864. BONAPARTE (N.), A Great Scoundrel.—
Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. In civil life, a cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled
usurper, without a virtue; no
statesman, knowing nothing of commerce,
political economy, or civil government, and
supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I
had supposed him a great man until his entrance
into the Assembly des cinq cens,
eighteen Brumaire (an. 8.) From that date,
however, I set him down as a great scoundrel
only.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 352.
Ford ed., ix, 461.
(M.
July. 1814)
