The Flip Side

It’s really all in how you look at something, isn’t it?

For most of history, Napoleon Bonaparte is on the “bad” side of the ledger. He lost, of course, so he didn’t get to write that history.

I have always been intrigued by the way the United States didn’t seem to have the animosity towards Imperial France that other nations – admittedly many of which he invaded – seemed to have towards France. In fact, the US went to war against Britain in the middle of the whole thing, but never outright allied ourselves with Napoleon.

Anyway, most of history holds Bonaparte in contempt. But there was a time, November 9, 1799, to be exact, that his new regime stopped a war with the US, and was seen in an uncomfortable positive light…