Address to the Soldiers on the Signing of Peace with Austria, Dec. 26, 1805.
Proclamation to the Soldiers, February, 1806.
Address to the Senate on Annexation of the Cisalpine Republic, 1806.
To the Legislative Body before the Battle of Jena, October, 1806.
Address to the Captive Officers after the Battle of Jena, Oct. 15, 1806.
Proclamation to the Soldiers before Entering Warsaw, Jan. 1, 1807.
To the King of Prussia, Entreating Peace after the Battle of Eylau, February, 1807.
Address to the Army on its Return to Winter Quarters on the Vistula, 1807.
Proclamation to the Soldiers after the Battle of Friedland, June 24, 1807.
Letter to Champagny, Nov. 15, 1807.
Proclamation to the Spaniards on the Abdication of Charles IV., June 2, 1808.
Address to the Legislative Body, before Leaving Paris for the Spanish Campaign, 1808.
Letter to the Emperor of Austria, October, 1808.
Proclamation to the Soldiers, during the March for Spain, 1808.
Summons to M. de Morla to Surrender Madrid, Dec. 3, 1808.
Proclamation to the Spanish People, December, 1808.
Letter to the American Minister, Armstrong, 1809.
Proclamation to the Soldiers before the Battle of Eckmuhl, April, 1809.
Proclamation to the Troops at Ratisbon, April, 1809.
Address to the Troops on Entering Vienna, May, 1809.
Proclamation to the Hungarians, 1809.
Address to the Troops on the Beginning of the Russian Campaign, May, 1812.
Address to the Troops before the Battle of Borodino, Sept. 7, 1812.
Letter to Alexander I., Emperor of Russia.
Discourse at the Opening of the Legislative Body.
Address to the Legislative Body, December, 1813.
Address to the Guard, April 2, 1814.
Speech of Abdication, April 2, 1814.
Farewell to the Old Guard, April 20, 1814.
Proclamation to the French People on His Return from Elba, March 5, 1815.
Napoleon's Proclamation to the Army on His Return from Elba, March 5, 1815.
Proclamation on the Anniversary of the Battles of Marengo and Friedland, June 14, 1815.
Proclamation to the Belgians, June 17, 1815.
Napoleon's Proclamation to the French People on His Second Abdication, June 22, 1815.
Bonaparte's Protest, Written on Board the Bellerophon, August 4, 1815.
INTRODUCTION.
The flash of Napoleon Bonaparte's sword so blinded men in his lifetime, and, indeed, long after, that they were unable to distinguish a second weapon in his hand.
The clearer vision which time and study bring have shown that he used words almost as effectively as the sword, and that throughout his career the address ably supported the military manœuvre.
The first complete demonstration of the elaborate use made by Napoleon of the address was the publication of the gigantic work known as the "Correspondance de Napoleon." Though the thirty-two ponderous volumes which form this magnus opus appeared nearly forty years ago, it is little known to general readers, its size and cost confining it to special libraries, and its documentary character repelling all but special students.
Yet it is only in these volumes that Napoleon's official life can be traced in detail from Toulon to St. Helena. Every document which he wrote relating to public affairs is—if we may believe the editors—printed in the collection. The number is enormous. When the commission appointed to collect the material began its labors, it found itself obliged to go through ten thousand volumes pertaining to Napoleon's life. The archives of Paris yielded forty thousand different documents of which he was the author, and the rulers of Austria, Bavaria, Hesse, Russia, Sardinia, and Wurtemberg sent contributions from their royal records.
Across the pages of the great tomes file the mighty procession of soldiers and generals, priests and cardinals, kings and peoples who, in the twenty years in which Napoleon was the preëminent