One of the characteristics that allowed Napoleon Bonaparte to be so successful was the loyalty he inspired among his soldiers. The following text is a proclamation he made to his soldiers upon entering Italy in 1796 which demonstrates his communication style to his soldiers as well as the rhetoric used about the “liberation” that French soldiers brought to foreign peoples they conquered.

Proclamation of Napoleon Bonaparte – April 1796

Soldiers :

You have in a fortnight won six victories, taken twenty-one standards, fifty-five pieces of artillery, several strong places, and conquered the richest part of Piedmont; you have made thirteen thousand prisoners and killed or wounded more than ten thousand men. Previously you had fought for sterile crags, which, although you made them famous by your prowess, were useless to your country; today your services put you on a footing with the army of Holland or of the Rhine.

Without any resources, you have supplied all that was necessary. You have won battles without cannons, passed rivers without bridges, made forced marches without shoes, camped without brandy, and often without bread. Only republican phalanxes, soldiers of liberty, would have been able to bear what you have borne. Thanks be to you, soldiers, for this. Your grateful country will owe its prosperity to .you. As conquerors at Toulon you but foreshadowed the immortal campaign of 1794; even so, your present victories are but harbingers of- still greater.

The two armies which but recently attacked you with confidence are fleeing in consternation before you. Those misguided men who laughed at your misery and rejoiced in the thought of the triumph of your enemies have been confounded.

But, soldiers, you have done nothing as yet compared with what there still remains to do. Neither Turin nor Milan yet belongs to you. . . . You were destitute of everything at the opening of the campaign; today you are provided abundantly. Numerous stores have been taken from your enemies and siege and field guns have arrived.

Soldiers, your country is justified in expecting great things of you. Will you fulfill its hopes? The greatest obstacles undoubtedly have been overcome, but you have still battles to fight, cities to take, rivers to cross. Is there anyone among you whose courage is slackening? Is there anyone who would prefer to return across the summits of the Apennines and the Apps and bear patiently the insults of a slavish soldiery? No, there is none such among the conquerors of Montenotte, of Dego, of Mondovi. All of you are burning to extend the glory of the French people. All long to humiliate those haughty kings who dare to contemplate placing us in fetters. All desire to dictate a glorious peace and one which will indemnify our country for the immense sacrifices which it has made; all would wish, as they return to their native villages, to be able to say proudly, ” I was with the victorious army of Italy!”

Friends, I can promise you this conquest, but there is one condition which you must swear to fulfill. That is to respect the peoples whom you deliver, and repress the horrible pillage which certain rascals, incited by our enemies, commit. Otherwise, you will not be the deliverers of the people but their scourge; you will not do honor to the French people, but will thereby disavow your country. Your victories, your bravery, your success, the blood of our brothers who have died in battle, — all will be lost, even honor and glory. As for me and the generals who have your confidence, we should blush to command an army without discipline and restraint, which recognizes no law but force. . . . Anyone who engages in pillage will be shot without mercy.

Peoples of Italy, the French army comes to break your chains; the French people are the friends of all peoples. You may receive them with confidence. Your property, your religion, and your customs will be respected. We are carrying on war as generous enemies, and we have no grudge except against the tyrants who oppress you.

Bonaparte.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David

Excerpts from the Napoleonic Code

In some ways, the Napoleonic Civil Code accepted many things tha had been passed into law by the revolutionary government. In others, it moved French law and society back to a more conservative stance. The following are some examples of each.

French Civil Code

BOOK I. Of Persons.
Decreed 8th of March, 1803. Promulgated 18th of the same Month.

TITLE I.
Of the Enjoyment and Privation of Civil Rights.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Enjoyment of Civil Rights.

7. The exercise of civil rights is independent of the quality of citizen, which is only acquired and preserved conformably to the constitutional law.
8. Every Frenchman shall enjoy civil rights.
9. Every individual born in France of a foreigner, may, during the year which shall succeed the period of his majority, claim the quality of Frenchman; provided, that if he shall reside in France he declares his intention to fix his domicil in that country, and that in case he shall reside in a foreign country, he give security to become domiciled in France and establish himself there within a year, to be computed from the date of that undertaking.
10. Every child born of a Frenchman in a foreign country is French. Every child born in a foreign country of a Frenchman who shall have lost the quality of a Frenchman, may at any time recover this quality by complying with the formalities prescribed in the ninth article.
11. A foreigner shall enjoy in France the same civil rights as are or shall be accorded to Frenchmen by the treaties of that nation to which such foreigner shall belong.
12. The foreigner who shall have married a Frenchman, shall follow the condition of her husband.
13. The foreigner who shall have been permitted by the government to establish his domicil in France, shall enjoy in that country all civil rights so long as he shall continue to reside there.
14. A foreigner, although not resident in France, may be cited before the French courts, to enforce the execution of engagements contracted by him in France with a Frenchman; he may be summoned before the tribunals of France, on account of engagements entered into by him with Frenchmen in a foreign country.
15. A Frenchman may be summoned before a French court, for engagements contracted by him in a foreign country, though with a foreigner.
16. In all causes, except commercial ones, in which a foreigner shall be plantiff, he shall be required to give security for the payment of the costs and damages incident to the suit, unless he possess in France immoveable property of value sufficient to guarantee such payment.

. . .

BOOK I. Of Persons.
Decreed 21st March, 1803. Promulgated 31st of the same Month.

TITLE VI.
Of Divorce.

CHAPTER I.
Of the Causes of Divorce.

229. The husband may demand a divorce on the ground of his wife’s adultery.
230. The wife may demand divorce on the ground of adultery in her husband, when he shall have brought his concubine into their common residence.
231. The married parties may reciprocally demand divorce for outrageous conduct, ill-usage, or grievous injuries, exercised by one of them towards the other.
232. The condemnation of one of the married parties to an infamous punishment, shall be to the other a ground of divorce.
233. The mutual and unwavering consent of the married parties, expressed in the manner prescribed by law, under the conditions, and after the proofs which it points out, shall prove sufficiently that their common life is insupportable to them; and that there exists, in reference to them, a peremptory cause of divorce.

The Concordat.

July I5, I801-April 8, 1802 (26 Messidor, Year IX – I8 Germinal, Year X). Duvergier, Lois, XIII, 89-91. The First Consul of the French Republic and His Holiness the Sovereign Pontiff Pius VII have appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries: … Who, after the exchange of their respective full powers, have arranged the following convention:

Convention between the French Government and His Holiness Pius VII.

The government of the French Republic recognizes that the Roman, catholic and apostolic religion is the religion of the great majority of French citizens. His Holiness likewise recognizes that this same religion has derived and in this moment again expects the greatest benefit and grandeur from the establishment of Catholic worship in France and from the personal profession of it which the consuls of the Republic make.

In consequence, after this mutual recognition, as well for the benefit of religion as for the maintenance of internal tranquility, they have agreed as follows:

1. The catholic, apostolic and Roman religion shall be freely exercised in France: its worship shall be public, and in conformity with the police regulations which the government shall deem necessary for the public tranquility.
2. A new circumscription of the French dioceses shall be made by the holy see in concert with the government.
3. His Holiness shall declare to the titular French bishops that he with firm confidence expects from them, for the benefit of peace and unity, every sort of sacrifice, even that of their sees.

. . .

Of the Regime of the Catholic Church in its Relations with the Rights and the Police of the State.

1. No bull, brief, rescript, decree, injunction, provision, signature serving as a provision, nor other documents from the court of Rome, even concerning individuals only, can be received, published, printed, or otherwise put into effect, without the authorization of the government.
2. No person calling himself nuncio, legate, vicar, or apostolic commissioner, or taking advantage of any other denomination, without the same authorization, can exercise upon French soil or elsewhere any function relative to the affairs of the Gallican church.
3. The decrees of foreign synods, even those of general councils, cannot be published in France before the government has examined their form, their conformity with the laws, rights, and liberties of the French Republic, and everything which, in their publication, may alter or affect the public tranquility.
4. No national or metropolitan council, no diocesan synod. no deliberative assembly, shall take place without the express permission of the government.
5. All the ecclesiastical offices shall be gratuitous, saving the offerings which may be authorized and fixed by the regulations.
6. There shall be recourse to the Council of State in every case of abuse on the part of the superiors and other ecclesiastical persons. The cases of abuse are usurpation or excess of power, contravention of the laws and regulations of the Republic, infraction of the rules sanctioned by the canons received France, attack upon the liberties, privileges and customs of the Gallican church, and every undertaking or any proceeding which in the exercise of worship can compromise the honor of the citizens, disturb arbitrarily their consciences, or degenerate into oppression or injury against them or into public scandal.

. . .

Of the Ministers.

General provisions.

9. Catholic worship shall be carried on under the direction of the archbishops and bishops in their dioceses, and under that of the curés in their parishes.
10. Every privilege involving exemption from or attribution of the episcopal jurisdiction is abolished.
11. The archbishops and bishops shall be able, with the authorization of the government, to establish cathedral chapters and seminaries in their dioceses. All other ecclesiastical establishments are suppressed.
12. The archbishops and bishops shall be free to add to their name the title of Citisen or that of Monsieur. All other designations are forbidden.
    Source: “Documents upon Napoleon and the Reorganization of Religion” in The constitutions and other select documents illustrative of the history of France, 1789-1907, by Frank Maloy Anderson, (Minneapolis, The H. W. Wilson company), 1908, pp. 296-300. Available via Hathi Trust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008369974

Law for Re-establishing Slavery in the French Colonies

May 20, 1802

1. In the colonies returned to France, in fulfillment of the treaty of Amiens of 6 Germinal, Year X, slavery shall be maintained in conformity with the laws and regulations in force prior to 1789.

2. The same shall be done in the other French colonies, beyond the Cape of Good Hope.

3. The trade in the blacks and their importation into the said colonies shall take place in confomity with the laws and regulations existing prior to the said date of 1789.

4. Notwithstanding all previous laws, the government of the colonies is subject for ten years to the regulations which shall be made by the government.

Additional Resources

“David, The Emperor Napoleon in His Study in the Tuileries,” by Dr. Bryan Zygmont, in Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/david-the-emperor-napoleon-in-his-study-in-the-tulieries/

“Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps” by Ben Pollitt, in Smarthistory,  https://smarthistory.org/jacques-louis-david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps/

“Self Made Myth” at Napoleon The Man and the Myth, PBS, https://www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/n_myth/self/page_1.html