First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte Honors The Late President Washington

“Washington is dead! This great man fought against tyranny; he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people…” On February 9th, 1800, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte honored George Washington by issuing the attached order of the day to the French army. The contrast between these two men is striking, and it should not be ignored. Washington and Napoleon were not the same figure in different uniforms. They were great men placed before radically different historical tasks. Washington faced imperial tyranny from across the ocean. His mission was to sever a young people from a foreign crown, preserve the fragile liberty of the American colonies, and then prove, by his own conduct, that the sword could be returned to its sheath. His greatness was shown in restraint. Napoleon, however, did not inherit thirteen colonies fighting for independence. He inherited revolutionary France. A nation convulsed by regicide, faction, terror, civil war, collapsing institutions, foreign invasion, and ideological madness. Washington’s task was to establish liberty against a distant king. Napoleon’s task was to rescue order from the ruins left behind by liberty’s fanatics. His greatness was shown in command. This is why the comparison between them is so fascinating. Washington stands as the great man who refused to become a Caesar. Napoleon stands as the great man who BECAME a Caesar because France had already passed through the furnace and could no longer be governed by slogans, assemblies, or sentimental illusions. One man founded a republic by laying power down. The other saved a nation by taking power up. And yet both were great men. Washington gave political liberty a form noble enough to endure. Napoleon gave post-revolutionary France a state strong enough to survive. To praise one does not require the diminishment of the other. In truth, the greatness of both men becomes clearer when their differences are honestly recognized. Washington was the father of a new republic. Napoleon was the sword of a wounded civilization. Both men belong to our history because both men rose to answer the unwavering demands of their age.