893. BONAPARTE (N.), Sufferings of.—
O'Meara's Bonaparte makes us forget his
atrocities for a moment, in commiseration of
his sufferings. I will not say that the authorities
of the world, charged with the care of
their country and people, had not a right to
confine him for life, as a lion or a tiger, on
the principle of self-preservation. There was
no safety to nations while he was permitted
to roam at large. But the putting him to
death in cold blood, by lingering tortures of
mind, by vexations, insults, and deprivations,
was a degree of inhumanity to which the
poisonings and assassinations of the school of
Borgia and the den of Marat never attained.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vii, 275.
(M.
1823)
