The internal situation of France is today as calm as it has ever been in the most peaceful periods. There is no agitation to disturb the public tranquility, no suggestion of those crimes which recall the Revolution. Everywhere, useful enterprises are in progress and the general improvements, both public and private, attest the universal confidence and sense of security. . . A plot conceived by an implacable [ruthless] government was about to re-plunge France into the abyss of civil war and anarchy. The discovery of this horrible crime stirred all France profoundly, and anxieties that had scarcely been calmed again awoke. Experience has taught that a divided power in the state is impotent [weak] and at odds with itself. If vested in an individual for life, it would lapse with him, and after him would prove a source of anarchy and discord. It was clearly seen that for a great nation the only salvation lies in hereditary power, which can alone assure a continuous political life which may endure for generations, even for centuries.
The necessity of hereditary power in a state as vast as France had long been perceived by the First Consul [Napoleon]. He had endeavored in vain to avoid this conclusion; but the public solicitude [worry] and the hopes of our enemies emphasized the importance of his task, and he realized that his death might ruin his whole work. Under such circumstances, and with such a pressure of public opinion, there was no alternative left to the First Consul. He resolved, therefore, to accept for himself, and two of his brothers after him, the burden imposed by the exigencies [demands] of the situation.
The French people, by a free and independent expression, then manifested its desire that the imperial dignity should pass down in a direct line through the legitimate or adopted descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte, or through the legitimate descendants of Joseph Bonaparte, or of Louis Bonaparte. Using the document and your knowledge of social studies, identify relevant outside information in the document and possible enduring issues and write them in the chart below.