Historical Essays (Volume 7) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1891. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... NAPOLEON I. AT ST. DOMINGO.1 In his history of the Consulate and the Empire, Thiers explained how the First Consul, after finding his scheme of Egyptian and Oriental conquest frustrated by the British navy, adopted a system of compensation in the New World. "If Egypt was to be torn from us, the First Consul wished to have done something for the colonial greatness of France. If Egypt lost could no longer offer a compensation for St. Domingo, the First Consul hoped to find it in Louisiana."2 Thiers could not often be charged with underestimating the merit of Napoleon's schemes, but in this instance he failed to describe the First Consul's true object. Louisiana was not intended to be a compensation for St. Domingo, but was subsidiary to the purpose of recovering St. Domingo from the control of the blacks, who had held it, nominally in dependence on France, since 1791. Napoleon gave the first place in his scheme with good reason to St. Domingo, be 1 Originally printed in the Revue Historique, Paris, JanuaryFebruary, 1884. 2 Consulat et Empire, ii. 121. cause the island had been the centre of French colonial interests more valuable than all the other colonies of France together; but in any case if France intended to remain a colonial and maritime power, the recovery of St. Domingo was essential. Guadeloupe and Martinique were in constant danger, and must remain comparatively worthless, until the supremacy of the whites should be re-established in the colonial centre. France had never relinquished the hope of restoring order and prosperity to St. Domingo, and the idea of turning French energies in that direction, as soon as war in Europe should be ended, was never lost from sight by the French republic. In 1795 the Republic obliged Spain, much against her wi...