"The man who, amid the decadence of modern ages, first dared
believe that he could inspire degenerate nations with courage to
rise to the level of republican virtues, lived for all nations and
for all centuries; and this nation, which first saw in the life
and success of that illustrious man a foreboding of its destiny,
and therein recognized a future to be realized and duties to be
performed, has every right to class him as a fellow-citizen. I
therefore submit to the First Consul the following decree:--
"Bonaparte, First Consul of the republic, decrees as follows:--
"Article 1. A statue is to be erected to General Washington.
"Article 2. This statue is to be placed in one of the squares of
Paris, to be chosen by the minister of the interior, and it shall
be his duty to execute the present decree."]

About the same time, if tradition may be trusted, the flags upon the
conquering Channel fleet of England were lowered to half-mast in token
of grief for the same event which had caused the armies of France to
wear the customary badges of mourning.

If some "traveler from an antique land" had observed these
manifestations, he would have wondered much whose memory it was that
had called them forth from these two great nations, then struggling
fiercely with each other for supremacy on land and sea. His wonder
would not have abated had he been told that the man for whom they
mourned had wrested an empire from one, and at the time of his death
was arming his countrymen against the other.

These signal honors were paid by England and France to a simple
Virginian gentleman who had never left his own country, and who when
he died held no other office than the titular command of a provisional