“St. Petersburg, 24 January, 1814.
“ ... The Events of the last two years have opened a new prospect to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of the Colossal Power of France. Had that power been acquired by Wisdom, it might have been consolidated by Time and the most ordinary portion of Prudence. The Emperor Napoleon says that he was never seduced by Prosperity; but when he comes to be judged impartially by Posterity, that will not be their sentence. His Fortune will be among the wonders of the age in which he has lived. His Military Talent and Genius will place him high in the Rank of Great Captains; but his intemperate Passion, his presumptuous Insolence, and his Spanish and Russian Wars, will reduce him very nearly to the level of ordinary Men. At all Events he will be one of the standing examples of human Vicissitude—ranged, not among the Alexanders, Cæsars and Charlemagnes, but among the Hannibals, Pompeys and Charles the 12ths. I believe his Romance is drawing towards its close; and that he will soon cease even to yield a pretext for the War against France. England alone will be ‘afraid of the Gunpowder Percy, though he should be dead.’”[16]
John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
“Reval, 12 May, 1814.
“ ... The Coalition of all Europe against France has at length been crowned with complete success. The annals of the World do not I believe furnish an example of such a reverse of Fortune as that Nation has experienced within the last two years.[17] The interposition of Providence to produce this mighty change has been so signal, so peculiar, so distinct from all human co-operation, that in ages less addicted to superstition than the present it might have been considered as miraculous. As a Judgment of Heaven, it will undoubtedly be considered by all pious Minds now and hereafter, and I cannot but indulge the Hope that it opens a Prospect of at least more Tranquility and Security to the civilized part of Mankind than they have enjoyed the last half Century. France for the last twenty-five Years has been the scourge of Europe; in every change of her Government she has manifested the same ambitious, domineering, oppressive and rapacious Spirit to all her Neighbours. She has now fallen a wretched and helpless victim into their hands—dethroning the Sovereign she had chosen, and taking back the family she had expelled, at their command; and ready to be dismembered and parceled out as the Resentment or the Generosity of her Conquerors shall determine. The final Result is now universally, and in a great degree justly imputable to one Man. Had Napoleon Bonaparte, with his extraordinary Genius, and transcendent military talents, possessed an ordinary portion of Judgment or common Sense, France might have been for ages the preponderating Power in Europe, and he might have transmitted to his Posterity the most powerful Empire upon Earth, and a name to stand by the side of Alexander, Cæsar and Charlemagne—A name surrounded by such a blaze of Glory as to blind the eyes of all humankind to the baseness of its origin and even to the blood with which it would still have been polluted. But if the Catastrophe is the work of one Man, it was the Spirit of the Times and of the Nation, which brought forward that Man, and concentrated in his person and character the whole issue of the Revolution. ‘Oh! it is the Sport (says Shakespear) to see the Engineer hoist by his own petard.’ The sufferings of Europe are compensated and avenged in the humiliation of France.... The great danger of the present moment appears to me to be that the policy of crippling France to guard against her future power will be carried too far....”
MADAME DE STAËL
John Q. Adams to Thomas B. Adams
“St. Petersburg, 22d November, 1812.
“ ... Toward the close of the last summer arrived here as a sort of semi official appendage to the British embassy an old acquaintance of yours, Sir Francis D’Ivernois, who as you know has been for many years a distinguished political writer in the French language and in the Interest of the British Government. He came not I believe with, but very soon after, the Embassador Lord Cathcart.[18] just at the same time a lady of celebrated fame, Madame de Staël, the daughter of Mr. Necker, was also here on a transient visit.[19] As I had not the honor of being personally known to Madame de Staël and as we had just received information of the American Declaration of war against Britain, I had no expectation of having any communication or intercourse either with the Embassador or the lady. And I regretted this the less as my whole soul was at that period absorbed in the distressed situation of my family.... Early one morning I received a note from Madame de Staël, requesting me to call on her at her lodgings that same day at noon as she wished to speak to me on a subject respecting America.
“I went accordingly at the hour appointed and upon entering the lady’s salon found there a company of some fifteen or twenty persons, not a soul of whom I had ever seen before. An elderly gentleman in the full uniform of an English General was seated on a sofa and the lady whom I immediately perceived to be Madame de Staël was complimenting him with equal elegance and fluency upon the glories of his nation, his countryman, Lord Wellington, and his own. The Battle of Salamanca and the bombardment of Copenhagen were themes upon which much was to be said and upon which she said much.[20]