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joachimnapoleon · 4 years ago

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Why did Murat and Eugène hate each other? I didn't even know that they did until the recent posts.

This was actually the subject of a discussion I had recently with a friend of mine whose interest in Eugène is on par with my interest in Murat; and even though I haven't studied Eugène in great depth yet myself, we ended up drawing some pretty similar conclusions/opinions about their relationship based on what we knew about each of them. And we both agreed that "hatred" is probably too strong a word to describe their feelings about each other. I would say that Murat's feelings about Eugène were essentially a dislike borne out of envy. Eugène's feelings about Murat are a bit harder to precisely pin down. During the earlier years of their relationship--after he becomes aware of Murat's dislike for him--it strikes me as the sort of bewildered, defensive dislike you might develop for someone whom you've discovered dislikes you, without you fully understanding what you've done to merit their dislike. Later in their relationship, I think it evolves into a certain amount of contempt on Eugène's part, especially after the way Murat hastily leaves the army in January 1813 and then all the ensuing political drama and Murat's not-so-subtle negotiations with Austria throughout most of the rest of the year.

There's no indication I've come across of any immediate dislike between the two of them. I can't be sure when exactly the two of them met, but at the very least they would've been around each other in Egypt when teenage Eugène was serving as one of Napoleon's aides-de-camp. Their relationship doesn't seem to have taken a bad turn until the early 1800s. After Murat marries Caroline and becomes tied to the Bonaparte family, both he and Caroline (and the other Bonaparte siblings) grow increasingly resentful over the favor being shown towards Josephine's children by Napoleon. Here's an excerpt on the subject from Hortense's memoirs:

The Emperor, although he did not mean to do so, had done everything possible to inflame the jealousy his family felt toward us. He had for a long time treated me with special favor, because as he desired to adopt the son he wished the mother to be especially respected. How many times Caroline came and said to me: "I entertain the same way you do; I always act as you do, because I come and ask in advance how you are going to act; and yet the Emperor always holds you up to me as an example as though you were the only person who knows how to behave. Then too he is all the time saying to Murat and his [Napoleon's] brothers, ‘Look at Eugène.' How can he expect harmony to reign among us?"

Hortense writes also that "Murat would not suffer a younger man to take precedence at court over him. He broke his sword on hearing the news that the Emperor had adopted my brother."

The formal adoption of Eugène by Napoleon took place in January of 1806. Six months prior to that came something that had infuriated Murat just as much: Napoleon naming Eugène Viceroy of Italy. In the aftermath of learning of this, Murat sulked, and dragged his heels when it came to writing to congratulate Eugène on his new title. The exchange between them is a comical read. Murat claims he assumed a letter he'd written back in April--two months before Eugène's promotion to Viceroy--would somehow suffice to express his goodwill towards Eugène, and that he didn't feel he was obligated to write a new one since he'd learned of Eugène's promotion via the gazettes and not directly from Eugène himself. Murat writes that his feelings are hurt. Eugène replies that his feelings were hurt by Murat's silence and that, even if he'd learned of Murat getting a nice promotion through the newspapers himself, he would've still hurried to write to congratulate Murat. (The letters are posted at the end in their entirety for your reading pleasure.)

Murat's dynamic with Eugène is... not what you might expect, given that there was a fourteen-year age difference. And that, in my opinion (and my friend who studies Eugène concurs with me on this), has a hell of a lot to do not only with the personalities of each one, but also with each of their relationships with Napoleon. Eugène, of course, lost his his father during the Reign of Terror, when he was still a child. Throughout his life, when he gains an attachment to an older man, he tends to look to that older man as a father figure--from Hoche to Napoleon to his father-in-law King Maximillian of Bavaria., and even Marshal MacDonald. Ney, who was particularly close to him, names one of his own sons after Eugène. Eugène's biographer Kerautret concludes that Eugène spent most of his life as the eternal "fils," or as my friend sums it up, "The boy. Always looking for a father figure (and inspiring in most men the immediate urge to go all paternal over him), always searching for someone to look up to, to dedicate himself to, for someone whose appreciation he wants to win and to whom he wants to prove his worth." Eugène does not have this dynamic with Murat, and Murat, who was as paternal a figure as it gets, does not seem to have exhibited the slightest desire to have this sort of relationship with Eugène. Their relationship comes across more like a sibling rivalry than anything, even in spite of the large age difference. Maximillian even remarked to his son Ludwig at one point in 1810 that "The Viceroy and the King of Naples cannot suffer each other... but when together they tutoyer each other and to see them together one would think them the best of friends." Basically there had to be a hell of a lot of disingenuousness going on in their relationship, especially by 1810, since it was supposedly Eugène who had intercepted and forwarded letters to Napoleon implicating Murat in the Talleyrand/Fouché scheme to make Murat Napoleon's successor in the event that the Emperor died without an heir.

Now, as for how their mutual relationship to Napoleon related to their own relationship. Obviously Eugène looked at Napoleon as a father figure. But I've personally come to believe that, at least to some extent, Murat did too--Murat's being two years older than Napoleon notwithstanding. In numerous letters to Napoleon he refers to himself as "your pupil" and "your child"; in an anguished letter in 1810 he refers to Napoleon having "cherished" him "like a father, like my benefactor." And Napoleon very much tended to view himself as a father-figure over his subordinates. I can't help but look at Murat's relationship with Napoleon and think that Murat came to view Eugène as a sort of usurper in a way, as he grew closer to Napoleon and Napoleon heaped more favors and affection on him (and especially as Murat's relationship with Napoleon, by contrast, grew increasingly worse over the years, especially from 1809 on). So I think a certain amount of Murat's dislike for Eugène--most of it, in fact--was from this feeling of having been spurned by the man he revered, for a younger man whom Murat simply didn't feel deserved these proofs of trust and affection more than he did.

By the 1812 campaign Eugène was aware enough of Murat's dislike for him that he practically begs Napoleon to let him return to Italy rather than be placed under Murat's direct command. This is after Napoleon gives the command of the army to Murat because he knows perfectly well that Murat absolutely, beyond a shadow of doubt would've pulled a Jérôme and taken his ball and gone home if he had been placed under Eugène's command. Napoleon prevails upon Eugène to stick around, which was good in the long run, because Murat was not the man to handle a disintegrating army at the end of a disastrous campaign when he was already in a state of total demoralization anyway.

So yeah, by the time Murat's negotiations with Austria began in 1813, and he found himself corresponding back and forth with Eugène and, by early 1814, having to take the field against him after his defection, their relationship had long since deteriorated, and Murat's defection undoubtedly further reduced his standing in Eugène's eyes. That being said, Eugène was not completely without sympathy. In response to an agonized letter from Murat in early February, as Murat was staring the prospect of taking up arms against his country in the face, Eugène wrote the following reply:

I perceived by Your Majesty's letter, and especially by the few words added in your own writing, how much distressed you are by the situation in which you find yourself. These conflicts which arise in your heart do not astonish me; they filled me rather with a feeling of deep tenderness in reading them. It is impossible, in fact, that Your Majesty could contemplate without sadness the thought of seeing Frenchmen enemies to Frenchmen, who have always considered themselves honoured in counting them as fellow-citizens! I pray Your Majesty to listen to the promptings of your heart, and to reject the counsel which will result in nothing but bitter regrets for you. The Emperor has left Paris. In a few days the time of danger, or at least uncertainty, will be passed, and Your Majesty will find politics accord with the sentiments of your heart. [4 February 1814]

Unfortunately Murat's new allies did end up strong-arming him into taking the field against Eugène, and the rest is history. If Eugène left behind any remarks regarding Murat's tragic end, I have yet to come across it; nor has my friend who has spent a great deal more time going through his correspondence. It's a shame Eugène didn't leave behind any memoirs, which might have given us a better idea of his feelings regarding Murat. I've tried to piece it together as best as I can from what I know so far.

Thanks for the ask!

(Here are the full letters between Murat and Eugène that I mentioned above. These are from Volume 3 of Lettres et documents pour servir l’histoire de Joachim Murat)

***

Murat to Eugène 17 July 1805

To H.I.H. the Prince Eugène, Viceroy of Italy

I have been informed, my dear Prince, that you have deigned to notice that I was a bit late in responding to the letter that you'd done me the honor of writing me upon my nomination to the dignity of Grand Admiral. May it be permitted to me to tell Y(our) S(erene) H(ighness) that I had thought myself able to dispense with replying to it, being able to take your letter myself for an answer to that which I had the honor to write to you through Madame Ruga. It contained sincere compliments on your promotion to the dignity of Arch-Chancellor of State, and recommendations for that beauty; purely a formal recommendation, would a pretty woman ever have need of one with you?

I sincerely applauded the choice that H(is) M(ajesty) made of Y(our) H(ighness) for Viceroy of Italy; I did not speak of it to you, having only learned about it through the gazettes. I had thought that the unequivocal feelings that I have always manifested for you, would have earned me a communication of this memorable circumstance of your career. Your silence has affected me, I was sensitive to such a reserve, and I must be sure of finding this Eugène good and sensitive, to determine myself to complain to him about himself.

Now, my dear Prince, I pray you to receive my congratulations; they are sincere since I am addressing them to you. Make the attractive country that you have been called to govern happy, I will always applaud your success and its happiness.

I pray Y(our) S(erene) H(ighness) to accept the assurance of my high consideration and my attachment.

***

Eugène to Murat Milan, 28 July 1805

If Your Serene Highness was told that I had complained about the silence he had kept with me on the occasion of the new testimony of tenderness and kindness that I received from His Majesty, he was deceived. If I would have complained, it would be to Your Serene Highness himself that I would have addressed my complaints.

But if Your Highness was told that I was afflicted by his silence, he was told the truth. I admit to you, in this circumstance where I received from all parts congratulations that no letter of mine had provoked, it pained me to not find your name in the midst of all those who renewed to me their testimonies and expressions of attachment.

You thought I should have informed you of His Majesty's act myself... I thank you for explaining to me the reason of your reserve. I have no right to complain, but deep down does Your Highness think that if all the favors he deserved, and which I wish for him, were to arrive for him, it would not suffice for me to have learned of them from the Journal officiel, to hasten to tell him how happy I was for him?

If Your Highness does not share my opinion in this regard, I hope at least that he will find in the frankess with which I expose it, further proof of the importance I attach to having no injury towards him.

Now that I have said all that I have believed necessary to my justification, receive, I pray you, all my thanks for the new expressions of friendship that I find with so much pleasure in your last letter. Your Serene Highness will do me the justice of believing that I respond to the sincerity of his sentiments by all the sincerity of mine.

Will H(er) I(imperial) H(ighness) the Princess Caroline kindly receive my respectful homage the the assurance of my distinguished sentiments?

--Prince Eugène

***

#asks #Joachim Murat #Eugène de Beauharnais #Napoleon #Napoleon Bonaparte #Hortense de Beauharnais #Caroline Murat #Caroline Bonaparte

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armagnac-army · 6 months ago

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JUST BECAUSE YOU CANT KEEP YOUR AFFAIRS SECRET DOESNT MAKE YOU MORE DESIRABLE!!

BUT IT DOESNT MATTER IF HE DOESNT CHOOSE ME

WHAT MATTRERS IS THAT YOU CANT HAVE HIM!!!

Ive tolerated your conneriá long enough but youre fucking insane and a clear danger to my emperor!!!!

FUCK OFF AWAY FROM HIM YOU BURGUNDY BRAT

MACARÉL DE MACAÉREL YOU ARE SUCH AN ANNOYING MERDÓS WHO DESEEVES TO BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OSCEAN WITH UOUR FU KING OYSTERS

AND NOBODY THINKS YOUR QUIRKINESS IS CUTE

— The Duke of Montebello, @armagnac-army

……Lannes? Mon ami?

I love you, but if you’re going to be aggressive then so will I:

You seriously think that Napoleon, a man who values beautiful handwriting like mine, would even think about you with your caps lock and numerous spelling mistakes? You seriously think he would choose a gawky Gascon like you over a refined gentleman such as myself? Be honest to yourself, bitch. And as to “nobody thinking” my “quirkiness is cute”… Why don’t we compare how many mistresses we each managed to pull? How about that?

Au revoir you nasty backstabbing bitch.

#dispatches from the marshal #letters intercepted for the marshal's eyes #general-junot #event: lovesick yandere

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ikkaku-of-heart · 4 years ago

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A letter in a yellow envelope. "Dear Iku, I don't know if you'll ever receive this on your ship, this is already a risk to write this letter under my commander's eyes. Not that I want you to escape my handcuffs, but please don't sail too close from Red Line for a few days. My big big boss in flower shirt is patrolling. Wait am I a traitor telling you this? No, no, it's just a few casual news. I'm having pudding watching the sea. You like pudding? Take care, Iku. And Until next time."

Ikkaku had been pleasantly surprised when Penguin handed her the letter, and even moreso when she read its contents. Mika really had taken a huge risk writing this - part of her wondered if he was trying to get court marshaled. She hoped not, as she found herself enjoying their interactions more and more every time they crossed paths.

Worrying her lip, she considered her options. She wanted to write back to him, but what if it got intercepted? He could get into so much trouble for it. But staying silent was rude and how could she pass up the chance to continue their flirtatious banter?

Getting an idea, she flounced into Law’s office, ignoring his glare as she rifled through his desk, finding some of the official stationary he’d swiped from the last Marine base they’d infiltrated.

Plopping down in the comfy leather chair and grabbing a pen, she started to write.

Dear Mika, I hope you’re doing well, and I appreciate the risk you took sending that letter. Don’t worry, I’m sure someday you’ll achieve your dream of putting me in handcuffs, but as our helmsman and navigator have been informed to take a detour and avoid the Red Line for a bit (who could have done that?), it won’t be anytime soon. Maybe we’ll head somewhere with decent shopping and I’ll get myself a new pair of bracelets. You know, since my wrists are so tragically bare.

I hope you’re enjoying your pudding. I highly doubt you’re a traitor - after all, it’s a well-known fact that traitors don’t eat pudding. In fact, maybe I’ll have some after lunch today. Unfortunately, it sounds like you got the better view; mine is currently a very grumpy captain who’s mad I’ve taken over his desk. He just doesn’t understand the joy of having a pen pal.

Take care, Sugar. Ikkaku

#curseofabel #The Engine is the Heart of the Ship (canon)

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armagnac-army · 2 months ago

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well that’s a lot of things

bonjour Lalgesiras! glad to see your on our side though its still fuckin weird to talk to an entire boat but this place is weird! you do look a lot better than that asshole bucentaure and thats saying something!

As for you buddy magon no wonder you look être mouillé jusqu'aux os! Can i stick my fingers in there and get a fish eh?!

i dont usually look all cracked up like this but some shit went down recently. But yeah like you im not as i was. usually i got some magic shit covering up all the stone and cracks making me look normal. i can requisition some of that for you if you want.

Lannes is clearly trying to play off his appearance like something unimportant.

Anyway

im one of the commanders of the army of the beyond. absolutely sucks that i cant be free of this fighting shit but it is what im good at. were trying to defend this corner of the afterlife against those who want to consign it all to oblivion.

That punk Villeneuve showed up with his boat near one of my outposts. we were tryin to get him to help us out but hes hesitatin and i dont know what the deal is with him but he looks real fucked up! And he really pissed me off and I really pissed him off so that went nowhere fast.

What were looking for is ships to bear our army into the Néant- the nothingness where our enemies are hiding. Now we aint ready for that yet but i do have to ask - do you think your ship can do that?

also your kid being with davout is absolutely hilarious since you two really didnt get along ha!

MON AMI MAGON! HOW ARE YOU DOING BUDDY? ITS LANNES HERE though i dont know where louise and the kids are

GLAD TO SEE AN ACTUAL FIGHTING ADMIRAL AROUND! we both died in war tho i got artilleried in the legs, got them lopped off by @trauma-and-truffles then got septic and fuckin died while high as a balloon

would love to chat over drinks and shit but unfortunately i cant retire even in death

might get in contact with you about ships and shit after things settle down!

Mon cher Lannes! How are you!! I do not know where Sophie and my children are either, (nor my first wife, Renee, but who the hell cares about HER) - I did hear that Charli d'Houdetot (Constance convinced Cesar to adopt him I guess) is with DAVOUT of all people!!

Oh oh my... such is war - yours was a far worse fate than mine. I was injured in the arm and leg with splinters, and was pretty out of it by the time young Charli convinced me to quit the deck and then BAM out like a light. Guess it was right square in the chest. Such is war, mon ami, such is war.

But enough of the past, how goes it now? Can't retire? Why do you look all... cracked? ((he gestures and it's a rather... fluid motion. Magon kind of shimmers, like sunlight on the waves as they hit the beach, there's a semi-translucent quality about him, and his sash seems to be made of a large piece of kelp))

As you can see, I too, am consigned to be forever at sea, but if I ever DO find a port worth of my dear ship's particular preference, I shall lay to and yes, we must meet again.

What is this I hear of Villeneuve being merged with Le Bucentaure?

L'Algesiras: SȺłᵾŧ Ⱥnđ ɍɇsᵽɇȼŧ Ɏøᵾɍ Ɇxȼɇłłɇnȼɏ! Ŧħɇ Ⱥ��mɨɍȺł ɨs ȼøɍɍɇȼŧ; ønȼɇ Ɨ fɨnđ Ⱥ ᵽøɍŧ sᵾɨŧȺƀłɇ føɍ mɏ nɇɇđs Ɨ sħȺłł sɇnđ ħɨm Ⱥsħøɍɇ ŧø ᵽȺɍłɇƶ wɨŧħ ɏøᵾ. Wɇ Ⱥɍɇ łøøꝁɨnǥ føɍwȺɍđ ŧø Ⱥ ǥøøđ ƀȺŧŧłɇ; ɨŧ ħȺs ƀɇɇn ŧøø łønǥ sɨnȼɇ wɇ ħȺvɇ ŧȺsŧɇđ ŧħɇ smøꝁɇ Ⱥnđ ɨɍøn.. Ⱥnđ wɇ ŧħɨɍsŧ føɍ ɨŧ ɏɇŧ ȺǥȺɨn!! Wɇ Ⱥɍɇ Ⱥŧ ɏøᵾɍ sɇɍvɨȼɇ Ɇxȼɇłłɇnȼɏ!!

Ah, as you can see, Jean, my vessel is sentient... this is a new development. ((The ship, an 80 gun Temeraire vessel, built in 1804, looks waterlogged, her rigging and spars decorated with seaweed, her sails seemingly tattered and stitched together, as if the sailcloth was used once for shrouds and then repurposed for its original use. The canvas is stained, both with algae and blood, and an odd, dark maroon stain graces the quarterdeck, which no amount of holystoning will erase. The Admiral's gallery is intact, but the windows are shattered, hanging off of their frames, and the lantern gutters and glows with an unearthly light of St. Elmo's fire.))

#dispatches from the marshal #letters intercepted for the marshal's eyes #pondicherry-pie

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armagnac-army · 3 months ago

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Are these lambs yours? They wandered off.

wriggle wriggle

#usergreenpixel #dispatches from the marshal #letters intercepted for the marshal's eyes #event: trapped inside a sheep bag

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bookofjin · 7 years ago

Text

Records of Lü Guang, Part 2

[From JS122]

Qiangui's cousin Kedan came in flight. Guang sent down a document saying:

Qiangui is a wolf cub with a wild heart, from beginning to end turning around and tipping over. We have just to the east purified Qin and Zhao, directing to inscribe at Kuaji. Why make an upright son a standing owl south of the Gan? [?] Moreover his brothers inside leave each other [?], can be the moment of opportune, most not exceed the present. Thus counsel centre and outside to admonish sternly, We undertake to personally punish.

Guang hence stayed at Changzui, and sent Lü Zuan leading Yang Gui, Dou Ji and others leading 30 000 infantry and cavalry to attack Jincheng. Qiangui lead a multitude of 20 000 to rescue it. Guang dispatched his generals Wang Bao and Xu Jiong leading 5 000 cavalry to intercept him. Qiangui was afraid, and did not advance.

Guang also dispatched his generals Liang Gong and Jinshi Sheng [?] to use 10 000 to set out beneath Yangwu Gorge. They and the Inspector of Qin province Meiyi Yu attacked to his east. Guang's younger brother, the Duke of Tianshui, Yan, used the multitudes of Fuhan to attack Lintao, Wushi and Heguan, capturing all of them. Lü Zuan overcame Jincheng, and captured Qiangui's Grand Warden of Jincheng, Wei Jian. Jian with glaring [?] eyes spoke to Guang, saying:

I would rather defend credentials with a cut off head than be a surrendered recreant.

Guang [saw his] righteousness and spared him. Qiangui because of that was greatly shaken, and with a weeping sigh said:

Among the dead seeking to live, proper to be today. [?]

He then let loose double agents, claiming that Qiangui's multitudes had dispersed, and that he had fled east to Chengji. Lü Yan trusted them, pulled out the host and advanced carelessly. Yan's Marshal, Geng Zhi, remonstrated, saying:

Qiangui is heroic and brave beyond ordinary people, his powerful plans are difficult to estimate. He routed Wang Guang and overcame Yang Ding, always with a weak host to thereby entice them. Although [his is] a petty and small state, it likewise is not possible to make light of it. A surrounded beast is likely to fight, furthermore is not Qiangui yet looking to the wind and scattering himself! Moreover to make announcements of observing the exalted and appearing to act, surely this is a a treacherous plan. Yet now if we are in proper sections and columns, then go forward, infantry and cavalry connected to each other, calmly waiting for the various armies to greatly assemble, then it is possible in a single stretch to wipe him out.

Yan did not follow. He and Qiangui met each other, he was defeated in battle and died there. Geng Zhi and General Jiang Xiang gathered and assembled the scattered soldiers and garrisoned at Fuhan. Guang returned to Guzang.

Guang was unconstrained and senile, and trusted slander. He killed the Master of Writing Juqu Luochou and the Grand Warden of Sanhe, Juqu Quzhou. Luochou's younger brother's son Mengxun rebelled against Guang, and killed the Army-Protector of Zhongtian [?], Ma Sui, attacked and captured Linsong commandery, and garrisoned the troops at Mount Jin. He greatly was a worry for the hundred families.

Mengxun's senior cousin Nancheng had earlier become General, defending Jincheng. He heard Mengxu had risen with troops, and absconded and fled to count on the recreants. He incited the various Yi, the multitude reaching several thousands, and advanced to attack Fulu and Jian'an. The General who Soothes the Rong, Zhao Ce, struck and defeated him. Nancheng withdrew to garrison Leguan.

Lü Zuan defeated Mengxun at Hu Valley. The Grand Warden of Jiuquan, Lei Cheng, led Generals Zhao Ce and Zhao Ling with more than 10 000 infantry and cavalry to punish Nancheng. They were defeated in battle and Cheng and Ce died there. Nancheng advanced to attack Jiankang, and advised the Grand Warden, Duan Ye, saying:

The Lü clan's government is in decline, powerful subjects monopolize instructions, laws and regulations have lost the middle ground, people are not capable of serving. In the land of single province, there are rebellions in connected cities, with a tendency to shattering the tiles, brightly being seen [?], the hundred families clamouring, without ancestral adherence. Office Lord, how can [you] consider covering the talents of the generation, and establish loyalty to a generation on a limb for destruction!

Nancheng and others already sing [your] great righteousness, and wis rather for the Office Lord to console and preside over the border province, making the remainder of smearing charcoal cover the kindness of coming habitually [?].

Ye did not follow. They grasped each other from two sides for 20 days, and yet outside help did not arrive. Gao Gui and Shi Hui and others, natives of the commandery, spoke to Ye, saying:

Now this orphaned city stands alone, the palace is not relieving or aiding. Office Lord, though [your] hearts exceeds Tian Dan, the city is not Jimo. We ought to consider lofty calculations, moving calamity to become a blessing.

Ye had earlier not been level with Guang's Palace Attendant Fang Gui and the Supervisor Wang Xiang. He worried about not facing himself [?], and therefore allowed it. Nancheng and others pushed forward Ye as Great Commander-in-Chief, Great General who Gallops like a Dragon, Shepherd of Liang province and Duke of Jiankang. Guang instructed Lü Zuan to punish Ye. Juqu Mengxun advanced to garrison Lintao and was expressing power for Ye. They fought at Heli, Zuan's host was greatly defeated.

Guang's Cavalier in Regular Attendance and Grand Master of Ceremonies, Guo Nun was enlightened in astronomy, and good at divining the sky. He spoke to Wang Xiang, saying:

In astronomy, the allocated field of Liang is about to have great troops. [Our] master and sovereign is old and ill, the Heir-Apparent is unassuming and unnoticed, Zuan others are lethal and martial, in a single morning it will not be hidden, there will surely be difficulties arising. Since us two persons for a long time have resided within the core, and regularly have not spoken good of them, [I] fear calamity will reach the persons. [We] deeply ought to be worried about it.

The King of Tianhu, Qiqiji's [?] section multitudes are exceedingly strong, of the people of the two parks, many are from his former multitudes. If we now with the righteousness of public song, push forward Ji as ruler, then the multitudes of the two parks exhaustively will be ours. After overcoming the city, we slowly further plot against him.

Xiang considered it doable. At night they burnt Guang's Hongfan Gate, the multitudes of the two parks all adhering to them, and Xiang making the interior obey. The affair got out, and Guang executed him. Nun thereupon took possession of the Eastern Park to accordingly rebel. Guang hurried to send a summons to Zuan. The various generals urged Zuan, saying:

When Ye hears the host has turned around, he will surely follow in the army's rear. Suppose the host secretly return in the night, the masses will be without worries for the rear.

Zuan said:

Ye, though relying on the city to obstruct the masses, is without talent for manly plans. Suppose we return in the night, we will trap his treacherous aspirations.

He therefore dispatched envoys to inform Ye, saying:

Guo Nun is making chaos, I am now returnign to the capital. If Sir is able to decide, he can set out and fight.

And so he pulled out and returned. Ye did not dare to set out. Zuan's Marshal Yang Tong spoke to his senior cousin Huan, saying:

Guo Nun is enlightened and good in astronomy, raising troops he accepts possession accordingly [?]. Outside of the Imperial City, nothing again is possessed by the imperial court. Zuan now return to the capital, how can he again make repairs!

Tong requests to remove Zuan, direct troops to push forward elder brother as Master of the Covenant, to the west attack Lü Honh and, occupy Zhangye to thereby call out orders to the various commanderies, likewise a thousand years in a single season.

Huan angrily said:

I have heard in the affairs a lord's person of the subject and son [?],l there is neglect without the two. I [“We”?] originally had the model of Baoxu being of help [?]. How can we calmly glorify in his emoluments, with chaos adding to his difficulties! Suppose the Lü lineage is defeated, I will be vast and spread out [?].

Tong was afraid. When they arrived at Fanhe, he thereupon fled to Guo Nun. Nun dispatched an army to meet Zuan at Baishi. Zuan was greatly defeated. Guang's Grand Warden of Xi'an, Shi Yuanliang, led 5 000 infantry and cavalry to hurry to the difficulties. He and Zuan struck Nun's army together and routed it. Thereupon they entered Guzang.

At Nun's rebellion, he obtained 8 of Guang's grandson in the Eastern Park. When his army was defeated, his anger was considerable, he altogether threw them on top of spear points and blades, their limbs cut off and their joints disjointed, drinking the blood to swear to the multitudes. The multitudes all shut their eyes, and could not bear to look at it. Nun leisured himself as such [?].

[Nun?] pushed forward the General of the Rear, Yang Gui as Master of the Covenant. Gui titled himself Great General, Shepherd of Liang province and Duke of Xiping. Lü Zuan struck Nun's general Wang Fei west of the city, greatly routing him. After this, Nun's power gradually declined. Guang bequeathed to Yang Gui a letter saying:

Since the Qiang and Hu are not peaceful, Guo Nun a rebellious traitor, the southern hinterlands are not calm, a voice asking to cut in two [?]. Hearsay from travellers, speak of Sir embracing pressuring the hundred families, and being the lips and teeth of Nun.

Sir is elegant, determined, loyal and virtuous, has the fidelity of Clerk Yu, perceiving and examining success and defeat, far reaching in the same way as the ancients. How could you listen to and accept treachery, thereby damaging the great beauty! The frost on the hill does not wither the pines and cypresses, the approaching difficulties do not move the lord's sons. Why plan for the pines and cypresses to wither in a little frost when the chickens cry already at the rain in the air!

Guo Nun is a shaman divining small numbers. At the time someone made a mistake in the middle, the great principles of the examinations, leading many with hollow errors. We are administering and reforming a solitary region, the marshes do not reach the distance [?], presenting the affairs of the generation in disorder and confusion, a hundred cities departing in rebellion. Uniting our strength as a single heart, together aiding the great sea, [We?] look for it from Sir [?].

Now the accumulate millet within the granaries are several billions. A single of the fighting soldiers of the eastern people undertake more than a hundred. If entering, he smiles soft and soothing, if setting out he martially strolls Liang province. He swallows Nun and chews Ye, unruffled having spare time remaining.

Although [We] and Sir appear even as lord and subject, in our hearts it goes beyond father and son. [We] desire to maintain Sir's fame and moderation, not sending to bequeath smiles about to come [?].

Gui did not reply, but led 20 000 infantry and cavalry to hurry north to Guo Nun. When he arrived at Guzang, he walled up to the north of the city. Gui, due to the abundance of soldiers and horses, discussed his desire to greatly decide success or defeat. Nun always used astronomy to discipline him. Lü Hong was pressured by Duan Ye, and Guang dispatched Lü Zuan to receive him. Gui planned with the multitudes, saying:

Lü Hong's spirited troops are 10 000. Suppose he and Guang combine, then the enemy will be strong and us weak. [If we] rearing the beast and do not punishing, it is about to be a later worry.

Thereupon he led the troops to intercept Zuan. Zuan struck and defeated him. Guo Nun heard Gui was defeated, and ran east to Wei'an, and thereupon fled to Qifu Qiangui. Yang Gui heard Nun had ran, and fled south to Lianchuan.

Guang was very ill, and established his son Shao as Heavenly King, titling himself Great Highest August Emperor. He used Lü Zuan as Grand Commandant and Lü Hong as Minister over the Masses. He spoke to Shao, saying:

My illness is only increasing, [I] fear it is about be not curable. Three robbers peep through the door, frequently waiting for the state to have cracks. I am finally considering [my] descendants, making Zuan command the Six Armies, Hong conducting court and government affairs. You respectfully do nothing yourself [?]. Delegate heavily to your two elder brothers, they will many time be of aid [?]. Suppose within you second guess each other, quarrelling rising in the solemn screen, then the alteration of Jin and Zhao dawn and evening will arrive.

He also spoke to Zuan and Hong, saying:

Yongye's talents are not in sweeping away chaos, it is just due to the principle of legal wife being commonplace, sundry residing at the inaugural head [?]. Now outside there are strong rebels, the people's hearts are not at ease. If you brothers are sewn up majestically, then bequeath it for ten thousand generations. Suppose within you plot against each other, then calamity will not turn on its heel.

Zuan and Hong wept and said:

We do not dare be disloyal.

Guang accordingly died in Emperor An's 3rd Year of Long'an [399 AD]. At the time he was 63 years old, and had been on the throne for 10 years. His bogus posthumous title was Laudable and Martial [yiwu] August Emperor, his temple title was Grand Founder [taizu], his tomb was titled Gaoling [“Lofty Mound”].

#js122 #lü guang

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newstfionline · 8 years ago

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Utah’s First Federal Surveyor Fled the Territory Fearing for His Life

By Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura, April 07, 2017

When David H. Burr, the first Surveyor General of Utah Territory, showed up in Salt Lake City in July 1855, Brigham Young, then territorial governor, was almost certain he was a spy for the federal government. “Burr has been watching for evil ever since he has been here,” Brigham Young wrote to Utah’s representative in Congress.

Young, also the spiritual leader of Utah’s Mormon settlers, did not have a high opinion of federal officers in general. He called them “dog and skunks … sent here by the authority of Government to rule over men as far above them as they are above the low and vicious animals they so faithfully represent.” But Burr posed a particular threat. He had made his name mapping states further east, but his task in Utah was a very different kind of job. He and his men were meant to parcel out the land of the territory into plots that could be sold or settled, and to the Mormon communities who already lived on some of the land, that work was a threat. Once the federal government had measured the ground beneath their feet, there was no guarantee they’d be allowed to stay.

In 1850s Utah, “no conflict created more distress than the battles over federal land surveys,” writes historian and professor emeritus at Brigham Young University, Thomas G. Alexander. For two years, Burr and his team were harassed, spied on, and accused of fraud. At the time, Burr was sending distressing reports back to Washington, warning President Buchanan that Utah’s Mormons were preparing for battle.

Just two years after they arrived, having surveyed 2.5 million acres--a small fraction of the territory--Burr and his team fled the territory in fear for their lives, and Buchanan sent in 2,500 troops to install a new governor.

Mormon settlers had first come to Utah in 1847, after the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, was killed by a mob in Illinois. Smith’s followers had settled in Illinois after the governor of Missouri, their previous home, had ordered them “exterminated.” Young, the group’s new leader, decided to move west, to the isolation and freedom of the desert. Not long after the Mormons settled by the Great Salt Lake, though, the United States took possession of the area as spoils of the Mexican-American War, and the church’s followers were once again pushed into negotiations and clashes with unsympathetic and often prejudiced American politicians.

Even though some settlers had been living in the territory for close to a decade, they had little claim to the land they occupied. The federal government still recognized, to some extent, the land claims of local tribes, but ultimately considered itself the owner of all land in Utah. Although the Utah legislature had created land-use laws and authorized county surveys, settlers were still living outside of any framework that would allow them to make legal land claims, so the Surveyor General’s work was a source of great anxiety to them.

Young and his allies weren’t wrong to be suspicious of Burr, even if they did use underhanded strategies to confirm their worries. They intercepted Burr’s mail, and found that he was sending complaints to Washington. Salt Lake City, he communicated, was larger than a town it was allowed to be under federal law. Burr also worried about the power and influence of the Mormon church.

After reading Burr’s mail, a group of territorial officials, including the acting attorney general and the territorial marshal, confronted him. He needed to stop writing these letters, they told him, and “they would always know if he did so again,” according to Alexander, the historian.

At the same time, Mormon leaders were waging their own epistolary campaign against Burr. The Surveyor-General, according to Young, “was never anything else than a snarling puppy, snapping and biting at everything that comes in his way .... swindling the Government extensively, all the surveying that has been done by his party is not worth a groat.” Though they were supposed to be marking the survey lines with permanent monuments, Young wrote, “they stick down little stakes that the wind could almost blow over … . Not a vestige of all they do will be left to mark where they have been in five years.”

If Burr and his team weren’t doing their best work, it may have been in part because of the obstruction they faced from settlers. One surveyor, Charles Mogo, had his oxen stolen, and had to go out on one job with a team of guards. They received reports that Mormons were trying to turn native tribes against them by saying that they were coming to take away the land--which was not inaccurate, even if it was not the stated purpose of the survey. In some cases, according to Burr, hostile Mormons simply removed the markers his team had set down.

Soon these tensions escalated into violence. Another of Burr’s surveyors, Joseph Troskowlawski, was beaten almost to paralysis. Sunday sermons started to mention Burr and his men by name and inveigh against them. Burr soon left and federal troops came in. The resulting conflict, the Utah War, was not exactly a show of strength by Buchanan’s government. After a two-year standoff with Young and his people, negotiations ended the conflict and brought in a new territorial government. It was a black eye for the president, who was accused of acting in haste and ignorance, or of failing to sufficiently supply the troops he had sent.

The staff Burr left behind did not fare well either. Mogo was accused of stealing horses and was almost stoned to death by a Mormon mob. An office clerk, C.G. Landon, was beaten with rocks and clubs but managed to escape. A mob found him two days later at home, in bed, nursing his wounds, and he had to jump out of a second-floor window to escape. He headed, barefoot, out of Salt Lake City and disappeared. For months no one heard from him, and he was presumed dead before he finally showed up months later in Placerville, California, hundreds of miles away.

Back in Washington, Burr tried to explain himself and even asked to return to his post after the war. But the General Land Office fired him and had his replacement, Samuel C. Stambaugh, investigate the accusations of shoddy surveying. In his report, Stambaugh was not kind. He found Burr guilty of “great remissness … in not providing proper checks upon his deputies,” and the surveys themselves faulty. All the work had to be done over. Although tensions had dissipated somewhat, the new surveyor was not much friendlier to Mormon interests than Burr had been. He recommended the federal government not sell any land until Congress could “induce other than Mormon emigration to the Territory.”

It would be another nine years before the federal government opened a land office to facilitate sale of land to settlers, well after neighboring territories. Utah didn’t then become a state until 1896, again, years after the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Even then the federal government remained suspicious of the state’s Mormon population: Utah was let into the union only on the condition that the church’s official support of polygamy be abolished.

#Utah Territory #David H. Burr #Mormons in Utah #surveyor in Utah

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investmart007 · 7 years ago

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ATMORE, Ala. | Alabama mail-bomber the oldest executed in US modern times

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/5Jjsjk

ATMORE, Ala. | Alabama mail-bomber the oldest executed in US modern times

ATMORE, Ala. | April 20, 2018 (AP)(STL.News)An Alabama man convicted of sending mail bombs during a wave of Southern terror has been executed for killing a federal judge, becoming the oldest prisoner put to death in the U.S. in modern times.

Walter Leroy Moody Jr., 83, was pronounced dead at 8:42 p.m. following an injection at the Alabama prison at Atmore. He had no last statement and did not respond when an official asked if he had any last words shortly before the chemicals began flowing.

Authorities said Moody sent out four mail bombs in December of 1989, killing Judge Robert S. Vance, a member of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Alabama; and Robert E. Robinson, a black civil rights attorney from Savannah, Georgia. Two other bombs, including one mailed to the NAACP office in Jacksonville, Florida, were intercepted and did not explode.

Moody was convicted in 1991 in federal court on dozens of bomb-related charges and sentenced to seven life terms plus 400 years.

Five years later, he was sentenced to death in state court for Vance’s murder. Alabama prosecutors described Moody as a meticulous coward who killed by mail because of his obsession with getting revenge on the legal system, and then committed additional package bombings to make it look like the killings were racially motivated.

Moody became the oldest U.S. inmate put to death since executions resumed in the U.S. in the 1970s, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center. His attorneys argued in court filings and a clemency petition to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey that his age and vein condition would make lethal injection more difficult.

The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily stayed execution plans Thursday evening to consider Moody’s late appeals, but later lifted the stay without comment, allowing the execution to go forward.

Vance was at his kitchen table in Mountain Brook, Alabama, on Dec. 16, 1989, when he opened a package after a morning of errands and yard work.

The explosion ripped through the home near Birmingham, killing Vance instantly and severely injuring his wife, Helen. Prosecutors said Moody, who had attended law school, had a grudge against the legal system because the 11th Circuit refused to overturn a 1972 pipe-bomb possession conviction that prevented him from practicing law.

Vance’s son, Robert Vance Jr., now a circuit judge in Jefferson County and Democratic candidate for chief justice in Alabama, said it’s important that people remember how his father lived, not just how he died.

“He was a great judge, a great lawyer before that, and a great father,” he said earlier as the execution loomed. As chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party in the 1960s and 1970s, Vance worked to bring African Americans into the party and often “butted heads” with segregationist Gov. George Wallace, his son said.

Friends said the senior Vance quietly fought for the rights of the underprivileged, as both a jurist and a politician.

Moody had always maintained his innocence.

In recent weeks, Moody had sent a letter to the younger Vance claiming he was the innocent victim of a government conspiracy. “Had my Dad been murdered, I would want to know who had done it,” Moody wrote. The younger Vance said he put the letter in the trash.

Vance said he had to make peace with his father’s death, but has no doubt Moody is guilty. He did not witness the execution.

The lethal injection procedure began at 8:16 p.m. Moody did not open his eyes or respond as the warden read his death warrant and asked him if he had any last words.

Moody’s attorney, Spencer Hahn, said he wanted to know what the prison system “gave him before to knock him out and prevent him from getting to give his last words. There was no dignity in that room. This dishonored the memory of Judge Vance and Mr. Robinson,” Hahn said.

Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said Moody was not given any sedatives.

Moody’s attorneys had asked the nation’s highest court to stay his execution in order to review whether his federal sentence, which was handed down first, could be interrupted. They also argued that the aggravating factors used to impose a death sentence were improper.

And in their unsuccessful clemency petition, they argued that his victim was opposed to the death penalty, so halting the execution would honor Vance’s beliefs. Vance’s son said his father opposed the death penalty personally, but he also believed in following the law.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday night that after nearly 30 years, “Tonight, Mr. Moody’s appeals finally came to a rightful end. Justice has been served.”

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Associated Press writer Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this report.

By KIM CHANDLER, By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (A.S)

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#Alabama prison #Atmore #Federal Judge #U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals #US modern times

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