russians who attack with one hundred thousand men . . . who are crushed in less than four hours. The Third Coalition orchestrated by England is defeated and Pitt dies at the age of 46 of alcohol induced cirrhosis, murmuring "my poor kingdom, in what state am I leaving you."

He could have said, "in what state have I put you."

Right after Austerlitz, Napoleon returns prisoners, leaves the remnants of the vanquished army and peacefully withdraws from Austria. He praises the Tsar and seeks his friendship with a view to establishing peace in Europe. He writes to him, "My heart bleeds! May as much spilled blood, may as many misfortunes finally befall the treacherous English who are the cause of it."

He is good, generous, intelligent and rational, and he never comprehends that the sovereigns of Europe care nothing for the lives of their soldiers and the happiness of their people. Each time he has them at his mercy, he forgives them instead of crushing them . . . thereby allowing them to rebuild their forces to attack him yet again at a later date.

12th September 1806

Prussia declares war on France and Napoleon writes to Frederick William, "This war would be a sacrilegious war. I remain unwavering in my bonds of alliance with Your Majesty." Prussia replies with a scornful ultimatum. Less than fifteen days later, she will be annihilated in the victory at Jena on the 14th of October 1806. Prince Louis Ferdinand, one of the instigators of the war, is killed and the Duke of Brunswick is badly wounded. He was the author of a famous manifesto that threatened to level Paris stone by stone. Five days after Jena, Napoleon again wrote to Frederick William, "It will be an eternal subject of regret for me that two nations, which for so many reasons should be friends, have been led into such a poorly motivated struggle. I wish to restore the former trust that reigned between us."

14th June 1807 Friedland.

Napoleon wants peace and the Tsar's friendship. He writes to him even though the two armies are already face to face:

"The time has come for Europe to live in quiet, sheltered from the malicious influence of England. Why this war? What good is it to kill one another when our peoples have so much mutual respect, so many grounds to be friends?"

The Tsar's response: A massive frontal attack. But later, after his army is crushed and fifty thousand lie dead, Alexander becomes gentle as a lamb and cannot contain his joy when Napoleon pardons him, and agrees to meet him on a raft moored in the middle of the Niemen River.

It is here that the famous embrace between the two emperors took place. A few days later, at Tilsit, the Tsar swears eternal friendship to Napoleon, saying of him:

"I love nothing more than I do this man. The magical power of his look and the smile from the soul that he has on his lips and in his eyes, completely turned me around. The great man of the century, the formidable Captain, is amiable, affectionate, magnanimous. He is persuasive because he is sincere."

Everything is in the Tsar's last sentence. Napoleon was sincere. He was always sincere in his desires for a general and absolute peace. The opposite is true of the bloodthirsty tyrants in England, Austria, Prussia and Russia. Napoleon also invites the sad Frederick William and the all too beautiful Queen Louise to Tilsit. They, too, are won over. He now holds under the sway of his charm and prestige the heir of Catherine the Great, the Semiramis of the North, and of the great Frederick, the famous Prussian King and friend of Voltaire.

Together, they write an account "of the conduct that we must comport to make England finally understand all the benefits that she would derive from peace."

England's replies to the overtures of peace and friendship:

1 2nd of September 1807:

England destroys Copenhagen by heavy artillery fire from the Navy. Denmark is a neutral country. In Copenhagen several thousand women and children are blown up, eviscerated, torn to shreds and crushed under debris, while the officers of the Navy toast the King each time a shot hits its mark on populations without the slightest defence.

2 11th of November 1807

By decree from London, England obliges the ships from neutral countries to enter English ports to pay a tax and buy goods under pain of being declared open targets.

The blatant arbitrary power of the sea tyrants soon resulted in four thousand American seamen rotting on British barges. At the end of 1807, Napoleon once again writes to Tsar Alexander:

We will overcome England, we will establish peace in the world and the Treaty of Tilsit will be the starting point towards the happiness of humanity. '

In 1810, after his marriage to Marie Louise of Austria, he makes new peace offers to England through the banker Labouchère. The English once again refuse.

At the start of 1811, Napoleon spends some time every day with his wife, who is about to give birth to the King of Rome; as he only works twelve hours a day, it is said that he is in love with Marie Louise's slipper. On St. Helena, recalling this time, he says:

"Was it therefore not permitted for me, as well, to allow myself a few moments of happiness."

These simple words shed more light on Napoleon's life than any lengthy speech. He devoted himself entirely to the heavy task entrusted to him by the French people, who were not in the least concerned about his personal happiness.

Under Napoleon's authority, all the territories of Europe witnessed the implementation of civil procedures whose social efficacy and civic sense have long been proved beyond refute.

Napoleon made the people of every group and country benefit, through the genius of his ideas, his marvellous organisational ability, and his unparalleled spirit of tolerance.

He said:

    It is by making myself Catholic that I brought peace to Brittany and Vendée.
    It is by making myself Italian that I won minds in Italy.
    It is by making myself a Moslem that I established myself in Egypt.
    If I governed a nation of Jews, I should re-establish the Temple of Solomon.

Here for those who dare to compare him to Hitler, let's turn to the ENCYCLOPEDIA JUDICA:

"Napoleon proclaimed the Emancipation of the Jews in the Italian states, and the majority of the Jews in Italy hailed Napoleon as a liberator and political saviour calling him 'HELEK TOV,' (lit. 'Good Part'; cf. Bona-Parte). In Palestine, Napoleon issued a manifesto that promised the Jews their return to their country, and therefore anticipated the creation of the state of Israel.manifesto that promised the Jews their return to their country, and therefore anticipated the creation of the state of Israel.

When the French entered Berlin, Napoleon asked: "Where are the Jews?" He removed them from the ghetto and made them fully-fledged citizens.

Throughout Europe he held Assemblies of Jewish Notables and established Consistories of Rabbis so as to prepare to adopt modivivendi with the various State authorities.

It is he who convened the Grand Sanhedrin in Paris in 1807. The full extent of Napoleon's kindness to the Jewish people was such the Austrian authorities were apprehensive that the Jews would regard him in the light of a "Messiah." So let's get serious! The final solution? The holocaust?

All the evidence points to Napoleon as a man of peace, which will not prevent detractors from continuing to nitpick for any fault they might find.

They will say, and his nepotism? And the Spanish War? And the Russian Campaign?

Fine! Let's look at them:

More Napoleon: Man of Peace

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