Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1883 — Napoleon Bonaparte. [ARTICLE]

Napoleon Bonaparte.

He was born at Ajaccio, Corsica, Ang. 15, 1769. His mother, a strong and cultured, lmt severe woman, ruled lier household with a rod of iron, and to her the son owed his indomitable will. At 10 years of age he was sent to a military school at Brienne,. France, and six years later entered the army. In 1792, having taken an active part in the defection in Ajaccio, lie was expelled, with the rest of his family, <rom iant military service Napoleon was made commander of the compaign in Italy, which closed with the treaty of Campo Formio. On the eve-of his departure he was married to the beaut till and accomplished Mine. Josephine Beauhn ais. TluCvear after the close of the It lian campaign (1797) Napoleon se. „ut for Egypt, designing to investigate its wealth, art treasures and other antiquities, but the expedition proved disastrous and he soon returned to meet a critical state of affairs m France, leaving the army under the command of Gen. Kleber. On Aug. 2, 1802, the French people made Bonaparte First Consul for life, and in the same year received at his hands the famous Code Napoleon, the product of the best legal talent of the nation, and undoubtedly one of the noblest monuments of his administration. It still forms the great body of French law. Two years later he \v as proclaimed Emperor. After a remarkable career in war and peace, he sacrificed his heart and highest manhood to his ambition by divorcing his faithful Josephine t > form a royal alliance with Marie Louisa, daughter of the Emperor of Austria. The decline of his power soon followed, like a pursuing Nemesis; beginning with the fearful disasters succeeding the burning of Moscow and the ensuing retreat in the midst of a Russian winter, and ending with the disastrous battle of Liepsic, the fall of Baris, his first' abdication, and his exile (1814) to the little island of Elba. He escaped to* France ten months later; raised another army, and hastened to meet the allies —English, Germans and Netherlanders —in Belgium, on the fatal field of Waterloo. A few months later and he was a prisoner for life on the desolate island of St. Helena, in custody of Great Britain, where he died of cancer of the stomach, May 5, 1821. By almost universal concession he is regarded as the greatest military commander that ever lived. Had his displomacy been equal to his military genius it is* prhbable that he would

3 . .. have remained to his death, as he was for a period df more than six years, the virtual master of nearly all the civilized States of Continental Europe. In 1840 j his mortal remains were carried to ! France and bimed in Paris, the scene of his greatest triumphs as of his final j downfall.