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SCI LIBRARY

The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson

By Subject


BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON / ASSESSMENT OF



Should it be really true that Bonaparte has usurped the government with an intention of making it a free one, whatever his talents may be for war, we have no proof that he is skilled in forming governments friendly to the people. Wherever he has meddled we have seen nothing but fragments of the old Roman government stuck into materials with which they can form no cohesion: we see the bigotry of an Italian to the ancient splendor of his country, but nothing which bespeaks a luminous view of the organization of rational government.

to T.M. Randolph, 2 February 1800