This great military genius acutely sensed the opportunity and discovered that he was destined to become the inheritor and grave robber of the Great Revolution. Who elevated Napoleon to the emperor's throne? The republicans would say it was the efforts of those ignorant provincial farmers, refusing to admit that they themselves played the most significant role.
This truth they failed to grasp half a century ago, and even today they remain oblivious. But regrettably, I must tell them: due to your unrealistic and selfish nature, you have long ignored the provincial farmers who make up three-quarters of the population. I can vaguely see the eagle flag of the Empire once again planted on the high hills outside Paris. Soon, you will reap the bitter fruit of your own making once more.
Arthur Hastings
Written on the eve of the 1848 presidential election of the French Republic.
——Eld Carter, "The Arthur Hastings Letters"
