The Post recently panned Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” starring Joaquin Phoenix as a “looney song” — an opinion largely unchanged from Post founder Alexander Hamilton’s assessment of the French leader 200 years ago.
The oldest continuously operating daily newspaper was established in the fall of 1801.
The violence and anarchy of the French Revolution was mostly over and Napoleon ruled France as first consul.
Alexander Hamilton and his Post successors were unequivocal in their distaste for the petty de-facto dictator:
“A Corsican has usurped the throne [France]. Twenty-four millions are made to submit to the will of obscure strangers,” the newspaper wrote in December 1803, a year before Hamilton’s death.
“Suicide has become a common thing. Murder is considered entertainment. Divorces happen every day,” the paper added in a chilling description of his misconduct. “Fathers have poisoned their children, wives have killed their husbands. Children have become parricides. Prostitutes are registered in the public records … Such is the current state of France that flourished in the past.”
Napoleon and his allies had abandoned the principle of liberty and instead “planted the poisonous tree of despotism,” wrote The Post. Getty Images
Napoleon and his allies had abandoned the principle of liberty and instead “planted the poisonous tree of despotism,” wrote The Post.
After treading carefully in 1802, The Post’s reporting began to change as the French government prepared to invade England.
The coverage became very negative after he was crowned emperor in late 1804 and his army spread across Europe.
Napoleon Bonaparte ruled France as Emperor from 1804 to 1814. Universal Pictures Group via Getty Images
“Napoleon’s touch is death,” The Post warned in July 1808. “When his arms can reach us . . . It is madness to hope that a tyrant who has not only usurped the government of an overthrown republic but has destroyed every republic on earth, except our own, will save the United States.”
Over the years, the paper unabashedly bestowed a number of colorful sobriquets on the conqueror, including “the devil,” “the tyrant of Europe,” “the great bandit,” and “the great destroyer,” while his army was “like beasts of prey, devouring and destroy everything that is before them.”
By 1810, Napoleon was at the height of his power and had imposed brutal trade restrictions on the countries he occupied.
How did Alexander Hamilton and Napoleon stack up against each other?
The Post offers a scathing critique — leaning on its Federalist free-market bonafides:
“The people will fight if necessary, but they will no longer submit to be tied by the neck and heel and kicked and handcuffed by friends like Napoleon Bonaparte,” the newspaper thundered. “They will not submit to the orders of foreign tyrants. They despised the threat of Napoleon the First as much as they despised the threat of George the Third.”
Napoleon had committed “an unheard of series of frauds and perfidy, cruelties and crimes. The atrocities committed by a Nero. . . will weep, and the crimes he committed, even Caligula’s soul will recoil,” the newspaper wrote in August 1810.
Actor Joaquin Phoenix portrays Napoleon in a new biopic about the French emperor. KEVIN BAKER
The Post’s coverage of the Battle of Waterloo came on August 2, 1815:
“IMPORTANT” became the headline in all capital letters bringing news of the tyrant’s defeat. “The enemy fled in confusion leaving 150 cannon, with their shells, which fell into the hands of the Allies.”
The Post also carried a first-hand account of the battle, titled “Bonaparte’s Defeat,” from the Duke of Wellington, who led the victorious British forces.
The New York Post warned in 1810 that Americans would be ready to fight Napoleon if necessary. New York Post The Post republished news of Napoleon’s retreat by the London Gazette-Extraordinary. New York Post The Post reports Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo. New York Post
Lord Andrew Roberts, the author of a major new biography of Napoleon, said US domestic politics and Hamilton’s fierce rivalry with Thomas Jefferson may have fueled the then-wide fire against the Frenchman.
“Jefferson — who was our second ambassador after Franklin — was considered very, very pro-French,” Roberts said.
Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, never met Napoleon and was killed in a duel by then-Vice President Aaron Burr in Weehawken, NJ, in July 1804.
Napoleon died in Saint Helena in 1821. It was on the front page of the New York Post. Getty Images
In a curious twist of fate, Hamilton had dinner with Napoleon’s playboy brother Jerome in 1804, according to his personal letters.
Sitting in Hamilton’s home – in the Manhattan neighborhood now known as Hamilton Heights – just weeks before the founding father’s defining meeting with Burr.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
