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<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43843 ***</div>
<div id="cover">
<p class="image-center"><img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" width="500" height="731" alt="Cover" /></p>
</div>
<div id="frontis">
<p class="image-center"><img class="img-border" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="415" height="600" alt="" /></p>
<p class="frontis1">Lafayette Meets Washington</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div id="titlepage">
<h1>Lafayette, We Come!</h1>
<p class="title1">The Story of How a Young<br />
Frenchman Fought for Liberty<br />
in America and How America<br />
Now Fights for Liberty in France</p>
<p class="title2">By</p>
<p class="author">RUPERT S. HOLLAND</p>
<p class="title3"><i>Author of “Historic Boyhoods,” “The Knights<br />
of the Golden Spur,” etc.</i></p>
<p class="title4"><img src="images/colophon.jpg" width="80" height="80" alt="Colophon" /></p>
<p class="title4"><span class="title5">PHILADELPHIA</span><br />
GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY<br />
<span class="title5">PUBLISHERS</span></p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div id="copyright">
<p class="copyright1">Copyright, 1918, by<br /><span class="smcap">George W. Jacobs & Company</span></p>
<p class="copyright2"><i>All rights reserved</i><br />Printed in U. S. A.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div id="dedication">
<p class="dedication1">To<br />
Those Men of the Great Republic<br />
Who Have Answered<br />
The Call of Lafayette,<br />
Lover of Liberty</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div id="illustrations">
<h2 class="titles">Illustrations</h2>
<div class="center">
<p class="center"><span class="illo-left"><a href="#frontis">Lafayette meets Washington</a></span><span class="illo-right"><i>Frontispiece</i></span><br />
<span class="illo-left"> </span><span class="illo-right"><i>Facing
page</i></span><br />
<span class="illo-left"><a href="#prisoner">Lafayette, a Prussian prisoner</a></span><span class="illo-right">226</span><br />
<span class="illo-left"><a href="#answer">“America’s Answer”</a></span><span class="illo-right">302</span></p>
</div>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div id="foreword">
<h2 class="titles">Foreword</h2>
<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1777 the young Marquis de Lafayette, only
nineteen years old, came from France to the aid of the Thirteen Colonies
of North America because he heard their cry for liberty ringing across
the Atlantic Ocean. In 1917 the United States of America drew the sword
in defense of the sacred principle of liberty for which the country of
Lafayette was fighting. The debt of gratitude had never been forgotten;
the ideals of the gallant Frenchman and of the young Republic of the
Western World were the same; what he had done for us we of America are
now doing for him.</p>
<p>It is a glorious story, and one never to be forgotten while men love
liberty and truth. Every boy and girl should know it, for it is the story
of a brave, generous, noble-minded youth, who gave such devoted service
to America that he stands with Washington and Lincoln as one of the great
benefactors of our land. “I’m going to America to fight for freedom!”
he cried; and the cry still rings in our ears more than a century later.
The message is the same one we hear to-day and that is carrying us across
the Atlantic to France. From Lafayette’s story we learn courage, fidelity
to honor, loyalty to conviction, the qualities that make men free and
great. The principles of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” of France
are the same as those of our own Declaration of Independence, and the
men of the countries of Washington and Lafayette now fight under a common
banner. “Lafayette, we come!” was America’s answer to the great man who
offered all he had to us in the days of 1777.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div id="tableofcontents">
<h2 class="titles">Contents</h2>
<table id="toc" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents">
<tr>
<td>I.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#I">The Little Marquis of France.</a></span></td>
<td>7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>II.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#II">“Wake Up! I’m Going to America
to Fight for Freedom!”</a></span></td>
<td>25</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>III.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#III">How Lafayette Ran Away to Sea</a></span></td>
<td>45</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>IV.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#IV">The Young Frenchman Reaches America</a></span></td>
<td>63</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>V.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#V">“I Will Fight for American Liberty as a Volunteer!”</a></span></td>
<td>82</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>VI.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#VI">Lafayette Wins the Friendship
of Washington</a></span></td>
<td>102</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>VII.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#VII">The Frenchman in the Field Again</a></span></td>
<td>123</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>VIII. </td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#VIII">The Marquis Aids the United
States in France</a></span></td>
<td>153</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>IX.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#IX">How Lafayette Sought to Give Liberty to France</a></span></td>
<td>172</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>X.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#X">Storm-Clouds of the French Revolution</a></span></td>
<td>194</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XI.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#XI">Lafayette in Prison and Exile</a></span></td>
<td>225</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XII.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#XII">In the Days of Napoleon</a></span></td>
<td>248</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XIII.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#XIII">The United States Welcomes
the Hero</a></span></td>
<td>272</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XIV.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#XIV">The Lover of Liberty</a></span></td>
<td>287</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XV.</td>
<td class="toc-chapter"><span class="smcap"><a href="#XV">America’s Message to France—“Lafayette, We Come!”</a></span></td>
<td>302</td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="I">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">I<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">THE LITTLE MARQUIS OF FRANCE</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the mountains of Auvergne in Southern
France, in what was for many centuries called the province of Auvergne,
but what is now known as the department of Haute-Loire, or Upper Loire,
stands a great fortified castle, the Château of Chavaniac. For six hundred
years it has stood there, part fortress and part manor-house and farm,
a huge structure, built piecemeal through centuries, with many towers
and battlements and thick stone walls long overgrown with moss. Before
it lies the valley of the Allier and the great rugged mountains of Auvergne.
Love of freedom is deeply rooted in the country round it, for the people
of Auvergne have always been an independent, proud and fearless race.</p>
<p>In this old Château of Chavaniac there was born on September 6, 1757,
the Marquis de Lafayette. He was baptized the next day, with all the
ceremonies befitting a baby of such<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> high
rank, and the register of the little parish church in the neighboring
village records the baptism as that of “the very noble and very powerful
gentleman Monseigneur Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier de
Lafayette, the lawful son of the very noble and very powerful gentleman
Monseigneur Michel-Louis-Christophle-Roch-Gilbert Dumotier, Marquis de
Lafayette, Baron de Vissac, Seigneur de Saint-Romain and other places,
and of the very noble and very powerful lady Madame Marie-Louise-Julie
Delareviere.”</p>
<p>A good many names for a small boy to carry, but his family was very
old, and it was the custom of France to give many family names to each
child. He was called Gilbert Motier for short, however, though he was
actually born with the title and rank of Marquis, for his father had
been killed in battle six weeks before the little heir to Chavaniac was
born.</p>
<p>The family name of Motier could be traced back to before the year 1000.
Then one of the family came into possession of a farm called the Villa
Faya, and he lengthened his name to Motier of La Fayette. And as other
properties<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> came to
belong to the family the men added new names and titles until in 1757
the heir to the old château had not only a long string of names but was
also a marquis and baron and seigneur by right of his birth. There were
few families in Auvergne of older lineage than the house of Lafayette.</p>
<p>The little heir’s father, Michel-Louis, Marquis de Lafayette, had been
killed while leading a charge at the head of his regiment of French Grenadiers
in the battle of Hastenbeck, one of the battles of what was known as
the Seven Years’ War in Europe, which took place at about the same time
as the French and Indian War in America. Although only twenty-four years
old Michel-Louis de Lafayette was already a colonel and a knight of the
order of Saint Louis and had shown himself a true descendant of the old
fighting stock of Auvergne nobles. Now the small baby boy, the new Marquis,
succeeded to his father’s titles as well as to the castle and several
other even older manor-houses, for the most part in ruins, that were
perched high up in the mountains.</p>
<p>For all its blue blood, however, the family<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> were
what is known as “land poor.” The little Marquis owned large farms in
the mountains, but the crops were not very abundant and most of the money
that had come in from them for some time had been needed to provide for
the fighting men. Fortunately the boy’s mother and grandmother and aunts,
who all lived at Chavaniac, were strong and sturdy people, willing to
live the simple, healthy, frugal life of their neighbors in the province
and so save as much of the family fortune as they could for the time
when the heir should make his bow at court.</p>
<p>Without brothers or sisters and with few playmates, spending his time
out-of-doors in the woods and fields of Chavaniac, the young Lafayette
had a rather solitary childhood and grew up awkward and shy. He was a
lean, long-limbed fellow with a hook nose, reddish hair, and a very bashful
manner. But his eyes were bright and very intelligent; whenever anything
really caught his attention he quickly became intensely interested in
it, and he was devoted to all the birds and beasts of the country round
about his home.</p>
<p>Some of these beasts, however, were dangerous;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> there
was a great gray wolf that the farmers said had been breaking into sheepfolds
and doing great damage. The boy of eight years old heard the story and
set out, sword in hand, to hunt and slay the wolf. There is no account
of his ever coming up with that particular monster, but the peasants
of the neighborhood liked to tell all visitors this story as proof of
the courage of their young Marquis.</p>
<p>But the family had no intention of keeping the head of their house in
this far-off province of France. He must learn to conduct himself as
a polished gentleman and courtier, he must go to Paris and prepare himself
to take the place at the royal court that belonged to a son of his long,
distinguished line. His family had rich and powerful relations, who were
quite ready to help the boy, and so, when he was eleven years old, he
left the quiet castle of Chavaniac and went to a school for young noblemen,
the College du Plessis at Paris.</p>
<p>Lafayette’s mother’s uncle, taking a liking to the boy, had him enrolled
as a cadet in one of the famous regiments of France, “The Black Musketeers,”
and this gave the boy a proud<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> position
at school, and many a day he took some of his new friends to see the
Musketeers drill and learn something of the Manual of Arms. The company
of other boys, both at the College du Plessis in Paris and then at the
Academy at Versailles, as well as the interest he took in his gallant
Black Musketeers, made Lafayette less shy and awkward than he had been
at Chavaniac, though he was still much more reserved and thoughtful than
most boys of his age. He learned to write his own language well, and
his compositions in school showed the practical common sense of his country
bringing-up. He wrote a paper on the horse, and the chief point he brought
out in it was that if you try to make a horse do too many things well
he is sure to get restless and throw you, a bit of wisdom he had doubtless
learned in Auvergne.</p>
<p>The boy Marquis was at school in Paris when, in 1770, his devoted mother
and the rich granduncle who had had him appointed a cadet of the Musketeers
both died. The little Lafayette was now very much alone; his grandmother
in the distant castle in the mountains was his nearest relation, and,
though only a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> boy
of thirteen, he had to decide important questions for himself. But the
granduncle had been very fond of the lad, and in his will he left Lafayette
all his fortune and estates. The fortune was very large, and as a result
the boy Marquis, instead of being only a poor young country nobleman
from Auvergne, became a very rich and important person.</p>
<p>Immediately the proud and luxury-loving society of the French court
took a great interest in Gilbert Motier de Lafayette. Every father and
mother who had a daughter they wished to marry turned their attention
to the boy. And Lafayette, who, like most boys of his age, paid little
attention to girls, was beset with all sorts of invitations to parties
and balls.</p>
<p>In Europe in those days marriages were arranged by parents with little
regard to the wishes of their children. Sometimes babies of noble families
were betrothed to each other while they were still in the cradle. It
was all a question of social standing and of money. So Lafayette’s guardians
put their heads together and looked around for the most suitable girl
for him to marry.</p>
<p>The guardians chose the second daughter of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> the
Duke d’Ayen, Mademoiselle Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, a girl
twelve years old. The Duke was pleased with the proposal; the Marquis
de Lafayette would make a most desirable husband for his daughter. But
the little girl’s mother had strong ideas of her own. When the Duke told
her of the husband selected for Marie-Adrienne she objected.</p>
<p>“It is too great a risk to run for Adrienne,” she said. “The Marquis
de Lafayette is very young, very rich, and very wilful. He seems to be
a good boy, so far as his standing at school and his conduct in society
are concerned; but with no one to guide him, no one to look after his
fortune and hold him back from extravagance and foolishness, without
a near relative, and with his character as yet unformed and uncertain,
our daughter’s marriage to him is out of the question, and I will not
agree to it.”</p>
<p>Both the Duke and the Duchess were strong-willed; Adrienne’s father
insisted on the match and her mother opposed it more and more positively.
At last they actually quarreled and almost separated over this question
of the marriage of two children, neither of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> whom
had been consulted in regard to their own feelings. At last, however,
the Duke suggested a compromise; the marriage should not take place for
two years, Adrienne should not leave her mother for three years, and
in the meantime the Duke would look after the education of the boy and
see that he became a suitable husband for their daughter.</p>
<p>This suited the Duchess better. “If the boy is brought up in our home
where I can see and study him,” she said, “I will agree. Then, having
taken all precautions, and having no negligence wherewith to reproach
ourselves, we need do nothing but peacefully submit to the will of God,
who knows best what is fitting for us.”</p>
<p>The shy boy came to the Duke’s house and met the little girl. Adrienne
was very attractive, sweet-natured, pretty, and delightful company. Before
the two knew the plans that had been made concerning them they grew to
like each other very much, became splendid companions, and were glad
when they learned that they were to marry some day. As for Adrienne’s
mother, the more she saw of the boy the better she liked him; she took<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> him
into her house and heart as if he were her own son, trying to make up
to him for the loss of his own mother. The Duke kept his agreement. He
saw that Lafayette was properly educated at the Academy at Versailles
where young noblemen were taught military duties and that in proper time
he obtained his commission as an officer in the royal regiment of the
Black Musketeers.</p>
<p>Then, on April 11, 1774, Lafayette and Adrienne were married. The groom
was sixteen years old and the bride fourteen, but those were quite proper
ages for marriage among the French nobility. For a year the young husband
and wife lived at the great house of the Duke d’Ayen in Paris, still
under the watchful eye of the careful Duchess, and then they took a house
for themselves in the capital, going occasionally to the old castle of
Chavaniac in Auvergne.</p>
<p>The boy Marquis never regretted his marriage to Adrienne. Through all
the adventures of his later life his love for her was strong and enduring.
And she was as fine and noble and generous a woman as Lafayette was a
brave, heroic man.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
<p>Rich, a marquis in his own right, married to a daughter of one of the
greatest houses of France, Lafayette had the entrance to the highest
circles at court, to the innermost circle in fact, that of the young
King Louis XVI. and his Queen Marie Antoinette. And never was there a
gayer court to be found; the youthful King and his beautiful wife and
all their friends seemed to live for pleasure only; they were gorgeous
butterflies who flitted about the beautiful gardens of the Palace at
Versailles and basked in continual sunshine.</p>
<p>But the boy of seventeen, son of a line of rugged Auvergne fighters,
men of independent natures, did not take readily to the unceasing show
and luxury of court. Balls and dramas, rustic dances and dinners and
suppers, all the extravagant entertainments that the clever mind of the
young Queen could devise, followed in endless succession. True it was
that some of the courtiers had the fashion of talking a good deal about
the rights of man and human liberty, but that was simply a fashion in
a country where only the nobles had liberty and the talk of such things
only furnished polite conversation in drawing-rooms. To<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> Lafayette,
however, liberty meant more than that; young though he was, he had seen
enough of the world to wish that there might be less suffering among
the poor and more liberality among the wealthy. The constant stream of
pleasures at Versailles often gave him food for thought, and though he
was very fond of the King and Queen and their youthful court, he had
less and less regard for the older nobles, who appeared to him as vain
and stiff and foolish as so many strutting peacocks.</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, for all his thoughtfulness, he joined whole-heartedly
in the revels the Queen devised. On one midsummer night Marie Antoinette
gave a fête at Versailles, and Lafayette led the revels. The Queen had
declared that she meant to have a <i>fête champêtre</i> in the gardens
that should be different from anything the court of France had ever seen.
All her guests should appear either as goblins or as nymphs. They should
not be required to dance the quadrille or any other stately measure,
but would be free to play any jokes that came into their heads. As Marie
Antoinette outlined these plans to him Lafayette shook his head in doubt.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
<p>“What will the lords in waiting say to this?” he asked, “and your Majesty’s
own ladies?”</p>
<p>The pretty Queen laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “Who cares?” she
answered. “As long as Louis is King I shall do what pleases me.”</p>
<p>Then a new idea occurred to her and she clapped her hands with delight.
“I shall go to Louis,” she said, “and have him issue a royal order commanding
every one who comes to the fête to dress as a goblin or a nymph. He will
do it for me, I know.”</p>
<p>King Louis was too fond of his wife to deny her anything, so he issued
the order she wanted, much though he feared that it might affront the
older courtiers. And the courtiers were affronted and horrified. The
Royal Chamberlain and the Queen’s Mistress of the Robes went to the King
in his workshop, for Louis was always busy with clocks and locks and
keys, and told him that such a performance as was planned would make
the court of France appear ridiculous.</p>
<p>Louis listened to them patiently, and when they had left he sent for
Marie Antoinette and her friends. They described how absurd the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> courtiers
would look as nymphs and goblins and the King laughed till he cried.
Then he dismissed the whole matter and went back to the tools on his
work-table.</p>
<p>So Marie Antoinette had her party, and the gardens of Versailles saw
the strange spectacle of tall, stiff goblins wearing elaborate powdered
wigs and jeweled swords, and stout wood-nymphs with bare arms and shoulders
and glittering with gems. The Queen’s friends, a crowd of hobgoblins,
swooped down upon the stately Mistress of the Robes and carried her off
to a summer-house on the edge of the woods, where they kept her a prisoner
while they sang her the latest ballads of the Paris streets. The court
was shocked and indignant, and the next day there was such a buzzing
of angry bees about the head of the King that he had to lecture the Queen
and her friends and forbid any more such revels.</p>
<p>As the older courtiers regained their influence over Louis the young
Lafayette went less and less often to Versailles. He was too independent
by nature to bow the knee to the powdered and painted lords and ladies
who controlled the court. Instead of seeking their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> society
he spent more and more time with his regiment of Musketeers. But this
did not satisfy his father-in-law, the Duke d’Ayen, who was eager for
Lafayette to shine in the sun of royal favor. So the Duke went to the
young Count de Segur, Lafayette’s close friend and cousin, and begged
him to try and stir the Marquis to greater ambition.</p>
<p>The Count, who knew Lafayette well, had to laugh at the words of the
Duke d’Ayen. “Indifferent! Indolent! Faith, my dear marshal, you do not
yet know our Lafayette! I should say he has altogether too much enthusiasm.
Why, it was only yesterday that he almost insisted on my fighting a duel
with him because I did not agree with him in a matter of which I knew
nothing, and of which he thought I should know everything. He is anything
but indifferent and indolent, I can assure you!”</p>
<p>Pleased with this information, and feeling that he had much misunderstood
his son-in-law, the Duke made plans to have Lafayette attached to the
suite of one of the princes of France, and picked out the Count of Provence,
the scapegrace brother of Louis XVI.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> This
Prince was only two years older than Lafayette, and famous for his overbearing
manners. As a result, when the Duke told his son-in-law of the interview
he had arranged for him with the Count of Provence, Lafayette at once
determined that nothing should make him accept service with so arrogant
a fellow.</p>
<p>Having decided that he wanted no favors from that particular Prince,
Lafayette set about to make his decision clear. His opportunity soon
came. The King and Queen gave a masked ball at court, and the youthful
Marquis was one of their guests. With his mask concealing his face he
went up to the King’s brother, the Count of Provence, and began to talk
about liberty and equality and the rights of man, saying a great deal
that he probably did not believe in his desire to make the Count angry.</p>
<p>The plan succeeded beautifully. The Count tried to answer, but every
time he opened his mouth Lafayette said more violent things and made
more eloquent pleas for democracy. At last the young Prince could stand
the tirade no longer. “Sir,” said he, lifting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> his
mask and staring at his talkative companion, “I shall remember this interview.”</p>
<p>“Sir,” answered the young Marquis, also lifting his mask and bowing
gracefully, “memory is the wisdom of fools.”</p>
<p>It was a rash remark to make to a royal prince, but it had the effect
that Lafayette desired. With an angry gesture the Count of Provence turned
on his heel and made it clear to every one about him that the Marquis
was in disgrace. In later days the Count showed that he had remembered
Lafayette’s words to him.</p>
<p>News of what the Marquis had said quickly flew through the court and
speedily reached the ears of the Duke d’Ayen. He was horrified; his son-in-law
had not only insulted the Prince and so lost his chance of becoming a
gentleman of his suite, but had also made himself a laughing-stock. The
Duke lectured the boy, and told him that he was throwing away all his
chances for worldly advancement. But Lafayette answered that he cared
nothing for princely favor and meant to follow the dictates of his own
nature.</p>
<p>So the Duke, finally despairing of doing anything with so independent
a fellow, had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> him
ordered to join his regiment, and Lafayette left Paris to seek his fortune
elsewhere. Already, although he was only seventeen, the boy Marquis had
shown that he was a true son of Auvergne, not a parasite of the King’s
court, as were most of his friends, but an independent, liberty-loving
man.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="II">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">II<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">“WAKE UP! I’M GOING TO AMERICA TO FIGHT FOR
FREEDOM!”</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Although</span> the young Marquis had deliberately
given up a career at court, there was every promise of his having a brilliant
career in the army. Soon after his famous speech to the King’s brother,
in August, 1775, he was transferred from his regiment of Black Musketeers
to a command in what was known as the “Regiment de Noailles,” which had
for its colonel a young man of very distinguished family, Monseigneur
the Prince de Poix, who was a cousin of Lafayette’s wife.</p>
<p>The “Regiment de Noailles” was stationed at Metz, a garrison city some
two hundred miles to the east of Paris. The commander of Metz was the
Count de Broglie, a marshal and prince of France, who had commanded the
French armies in the Seven Years’ War, in one of the battles of which
Lafayette’s father had been killed. The Count de Broglie had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> known
Lafayette’s father and had greatly admired him, and he did all he could
to befriend the son, inviting him to all the entertainments he gave.</p>
<p>It happened that early in August the Count de Broglie gave a dinner
in honor of a young English prince, the Duke of Gloucester, and Lafayette,
in the blue and silver uniform of his rank, was one of the guests at
the table. The Duke of Gloucester was at the time in disgrace with his
brother, King George the Third of England, because he had dared to marry
a wife whom King George disliked. The Duke was really in exile from England,
and in the company of the French officers he had no hesitation in speaking
his mind about his royal brother and even in poking fun at some of his
plans. And the Duke made a special point of criticizing King George for
his policy toward the colonists in America.</p>
<p>In that very year of the dinner-party at Metz, in the spring of 1775,
a rebellion had broken out in the colonies, and there had actually been
a fight between American farmers and British regulars at the village
of Lexington in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> Duke
had received word of the obstinate resistance of the farmers—peasants,
he called them—at Lexington and Concord, and of the retreat of
Lord Percy and his troops to Boston. The Duke told the dinner-party all
about the discomfiture of his royal brother, laughing heartily at it,
and also related how in that same seaport of Boston the townspeople had
thrown a cargo of tea into the harbor rather than pay the royal tax on
it.</p>
<p>The Duke talked and Lafayette listened. The Duke spoke admiringly of
the pluck of the American farmers, but pointed out that it was impossible
for the colonists to win against regular troops unless experienced officers
and leaders should help them. “They are poor, they are ill led,” said
the Duke,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> “they
have no gentlemen-soldiers to show them how to fight, and the king my
brother is determined to bring them into subjection by harsh and forcible
methods if need be. But my letters say that the Americans seem set upon
opposing force with force, and, as the country is large and the colonies
scattered, it certainly looks as if the trouble would be long and serious.
If but the Americans were well led, I should say the rebellion might
really develop into a serious affair.”</p>
<p>Most of the officers knew little about America; even Lafayette had only
a vague idea about the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
But the Duke’s words stirred him deeply; he sat leaning far forward,
his eyes shining with interest, his face expressing the closest attention.</p>
<p>Finally, as the guests rose from the table, Lafayette burst forth impetuously.
“But could one help these peasants over there beyond the seas, monseigneur?”
he asked the Duke.</p>
<p>The English prince smiled at the young Frenchman’s eagerness. “One could,
my lord marquis, if he were there,” he answered.</p>
<p>“Then tell me, I pray you,” continued Lafayette, “how one may do it,
monseigneur. Tell me how to set about it. For see, I will join these
Americans; I will help them fight for freedom!”</p>
<p>Again the Duke smiled; the words seemed extravagant on the lips of a
French officer. But a glance at Lafayette’s face showed how much the
boy was in earnest. The words were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> no
idle boast; the speaker plainly meant them. So the Duke answered, “Why,
I believe you would, my lord. It wouldn’t take much to start you across
the sea,—if your people would let you.”</p>
<p>Lafayette smiled to himself. He had already done one thing that his
family disapproved of, and he did not intend to let them prevent his
embarking on such an enterprise as this, one that appealed so intensely
to his love of liberty. He asked the Duke of Gloucester all the questions
he could think of, and the Duke gave him all the information he had about
America.</p>
<p>The dinner-party broke up, and most of the officers soon forgot all
the conversation; but not so the young Marquis; that evening had been
one of the great events of his life. As he said afterward, “From that
hour I could think of nothing but this enterprise, and I resolved to
go to Paris at once to make further inquiries.”</p>
<p>His mind made up by what he had heard at Metz, Lafayette set off for
Paris. But once there, it was hard to decide where he should turn for
help. His father-in-law, he knew,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> would
be even more scandalized by his new plan than he had been by the affront
the young man had given the King’s brother. His own wife was too young
and inexperienced to give him wise counsel in such a matter. Finally
he chose for his first real confidant his cousin and close friend, the
Count de Segur. Lafayette went at once to his cousin’s house, though
it was only seven o’clock in the morning, was told that the Count was
not yet out of bed, but, without waiting to be announced, rushed upstairs
and woke the young man.</p>
<p>The Count saw his cousin standing beside him and shaking him by the
arm. In great surprise he sat up. “Wake up! wake up!” cried Lafayette.
“Wake up! I’m going to America to fight for freedom! Nobody knows it
yet; but I love you too much not to tell you.”</p>
<p>The Count sprang out of bed and caught Lafayette’s hand. “If that is
so, I will go with you!” he cried. “I will go to America too! I will
fight with you for freedom! How soon do you start?”</p>
<p>It was easier said than done, however. The two young men had breakfast
and eagerly discussed this momentous matter. The upshot<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> of
their discussion was to decide to enlist a third friend in their cause,
and so they set out to see Lafayette’s brother-in-law, the Viscount Louis
Marie de Noailles, who was a year older than the Marquis.</p>
<p>The young Viscount, like the Count de Segur, heard Lafayette’s news
with delight, for he also belonged to that small section of the French
nobility that was very much interested in what was called “the rights
of man.” So here were three young fellows,—hardly more than boys,—for
none of the three was over twenty years old, all of high rank and large
fortune, eager to do what they could to help the fighting farmers of
the American colonies.</p>
<p>At the very start, however, they ran into difficulties. France and England,
though not on very friendly terms at that particular time, were yet keeping
the peace between them, and the French prime minister was afraid that
if the English government should learn that a number of young French
aristocrats were intending to aid the rebellious American colonists it
might cause ill-feeling between France and England. The prime minister,
therefore, frowned on all such schemes as that of Lafayette,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> and
so the three young liberty-loving conspirators had to set about their
business with the greatest secrecy.</p>
<p>Lafayette’s next step was to hunt out a man who had been sent over to
France from the American colonies as a secret agent, a representative
of what was known as the American Committee of Secret Correspondence,
of which Benjamin Franklin was a member. This man was Silas Deane of
the colony of Connecticut. Deane was secretly sending arms and supplies
from France to America, but he was so closely watched by the agents of
the English Ambassador, Lord Stormont, that it was very difficult to
see him without rousing suspicions.</p>
<p>While the Marquis was studying the problem of how to get in touch with
Deane he confided his secret to the Count de Broglie, his superior officer
at Metz and his very good friend. The Count was at once opposed to any
such rash venture. “You want to throw your life away in that land of
savages!” exclaimed De Broglie.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> “Why,
my dear Lafayette, it is the craziest scheme I ever heard of! And to
what purpose?”</p>
<p>“For the noblest of purposes, sir,” answered the Marquis. “To help a
devoted people win their liberty! What ambition could be nobler?”</p>
<p>“It is a dream, my friend, a dream that can never be fulfilled,” said
the old soldier. “I will not help you to throw your life away. I saw
your uncle die in the wars of Italy, I witnessed your brave father’s
death at the battle of Hastenbeck, and I cannot be a party to the ruin
of the last of your name, the only one left of the stock of the Lafayettes!”</p>
<p>But even the old Marshal could not withstand the ardor and enthusiasm
of the youth. So vehemently did Lafayette set forth his wishes that finally
the Count promised that he would not actively oppose his plans, and presently
agreed to introduce the Marquis to a Bavarian soldier named De Kalb,
who might be able to help him.</p>
<p>“I will introduce you to De Kalb,” said the Count. “He is in Paris now,
and perhaps through him you may be able to communicate with this American
agent, Monsieur Deane.”</p>
<p>De Kalb was a soldier of fortune who had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> been
to America long before the Revolution and knew a great deal about the
colonies. At present he was in France, giving what information he could
to the government there. And the upshot of Lafayette’s talk with the
Count de Broglie was that the latter not only gave the Marquis a letter
to De Kalb but also actually asked De Kalb to go to America and see if
he could arrange things so that he, the Count de Broglie, might be invited
by the American Congress to cross the ocean and become commander-in-chief
of the American army! Perhaps it was natural that the veteran Marshal
of France should think that he would make a better commander-in-chief
than the untried George Washington.</p>
<p>The Baron de Kalb arranged that the Count de Broglie should see Silas
Deane of Connecticut. Silas Deane was impressed with the importance of
securing such a powerful friend and leader for his hard-pressed people,
and he at once agreed to see what he could do for De Broglie, and promised
Baron de Kalb the rank of major-general in the American army and signed
an agreement with him by which fifteen French officers should go to America<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> on
a ship that was fitting out with arms and supplies.</p>
<p>This fell in beautifully with Lafayette’s wishes. De Broglie introduced
the Marquis to De Kalb, and De Kalb presented him to Silas Deane. This
was in December, 1776, and Lafayette, only nineteen, slight of figure,
looked very boyish for such an enterprise. But he plainly showed that
his whole heart was in his plan, and, as he said himself, “made so much
out of the small excitement that my going away was likely to cause,”
that the American agent was carried away by his enthusiasm, and in his
own rather reckless fashion, wrote out a paper by which the young Marquis
was to enter the service of the American colonies as a major-general.</p>
<p>Deane’s enthusiasm over Lafayette’s offer of his services may be seen
from what he wrote in the agreement. The paper he sent to Congress in
regard to this volunteer ran as follows:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> “His
high birth, his alliances, the great dignities which his family holds
at this court, his considerable estates in this realm, his personal merit,
his reputation, his disinterestedness, and, above all, his zeal for the
liberty of our provinces, are such as have only been able to engage me
to promise him the rank of major-general in the name of the United States.
In witness of which I have signed the present this seventh of December,
1776. Silas Deane, Agent for the United States of America.”</p>
<p>By this time the colonies had issued their Declaration of Independence,
and called themselves, as Silas Deane described them, the United States
of America.</p>
<p>Imagine Lafayette’s joy at this result of his meeting with Silas Deane!
It seemed as if his enthusiasm had already won him his goal. But there
were other people to be considered, and his family were not as much delighted
with his plans as the man from Connecticut had been.</p>
<p>As a matter of fact his father-in-law, the powerful Duke d’Ayen, was
furious, and so were most of the others of his family. His cousin, the
Count de Segur, described the feelings of Lafayette’s relations. “It
is easy to conceive their astonishment,” he wrote,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> “when
they learned suddenly that this young sage of nineteen, so cool and so
indifferent, had been so far carried away by the love of glory and of
danger as to intend to cross the ocean and fight in the cause of American
freedom.” There was more of a storm at home than when the self-filled
young Marquis had of his own accord disgraced himself at court.</p>
<p>But his wife Adrienne, girl though she was, understood him far better
than the rest of the family, and even sympathized with his great desire.
“God wills that you should go,” she said to her husband. “I have prayed
for guidance and strength. Whatever others think, you shall not be blamed.”</p>
<p>Others, however, did have to be reckoned with. Lafayette’s two friends,
the Count de Segur and the Viscount de Noailles, both of whom had been
so eager to go with him, had found that their fathers would not supply
them with the money they needed and that the King would not consent to
their going to America. Reluctantly they had to give up their plans.
But Lafayette was rich, he had no need to ask for funds from any one;
there was no difficulty for him on that score.</p>
<p>He was, however, an officer of France, and it was on that ground that
his father-in-law tried to put an end to his scheme. He went<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> to
the King with his complaint about the wilful Marquis. At the same time
the English Ambassador, who had got wind of the matter, also complained
to King Louis. And Louis XVI., who had never concerned himself much about
liberty and took little interest in the rebel farmers across the Atlantic,
said that while he admired the enthusiasm of the Marquis de Lafayette,
he could not think of permitting officers of his army to serve with the
men of America who were in rebellion against his good friend the King
of England. Therefore he issued an order forbidding any soldier in his
service taking part in the Revolution in America.</p>
<p>The Duke d’Ayen was delighted. He went to Lafayette, and trying to put
the matter on a friendly footing, said, “You had better return to your
regiment at Metz, my dear son.”</p>
<p>Lafayette drew himself up, his face as determined as ever. “No Lafayette
was ever known to turn back,” he answered. “I shall do as I have determined.”</p>
<p>One of Lafayette’s ancestors had adopted as his motto the words “<i>Cur
non</i>,” meaning “Why not?” and the Marquis now put these<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> on
his own coat of arms, the idea being, as he himself said, that they
should serve him “both as an encouragement and a response.”</p>
<p>By this time the young republic in America had sent Benjamin Franklin
to help Silas Deane in Paris. Franklin heard of Lafayette’s desires and
knew how much help his influence might bring the new republic. So he
set about to see what he could do to further Lafayette’s plans.</p>
<p>At that moment things looked gloomy indeed for the Americans. Their
army had been badly defeated at the battle of Long Island, and their
friends in Europe were depressed. That, however, seemed to Lafayette
all the more reason for taking them aid as quickly as he could, and when
he heard that Benjamin Franklin was interested in him he made an opportunity
to see the latter.</p>
<p>Franklin was perfectly fair with Lafayette. He gave the young Frenchman
the exact news he had received from America, information that Washington’s
army of three thousand ragged and suffering men were retreating across
New Jersey before the victorious and well-equipped troops of General
Howe. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> pointed
out that the credit of the new republic was certain to sink lower and
lower unless Washington should be able to win a victory and that at present
it looked as if any such event was far away. And in view of all this
Franklin, and Silas Deane also, was frank enough to tell Lafayette that
his plan of aiding the United States at that particular time was almost
foolhardy.</p>
<p>The Frenchman thanked them for their candor. “Until this moment, gentlemen,”
said he, “I have only been able to show you my zeal in your struggle;
now the time has come when that zeal may be put to actual use. I am going
to buy a ship and carry your officers and supplies to America in it.
We must show our confidence in the cause, and it is in just such a time
of danger as this that I want to share whatever fortune may have in store
for you.”</p>
<p>Franklin was immensely touched by the generosity of the young Marquis
and told him so. But, practical man as he was, although he gladly accepted
Lafayette’s offer, he pointed out that as the American agents were closely
watched in Paris it would be better for Lafayette<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> to
work through third parties and in some other place than the French capital,
if possible.</p>
<p>Lafayette took these suggestions. At once he found that it was extremely
difficult to secure a ship without discovery by the English Ambassador.
Here the Count de Broglie again gave him aid. He introduced the Marquis
to Captain Dubois, the brother of his secretary, an officer in one of
the King’s West Indian regiments, who happened to be at home on furlough
at the time, and Lafayette engaged him as his agent. He sent him secretly
to Bordeaux, the French seaport that was supposed to be safest from suspicion,
and gave him the money to buy and supply a ship, the plan being that
Captain Dubois should appear to be fitting out the vessel for the needs
of his own regiment in the West Indies.</p>
<p>The needed repairs to the ship would take some time, and meanwhile,
in order to escape all possible suspicion of his plans, Lafayette arranged
with his cousin, the Prince de Poix, to make a journey to England. The
Marquis de Noailles, Lafayette’s uncle, was the French Ambassador to
England, and he welcomed the two young noblemen with delight. Every one<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> supposed
that Lafayette had at last given up his wild schemes, and all the great
houses of London were thrown open to him. He wrote of the amusement he
felt at being presented to King George III., and of how much he enjoyed
a ball at the house of Lord George Germain, the secretary for the colonies.
At the opera he met Sir Henry Clinton, with whom he had a pleasant, friendly
chat. The next time Sir Henry and he were to meet was to be on the field
of arms at the Battle of Monmouth.</p>
<p>But he never took advantage of his hosts. He kept away from the English
barracks and shipyards, though he was invited to inspect them. He was
careful to a degree to avoid any act that might later be considered as
having been in the nature of a breach of confidence. And after three
weeks in the gay world of London he felt that he could brook no longer
delay and told his uncle the Ambassador that he had taken a fancy to
cross the Channel for a short visit at home.</p>
<p>His uncle opposed this idea, saying that so abrupt a departure would
be discourteous to the English court, but Lafayette insisted. So<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> the
Marquis de Noailles finally offered to give out the report that his nephew
was sick until the latter should return to London. Lafayette agreed.
“I would not have proposed this stratagem,” he said later, “but I did
not object to it.”</p>
<p>The voyage on the Channel was rough and Lafayette was seasick. As soon
as he reached France he went to Paris and stayed in hiding at the house
of Baron de Kalb. He had another interview with the American agents and
sent out his directions to the men who were to sail with him. Then he
slipped away to Bordeaux, where he found the sloop <i>Victory</i>, bought
by Captain Dubois with Lafayette’s money, and now ready for the voyage
across the Atlantic.</p>
<p>Lafayette, however, could not sail away from France under his own name,
and as a permit was required of every one leaving the country, a special
one had to be made out for him. This is still kept at Bordeaux, and describes
the passenger on the sloop as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> “Gilbert
du Mottie, Chevalier de Chavaillac, aged about twenty, rather tall, light-haired,
embarking on the <i>Victory</i>, Captain Lebourcier commanding, for a
voyage to the Cape on private business.” His name was not very much changed,
for he was really Gilbert du Motier and also the Chevalier de Chavaniac,
but probably a careless clerk, who had no concern in this particular
young man’s affairs, made the mistakes in spelling, and so aided Lafayette’s
disguise.</p>
<p>But all was not yet smooth sailing. Lord Stormont, the English Ambassador,
heard of Lafayette’s departure from Paris and also of his plans to leave
France, and at once protested to the King. Lafayette’s father-in-law
likewise protested, and no sooner had the young nobleman arrived in Bordeaux
than royal officers were on his track. The French government did not
want him to sail, no matter how much it might secretly sympathize with
the young republic across the ocean.</p>
<p>Having come so far, however, the intrepid Marquis did not intend to
be stopped. He meant to sail on his ship, he meant to carry out the brave
words he had spoken to his cousin. “I’m going to America to fight for
freedom!” he had said, and he was determined to accomplish that end.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="III">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">III<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">HOW LAFAYETTE RAN AWAY TO SEA</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Lafayette</span> did actually run away to sea, with
the officers of King Louis XVI. hot-foot after him. When he learned that
his plans were known and that he would surely be stopped if he delayed
he ordered the captain of the <i>Victory</i> to set sail from Bordeaux
without waiting for the necessary sailing-papers. His intention was to
run into the Spanish port of Las Pasajes, just across the French frontier
on the Bay of Biscay, and there complete his arrangements for crossing
the Atlantic, for the sloop still needed some repairs before starting
on such a voyage.</p>
<p>At Las Pasajes, however, he found more obstacles and difficulties. Instead
of the sailing-papers he expected letters and orders and French officers
were waiting for him. The letters were from his family, protesting against
his rash act, the orders were from Louis XVI.’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> ministers,
and charged him with deserting the army, breaking his oath of allegiance
to the King, and involving France in difficulties with England. And the
officers were from the court, with documents bearing the King’s own seal,
and commanding Lieutenant the Marquis de Lafayette of the regiment of
De Noailles to go at once to the French port of Marseilles and there
await further orders.</p>
<p>The news that affected the runaway nobleman most was contained in the
letters from home. He had had to leave Paris without telling his intentions
to his wife, much as he hated to do this. He knew that she really approved
of his plans and would do nothing to thwart them, but the letters said
that she was ill and in great distress of mind. He would have braved
the King’s order of arrest and all the other threats, but he could not
stand the idea of his wife being in distress on his account. So, with
the greatest reluctance he said good-bye to his plans, left his ship
in the Spanish port, and crossed the border back to France.</p>
<p>It looked as if this was to be the end of Lafayette’s gallant adventure.
The Baron de Kalb, very much disappointed, wrote to his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> wife,
“This is the end of his expedition to America to join the army of the
insurgents.”</p>
<p>It might have been the end with another man, but not with Lafayette.
He rode back to Bordeaux, and there found that much of the outcry raised
against him was due to the wiles of his obstinate father-in-law, the
Duke d’Ayen. It was true that the English Ambassador had protested to
King Louis’ ministers, but there was no real danger of Lafayette’s sailing
disturbing the relations between England and France. New letters told
Lafayette that his wife was well and happy, though she missed him. The
threats and the orders were due, not to the anger of his own government,
but to the determination of the Duke that his son-in-law should not risk
his life and fortune in such a rash enterprise.</p>
<p>When he learned all this the Marquis determined to match the obstinacy
of the Duke with an even greater obstinacy of his own. His first thought
was to join his ship the <i>Victory</i> at once, but he had no permit
to cross into Spain, and if he should be caught disobeying the King’s
orders a second time he might get into more serious trouble. His father-in-law<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> was
waiting to see him at Marseilles, and so he now arranged to go to that
city.</p>
<p>In Bordeaux Lafayette met a young French officer, named Du Mauroy, who
had also received from Silas Deane a commission in the American army,
and who was very anxious to reach the United States. The two made their
plans together, and the upshot of it was that they presently set out
together in a post-chaise for Marseilles.</p>
<p>They did not keep on the road to Marseilles long, however. No sooner
were they well out of Bordeaux than they changed their course and drove
in the direction of the Spanish border. In a quiet place on the road
Lafayette slipped out of the chaise and hid in the woods. There he disguised
himself as a post-boy or courier, and then rode on ahead, on horseback,
as if he were the servant of the gentleman in the carriage.</p>
<p>His companion, Du Mauroy, had a permit to leave France, and the plan
was that he should try to get the Marquis across the Spanish frontier
as his body-servant. The chaise went galloping along as fast as the horses
could pull it, because the young men<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> had
good reason to fear that French officers would speedily be on their track,
if they were not already pursuing them. They came to a little village,
St. Jean de Luz, where Lafayette had stopped on his journey from Las
Pasajes to Bordeaux a short time before, and there, as the Marquis, disguised
as the post-boy, rode into the stable-yard of the inn the daughter of
the innkeeper recognized him as the same young man she had waited on
earlier.</p>
<p>The girl gave a cry of surprise. “Oh, monsieur!” she exclaimed.</p>
<p>Lafayette put his finger to his lips in warning. “Yes, my girl,” he
said quickly. “Monsieur my patron wants fresh horses at once. He is coming
just behind me, and is riding post-haste to Spain.”</p>
<p>The girl understood. Perhaps she was used to odd things happening in
a village so close to the border of France and Spain, perhaps she liked
the young man and wanted to help him in his adventure. She called a stable-boy
and had him get the fresh horses that were needed, and when the disguised
Marquis and his friend were safely across the frontier and some French
officers came galloping up to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> inn
in pursuit of them she told the latter that the post-chaise had driven
off by the opposite road to the one it had really taken.</p>
<p>At last, on April seventeenth, Lafayette reached the Spanish seaport
of Las Pasajes again and went on board of his sloop the <i>Victory</i>.
After six months of plotting and planning and all sorts of discouragements
he was actually free to sail for America, and on the twentieth of April,
1777, he gave the order to Captain Leboucier to hoist anchor and put
out to sea. On the deck of the <i>Victory</i> with him stood De Kalb
and about twenty young Frenchmen, all, like their commander, eager to
fight for the cause of liberty. The shores of Spain dropped astern, and
Lafayette and his friends turned their eyes westward in the direction
of the New World.</p>
<p>When news of Lafayette’s sailing reached Paris it caused the greatest
interest. Though the King and the older members of his court might frown
and shake their heads the younger people were frankly delighted. Coffee-houses
echoed with praise of the daring Lieutenant, and whenever his name was
mentioned in public it met with the loudest applause. In the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> world
of society opinions differed; most of the luxury-loving nobility thought
the adventure of the Marquis a wild-goose chase. The Chevalier de Marais
wrote to his mother, “All Paris is discussing the adventure of a young
courtier, the son-in-law of Noailles, who has a pretty wife, two children,
fifty thousand crowns a year,—in fact, everything which can make
life here agreeable and dear, but who deserted all that a week ago to
join the insurgents. His name is M. de Lafayette.”</p>
<p>And the Chevalier’s mother answered from her château in the country,
“What new kind of folly is this, my dear child? What! the madness of
knight-errantry still exists! It has disciples! Go to help the insurgents!
I am delighted that you reassure me about yourself, for I should tremble
for you; but since you see that M. de Lafayette is a madman, I am tranquil.”</p>
<p>A celebrated Frenchwoman, Madame du Deffand, wrote to the Englishman
Horace Walpole, “Of course it is a piece of folly, but it does him no
discredit. He receives more praise than blame.” And that was the opinion
of a large part of France. If a young man<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> chose
to do such a wild thing as to become a knight-errant he might be criticized
for his lack of wisdom, but on the whole he was not to be condemned.</p>
<p>Meantime, as the <i>Victory</i> was spreading her sails on the broad
Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin was writing to the American Congress. This
was what he said: “The Marquis de Lafayette, a young nobleman of great
family connections here and great wealth, is gone to America in a ship
of his own, accompanied by some officers of distinction, in order to
serve in our armies. He is exceedingly beloved, and everybody’s good
wishes attend him. We cannot but hope he may meet with such a reception
as will make the country and his expedition agreeable to him. Those who
censure it as imprudent in him, do, nevertheless, applaud his spirit;
and we are satisfied that the civilities and respect that may be shown
him will be serviceable to our affairs here, as pleasing not only to
his powerful relations and the court, but to the whole French nation.
He has left a beautiful young wife; and for her sake, particularly, we
hope that his bravery and ardent desire to distinguish himself will be
a little restrained by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> the
General’s prudence, so as not to permit his being hazarded much, except
on some important occasion.”</p>
<p>The <i>Victory</i> was not a very seaworthy ship. Lafayette had been
swindled by the men who had sold the sloop to his agent; she was a very
slow craft, and was poorly furnished and scantily armed. Her two small
cannon and small stock of muskets would have been a poor defense in case
she had been attacked by any of the pirates who swarmed on the high seas
in those days or by the English cruisers who were looking for ships laden
with supplies for America.</p>
<p>In addition to the defects of his ship Lafayette soon found he had other
obstacles to cope with. He discovered that the captain of the <i>Victory</i> considered
himself a much more important person than the owner and meant to follow
his own course.</p>
<p>The papers with which the ship had sailed from Spain declared that her
destination was the West Indies. But ships often sailed for other ports
than those they were supposed to, and Lafayette wanted to reach the United
States as quickly as he could. He went to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> captain
and said, “You will please make your course as direct as possible for
Charlestown in the Carolinas.”</p>
<p>“The Carolinas, sir!” exclaimed the captain. “Why, I cannot do that.
The ship’s papers are made out for the West Indies and will only protect
us if we sail for a port there. I intend to sail for the West Indies,
and you will have to get transportation across to the colonies from there.”</p>
<p>Lafayette was amazed. “This ship is mine,” he declared, “and I direct
you to sail to Charlestown.”</p>
<p>But the captain was obstinate. “I am the master of this ship, sir,”
said he, “and responsible for its safety. If we should be caught by an
English cruiser and she finds that we are headed for North America with
arms and supplies, we shall be made prisoners, and lose our ship, our
cargo, and perhaps our lives. I intend to follow my sailing-papers and
steer for the West Indies.”</p>
<p>No one could be more determined than Lafayette, however. “You may be
master of the <i>Victory</i>, Captain Leboucier,” said he,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> “but
I am her owner and my decision is final. You will sail at once and by
the directest course for the port of Charlestown in the Carolinas or
I shall deprive you instantly of your command and place the mate in charge
of the ship. I have enough men here to meet any resistance on your part.
So make your decision immediately.”</p>
<p>The captain in his turn was surprised. The young owner was very positive
and evidently not to be cajoled or threatened. So Leboucier complained
and blustered and argued a little, and finally admitted that it was not
so much the ship’s papers as her cargo that he was troubled about. He
owned that he had considerable interest in that cargo, for he had smuggled
eight or nine thousand dollars’ worth of goods on board the <i>Victory</i> and
wanted to sell them in the West Indies and so make an extra profit on
the side for himself. The real reason why he didn’t want to be caught
by an English cruiser was the danger of losing his smuggled merchandise.</p>
<p>“Then why didn’t you say so at first?” Lafayette demanded. “I would
have been willing to help you out, of course. Sail for the port of Charlestown
in the Carolinas; and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> if
we are captured, searched, robbed, or destroyed by any English cruisers
or privateers I will see that you don’t lose a sou. I will promise to
make any loss good.”</p>
<p>That satisfied Captain Leboucier. As long as his goods were safe he
had no hesitation on the score of danger to the ship, and so he immediately
laid his course for the coast of the Carolinas. Lafayette, however, realizing
that the <i>Victory</i> might be overtaken by enemy warships, arranged
with one of his men, Captain de Bedaulx, that in case of attack and capture
the latter should blow up the ship rather than surrender. With this matter
arranged the Marquis went to his cabin and stayed there for two weeks,
as seasick as one could be.</p>
<p>The voyage across the Atlantic in those days was a long and tedious
affair. It took seven weeks, and after Lafayette had recovered from his
seasickness he had plenty of time to think of the hazards of his new
venture and of the family he had left at home. He was devoted to his
family, and as the <i>Victory</i> kept on her westward course he wrote
long letters to his wife, planning to send them back to France by different
ships, so that if one was captured another<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> might
carry his message to Adrienne safely to her. In one letter he wrote,
“Oh, if you knew what I have suffered, what weary days I have passed
thus flying from everything that I love best in the world!” And then,
in order to make his wife less fearful of possible dangers that might
beset him, he said, “The post of major-general has always been a warrant
of long life. It is so different from the service I should have had in
France, as colonel, for instance. With my present rank I shall only have
to attend councils of war.... As soon as I land I shall be in perfect
safety.”</p>
<p>But this boy, nineteen years old, though he called himself a major-general,
was not to be content with attending councils of war and keeping out
of danger, as later events were to show. He was far too eager and impetuous
for that, too truly a son of the wild Auvergne Mountains.</p>
<p>And he showed that he knew that himself, for later in the same letter
to Adrienne he compared his present journey with what his father-in-law
would have tried to make him do had Lafayette met the Duke d’Ayen at
Marseilles.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> “Consider
the difference between my occupation and my present life,” he wrote,
“and what they would have been if I had gone upon that useless journey.
As the defender of that liberty which I adore; free, myself, more than
any one; coming, as a friend, to offer my services to this most interesting
republic, I bring with me nothing but my own free heart and my own good-will,—no
ambition to fulfil and no selfish interest to serve. If I am striving
for my own glory, I am at the same time laboring for the welfare of the
American republic. I trust that, for my sake, you will become a good
American. It is a sentiment made for virtuous hearts. The happiness of
America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she
is destined to become the safe and worthy asylum of virtue, integrity,
tolerance, equality, and peaceful liberty.”</p>
<p>This, from a boy not yet twenty years old, showed the prophetic instinct
that burned like a clear flame in the soul of Lafayette.</p>
<p>He knew very little of the English tongue, but that was the language
of the people he was going to help, and so on shipboard he set himself
to study it.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> “I
am making progress with that language,” he wrote to his wife. “It will
soon become most necessary to me.”</p>
<p>The North Atlantic was stormy, the <i>Victory</i> met with head winds,
and through April and May she floundered on, her passengers eagerly scanning
the horizon for a sight of land. On the seventh of June the Marquis wrote
in a letter to Adrienne, “I am still out on this dreary plain, which
is beyond comparison the most dismal place that one can be in.... We
have had small alarms from time to time, but with a little care, and
reasonably good fortune, I hope to get through without serious accident,
and I shall be all the more pleased, because I am learning every day
to be extremely prudent.”</p>
<p>Then, on a June day, the <i>Victory</i> suddenly became all excitement.
The lookout reported to Captain Leboucier that a strange vessel was bearing
down in their direction.</p>
<p>Leboucier instantly crowded on sail and tried to run from the strange
ship. But the <i>Victory</i> was not built for fast sailing, and it was
soon clear that the stranger would quickly overhaul her.</p>
<p>“It’s an English man-of-war!” was the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> message
that ran from lip to lip. In that case the only choice would be between
resistance and surrender. Leboucier looked doubtful as to the wisest
course to pursue, but Lafayette and his companions made ready to fight.
The two old cannon were loaded, the muskets distributed, and the crew
ordered to their stations.</p>
<p>The stranger drew nearer and nearer, sailing fast, and the <i>Victory</i> floundered
along in desperation. Lafayette and De Bedaulx stood at the bow of the
sloop, their eyes fixed on the rapidly-gaining pursuer. Then, just as
escape appeared utterly out of the question, the oncoming ship went about,
and as she turned she broke out from her peak a flag of red, white and
blue, the stars and stripes of the new United States of America. A wild
cheer greeted that flag, and the colors of France were run up to the
peak of the <i>Victory</i> in joyful greeting to the flag of Lafayette’s
ally.</p>
<p>The <i>Victory</i> headed about and tried to keep up with the fleet
American privateer, but in a very short time two other sails appeared
on the horizon. The American ship ran up a danger signal, declaring these
new vessels to be English cruisers, scouting along the coast<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> on
the watch for privateers and blockade runners. Having given that information
the American ship signaled “good-bye,” and drew away from the enemy on
a favoring tack.</p>
<p>The <i>Victory</i> could not draw away so easily, however, and it was
clear that her two cannon would be little use against two well-armed
English cruisers. In this new predicament luck came to the aid of the
little sloop. The wind shifted and blew strongly from the north. This
would send the <i>Victory</i> nearer to the port of Charlestown, the
outlines of which now began to appear on the horizon, and would also
be a head wind for the pursuing cruisers. Captain Leboucier decided to
take advantage of the shift in the wind, and instead of heading for Charlestown
run into Georgetown Bay, which opened into the coast of the Carolinas
almost straight in front of him.</p>
<p>Fortune again favored him, for, although he knew very little of that
coast, and nothing of these particular shoals and channels, he found
the opening of the South Inlet of Georgetown Bay and sailed his ship
into that sheltered roadstead. The English vessels, working against the
north wind, soon were lost to sight. On<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> the
afternoon of June 13, 1777, Lafayette’s little sloop ran past the inlet
and up to North Island, one of the low sand-pits that are a fringe along
the indented shore of South Carolina.</p>
<p>The long sea-voyage was over, and Lafayette looked at last at the coast
of the country he had come to help.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="IV">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">IV<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">THE YOUNG FRENCHMAN REACHES AMERICA</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> <i>Victory</i> had anchored off North
Island, a stretch of sand on the South Carolina coast, but neither the
captain nor the owner nor the crew of the sloop knew much more about
their location than that it was somewhere in North America. Charlestown
they believed was the nearest port of any size, but it might be difficult
to navigate through these shoal waters without a pilot who knew the channels.
So Lafayette suggested to Baron de Kalb that they should land in one
of the sloop’s boats and see if they could get information or assistance.</p>
<p>Early in the afternoon Lafayette, De Kalb, and a few of the other officers
were rowed ashore in the <i>Victory’s</i> yawl. But the shore was merely
a sand-flat, with no sign of human habitation. They put out again and
rowed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> farther up
the bay, keeping a sharp lookout for any house or farm. They found plenty
of little creeks and islands, but the shores were simply waste stretches
of sand and scrub-bushes and woods. The mainland appeared as deserted
as though it had been a desert island far out in the sea.</p>
<p>All afternoon they rowed about, poking the yawl’s nose first into one
creek and then into another, and nightfall found them still exploring
the North Inlet. Then, when they had about decided that it was too dark
to row further and that they had better return to the sloop, they suddenly
saw a lighted torch on the shore. Heading for this they found some negroes
dragging for oysters. Baron de Kalb, who knew more English than the others,
called out and asked if there was good anchorage for a ship thereabouts
and whether he could find a pilot to take them to Charlestown.</p>
<p>The negroes, very much surprised at the sudden appearance of the yawl,
thought the men on board might be Englishmen or Hessians, and instantly
grew suspicious. One of them answered, “We belong to Major Huger, all
of us belongs to him. He’s our master.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
<p>“Is he an officer in the American army?” De Kalb called back.</p>
<p>The negro said that he was, and added that there was a pilot on the
upper end of North Island, and then volunteered to show the men in the
yawl where the pilot lived and also to take them to the house of the
Major.</p>
<p>Lafayette thought it would be best to find Major Huger at once; but
the tide was falling fast, and when the rowers, unused to these shoals,
tried to follow the negroes in the oyster-boat, they discovered that
they were in danger of beaching their yawl. The only alternative was
for some of them to go in the oyster-boat, and so Lafayette and De Kalb
and one other joined the negroes, while the crew of the yawl rowed back
to the <i>Victory</i>.</p>
<p>Over more shallows, up more inlets the negroes steered their craft,
and about midnight they pointed out a light shining from a house on the
shore. “That’s Major Huger’s,” said the guide, and he ran his boat up
to a landing-stage. The three officers stepped out, putting their feet
on American soil for the first time on this almost deserted coast and
under the guidance of stray negro oystermen.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
<p>But this desolate shore had already been the landing-place of English
privateersmen, and the people who lived in the neighborhood were always
in fear of attack. As Lafayette and his two friends went up toward the
house the loud barking of dogs suddenly broke the silence. And as they
came up to the dwelling a window was thrown open and a man called out,
“Who goes there? Stop where you are or I’ll fire!”</p>
<p>“We are friends, sir; friends only,” De Kalb hurriedly answered. “We
are French officers who have just landed from our ship, which has come
into your waters. We have come to fight for America and we are looking
for a pilot to steer our ship to a safe anchorage and are also hunting
shelter for ourselves.”</p>
<p>No sooner had the master of the house heard this than he turned and
gave some orders. Lights shone out from the windows, and almost immediately
the front door was unbarred and thrown open. The owner stood in the doorway,
his hands stretched out in greeting, and back of him were a number of
negro servants with candles.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p>
<p>“Indeed, sirs, I am very proud to welcome you!” he said; and then stopped
an instant to call to the dogs to stop their barking. “I am Major Huger
of the American army, Major Benjamin Huger, and this is my house on the
shore where we camp out in the summer. Please come in, gentlemen. My
house and everything in it is at the service of the brave and generous
Frenchmen who come to fight for our liberties.”</p>
<p>There was no doubt of the warmth of the strangers’ welcome. The Major
caught De Kalb’s hand and shook it strenuously, while his small son,
who had slipped into his clothes and hurried down-stairs to see what
all the noise was about, seized Lafayette by the arm and tried to pull
him into the lighted hall.</p>
<p>“You are most kind, Major Huger,” said De Kalb. “Let me introduce my
friends. This gentleman is the leader of our expedition, the Seigneur
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette; this is Monsieur Price of Sauveterre,
and I am Johann Kalb.”</p>
<p>“He is the Baron de Kalb, monsieur,” put in Lafayette.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> “A
brigadier in the army of the King of France and aid to the Marshal the
Count de Broglie.”</p>
<p>Major Huger had heard of the Marquis de Lafayette, for already news
of the Frenchman’s determination to fight for the young republic had
crossed the Atlantic. He caught Lafayette by both hands. “The Marquis
de Lafayette!” he cried. “My house is indeed honored by your presence!
We have all heard of you. You have only to command me, sir, and I will
do your bidding. I will look after your ship and your pilot. But to-night
you must stay here as my guests, and to-morrow I will see to everything.
This is my son, Francis Kinloch Huger. Now please come into my dining-room,
gentlemen, and let me offer you some refreshment.”</p>
<p>Small Francis, still holding Lafayette’s hand, drew the Marquis in at
the door. The three guests, delighted at their welcome, went to the dining-room,
and there toasts were drunk to the success of the cause of liberty. America
was not so inhospitable to the weary travelers after all, and with the
glow of the Major’s welcome warming them, Lafayette and his two friends
went to their rooms and slept in real beds for the first time in many
weeks.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
<p>Lafayette naturally was delighted at safely reaching his haven, and,
as he put it in his own words, “retired to rest rejoiced that he had
at last attained the haven of his wishes and was safely landed in America
beyond the reach of his pursuers.” Weary from his long voyage on the <i>Victory</i>,
he slept soundly, and woke full of enthusiasm for this new country, which
was to be like a foster-mother to him. “The next morning,” he wrote,
“was beautiful. The novelty of everything around me, the room, the bed
with its mosquito curtains, the black servants who came to ask my wishes,
the beauty and strange appearance of the country as I could see it from
my window clothed in luxuriant verdure,—all conspired to produce
upon me an effect like magic and to impress me with indescribable sensations.”</p>
<p>Major Huger had already sent a pilot to the <i>Victory</i> and had done
everything he could to assist Lafayette’s companions. All the Major’s
family were so kind and hospitable that they instantly won Lafayette’s
heart. He judged that all Americans would be like them, and wrote to
his wife,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> “the manners
of this people are simple, honest, and dignified. The wish to oblige,
the love of country, and freedom reign here together in sweet equality.
All citizens are brothers. They belong to a country where every cranny
resounds with the lovely name of Liberty. My sympathy with them makes
me feel as if I had been here for twenty years.” It was well for him
that his first reception in America was so pleasant and that he remembered
it with such delight, for he was later to find that some Americans were
not so cordial toward him.</p>
<p>If he was delighted with the Hugers, the Major and his son Francis were
equally delighted with the young Frenchman. And, strangely enough, the
little boy Francis, who had seized Lafayette’s hand on that June night
in 1777, was later to try to rescue his hero from a prison in Europe.</p>
<p>The Marquis and his friends thought they had had quite enough of life
on shipboard for the present, and so decided to go to Charlestown over
the country roads. The pilot that had been furnished by Major Huger came
back with word that there was not sufficient water for the <i>Victory</i> to
stay in Georgetown Bay, and Lafayette ordered the ship, in charge<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> of
the pilot, to sail to Charlestown. Meantime he and his companions, with
horses of the Major’s, rode to that seaport. As soon as he arrived there
he heard that there were a number of English cruisers on that part of
the coast, and so he at once sent word to Captain Leboucier to beach
the <i>Victory</i> and burn her, rather than let her be captured by the
cruisers.</p>
<p>The <i>Victory</i>, however, sailed safely into Charlestown without
sighting a hostile sail, and the captain unloaded Lafayette’s supplies
and his own private cargo. Later the sloop was loaded with rice and set
sail again, but was wrecked on a bar and became a total loss.</p>
<p>No welcome could have been warmer than that Lafayette received in Charlestown.
A dinner was given him, where the French officers met the American generals
Gulden, Howe, and Moultrie. All houses were thrown open to him, and he
was taken to inspect the fortifications and driven through the beautiful
country in the neighborhood. How pleased he was he showed in a letter
to Adrienne. “The city of Charlestown,” he wrote,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> “is
one of the prettiest and the best built that I have ever seen, and its
inhabitants are most agreeable. The American women are very pretty, very
unaffected, and exhibit a charming neatness,—a quality which is
most studiously cultivated here, much more even than in England. What
enchants me here is that all the citizens are brethren. There are no
poor people in America, nor even what we call peasants. All the citizens
have a moderate property, and all have the same rights as the most powerful
proprietor. The inns are very different from those of Europe: the innkeeper
and his wife sit at table with you, do the honors of a good repast, and
on leaving, you pay without haggling. When you do not choose to go to
an inn, you can find country houses where it is enough to be a good American
to be received with such attentions as in Europe would be paid to friends.”</p>
<p>That certainly speaks well for the hospitality of South Carolina!</p>
<p>He did not mean to tell his plans, however, until he should reach Philadelphia,
where the Congress of the United States was sitting.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> “I
have every reason to feel highly gratified at my reception in Charlestown,”
he wrote, “but I have not yet explained my plans to any one. I judge
it best to wait until I have presented myself to the Congress before
making a statement as to the projects I have in view.”</p>
<p>He had only one difficulty in the seaport town. When he started to sell
the <i>Victory</i> and her cargo he found that the men who had sold him
the ship and Captain Leboucier had so entangled him with agreements and
commissions, all of which he had signed without properly reading in his
haste to sail from Bordeaux, that, instead of receiving any money, he
was actually in debt. To pay this off and get the needed funds to take
his companions and himself to Philadelphia he had to borrow money, but
fortunately there were plenty of people in Charlestown who were ready
to help him out of that difficulty.</p>
<p>With the money borrowed from these well-disposed people Lafayette bought
horses and carriages to take his party over the nine hundred miles that
lay between Charlestown and Philadelphia. On June twenty-fifth the expedition
started. In front rode a French officer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> dressed
in the uniform of a hussar. Next came a heavy open carriage, in which
sat Lafayette and De Kalb, and close behind it rode Lafayette’s body-servant.
Then there followed a chaise with two colonels, the counselors of the
Marquis, another chaise with more French officers, still another with
the baggage, and finally, as rear-guard, a negro on horseback.</p>
<p>The country roads were frightful for travel; indeed for much of the
way they could scarcely be called roads at all, being simply primitive
clearings through the woods. The guide kept losing his way, and the carriages
bumped along over roots and logs in a hot, blistering sun. As far as
this particular journey went, the Frenchmen must have thought that travel
was very much easier in their own country. One accident followed another;
within four days the chaises had been jolted into splinters and the horses
had gone lame. The travelers had to buy other wagons and horses, and
to lighten their outfit kept leaving part of their baggage on the way.
Sometimes they had to walk, often they went hungry, and many a night
they slept in the woods. They began to appreciate<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> that
this new country, land of liberty though it was, had many disadvantages
when it came to the matter of travel.</p>
<p>From Petersburg in Virginia Lafayette wrote to Adrienne. “You have heard,”
said he, “how brilliantly I started out in a carriage. I have to inform
you that we are now on horseback after having broken the wagons in my
usual praiseworthy fashion, and I expect to write you before long that
we have reached our destination on foot.”</p>
<p>Yet, in spite of all these discomforts, the Marquis was able to enjoy
much of the journey. He studied the language of the people he met, he
admired the beautiful rivers and the great forests, and he kept pointing
out to his companions how much better the farmers here lived than the
peasants of his own country. At least there was plenty of land for every
one and no grasping overlords to take all the profits.</p>
<p>The journey lasted a month. The party paid a visit to Governor Caswell
in North Carolina and stopped at Petersburg and Annapolis, where Lafayette
met Major Brice, who later became his aide-de-camp. On July<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> twenty-seventh
the travel-worn party reached Philadelphia, which was then the capital
of the United States.</p>
<p>The outlook for the Americans was gloomy enough then. New York was in
the hands of the enemy, Burgoyne’s army had captured Ticonderoga and
was threatening to separate New England from the rest of the country,
and Howe was preparing to attack Philadelphia with a much larger army
than Washington could bring against him. It would have seemed just the
time when any help from abroad should have been doubly welcome, and yet
as a matter of fact the Congress was not so very enthusiastic about it.</p>
<p>The reason for this was that already a great number of adventurers had
come to America from the different countries of Europe and asked for
high commands in the American army. Many of them were soldiers of considerable
experience, and they all thought that they would make much better officers
than the ill-trained men of the new republic. Some of them also quickly
showed that they were eager for money, and one and all insisted on trying
to tell Congress exactly what it ought to do.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> Quite
naturally the Americans preferred to manage affairs in their own way.</p>
<p>George Washington had already sent a protest to Congress. “Their ignorance
of our language and their inability to recruit men,” he said, “are insurmountable
obstacles to their being ingrafted into our continental battalions; for
our officers, who have raised their men, and have served through the
war upon pay that has hitherto not borne their expenses, would be disgusted
if foreigners were put over their heads; and I assure you, few or none
of these gentlemen look lower than field-officers’ commissions. To give
them all brevets, by which they have rank, and draw pay without doing
any service, is saddling the continent with vast expense; and to form
them into corps would be only establishing corps of officers; for, as
I have said before, they cannot possibly raise any men.”</p>
<p>It was true that Silas Deane had been instructed to offer commissions
to a few French officers, whose experience might help the Americans,
but he had scattered commissions broadcast, and some of these men had
proved of little use. One of them, Du Coudray, had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> arrived
and insisted on commanding the artillery with the rank of major-general,
and had aroused so much opposition that Generals Greene, Sullivan, and
Knox had threatened to resign if his demands were granted. Congress was
therefore beginning to look askance at many of the men who bore Silas
Deane’s commissions.</p>
<p>That was the state of affairs when Lafayette, confident of a warm welcome,
reached Philadelphia and presented himself and his friends to John Hancock,
the president of Congress. Hancock may have received letters concerning
the young Frenchman from Deane and Benjamin Franklin in Paris, but, if
he had, he had paid little attention to them, and was inclined to regard
this young man of nineteen as simply another adventurer from Europe.
With a scant word of welcome Hancock referred Lafayette to Gouverneur
Morris, who, he said, “had such matters in charge.”</p>
<p>The Frenchmen went to see Morris, but to him also they appeared only
a new addition to the many adventurers already hanging about, looking
for high commands. He put off dealing with Lafayette and De Kalb.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> “Meet
me to-morrow at the door of Congress, gentlemen,” said he. “I will look
over your papers in the meantime and will see what I can do for you.”</p>
<p>The two new arrivals kept the appointment promptly, but Morris was not
on hand. After they had cooled their heels for some time he appeared,
bringing with him Mr. Lovell, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs. “Matters that concern France are in Mr. Lovell’s charge,” said
Morris. “Please deal with him after this.”</p>
<p>Lovell bowed to the strangers. “I understand, gentlemen,” said he, “that
you have authority from Mr. Deane?”</p>
<p>“Certainly, sir,” De Kalb answered. “Our papers and agreements show
that.”</p>
<p>Lovell frowned. “This is very annoying,” said he.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> “We
authorized Mr. Deane to send us four French engineers, but instead he
has sent us a number of engineers who are no engineers and some artillerists
who have never seen service. Mr. Franklin, however, has sent us the four
engineers we wanted. There is nothing for you to do here, gentlemen.
We needed a few experienced officers last year, but now we have plenty,
and can promise no more positions. I must bid you good-morning.”</p>
<p>Here was a dashing blow to all their eager wishes. Surprise and disappointment
showed in their faces.</p>
<p>“But, sir,” began De Kalb, “Mr. Deane promised——”</p>
<p>“Well, Mr. Deane has exceeded his authority,” declared Lovell. “He has
promised too much and we cannot recognize his authority. We haven’t even
a colonel’s commission to give to any foreign officers, to say nothing
of a major-general’s. The Congress is very much annoyed by these constant
demands, and General Washington says he won’t be disturbed by any more
requests. I am sorry to disappoint you, but under the circumstances I
can promise you nothing. Again I must bid you good-morning.”</p>
<p>Lovell returned to Congress, leaving the Frenchmen much discomfited.
De Kalb began to storm, and finally spoke angrily of the way they had
been treated by Deane. “It is not to be borne!” he cried.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> “I
will take action against Deane! I will have damages for this indignity
he has put upon us!”</p>
<p>Fortunately Lafayette was more even-tempered. In spite of this rebuff
at the outset he meant to achieve his goal. He turned to the angry De
Kalb and laid his hand restrainingly on the latter’s arm. “Let us not
talk of damages, my friend,” he said. “It is more important for us to
talk of doing. It is true that Congress didn’t ask us to leave our homes
and cross the sea to lead its army. But I will not go back now. If the
Congress will not accept me as a major-general, I will fight for American
liberty as a volunteer!”</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="V">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">V<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">“I WILL FIGHT FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY AS A VOLUNTEER!”</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Lafayette</span>, standing outside the door of the
American Congress in Philadelphia, refused the commission in the American
army that had been promised him by Silas Deane, spoke these words of
encouragement to his disappointed and indignant friends who had crossed
with him from France. “If the Congress will not accept me as a major-general,
I will fight for American liberty as a volunteer!” he said; and, having
come to this decision, he immediately proceeded to put it into effect.
He went to his lodgings and wrote a letter to John Hancock, president
of Congress.</p>
<p>Lafayette’s letter explained the reasons why he had come to the United
States and recounted the many difficulties he had had to overcome. He
stated that he thought that the promise he had received from Silas Deane,
the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> approval of
Benjamin Franklin, and the sacrifices he had himself made ought to lead
Congress to give a friendly hearing to his request. He said that he understood
how Congress had been besieged by foreign officers seeking high rank
in the army, but added that he only asked two favors. These were, in
his own words, “First, that I serve without pay and at my own expense;
and, the other, that I be allowed to serve at first as a volunteer.”</p>
<p>This letter was a great surprise to John Hancock and the other leaders
of Congress. Here was a young French officer of family and wealth who
was so deeply interested in their cause that he was eager to serve as
an unpaid volunteer! He was a different type from the others who had
come begging for favors. Hancock looked up the letter that Franklin had
written about the Marquis, and read,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> “Those
who censure him as imprudent do nevertheless applaud his spirit, and
we are satisfied that the civilities and respect that may be shown him
will be serviceable to our affairs here, as pleasing not only to his
powerful relations and to the court, but to the whole French nation.”</p>
<p>Hancock was impressed; perhaps they had made a mistake in treating this
Marquis de Lafayette in such cavalier fashion. So he sent another member
of Congress to see the young Frenchman and instructed him to treat Lafayette
with the greatest courtesy. And the result of this interview was that
Hancock’s emissary was quickly convinced of Lafayette’s absolute honesty
of purpose and intense desire to help the United States.</p>
<p>Having reached this conclusion Hancock decided to make amends and do
the honorable thing, and so, on July 31, 1777, Congress passed the following
resolution:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> “Whereas,
the Marquis de Lafayette, out of his great zeal to the cause of liberty,
in which the United States are engaged, has left his family and connections,
and, at his own expense, come over to offer his services to the United
States, without pension or particular allowance, and is anxious to risk
his life in our cause, therefore, Resolved, that his services be accepted,
and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family, and connections,
he have the rank and commission of major-general in the army of the United
States.”</p>
<p>How fortunate it was that Lafayette had not been daunted at the outset,
or discouraged as De Kalb and his companions had been! His great dream
had come true as a result of perseverance; he had been welcomed by Congress,
and was, at nineteen, a major-general in the army of liberty!</p>
<p>But he did not forget those companions who had crossed the sea with
the same desires as his own. In the letter he wrote to Congress, penned
in his own quaint English,—a letter now in the State Department
at Washington,—after thanking “the Honorable mr. Hancok,” as he
spelled it, and expressing his gratitude to Congress, he said, “it is
now as an american that I’l mention every day to congress the officers
who came over with me, whose interests are for me as my own, and the
consideration which they deserve by their merit, their ranks, their state
and reputation in france.”</p>
<p>He was unable, however, to do much for these friends, though one of
them said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> “He did
everything that was possible for our appointment, but in vain, for he
had no influence. But if he had his way, De Kalb would have been major-general
and we should all have had places.”</p>
<p>Congress felt that it could not give them all commissions. Captain de
Bedaulx, who was a veteran officer, was made a captain in the American
army, one other was engaged as a draughtsman and engineer, and Lafayette
kept two as his own aides-de-camp. Most of the others were sent back
to France, their expenses being paid by Congress. As for De Kalb, he
had given up his plans for high rank and preferment and was on his way
to take passage on a ship for Europe when a messenger reached him with
word that Congress, voting for one more major-general in the army, had
elected him.</p>
<p>Lafayette, in his letter to Hancock, had said that he wished to serve
“near the person of General Washington till such time as he may think
proper to entrust me with a division of the army.” Events soon gave him
the chance to meet the commander-in-chief. The arrival of Howe’s fleet
at the mouth of the Delaware River seemed to threaten Philadelphia, and
Washington left his camp in New Jersey to consult with Congress. Lafayette<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> was
invited to a dinner in Philadelphia to meet the commander-in-chief, and
accepted eagerly. The Frenchman was greatly impressed. “Although General
Washington was surrounded by officers and private citizens,” he wrote,
“the majesty of his countenance and of his figure made it impossible
not to recognize him; he was especially distinguished also by the affability
of his manners and the dignity with which he addressed those about him.”</p>
<p>Washington had already heard of Lafayette and found a chance for a long
talk with him. On his part he was at once strongly attracted by the young
Marquis. “You have made the greatest sacrifices for our cause, sir,”
Washington said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> “and
your evident zeal and generosity interest me deeply. I shall do my part
toward making you one of us. I shall be greatly pleased to have you join
my staff as a volunteer aid, and beg you to make my headquarters your
home, until events place you elsewhere. I beg you to consider yourself
at all times as one of my military family, and I shall be glad to welcome
you at the camp as speedily as you think proper. Of course I cannot promise
you the luxuries of a court, but, as you have now become an American
soldier, you will doubtless accommodate yourself to the fare of an American
army, and submit with a good grace to its customs, manners, and privations.”</p>
<p>The next day Washington invited Lafayette to accompany him on a tour
of inspection of the fortifications about Philadelphia.</p>
<p>The General liked the Marquis, but was not quite certain how the latter
could best be employed. He wrote to Benjamin Harrison, who was a member
of Congress,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> “As
I understand the Marquis de Lafayette, it is certain that he does not
conceive that his commission is merely honorary, but is given with a
view to command a division of this army. It is true he has said that
he is young and inexperienced; but at the same time he has always accompanied
it with a hint that, so soon as I shall think him fit for the command
of a division, he shall be ready to enter upon his duties, and in the
meantime has offered his services for a smaller command. What the designs
of Congress respecting this gentleman were, and what line of conduct
I am to pursue to comply with their design and his expectations—I
know not and beg to be instructed.... Let me beseech you, my good sir,
to give me the sentiments of Congress on this matter, that I may endeavor,
as far as it is in my power, to comply with them.”</p>
<p>Mr. Harrison answered that Congress intended Lafayette’s appointment
to be regarded merely as an honorary one, and that the commander-in-chief
was to use his own judgment concerning him.</p>
<p>In the meantime Lafayette set out from Philadelphia to join Washington’s
army. That army, early in August, had begun its march eastward, hoping
to cut off any British move about New York; but the appearance of the
British fleet off the Delaware had brought them to a halt, and Washington
ordered them into camp near the present village of Hartsville, on the
old York Road leading out of Philadelphia. Here, on August twenty-first,
Lafayette joined the army, just as the commander, with Generals Stirling,
Greene, and Knox, was about to review the troops.</p>
<p>It was indeed a sorry-looking army, according to the standards of Europe.
There were about eleven thousand men, poorly armed and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> wretchedly
clad. Their clothes were old and ragged, hardly any two suits alike,
and the men knew little enough about military tactics. Courage and resolution
had to take the place of science; but there was no lack of either bravery
or determination. Yet some of the foreign officers who had seen the American
army had spoken very slightingly of it, and Washington said to Lafayette,
“It is somewhat embarrassing to us to show ourselves to an officer who
has just come from the army of France.”</p>
<p>Lafayette, always tactful, always sympathetic, smiled. “I am here to
learn and not to teach, Your Excellency,” he answered.</p>
<p>A council of war followed the review, and the commander asked the Marquis
to attend it. The council decided that if the British were planning to
invade the Carolinas it was unwise to attempt to follow them south, and
that the army had better try to recapture New York. But at that very
moment a messenger brought word that the British fleet had sailed into
Chesapeake Bay, and, hearing this, Washington concluded to march his
army to the south of Philadelphia and prepare to defend that city.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
<p>Ragged and out-at-elbows as the small American army was, it marched
proudly through the streets of Philadelphia. With sprigs of green branches
in their hats the soldiers stepped along to the tune of fife and drum,
presenting, at least in the eyes of the townspeople, a very gallant appearance.
Lafayette rode by the side of Washington, glad that the opportunity had
come for him to be of service.</p>
<p>Very soon he had a chance to share danger with his commander. When the
troops arrived on the heights of Wilmington, Washington, with Lafayette
and Greene, made a reconnaissance, and, being caught by a storm and darkness,
was obliged to spend the night so near to the British lines that he might
easily have been discovered by a scout or betrayed into the hands of
the enemy.</p>
<p>Meantime General Howe and Lord Cornwallis had landed eighteen thousand
veteran troops near what is now Elkton in Maryland, and was advancing
toward Philadelphia. To defend the city Washington drew up his forces
on September ninth at Chadd’s Ford on the Brandywine. One column of Howe’s
army<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> marched to
this place and on September eleventh succeeded in driving across the
river to the American camp. The other column, under command of Cornwallis,
made a long détour through the thickly wooded country, and bore down
on the right and rear of Washington’s army, threatening its total destruction.</p>
<p>The American commander at once sent General Sullivan, with five thousand
men, to meet this force on the right. Realizing that most of the fighting
would be done there, Lafayette asked and was given permission to join
General Sullivan. Riding up as a volunteer aid, he found the half-formed
wings of the American army attacked by the full force under Cornwallis.
The Americans had to fall back, two of General Sullivan’s aids were killed,
and a disorderly retreat began. Lafayette leaped from his horse, and,
sword in hand, called on the soldiers to make a stand.</p>
<p>He checked the retreat for a few moments; other troops came up, and
the Americans offered gallant resistance. Lafayette was shot through
the calf of the leg, but, apparently unconscious of the wound, continued<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> to
encourage his men. Then Cornwallis’s brigades swept forward again, and
Sullivan’s troops had to give ground before the greater numbers. The
battle became a general rout. Gimat, Lafayette’s aid, saw that the young
man was wounded, and helped him to mount his horse. The wounded man then
tried to rejoin Washington, but soon after he had to stop to have his
leg bandaged.</p>
<p>The first British column had driven the American troops from Chadd’s
Ford, and the latter, together with Sullivan’s men, fell back along the
road to Chester. Washington attempted to cover the retreat with rear-guard
fighting, but night found him pursued by both divisions of the enemy.
In the retreat Lafayette came to a bridge, and made a stand until Washington
and his aids reached him. Then together they rode on to Chester, and
there the Frenchman’s wound was properly dressed by a surgeon.</p>
<p>The battle had been in one sense a defeat for the Americans, but it
had shown General Howe the fine fighting quality of Washington’s men,
and the American commander had been able to save the bulk of his army,
when<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> Howe had expected
to capture it entire. Today a little monument stands on a ridge near
the Quaker meeting-house outside Chadd’s Ford, erected, so the inscription
says, “by the citizens and school children of Chester County,” because,
“on the rising ground a short distance south of this spot, Lafayette
was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777.” And the
monument also bears these words of Lafayette: “The honor to have mingled
my blood with that of many other American soldiers on the heights of
the Brandywine has been to me a source of pride and delight.”</p>
<p>The battle-field of the Brandywine was only about twenty-six miles from
Philadelphia, and the cannonade had been clearly heard in the city. The
word the couriers brought filled the people with alarm; many citizens
began to fly from the city and Congress took its departure, to meet at
the town of York, one hundred miles to the west. The Americans wounded
at the Brandywine were sent to Philadelphia, and Lafayette was conveyed
there by water. From that city he was sent up the Delaware River to Bristol.
There he met Henry Laurens, who<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> had
succeeded John Hancock as the president of Congress, and Laurens, being
on his way to York, took Lafayette with him in his own carriage to the
Old Sun Inn at Bethlehem, the quiet home of a people called the Moravians,
fifty miles to the north of Philadelphia. In later times Henry Laurens,
by one of those strange turns of the wheel of fate, became a prisoner
in the Tower of London, and Madame de Lafayette repaid his kindness to
her husband by seeking the aid of the French government to secure his
release.</p>
<p>There could have been no better place for a wounded man to recover his
strength than in the peaceful little Moravian community at Bethlehem.
For six weeks he stayed there, and the people tended him like one of
themselves. He could not use his leg, but he spent part of his enforced
idleness drawing up plans for the invasion of the British colonies in
the West Indies. He also wrote long letters to his wife in France. “Be
entirely free from anxiety as to my wound,” he said in one of these,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> “for
all the doctors in America are aroused in my behalf. I have a friend
who has spoken for me in a way to ensure my being well taken care of;
and that is General Washington. That estimable man, whose talents and
whose virtues I admired before, whom I venerate the more now as I learn
to know him, has been kind enough to me to become my intimate friend.
His tender interest in me quickly won my heart.... When he sent his surgeon-in-chief
to me, he directed him to care for me as I were his son, because he loved
me so much; and having learned that I wanted to join the army too soon
again, he wrote me a letter full of tenderness in which he admonished
me to wait until I should be entirely well.”</p>
<p>Wonderful it was that Washington, beset and harassed with all the burdens
of a commander-in-chief, could yet find the time to pay so much attention
to his wounded French aid!</p>
<p>Lafayette knew well that matters looked dark then for the American republic.
In another letter to Adrienne he said, “Now that you are the wife of
an American general officer, I must give you a lesson. People will say,
‘They have been beaten.’ You must answer,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> ‘It
is true, but with two armies equal in number, and on level ground, old
soldiers always have an advantage over new ones; besides, the Americans
inflicted a greater loss than they sustained.’ Then, people will add,
‘That’s all very well; but Philadelphia, the capital of America, the
highroad of liberty, is taken.’ You will reply politely, ‘You are fools!
Philadelphia is a poor city, open on every side, of which the port was
already closed. The presence of Congress made it famous, I know not why;
that’s what this famous city amounts to, which, by the way, we shall
retake sooner or later.’ If they continue to ply you with questions,
send them about their business in terms that the Vicomte de Noailles
will supply you with.”</p>
<p>It was true that General Howe had taken Philadelphia while Lafayette
had to nurse his wounded leg at Bethlehem. It was not until the latter
part of October that the Marquis was able to rejoin the army, and then
his wound had not sufficiently healed to allow him to wear a boot. The
battle of Germantown, by which Washington hoped to dislodge the British
from Philadelphia, had been fought, and the year’s campaign was about
to close. Two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> battles
had been lost by the Americans in the south, but in the north the British
general Burgoyne had been obliged to surrender. Washington’s headquarters
were now at Methacton Hill, near the Schuylkill River, and there Lafayette
went, hoping for active service.</p>
<p>His chance for service came soon. Cornwallis had entered New Jersey
with five thousand men, and General Greene was sent to oppose him with
an equal number. Lafayette joined Greene as a volunteer, and at Mount
Holly he was ordered to reconnoitre. On November twenty-fifth he found
the enemy at Gloucester. Their forage wagons were crossing the river
to Philadelphia, and Lafayette, in order to make a more thorough examination
of their position, went dangerously far out on a tongue of land. Here
he might easily have been captured, but he was quick enough to escape
without injury. Later, at four o’clock in the afternoon, he found himself
before a post of Hessians, four hundred men with cannon. Lafayette had
one hundred and fifty sharpshooters under Colonel Butler, and about two
hundred militiamen and light-horse. He did not know the strength of the
enemy,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> but he attacked,
and drove them back so boldly that Cornwallis, thinking he must be dealing
with all of Greene’s forces, allowed his troops to retreat to Gloucester
with a loss of sixty men.</p>
<p>This was the first real opportunity Lafayette had had to show his skill
in leading men, and he had done so well that General Greene was delighted.
In the report he sent to Washington he said, “The Marquis is charmed
with the spirited behavior of the militia and rifle corps. They drove
the enemy about a mile and kept the ground until dark.... The Marquis
is determined to be in the way of danger.”</p>
<p>Lafayette had shown himself to be a daring and skilful officer; more
than that, he had endeared himself to the men under his command. And
this was more than could be said for most of the foreign officers in
the American army; many of them devoted the larger part of their time
to criticizing everything about them. Baron de Kalb expressed his opinion
of these adventurers from across the Atlantic in forceful terms. “These
people,” said he,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> “think
of nothing but their incessant intrigues and backbitings. They hate each
other like the bitterest enemies, and endeavor to injure each other whenever
an opportunity offers. Lafayette is the sole exception.... Lafayette
is much liked and is on the best of terms with Washington.”</p>
<p>It was natural, therefore, that Washington, having had such a good account
of the young Frenchman at the skirmish at Gloucester, should be willing
to gratify his desire for a regular command in the army. So the commander-in-chief
wrote to Congress concerning the Marquis. “There are now some vacant
positions in the army,” said Washington, “to one of which he may be appointed,
if it should be the pleasure of Congress. I am convinced he possesses
a large share of that military ardor that characterizes the nobility
of his country.”</p>
<p>And Congress agreed with Washington, and voted that “the Marquis de
Lafayette be appointed to the command of a division in the Continental
Army.” On December 4, 1777, the Frenchman was given the command of the
Virginia division. He was twenty years old, and it was only a little
more than a year since<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> he
had first heard from the Duke of Gloucester about the fight of the American
farmers for liberty. He had accomplished a great deal in that year, and
had won his spurs by pluck, by perseverance, and by ability.</p>
<p>Naturally he was delighted at this evidence of the confidence that Washington
and the American Congress placed in him. He wrote to his father-in-law,
the Duke d’Ayen, the man who had tried his best to keep him from coming
to America, “At last I have what I have always wished for,—the
command of a division. It is weak in point of numbers; it is almost naked,
and I must make both clothes and recruits; but I read, I study, I examine,
I listen, I reflect, and upon the result of all this I make an effort
to form my opinion and to put into it as much common sense as I can ...
for I do not want to disappoint the confidence that the Americans have
so kindly placed in me.”</p>
<p>Events were soon to test both his ability and his mettle.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="VI">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">VI<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">LAFAYETTE WINS THE FRIENDSHIP OF WASHINGTON</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">In</span> December, 1777, Washington’s army went
into winter quarters at Valley Forge. That winter was to test the courage
and endurance of the soldiers, for they were ill-clad, ill-provisioned,
and the road to victory appeared a long and weary one. Fortunately the
commander-in-chief was a man of intrepid soul, one who could instill
confidence into the men about him.</p>
<p>Lafayette quickly found that all the people of the young republic were
not in agreement about the war. Men called Tories joined the British
army, and in countless other ways hampered the work of Congress. Business
was at such a standstill that it was almost impossible to obtain clothing,
shoes, and the other supplies that were so urgently needed, and as Congress
had no power to impose and collect taxes it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> hard
to raise any money. The different states had each its jealousies of the
others and each its own ends to serve, and indeed in 1777 the union was
so loosely knitted that it was a wonder that it held together at all.</p>
<p>Washington had chosen Valley Forge as his winter quarters because from
there he could watch the enemy, keep the British to their own picket
lines, and cut off supplies going into Philadelphia. Otherwise, however,
the place had little to recommend it. The farmhouses in the neighborhood
could hold only a few of the two thousand men who were on the sick-list,
whose shoeless feet were torn and frozen from marching and who were ill
from hunger and exposure. For the rest the soldiers had to build their
own shelters, and they cut logs in the woods, covered them with mud,
and made them into huts, each of which had to house fourteen men. There
the American troops, lacking necessary food and blankets, shivered and
almost starved during the long winter.</p>
<p>There were times when Washington would have liked to make a sortie or
an attack on the enemy, but his men were not in condition for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> it.
Constantly he wrote to Congress, urging relief for his army. Once a number
of members of Congress paid a visit to Valley Forge, and later sent a
remonstrance to the commander-in-chief, urging him not to keep his army
in idleness but to march on Philadelphia. To this Washington answered,
“I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much easier and less distressing
thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room, by a good fireside,
than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without
clothes or blankets. However, although they seem to have little feeling
for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them;
and from my soul I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my power
to relieve nor prevent.”</p>
<p>All those hardships Lafayette also shared, setting his men an example
of patience and fortitude that did much to help them through the rigorous
winter, and winning again and again the praise of his commander for his
devotion.</p>
<p>In the meantime some men of influence, known as the “Conway Cabal,”
from the name of one of the leaders, plotted to force Washington<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> from
the chief command, and put General Greene in his place. They wanted to
use Lafayette as a catspaw, and decided that the first step was to separate
him from Washington’s influence. With this object in view they planned
an invasion of Canada, the command of the expedition to be given to Lafayette.
But Lafayette saw through the plotting, and refused to lead the expedition
except under Washington’s orders and with De Kalb as his second in command.
He also showed where he stood when he was invited to York to meet some
of the members of Congress and generals who were opposing his leader.
At a dinner given in his honor he rose, and, lifting his glass, proposed
a toast to “The health of George Washington, our noble commander-in-chief!”
The party had to drink the toast, and they saw that the Frenchman was
not to be swerved from his loyalty to his chief.</p>
<p>Congress had decided on the expedition to Canada, though the conspirators
now saw that their plot had failed, and so Lafayette set out for Albany
in February, 1778, to take command of the army of invasion. But when
he got there he found that nothing had been done<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> by
way of preparation, and that none of those in authority were able to
help him. Twelve hundred ill-provided men were all he could raise, altogether
too few and too poorly armed for such an ambitious enterprise. Very much
disappointed, he had to give up the idea of leading such an army. More
and more he grew convinced that all the hopes of America rested on Washington.</p>
<p>That Washington might know his feelings, Lafayette wrote to him. “Take
away for an instant,” he said, “that modest diffidence of yourself (which,
pardon my freedom, my dear general, is sometimes too great, and I wish
you could know, as well as myself, what difference there is between you
and any other man), and you would see very plainly that, if you were
lost for America, there is no one who could keep the army and the revolution
for six months.... I am now fixed to your fate, and I shall follow it
and sustain it as well by my sword as by all means in my power. You will
pardon my importunity in favor of the sentiment which dictated it.”</p>
<p>Washington was no less devoted to Lafayette. When the latter returned
disappointed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> from
Albany the commander said to him, “However sensibly your ardor for glory
may make you feel this disappointment you may be assured that your character
stands as fair as it ever did, and that no new enterprise is necessary
to wipe off an imaginary stain.”</p>
<p>And Washington’s view was now so strongly held by Congress that it immediately
voted that it had “a high sense of the prudence, activity, and zeal of
the Marquis de Lafayette,” and that it was “fully persuaded nothing has,
or would have been, wanting on his part or on the part of the officers
who accompanied him to give the expedition the utmost possible effect.”</p>
<p>Lafayette went back to Valley Forge to cheer his soldiers, and there,
early in May, 1778, news came that Benjamin Franklin had succeeded in
his efforts in France and that the government of Louis XVI. had decided
on “armed interference” in the affairs of America, and that a treaty
of alliance had been signed between the United States and the French
king.</p>
<p>The army at Valley Forge was wild with delight at this news. How it
must have cheered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> Lafayette
to know that his own country now stood with the young republic of the
west! Washington proclaimed a holiday and held a review of his troops.
Then the commander planned a new and more vigorous campaign.</p>
<p>The British, now foreseeing possible French as well as American attack,
decided to give up Philadelphia and fall back on New York. Washington
learned of this, and in order to keep a check on the movements of his
opponents, he sent Lafayette with a strong force of two thousand picked
men to keep as close to the British lines as possible.</p>
<p>Lafayette joyfully led his command to a ridge called Barren Hill that
overlooked the Schuylkill. From here he could watch the road from Philadelphia,
and he at once fortified his camp. British scouts brought reports of
this to their generals, and the latter decided it would be a capital
plan to defeat the Frenchman’s forces and capture the Marquis. This they
considered so easy to accomplish that Generals Howe and Clinton sent
out invitations to their friends to a dinner at their headquarters<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> “to
meet Monsieur the Marquis de Lafayette.”</p>
<p>On the morning of May twentieth eight thousand British and Hessian soldiers
with fifteen pieces of artillery marched out of Philadelphia by one road
to take Lafayette in the rear, while by another road a force of grenadiers
and cavalry marched to attack his right wing, and a third column, commanded
by Generals Howe and Clinton in person, with the admiral, Lord Howe,
accompanying them as a volunteer, took a third road to attack the Marquis
in front. In this way the enemy forces were completely surrounding the
American position, except on the side of the river, by which they considered
escape impossible.</p>
<p>Lafayette was talking with a young woman who had agreed to go into Philadelphia
and try to obtain information on the pretext of visiting her relations
there, when word was brought him that redcoats had been seen in the rear.
He was expecting a small force of dragoons, and his first idea was that
it was these who were approaching. But, being a prudent commander, he
at once sent out scouts, and these quickly reported the advance of a
large force. Immediately he made a change of front under cover of the
stone houses and the woods.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> Then
messengers dashed up with news of the real state of affairs. His little
command was about to be attacked in a three-cornered fight by an overwhelming
number of the enemy.</p>
<p>It was a ticklish position, and Lafayette came within a hair’s breadth
of being trapped and captured. His men called out to him that he was
completely surrounded. In the confusion of the moment he had to keep
on smiling, as he afterward said. It was a test fit to try the skill
of a much more experienced general than the young Frenchman. But this
one had studied his ground thoroughly, and lost not a moment in deciding
on his course. Back of his men was a road, hidden from the British by
trees, which led to a little-used crossing known as Matson’s Ford, a
place unknown to the enemy, though they were, as a matter of fact, much
nearer to it than Lafayette was.</p>
<p>The Marquis quickly threw out “false heads of columns,” that is, a few
men here and there, who were to march through the woods at different
points, and give the impression that his whole army was advancing to
battle. The British general saw these “false heads” and, taking them
to be the advance guards of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> Americans,
halted to form his lines. Meantime Lafayette sent all his other troops
at the double-quick down the hidden road and across the ford, bringing
up the rear himself and waiting until he was joined by the men who had
formed the false columns.</p>
<p>The small American army was almost all across the ford before the enemy
realized his mistake and began to attack. Then, as the three British
columns climbed the hill to crush the Americans according to their plans,
they met only each other. They tried to make an attack on Lafayette’s
rear, but by that time he was out of their reach. He crossed the Schuylkill
and reached the camp at Valley Forge without the loss of a single man,
to the great delight and relief of Washington, who had heard of the danger
in which Lafayette stood and had ordered signal guns fired to warn him
of it.</p>
<p>Lafayette had a good story to tell the commander-in-chief on his return.
A small body of Indian warriors had been stationed in ambush to attack
any stray parties of the enemy. As the Indians lay in the bushes they
saw a company of grenadiers in tall bearskin hats<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> and
scarlet coats coming up the road. Never having seen such men as these
before the Indians were seized with terror, threw down their arms, and
yelling as loud as they could, made a dash for the river. The grenadiers,
on their part, seeing the painted faces and hearing the yells, thought
they had come on a crowd of devils, and hurried away as fast as they
could in the opposite direction.</p>
<p>Washington complimented Lafayette on what had really amounted to a victory,
the bringing his men in safety from an attack by overwhelming forces,
and advised Congress of the Frenchman’s “timely and handsome retreat
in great order.”</p>
<p>And so Generals Howe and Clinton were unable to present to their guests
at the dinner at their headquarters that evening “Monsieur the Marquis
de Lafayette,” as they had intended.</p>
<p>If the British generals meant to use their armies in the field it was
clear that they could not stay in Philadelphia indefinitely. As Franklin
said, instead of their having taken Philadelphia, Philadelphia had taken
them. They had spent the winter there in idleness,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> and
unless they purposed to spend the summer there in the same fashion they
must be on the move. Washington foresaw this, and called a council of
war to decide on plans for his forces, and at this council General Charles
Lee, who was then second in command, insisted that the Americans were
not strong enough to offer effective opposition to the enemy, although
Generals Greene, Wayne, Cadwalader, and Lafayette expressed contrary
opinions. Then, early in the morning of June 18, 1778, General Howe’s
army evacuated Philadelphia, and crossed the Delaware on their way to
New York.</p>
<p>Washington instantly prepared to follow. General Maxwell was sent out
in advance with a division of militia to impede the enemy’s progress
by burning bridges and throwing trees across the roads. The bulk of the
American army followed, and when they arrived near Princeton, in New
Jersey, Washington called another council. Here Lafayette made a stirring
plea for immediate action. But Lee again opposed this, and the council
decided, against Washington’s own judgment, not to bring on a general
engagement with the enemy.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
<p>Almost immediately, however, the advance of General Clinton threatened
one of the American detachments, and Lee was ordered to check this. He
declined to do so, saying it was contrary to the decision of the council
of war. At once the command was given to Lafayette, who took the appointment
with the greatest eagerness.</p>
<p>But the Marquis had hardly more than planned his advance when General
Lee interfered again. The latter saw that if the movement was successful
all the honor of it would go to Lafayette, and this was not at all according
to his wishes. So he appealed to Washington to replace him in his command,
and also went to Lafayette and asked the latter to retire in his favor.
“I place my fortune and my honor in your hands,” he said; “you are too
generous to destroy both the one and the other.”</p>
<p>He was right; Lafayette was too chivalrous to refuse such a request.
Lee had placed Washington in an awkward situation, but the Frenchman’s
tact and good-feeling, qualities which had already greatly endeared him
to all the Americans he had met, relieved the commander-in-chief of the
need of offending Lee.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> Lafayette
immediately wrote to Washington, “I want to repeat to you in writing
what I have told to you; which is, that if you believe it, or if it is
believed, necessary or useful to the good of the service and the honor
of General Lee to send him down with a couple of thousand men or any
greater force, I will cheerfully obey and serve him, not only out of
duty, but out of what I owe to that gentleman’s character.”</p>
<p>No wonder Washington liked a man who could be so unselfish as that!
He gave the command back to Lee, and arranged that Lafayette should lead
the advance.</p>
<p>Early the following morning Washington ordered an attack on the British
at Monmouth Court House, and on June 28, 1778, the battle of Monmouth
was fought. The result might have been very different if Lafayette, and
not Lee, had been in command. For Lee delayed, and when he did finally
move forward he assaulted what he thought was a division of the enemy,
but what turned out to be the main body. He was driven back, tried another
attack, got his officers confused by his contradictory orders, and at
last gave the word for a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> retreat,
which threatened to become a rout. At this point Washington rode up,
questioned the officers, got no satisfactory answer as to what had happened,
and was so indignant that when he reached General Lee he took the latter
to task in the strongest terms. Then he gave instant orders to make a
stand, and by his superb control of the situation succeeded in having
his men repulse all further attacks.</p>
<p>Lafayette meantime had led his cavalry in a charge, had done his best
to stem the retreat, and when Washington arrived reformed his line upon
a hill, and with the aid of a battery drove back the British. By his
efforts and those of the commander-in-chief the day was finally partly
saved and the American army manœuvred out of disaster.</p>
<p>Night came on and the troops camped where they were. Washington, wrapped
in his cloak, slept at the foot of a tree, with Lafayette beside him.
And when they woke in the morning they found that the enemy had stolen
away, leaving their wounded behind them.</p>
<p>So the honors of war at Monmouth, in spite of General Lee, lay with
Washington. The enemy, however, escaped across New Jersey<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> and
reached New York without any further attacks by the Americans.</p>
<p>When Sir Henry Clinton arrived near Sandy Hook he found the English
fleet riding at anchor in the lower bay, having just come from the Delaware.
Heavy storms had broken through the narrow strip of sand that connects
Sandy Hook with the mainland, and it was now divided by a deep channel.
A bridge was made of the ships’ boats, and Clinton’s army crossed over
to the Hook, and was distributed on Long Island, Staten Island, and in
New York. In the meantime Washington moved his troops from Monmouth to
Paramus, where the Americans rested.</p>
<p>Now a French fleet of fourteen frigates and twelve battle-ships, under
the command of Count d’Estaing, reached the mouth of the Delaware at
about that time. Monsieur Gérard, the minister sent to the United States
by the court of France, and Silas Deane, were on board, and when D’Estaing
heard that Lord Howe’s squadron had left the Delaware he sent Gérard
and Deane up to Philadelphia in a frigate, and sailed along the coast
to Sandy Hook, where he saw the English fleet at anchor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> inside.
He had considerable advantage over Lord Howe in point of strength, and
at once prepared to attack the enemy squadron. Anticipating this, Washington
crossed the Hudson River at King’s Ferry, and on July twentieth took
up a position at White Plains.</p>
<p>The French fleet, however, could not make the attack. They could find
no pilots who were willing to take the large ships into New York harbor,
for all the pilots agreed that there was not enough water there, and
the French admiral’s own soundings confirmed their opinion.</p>
<p>Washington and D’Estaing therefore agreed on a joint expedition against
Newport, in Rhode Island. Washington sent orders to General Sullivan
at Providence to ask the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode
Island to supply enough militia to make up an army of five thousand men.
At the same time he sent Lafayette with two thousand men from the Hudson
to Providence to support the French naval attack.</p>
<p>On July twenty-ninth the French fleet reached Point Judith and anchored
about five miles from Newport. General Sullivan and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> Lafayette
and some other officers went on board to make plans for the joint attack.
The British troops numbered about six thousand men, and they were strongly
intrenched. The allies had some four thousand men on the French ships
and between nine and ten thousand Americans at Providence.</p>
<p>Disputes arose as to the best plan of campaign; it was argued whether
the men of the two nations would fight better separately or together.
Then the English fleet appeared in the distance, and D’Estaing, considering
that it was his chief business to destroy the enemy squadron, at once
stood out to sea. A violent storm came up, driving the two fleets apart,
and doing great damage to ships on both sides. When the storm subsided
D’Estaing insisted on sailing his fleet to Boston to make needed repairs,
and so the joint expedition came to an end, without having struck a blow.
General Sullivan’s plans were in confusion. Lafayette rode to Boston
and begged the French admiral to come back as soon as he could. At last
D’Estaing promised to land his sailors and march them overland to Newport;
but before he could do this the British were strongly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> reinforced,
and Lafayette had to gallop back to protect his own rear-guard forces.
The Americans were in peril, but again, as at Monmouth, he was able to
save them from defeat.</p>
<p>There was great disappointment over the failure of the attack on Newport,
and this was increased by the feeling that there had been disputes between
the American and French commanders. Lafayette had all he could do to
make each side appreciate the other. In this he was greatly helped by
Washington, who wrote to both the French and the American generals, soothing
their discontent, patching up their differences, and urging future union
for the sake of the common cause.</p>
<p>It was now autumn, and there was little prospect of a further campaign
that year. Wearied by the many misunderstandings, distressed by the failure
of the joint attack, homesick and sad over the news of the death of his
little daughter in France, Lafayette decided to ask for a leave of absence
and go back to France on furlough. In October he reached Philadelphia
and presented his request. Washington, much as he disliked to lose Lafayette’s
services even for a short time, seconded his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> wishes.
And Congress, which only sixteen months before had hesitated to accept
his services, now did all it could to pay him the greatest honor. It
thanked him for his high assistance and zeal, it directed the American
minister in Paris to present him with a sword of honor, and it ordered
its best war-ship, the frigate <i>Alliance</i>, to convey him to France.
Henry Laurens, the president of Congress, wrote to King Louis XVI. that
Congress could not allow Lafayette to depart without testifying its appreciation
of his courage, devotion, patience, and the uniform excellence of conduct
which had won the confidence of the United States and the affection of
its citizens.</p>
<p>And finally Monsieur Gérard, the French minister at Philadelphia, wrote
to his government in Paris, “You know how little inclined I am to flattery,
but I cannot resist saying that the prudent, courageous, and amiable
conduct of the Marquis de Lafayette has made him the idol of the Congress,
the army, and the people of America.”</p>
<p>With words like these ringing in his ears, Lafayette said good-bye to
George Washington<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> in
October, 1778, and rode away from camp, bound for Boston, where he was
to board the frigate <i>Alliance</i>.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="VII">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">VII<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">THE FRENCHMAN IN THE FIELD AGAIN</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Lafayette</span>, on his way to board the <i>Alliance</i>,
rode into the town of Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, and there fell ill of fever.
He had been entertained by people all the way from Philadelphia to the
camp on the Hudson, and these constant receptions, combined with chilly
and wet weather, brought on malaria. The Marquis was very sick; Washington
rode daily from his camp eight miles away to inquire about Lafayette’s
condition, and insisted on his own physician taking charge of the patient.
And when the young Frenchman recovered the commander-in-chief sent his
physician on to Boston with him, and wrote him, “I am persuaded, my dear
marquis, that there is no need of fresh proofs to convince you either
of my affection for you personally or of the high opinion I entertain
of your military talents and merit.”</p>
<p>The strongest affection bound these two<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> men,
so different in many respects, so alike in their love of liberty and
honor. On board his ship in Boston Harbor Lafayette added a postscript
to a letter to Washington. “The sails are just going to be hoisted, my
dear general,” he said, “and I have but time to take my last leave of
you.... Farewell. I hope your French friend will ever be dear to you;
I hope I shall soon see you again, and tell you myself with what emotion
I now leave the coast you inhabit and with what affection and respect
I am forever, my dear general, your respectful and sincere friend, Lafayette.”</p>
<p>On January 11, 1779, the <i>Alliance</i> sailed for France, having had
so much difficulty in making up its crew that a number of English prisoners
and deserters had been pressed into service as sailors. This makeshift
crew came very near to proving disastrous for the Marquis. An English
law offered to pay the full value of any American ship to the crew that
would bring it into an English port, and there were considerably more
English prisoners and deserters in the crew of the <i>Alliance</i> than
there were American and French sailors. The <i>Alliance</i> was approaching
the French coast, having<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> just
weathered a storm, when a sailor ran into the cabin where the officers
were sitting. He said that the prisoners and deserters who had been pressed
into service had planned a mutiny, and that, taking him for an Irishman,
they had offered him the command in case of success. A lookout was to
give the signal “Sail ho!” and as the officers came on deck in a group
they were to be shot down by cannon loaded with grape-shot and the ship
sailed into an English port, where the mutineers would divide the profits.
The loyal American sailor said that the signal would be given in about
an hour.</p>
<p>Immediately the officers seized their swords, and, rushing on deck,
called the Americans and Frenchmen together. The thirty-three mutineers,
taken by surprise, were captured and clapped into irons, and the rest
of the crew sailed the <i>Alliance</i> into the French harbor of Brest
a week later.</p>
<p>Here Lafayette was welcomed with delight. The young fellow who had run
away to sea in the <i>Victory</i> was returning like a hero in a war-ship
of the new American republic. In triumph he landed at Brest, and as he
hurried<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> to Paris
to see his family he was greeted by joyful crowds all along his route.
He stopped at the royal palace of Versailles, and his old friend Marie
Antoinette came out into the gardens to hear him tell his adventures.
King Louis sent for him, and ordered him under arrest as a deserter,
but with a twinkling eye declared that his prison should be his father-in-law’s
great house in Paris, and his jailer his wife Adrienne. Then the King
forgave him for running away to America, congratulated him, and, with
his ministers, consulted the Marquis about affairs in the United States.
Lafayette said, “I had the honor of being consulted by all the ministers
and, what was a great deal better, of being kissed by all the women.”</p>
<p>The welcome he cared for the most was that from his wife, who had followed
him in her thoughts all the time he had been in America, and had always
sympathized with him and wished success for his plans. The Duke d’Ayen
was delighted to see him and welcomed him to his house with open arms.
Whenever the Marquis appeared on the street he was cheered by admiring
throngs. The actors in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> the
theatres put special words in their parts to honor Lafayette; poems were
written about him; and the young man of twenty-one became the lion of
Paris.</p>
<p>In a sense he represented the connecting link in the alliance that now
united the two countries, and that alliance was in great favor with the
people. He also stood for that ideal of “liberty” which was rapidly becoming
the ruling thought of France. It would have been easy for him to rest
on his laurels now, and feel that he had accomplished all that was needed
of him.</p>
<p>But instead he used all this hero-worship to further his one aim—more
help for the young republic across the sea. “In the midst of the whirl
of excitement by which I was carried along,” he said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> “I
never lost sight of the revolution, the success of which still seemed
to me to be extremely uncertain; accustomed as I was to seeing great
purposes accomplished with slender means, I used to say to myself that
the cost of a single fête would have equipped the army of the United
States, and in order to provide clothes for them I would gladly have
stripped the palace at Versailles.”</p>
<p>With this desire to help the United States ever in his thoughts he went
to see Benjamin Franklin, and with Franklin and the American sea-captain
John Paul Jones he planned an expedition against England in which he
should lead the land forces and Paul Jones command the fleet. While they
were arranging this the French government suggested a greater plan. Spain
was to unite with France in defense of America. Details were being worked
out when John Paul Jones embarked in his ship, the <i>Bon Homme Richard</i>,
and had his famous sea-fight with the <i>Serapis</i>. But the Spanish
government delayed and at last the French gave up the idea of a joint
attack on England.</p>
<p>Meantime Lafayette joined the French army again and was commissioned
a colonel of the King’s Dragoons. While he was waiting at Havre he was
presented by Franklin’s grandson with the sword that the Congress of
the United States had ordered should be given to him. It was a beautiful
sword; the handle was of gold, exquisitely wrought, and decorated, as
well as the blade, with figures emblematical of Lafayette’s career in
America, with his coat of arms and his motto,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> “<i>Cur
non?</i>”</p>
<p>And while he waited he was always impatient to be of help to his friends
across the Atlantic. To Washington he wrote, “However happy I find myself
in France, however well treated by my country and my king, I am so accustomed
to being near to you, I am bound to you, to America, to my companions
in arms by such an affection, that the moment when I sail for your country
will be among the happiest and most wished for of my life.”</p>
<p>His great work during that year he spent in France was the winning of
a French army, under the Count de Rochambeau, to fight by the side of
the Americans. There was opposition to this at first, for neither Louis
XVI. nor Marie Antoinette nor the royal princes who surrounded them cared
to encourage the spirit of liberty too far. But the people, backed by
their hero, Lafayette, demanded it, and at last their persistency won
the day. The government of France decided to send an army, commanded
by Rochambeau, lieutenant-general of the royal forces, with a fleet of
warships and transports and six thousand soldiers, to the aid of America.</p>
<p>Lafayette was sent ahead to carry the welcome<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> news
to Washington and Congress, and to let them know that there would be
no more of the jealousies and disputes that had hindered the success
of the French and Americans in the field before. For Lafayette had arranged
that the French troops should be under Washington’s orders, that they
should accept the leadership of the American officers on the latter’s
own ground, and that officers of the United States should be recognized
as having equal rank with those of France. This harmony that Lafayette
secured had a great deal to do with the final successful outcome of the
American Revolution.</p>
<p>He sailed on the French frigate <i>Hermione</i>, and reached Boston
on April 28, 1780. The people of Boston escorted him with cheers to the
house of Governor John Hancock on Beacon Hill. This was the same John
Hancock who had once turned Lafayette over to Gouverneur Morris with
scarcely a word of welcome, but he greeted him differently now. Instead
of being an adventurous foreign recruit the Marquis was a major-general
in the American army and the official representative of the court of
France.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
<p>From Boston he went to Morristown, where Washington had his headquarters,
and there the two friends discussed the situation. Lafayette told of
the coming of the French fleet and army, which brought the greatest joy
to the commander-in-chief, because he could only speak of the hardships
his soldiers had borne during the winter, the difficulty of securing
recruits, and the general discouragement of the country. Greatly cheered
himself, he sent Lafayette to Philadelphia to make his report to Congress,
and set himself to the work of rousing his army and the people to welcome
the men from France.</p>
<p>In Philadelphia Lafayette received the thanks of Congress for his services
in Europe, and then busied himself with the equipment of the army. Washington’s
troops certainly needed some attention. Half-fed and half-clothed, with
only four thousand out of six thousand soldiers fit for duty, they presented
so sorry an appearance that Lafayette said to the president of Congress,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> “though
I have been directed to furnish the French court and the French generals
with early and minute intelligence, I confess that pride has stopped
my pen and, notwithstanding past promises, I have avoided entering into
any details till our army is put in a better and more decent situation.”</p>
<p>But Washington roused Congress and the country, and by the time the
French fleet arrived the American army was in much better condition.</p>
<p>On July 10, 1780, the Count de Rochambeau, with the French army, reached
Newport, and the French commander, informing Washington of his arrival,
declared, as his government had instructed him, “We are now, sir, under
your command.”</p>
<p>Plans had to be laid, arrangements made for the union of the French
and American armies, and much time was taken up in military discussions.
One of Lafayette’s pet schemes was broached again, the invasion of Canada
by the joint forces, and the details of this invasion were entrusted
to General Benedict Arnold, who was to be in command. On September twentieth
Washington, with Lafayette and General Knox, met the Count de Rochambeau
and Admiral de Terney, who commanded the French fleet, and final arrangements
were<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> made. But
at this very moment events were taking place which were to frustrate
the scheme.</p>
<p>For at the very moment when Washington and Rochambeau were in conference
at Hartford Benedict Arnold and Major John André, of the British army,
were holding a secret meeting, the object of which was to give Washington’s
plans to the enemy. It so happened that Washington, when he left Hartford
with Knox and Lafayette, took a roundabout road in order to show the
Marquis the fortifications which had been built at West Point in his
absence. On the morning of September twenty-fourth the party of American
officers arrived within a mile of the Robinson house, where Mrs. Benedict
Arnold was expecting them at breakfast.</p>
<p>Washington, absorbed in his work, was about to ride on when Lafayette
reminded him of Mrs. Arnold’s invitation. The commander-in-chief laughed.
“Ah, Marquis,” he said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> “you
young men are all in love with Mrs. Arnold. I see you are eager to be
with her as soon as possible. Go and breakfast with her, and tell her
not to wait for me. I must ride down and examine the redoubts on this
side of the river, but will be with her shortly.”</p>
<p>Lafayette and Knox, however, preferred to ride on with the General,
and the message was sent to the Robinson house by Colonel Hamilton and
Major McHenry. Mrs. Arnold, who had lately joined her husband there with
her baby, welcomed her guests and entertained them at breakfast. It was
a trying situation for her husband, for it happened that that was the
very day on which he was to make his final arrangements with the British.</p>
<p>While they sat at the breakfast-table a messenger galloped up to the
door with a letter for Arnold. He opened it and read that André had been
captured, and the secret papers found upon him had been sent to Washington.
Arnold rose from the table and beckoned his wife to follow him to her
room. There he told her that he was a ruined man and must fly for his
life. Leaving her fainting on the floor, he left the house, mounted the
messenger’s horse, and dashed down to the river through a ravine. There
he boarded his boat, and was rowed rapidly down the river to the English
ship <i>The Vulture</i>.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
<p>Almost immediately after Arnold’s hurried departure Washington, Lafayette,
and Knox reached the Robinson house. The commander supposed that Arnold
had gone to West Point to prepare for his reception, and, having eaten
a hasty breakfast, Washington and his companions crossed the river. No
salute, however, was fired at their approach, and Colonel Lamb, the officer
in command, came and apologized, saying that he had received no information
of Washington’s visit.</p>
<p>“Is not General Arnold here?” Washington inquired.</p>
<p>“No, sir,” said Lamb. “He has not been here for two days, nor have I
heard from him in that time.”</p>
<p>Somewhat surprised, but still unsuspicious, Washington and the others
spent the morning examining the works.</p>
<p>As they rode back to the Robinson house about noon they were met by
Colonel Hamilton, who took Washington aside, and handed him the secret
papers that had been found on André. At once the whole plot was clear.
Washington sent Hamilton immediately to arrest Arnold, but the Colonel
found that the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> man
had already flown. Then the commander-in-chief told the news to Lafayette
and Knox, and, saying how much he had always trusted General Arnold,
added, “Whom can we trust now?”</p>
<p>It was Lafayette who later tried to comfort Mrs. Arnold, when the full
realization of her husband’s disgrace almost drove her to despair. And
he sat with the other general officers at a court-martial in the headquarters
at Tappan on the Hudson when John André, adjutant-general of the British
army, after a fair trial, was convicted of being a spy and was sentenced
to be hung. But Lafayette was a very generous judge, and wrote of André
later, “He was a very interesting man; he conducted himself in a manner
so frank, so noble, and so delicate, that I cannot help feeling for him
an infinite pity.”</p>
<p>The treason of Benedict Arnold prevented the invasion of Canada, and
Lafayette saw no active service for some time. He spent the autumn in
camp on the Hudson and in New Jersey, and part of the winter in Philadelphia.
A number of French officers had gathered here, and they, used to the
gayeties of the most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> brilliant
court in Europe, added much to the amusements of the American capital.
Every one liked the French guests, and the foreign officers, on their
part, liked and admired their new allies. Sometimes the self-denying
seriousness of the Americans, which was an element of their national
strength, amused and surprised the gayer Frenchmen. One of the latter,
the Marquis de Chastellux, told a story about Philadelphia in his volume
of “Travels.” He said that at balls in Philadelphia it was the custom
to have a Continental officer as the master of ceremonies, and that at
one party he attended that position was held by a Colonel Mitchell, who
showed the same devotion to duty in the ballroom that he showed on the
field of battle. This Colonel saw a young girl so busily talking that
she could pay little attention to the figures of the quadrille, so he
marched up to her and said to her severely, “Take care what you are doing;
do you suppose you are there for your pleasure?”</p>
<p>Naturally the Marquis de Chastellux and his friends, fresh from the
world of Marie Antoinette, where pleasure was always the first aim, had
many a laugh at the people of this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> new
world. But with the laugh there always went respect and admiration.</p>
<p>So Lafayette passed the time until the campaign of 1781 opened. He wrote
often to his wife, and sent her a long letter by his friend Colonel Laurens,
when the latter went on a mission to the court of France. Another child
had been born to the Marquis and Adrienne, a son, who was given the name
of George Washington. “Embrace our children,” wrote Lafayette, “thousands
of times for me. Although a vagabond, their father is none the less tender,
less constantly thoughtful of them, less happy to hear from them. My
heart perceives, as in a delicious perspective, the moment when my dear
children will be presented to me by you, and when we can kiss and caress
them together. Do you think that Anastasie will recognize me?” And, as
he could never write without thinking of the brave army he commanded,
he added,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> “Only <i>citizens</i> could
support the nakedness, the hunger, the labors, and the absolute lack
of pay which constitute the conditions of our soldiers, the most enduring
and the most patient, I believe, of any in the world.”</p>
<p>In January, 1781, word came to Washington’s headquarters that General
Benedict Arnold had landed in Virginia with a good-sized army, was laying
waste the country, and had already destroyed the valuable stores collected
at Richmond. If Arnold’s campaign should succeed the result would be
to place all the Southern States in the hands of the enemy. Let him defeat
the few American troops in Virginia and he could march to join the English
General Cornwallis, who was pressing General Greene very hard in the
Carolinas.</p>
<p>Indeed Cornwallis already appeared to hold the south in his grasp. He
had beaten the small contingents of American troops in that country,
and at the battle of Camden, in South Carolina, Lafayette’s old companion,
the Baron de Kalb, had fallen in battle. It was of the utmost importance,
therefore, to defeat or capture Arnold, who had been rewarded for his
treason by being made a general in the British army, and Washington at
once planned to send a detachment from his main army against Arnold by
land, and a naval force to Chesapeake Bay to cut off his escape by sea.
The French admiral ordered a ship-of-the-line and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> two
frigates to the Chesapeake, and Washington placed twelve hundred light
infantry under Lafayette with instructions to aid the fleet. This command,
of the greatest importance, showed the confidence and trust that the
commander-in-chief felt in the military ability of the Frenchman.</p>
<p>Lafayette marched rapidly south and reached the Head of the Elk on March
second, three days earlier than had been expected. Here he embarked his
troops on small boats and descended to Annapolis. Seeing no signs of
the French squadron, he concluded that they had been delayed by adverse
winds, and, leaving his army at Annapolis, he went with a few officers
to consult with Baron Steuben and seek his aid. He secured some companies
of militia at Williamsburg, near the York River, and proceeded to the
camp of General Muhlenberg, near Suffolk, to have a look at Benedict
Arnold’s defenses at Portsmouth.</p>
<p>Meantime a large fleet appeared in Chesapeake Bay. Lafayette, and Arnold
also, thought that this must be the French squadron, but the American
commander soon received word that the ships were English. It turned<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> out
that the first French squadron had found there was too little water in
the bay for them, and had sailed back to Newport, while a second squadron
had been driven off by the English. The result was that General Arnold’s
forces were relieved from danger, and the enemy reinforced by two new
regiments under General Phillips, who now took command of all the English
armies in Virginia.</p>
<p>Washington’s orders to Lafayette had been that he was to try to capture
Arnold, and that if the French fleet should be defeated he should march
his men back to headquarters without further risk. So he now sent his
militia to Williamsburg and forwarded orders to Annapolis to have the
troops prepared for immediate departure. When he reached Annapolis he
found there were great difficulties in the way of transporting his men
to Elk. There were very few horses or wagons or small boats for crossing
the ferries, and the port was blocked by English ships. He had resort
to a clever stratagem. He put two eighteen-pounders on a small sloop,
which, with another ship under Commodore Nicholson, sailed out toward
the enemy vessels, firing their guns as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> if
about to attack. The two English ships on guard withdrew a considerable
distance down the bay, and then Lafayette embarked his troops on his
own boats and got them out of the harbor and up the bay to Elk. They
reached there safely during the night, followed by Lafayette and Nicholson
in the sloop.</p>
<p>When Washington heard of General Phillips’ arrival in Virginia his anxiety
was great. The situation in the south was extremely perilous. General
Greene was having all he could do to oppose Lord Cornwallis in North
Carolina. Unless strong opposition could be brought against Phillips
the latter could quickly overrun Virginia and unite with Cornwallis.
In this predicament the commander-in-chief determined to put the defense
of Virginia in the hands of Lafayette.</p>
<p>Lafayette heard of this new appointment as soon as he reached Elk. The
task was a great one. His men lacked proper equipment and even necessary
clothing, and they were much disheartened by the unsuccessful campaign
in the south. He borrowed ten thousand dollars from the merchants of
Baltimore on his personal security and bought his army food and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> supplies.
Then he told his men that his business was to fight an enemy greatly
superior in numbers, through difficulties of every sort, and that any
soldier who was unwilling to accompany him might avoid the penalties
of desertion by applying for a pass to the North. His men, placed on
their mettle, stood by him cheerfully. Immediately Lafayette marched
on Richmond, reaching that place a day ahead of General Phillips. And
General Phillips was so much impressed by Lafayette’s show of strength
that he gave up his intention of seizing Richmond and retreated down
the James River.</p>
<p>Cornwallis heard of this, and, vowing that he would defeat “that boy
Lafayette,” as he called the Marquis, stopped his campaign against Greene
in North Carolina and determined that he would himself take command in
Virginia. Cornwallis, a major-general and an officer of great experience,
expected an easy task when he sent word to Phillips to await his arrival
at the town of Petersburg.</p>
<p>When he heard that Cornwallis was moving north and that Phillips was
on the march Lafayette guessed that they intended to join forces, and
hurried toward Petersburg to prevent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> it.
Phillips, however, was nearer to that town and reached it before Lafayette,
who was obliged to fall back on Richmond, but who sent out Colonel Gimat,
with artillery, to keep the enemy busy.</p>
<p>On May thirteenth General Phillips died at Petersburg. It was before
this general’s guns that Lafayette’s father had fallen at the battle
of Hastenbeck. Benedict Arnold was second in command, and on taking Phillips’
place he sent a letter to Lafayette under a flag of truce. When the latter
learned the name of the writer he at once informed the men who brought
Arnold’s communication that while he would be glad to treat with any
other English officer he could not read a message from this one. This
placed General Arnold in a difficult position and was resented by a threat
to send all American prisoners to the West Indies. But when the people
heard of it they were delighted, and Washington wrote to the Marquis,
“Your conduct upon every occasion meets my approbation, but in none more
than in your refusing to hold a correspondence with Arnold.”</p>
<p>On May 24, 1781, Cornwallis, having joined<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> his
army to that of Arnold at Petersburg and having rested his men, marched
out with his whole force to attack Lafayette at Richmond. At Byrd’s Plantation,
where the British commander had his quarters, he wrote of his opponent,
“The boy cannot escape me.”</p>
<p>Lafayette, on his part, knew that his enemy had a fine fighting force,
and that he must be wary to avoid him. The Marquis said, “Lord Cornwallis
marches with amazing celerity. But I have done everything I could, without
arms or men, at least to impede him by local embarrassments.”</p>
<p>And he did embarrass the Earl. He led him a dance through the country
about Richmond, he retreated across the Chickahominy River to Fredericksburg,
time and again he just escaped the swiftly pursuing British. He knew
he could not venture on fighting without the aid of more troops, and
he kept up his retreat until he was joined by General Wayne with Pennsylvania
soldiers on June tenth. Then he planned to take the offensive, and rapidly
crossed the Rapidan River in the direction of Cornwallis.</p>
<p>Cornwallis would have liked a direct battle<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> with
the Americans, but again Lafayette proved wary. While the British army
blocked the road to Albemarle, Lafayette discovered an old unused road
and under cover of night marched his men along it and took up a strong
position before the town. There militia joined him from the neighboring
mountains, and he was able to show so strong a front that the British
commander did not dare to attack him. In his turn Cornwallis retreated,
first to Richmond and then to Williamsburg, near the coast, and left
the greater part of Virginia in the control of the Americans.</p>
<p>Lafayette now became the pursuer instead of the pursued, and harried
Cornwallis on the rear and flanks. The famous cavalry officer, Colonel
Tarleton, serving under Cornwallis, described the pursuit: “The Marquis
de Lafayette, who had previously practised defensive manœuvres with skill
and security, being now reinforced by General Wayne and about eight hundred
Continentals and some detachments of militia, followed the British as
they proceeded down the James River. This design, being judiciously arranged
and executed with extreme caution, allowed opportunity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> for
the junction of Baron Steuben, confined the small detachments of the
King’s troops, and both saved the property and animated the drooping
spirits of the Virginians.”</p>
<p>Lafayette was proving that Washington’s confidence in him was well placed
and showing himself an extraordinarily able commander in the field.</p>
<p>At Williamsburg Cornwallis received word from General Clinton in New
York that a part of the British troops in Virginia were to be sent north.
In order to embark these troops he set out for Portsmouth on July fourth.
Knowing that the enemy would be obliged to cross the James River at James
Island, Lafayette decided to attack their rear as soon as a considerable
number should have passed the ford. Cornwallis foresaw this, and sending
his baggage-wagons across arranged his men to surprise the Americans.</p>
<p>Toward sunset on July sixth Lafayette crossed the causeways that led
to the British position and opened an attack. General Wayne, whose popular
nickname was “Mad Anthony,” led the advance with a thousand<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> riflemen,
dragoons, and two pieces of artillery. Lafayette, with twelve hundred
infantry, was ready to support him. But at Wayne’s first advance he found
that the whole British army was before him; he attacked with the greatest
vigor; Lafayette, however, realizing that Cornwallis had prepared a surprise,
ordered a retreat to General Muhlenberg’s station a half mile in the
rear. Had Cornwallis pursued he must have defeated the American forces,
which had to cross long log bridges over marshy land, but in his turn
he feared an ambush, and was content to bring his men safely across the
James and proceed to Portsmouth.</p>
<p>The British were now at Portsmouth and the rest of Virginia in the Americans’
hands. Lafayette wrote a description of the situation to Washington,
and added, “Should a French fleet now come into Hampton Roads, the British
army would, I think, be ours.” Hardly had his letter reached Washington
when a French ship arrived at Newport with word that the fleet of the
French Count de Grasse had left the West Indies bound for Chesapeake
Bay. Instantly Washington saw that he ought not now to direct his attack
against<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> Clinton
in New York, but against Cornwallis in Virginia.</p>
<p>Cornwallis, wanting to take up a strong position with easy access to
the sea, began to move his army to Yorktown on August first. At the same
time Lafayette arranged his forces so as to cut off any retreat of the
enemy. And while this was going on, and the fleet of the Count de Grasse
was nearing the coast, Washington and Rochambeau met in the old Livingston
manor-house at Dobb’s Ferry on the Hudson on August fourteenth and planned
their joint campaign against Yorktown.</p>
<p>Then the two armies marched south. The Continental troops, many ragged
and poorly armed, but with green sprigs in their caps, passed through
Philadelphia on September second, and the French, more sprucely and gaily
uniformed, followed them the next day. On September twelfth Washington
reached Mount Vernon, which he had not seen for six years, and there
entertained Rochambeau and other French officers. Two days later he took
command of the allied forces at Williamsburg, and on the seventeenth
visited De Grasse on his flag-ship, and completed plans for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> siege.
The army held the mainland, the French fleet blocked the path to the
sea, and Cornwallis was trapped at Yorktown.</p>
<p>The end of the drama came swiftly. The American and French entrenchments
drew closer and closer to the British lines until they were only three
hundred yards apart. Then, on October fourteenth, Lafayette’s men, led
by Colonel Alexander Hamilton, charged the British works on the left,
while the French grenadiers stormed a redoubt on the right. The outer
works were won in this attack, which proved to be the last battle of
the Revolution.</p>
<p>The next night Cornwallis tried to cut his way out from Yorktown and
escape across the York River to Gloucester. Watchful outposts drove him
back. On October seventeenth a British drummer appeared on Yorktown’s
ramparts and beat a parley. An American and a French officer met two
British officers at a farmhouse, and articles of surrender were drawn
up and accepted. Two days later, on October 19, 1781, the army of Cornwallis
marched out of Yorktown and passed between the American and French<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> troops,
commanded respectively by Washington and Rochambeau.</p>
<p>The French officer who had prepared the articles of surrender at the
farmhouse was Lafayette’s brother-in-law, the Vicomte de Noailles, one
of the two young men to whom Lafayette had taken the word that he meant
to go “to America to fight for liberty!” Now the Vicomte saw that the
ardent hopes of the young enthusiast had borne such glorious fruit!</p>
<p>There stands a monument on the heights above the York River, in Virginia,
and on one side of it are these words:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> “At
York, on October 19, 1781, after a siege of nineteen days, by 5,500 American
and 7,000 French Troops of the Line, 3,500 Virginia Militia under command
of General Thomas Nelson and 36 French ships of war, Earl Cornwallis,
Commander of the British Forces at York and Gloucester, surrendered his
army, 7,251 officers and men, 840 seamen, 244 cannons and 24 standards
to His Excellency George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Combined
Forces of America and France, to His Excellency the Comte de Rochambeau,
commanding the auxiliary Troops of His Most Christian Majesty in America,
and to His Excellency the Comte de Grasse, commanding in chief the Naval
Army of France in Chesapeake.”</p>
<p>It was largely due to Lafayette that the French fleet and the army of
Rochambeau had crossed the ocean and that the Americans in Virginia had
succeeded in bottling up Cornwallis at Yorktown and so bringing an end
to the Revolution. Close to Washington he must forever stand as one of
the great men who won liberty for the United States!</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="VIII">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">VIII<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">THE MARQUIS AIDS THE UNITED STATES IN FRANCE</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Word</span> of the surrender at Yorktown was received
all through the thirteen States with the greatest joy. Watchmen calling
the hours of the night in the cities cried, “Twelve o’clock! All’s well,
and Cornwallis has surrendered!” Everywhere the people hailed this event
as heralding the close of the long and distressing war. When one thinks
of what they had endured since 1775 there is no wonder at the hymns of
thanksgiving. And a ship at once sailed across the Atlantic to France
with the glad tidings.</p>
<p>The surrender at Yorktown did mark the beginning of the end of the Revolution,
though the conflict went on in a desultory fashion for two years more,
and it was not until November 25, 1783, that the British evacuated New
York<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> City. But
after Yorktown many of the French officers went home, and among them
Lafayette. He wrote to the French minister, “The play is over, Monsieur
le comte; the fifth act has just come to an end. I was somewhat disturbed
during the former acts, but my heart rejoices exceedingly at this last,
and I have no less pleasure in congratulating you upon the happy ending
of our campaign.”</p>
<p>Both Lafayette and Congress felt that the Marquis could now help the
country greatly by his presence in France in case more men and money
should be needed for further campaigns. So, with Washington’s approval,
Congress agreed that “Major-General the Marquis de Lafayette have permission
to go to France and that he return at such time as shall be most convenient
to him.” And Congress also voted that Lafayette<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> “be
informed that, on a review of his conduct throughout the past campaign
and particularly during the period in which he had the chief command
in Virginia, the many new proofs which present themselves of his zealous
attachment to the cause he has espoused, and of his judgment, vigilance,
gallantry, and address in its defense, have greatly added to the high
opinion entertained by Congress of his merits and military talents.”</p>
<p>He took his leave of Washington, the man he admired more than any other
in the world, and the commander-in-chief, who looked on the young Frenchman
as if the latter was his own son, said in his dignified fashion, “I owe
it to your friendship and to my affectionate regard for you, my dear
marquis, not to let you leave this country without carrying with you
fresh marks of my attachment to you and new expressions of the high sense
I entertain of your military conduct and other important services in
the course of the last campaign, although the latter are too well known
to need the testimony of my approbation, and the former, I persuade myself,
you believe is too well riveted to undergo diminution or change.”</p>
<p>The Frenchman was not so reserved as the American. His ardent spirit
shows in the letter he wrote his commander. “Adieu, my dear general,”
he said.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> “I know
your heart so well that I am sure that no distance can alter your attachment
to me. With the same candor I assure you that my love, my respect, my
gratitude for you are above expression; that, at the moment of leaving
you, I feel more than ever the struggle of those friendly ties that forever
bind me to you, and that I anticipate the pleasure, the most wished-for
pleasure, to be again with you, and, by my zeal and services, to gratify
the feelings of my respect and affection.”</p>
<p>On December 23, 1781, Lafayette sailed from Boston on the same frigate <i>Alliance</i> that
had carried him back to France the first time. He was to be received
in his native land like a conquering hero. Already Vergennes, the Secretary
of State of France, had written to him. “Our joy is very great here and
throughout the nation,” said Vergennes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> “and
you may be assured that your name is held in veneration.... I have been
following you, M. le Marquis, step by step, throughout your campaign
in Virginia; and I should frequently have been anxious for your welfare
if I had not been confident of your wisdom. It required a great deal
of skill to maintain yourself, as you did, for so long a time, in spite
of the disparity of your forces, before Lord Cornwallis, whose military
talents are well known. It was you who brought him to the fatal ending,
where, instead of his making you a prisoner of war, as he probably expected
to do, you forced him to surrender.”</p>
<p>He landed in France on January 17, 1782. If his former arrival had been
a succession of triumphs, this one was doubly so. When he reached the
house of the Duke de Noailles in Paris his wife was attending a fête
at the Hôtel de Ville in honor of the birth of the Dauphin. As soon as
his arrival became known the Queen took Madame de Lafayette in her own
carriage and went with her to welcome the Marquis. Louis XVI. announced
that he had promoted Lafayette to the high rank of “Maréchal de camp,”
and wrote to him, through his minister of war,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> “The
King, having been informed, sir, of the military skill of which you have
given repeated proof in the command of the various army corps entrusted
to you in America, of the wisdom and prudence which have marked the services
that you have performed in the interest of the United States, and of
the confidence which you have won from General Washington, his Majesty
has charged me to announce to you that the commendations which you most
fully deserve have attracted his notice, and that your conduct and your
success have given him, sir, the most favorable opinion of you, such
as you might wish him to have, and upon which you may rely for his future
good-will.”</p>
<p>Every one delighted to entertain and praise him; the Marshal de Richelieu
invited him to dine with all the marshals of France, and at the dinner
the health of Washington was drunk with every honor. And if the King
and the nobles were loud in their acclaim, the people were no less so;
they called Lafayette by such extravagant titles as the “Conqueror of
Cornwallis” and “the Saviour of America with Washington.” Had it not
been that Lafayette had a remarkably level head the things that people
said and wrote about him might almost have made him believe that he had
won the Revolution in America single-handed.</p>
<p>Naturally he enjoyed being with his dear wife and children again, but
he was not a man who could contentedly lead the idle life of a nobleman
in Paris. Soon he was busy doing what he could to help the cause of the
young American republic in France. He saw a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> great
deal of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the commissioners of the United
States to the French court, and Franklin wrote home concerning him, “The
Marquis de Lafayette was, at his return hither, received by all ranks
with all possible distinction. He daily gains in the general esteem and
affection, and promises to be a great man here. He is extremely attached
to our cause; we are on the most friendly and confidential footing with
each other, and he is really very serviceable to me in my applications
for additional assistance.”</p>
<p>He planned to return to America to rejoin the army. “In spite of all
my happiness here,” he wrote to Washington, “I cannot help wishing, ten
times a day, to be on the other side of the Atlantic.” But the Continental
army was merely marking time, no active campaign was in progress, and
neither Lafayette nor French troops were again needed to fight across
the ocean.</p>
<p>The negotiations for peace were long drawn out, and in the autumn of
1782 France and Spain again planned a joint expedition against the English
in America. A strong fleet of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> sixty
battle-ships and an army of twenty-four thousand men were gathered with
the purpose of sailing from the Spanish port of Cadiz to capture the
English island of Jamaica and attack New York and Canada. Lafayette was
made chief of staff of the combined expedition, and, wearing the uniform
of an American general, he set sail from Brest early in December for
Cadiz. But the grand fleet was still in port when a courier arrived with
news that a treaty of peace had just been signed in Paris. So the fleet
did not sail. A protocol, or provisional treaty, was drawn up, and on
September 3, 1783, the final treaty was signed, by which Great Britain
acknowledged the independence of the United States.</p>
<p>As soon as he heard the good news, Lafayette borrowed a ship, appropriately
named the <i>Triumph</i>, and sent it off to Philadelphia with the earliest
word of peace. And by the same ship he despatched a letter to Washington.
“As for you, my dear general,” he wrote,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> “who
can truly say that all this is your work, what must be the feelings of
your good and virtuous heart in this happy moment! The eternal honor
in which my descendants will glory, will be to have had an ancestor among
your soldiers, to know that he had the good fortune of being a friend
of your heart. To the eldest of them I bequeath, as long as my posterity
shall endure, the favor that you have conferred upon my son George, by
allowing him to bear your name.”</p>
<p>To Vergennes Lafayette wrote, “My great affair is settled; America is
sure of her independence; humanity has gained its cause, and liberty
will never be without a refuge.”</p>
<p>From Cadiz the Marquis went to Madrid, where he straightened out affairs
between the United States and the court of Spain. Then he went back to
Paris, made several visits to his old castle and estates in Auvergne,
and helped Franklin and Adams and John Jay in putting the affairs of
the new republic on a satisfactory footing.</p>
<p>He wanted greatly to see that young republic, now that war was over
and peace had come, and at last his wish was gratified. Washington had
written him frequently, urging the Marquis to visit him, and had begged
Madame de Lafayette to come with her husband.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> “Come
then, let me entreat you,” Washington wrote to Adrienne. “Call my cottage
your own; for your own doors do not open to you with more readiness than
would mine. You will see the plain manner in which we live, and meet
with rustic civility; and you will taste the simplicity of rural life.
It will diversify the scene, and may give you a higher relish for the
gayeties of the court when you return to Versailles.”</p>
<p>Adrienne de Lafayette, however, was as much of a home-lover as George
Washington. Versailles had never attracted her, and she liked to spend
most of her time at the castle of Chavaniac. The voyage across the Atlantic
was a long and trying experience in those days and so she answered that
she preferred to stay in France. She also sent Washington a letter from
her little daughter, born while her husband was in camp in America.</p>
<p>Lafayette sailed from Havre on July 1, 1784, and reached New York, which
he had never yet seen, on August fourth. Throngs, eager to sing his praises,
met him at the harbor, and followed him everywhere on his travels. From
New York he went to Philadelphia, and then to Richmond, where Washington
met him.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> He visited
the scenes of his great Virginia campaign at Williamsburg and Yorktown,
and spent two happy weeks with his beloved friend George Washington at
the latter’s home at Mount Vernon. From there he went north again, to
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. Up the broad Hudson he traveled
to Albany, where he went with American commissioners to a council with
dissatisfied Mohawk chiefs. And to the sons of primitive America the
young Frenchman, lover of liberty everywhere, spoke so appealingly that
he quickly won them away from their enmity for their white neighbors.
“Father,” said the Mohawk chief,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> “we
have heard thy voice and we rejoice that thou hast visited thy children
to give to them good and necessary advice. Thou hast said that we have
done wrong in opening our ears to wicked men, and closing our hearts
to thy counsels. Father, it is all true; we have left the good path;
we have wandered away from it and have been enveloped in a black cloud.
We have now returned that thou mayest find in us good and faithful children.
We rejoice to hear thy voice among us. It seems that the Great Spirit
had directed thy footsteps to this council of friendship to smoke the
calumet of peace and fellowship with thy long-lost children.”</p>
<p>Indeed it did seem that the Great Spirit directed the steps of this
man to the places where he was the most needed.</p>
<p>From Albany Lafayette went across country to Boston, where he was given
a great reception and banquet in Faneuil Hall. A portrait of Washington
was unveiled behind the Marquis at the table, and he sprang to his feet
and led in the burst of cheers that followed. Through New England he
went as far as Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and then turned south to
make a second visit to Mount Vernon. Everywhere he went he was received
as the man whom the United States especially desired to honor. Unquestionably
he deserved all the praise and gratitude that was showered upon him,
for he had left his wife, his home, his friends, his fortune, and had
come to America in one of the darkest hours of her fight for independence,
and by his confidence in her cause had done much to help her win her
victory. He had brought French troops and money, but most of all he had
brought that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> unselfish
devotion which had so heartened the people. The United States did not
forget what it owed to Lafayette in 1784, it has never forgotten it;
the republic of the Western World has shown that it has a long and faithful
memory.</p>
<p>At Trenton Lafayette stopped to resign his commission in the American
army, and Congress sent a committee made up of one representative from
each State to express the thanks of the nation. Then he returned to Washington’s
estate on the banks of the Potomac, and there walked over the beautiful
grounds of Mount Vernon, discussing agriculture with the owner, and sat
with the latter in his library, listening to Washington’s hopes concerning
the young nation for which both men had done so much. History shows no
more ideal friendship than that between the great American and the great
Frenchman, a friendship of inestimable value for the two lands from which
they sprang.</p>
<p>When the time came for parting Washington drove his guest as far as
Annapolis in his carriage. There the two friends separated, not to meet
again. Washington went back to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> Mount
Vernon, and there wrote a farewell letter to Lafayette. “In the moment
of our separation,” he said, “upon the road as I traveled and every hour
since, I have felt all that love, respect, and attachment for you, with
which length of years, close connection, and your merits have inspired
me.... It is unnecessary, I persuade myself, to repeat to you, my dear
marquis, the sincerity of my regards and friendship, nor have I words
which could express my affection for you, were I to attempt it. My fervent
prayers are offered for your safe and pleasant passage, a happy meeting
with Madame de Lafayette and family, and the completion of every wish
of your heart.”</p>
<p>Lafayette answered after he had gone on board the <i>Nymphe</i> at New
York. “Adieu, adieu, my dear general,” said he.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> “It
is with inexpressible pain that I feel I am going to be severed from
you by the Atlantic. Everything that admiration, respect, gratitude,
friendship, and filial love can inspire is combined in my affectionate
heart to devote me most tenderly to you. In your friendship I find a
delight which words cannot express. Adieu, my dear general. It is not
without emotion that I write this word. Be attentive to your health.
Let me hear from you every month. Adieu, adieu.”</p>
<p>On Christmas Day, 1784, Lafayette sailed for France, expecting to return
to his adopted country in a few years. He was not to return, however,
for a long time, and in the interval much was to happen to himself and
his own land.</p>
<p>In the following summer the Marquis made a journey through Germany and
Austria, where he was received not only as a French field-marshal, but
as an informal representative of America and a friend of Washington,
who could answer the questions about the new republic which every one
was eager to ask. At Brunswick he visited the duke who was later to lead
the German troops against the army of revolutionary France. At Potsdam
he was entertained by Frederick the Great, who happened on one occasion
to place Lafayette between the English Duke of York and Lord Cornwallis
at table. Lafayette was, as always, delightful company, and the general
he had defeated at Yorktown wrote home to a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> friend
in England, “Lafayette and I were the best friends possible in Silesia.”</p>
<p>The Frenchman saw reviews of the Prussian armies, and was much impressed
by the discipline of Frederick the Great. But he did not like that ruler,
and spoke of his “despotic, selfish, and harsh character,” and he liked
his military system still less. He wrote to General Knox, “The mode of
recruiting is despotic; there is hardly any provision for old soldiers,
and although I found much to admire, I had rather be the last farmer
in America than the first general in Berlin.”</p>
<p>From Prussia he went to Austria, where he met the emperor, and there,
as in all his travels, he told every one of his admiration for the United
States and for Washington, and tried to make them see how much the young
republic had already accomplished for the happiness of men.</p>
<p>The love of liberty was the dominant motive of Lafayette’s life. He
had told Washington of his desire to find some means of securing the
freedom of slaves, and he wrote to John Adams in 1786,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> “Whatever
be the complexion of the enslaved, it does not in my opinion alter the
complexion of the crime the enslaver commits,—a crime much blacker
than any African face. It is to me a matter of great anxiety and concern
to find that this trade is sometimes perpetrated under the flag of liberty,
our dear and noble stripes to which virtue and glory have been constant
standard-bearers.” So, on his return to France, he bought a plantation
in Cayenne, and brought many negroes there, who, after being educated
in self-government according to his directions, were to receive their
freedom. He also tried to improve the condition of the French Protestants,
who were very much persecuted, and ardently pleaded their cause before
the King at Versailles.</p>
<p>In the meantime he constantly gave his help to furthering the affairs
of America. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence,
who had been Governor of Virginia when Lafayette had fought his campaign
there, was now the United States Minister to France. Jefferson wrote
to Washington,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> “The
Marquis de Lafayette is a most valuable auxiliary to me. His zeal is
unbounded and his weight with those in power is great.... He has a great
deal of sound genius, is well remarked by the King, and rising in popularity.
He has nothing against him but the suspicion of republican principles.
I think he will one day be of the ministry.”</p>
<p>The United States at that time especially needed aid in establishing
trade relations with France, and it was here that Lafayette proved himself
very valuable. He obtained concessions in regard to the importing and
sale of oil and tobacco, and his efforts on behalf of the American whale
fishery were so successful that the citizens of Nantucket voted at a
town-meeting that every man on the island who owned a cow should give
all of one day’s milk toward making a cheese to weigh five hundred pounds,
and that the cheese should be “transmitted to the Marquis de Lafayette,
as a feeble, but not less sincere, testimonial of their affection and
gratitude.”</p>
<p>The cheese was greatly appreciated, as was also the action of the State
of Virginia, which ordered two busts of the Marquis to be made by the
sculptor Houdon, one to be placed in the State Capitol at Richmond and
the other in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.</p>
<p>The United States had won its independence,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> though
its statesmen were now perplexed with the problem of making one united
nation out of thirteen separate states. But France had yet to deal with
its own problem of liberty. There were many men who dreamed of equality
in that nation and who hoped for it, but the King and the court were
despotic, the peasants yoked to the soil, bowed down by unjust taxes,
crushed by unfair laws. There was a spirit abroad that was destined to
bring a temporary whirlwind. So the thinking men of France, and Lafayette
one of the chief among them, turned their attention to affairs at home.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="IX">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">IX<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">HOW LAFAYETTE SOUGHT TO GIVE LIBERTY TO FRANCE</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> people of the thirteen American colonies
that became the United States had always had more liberty than the people
of France. Most of the colonies had been settled by men who had left
Europe and gone to America in order that they might enjoy civil or religious
independence. They largely made their own laws, and by the time of the
Revolution had become so well educated in self-government that they were
able to draw up a Constitution and live by its terms with extremely little
friction or unrest. The success that followed the forming of the republic
of the West was a marvel to Europe; that success was mainly due to the
lessons of self-restraint and the real appreciation of what liberty meant
that had come to the colonists before the Revolution. Progress that is
to be real progress<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> must
begin right, and Washington and Jefferson and Franklin were far-sighted
and clear-headed builders. The people of France had been putting up with
wrongs a thousandfold worse than those the Americans had borne, but they
had never been educated in self-government, and so when they tried to
win liberty they plunged headlong into turmoil.</p>
<p>France was still governed very much as it had been in the Middle Ages.
The peasants were reduced to the very lowest form of living, starvation
and ignorance were common through the country. The business classes were
hampered by unjust laws. The nobility were idle, corrupt, and grossly
extravagant. Almost all power lay in the King, and Louis XVI., amiable
though he was, followed the lines of his Bourbon ancestors, Louis XIV.
and Louis XV., the former of whom had said, “The State, it is I,” and
had ruled by that principle.</p>
<p>Unhappily for Louis XVI., however, the world had progressed from the
view-point of the Middle Ages, and men were beginning to talk of constitutions
and of the duties that sovereigns owed their people. He shut his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> ears
to such talk as well as he could, and his courtiers helped him to ignore
the protests. The court continued to spend money on entertainments as
if it was water, while the peasants starved. Then it was found that the
expense of aiding the United States in the war had added enough to the
nation’s debt to make it impossible to pay the interest and to find means
to carry on the government. Either the court’s expenses must be lessened
or new taxes must be levied. The nobles furiously resisted the first
alternative, and the people resisted the second. Toward the end of 1786
Calonne, the Minister of Finance, had to admit that the treasury was
bankrupt and advise the King to call a meeting of the Assembly of Notables
to find some way out of the difficulty.</p>
<p>The Assembly was made up almost entirely of men of the highest rank,
who failed to appreciate the distresses of the country. Lafayette was
known to hold very liberal views, he was constantly talking of the American
Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and at first a part of
the court opposed his membership in the Assembly. He was given his seat
there, however, and with one or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> two
others tried to convince the council of the need of reforming the laws.
But the nobles would not listen. They were immovably arrogant and autocratic;
they would hear nothing of reforms or constitutions or the rights of
the people.</p>
<p>The Assembly of Notables reached no satisfactory conclusion. When it
adjourned conditions grew steadily worse. The affairs of the country
were in a terrible muddle, each class in the land thought only of itself,
and each was divided, envious and hostile to the others. Lafayette fought
heroically to bring them to the point of view of Washington’s countrymen.
The Marquis, however, was too much of an enthusiast and too little of
a statesman to see that the long downtrodden peasants of France were
a different type from the educated American farmers. Americans in France,
John Adams and Gouverneur Morris, realized better than he did that the
people of France were not yet fitted to govern themselves; but he would
not listen to these statesmen’s opinions. His rôle was that of a popular
leader, not that of a far-seeing statesman in very difficult times. But
the sufferings of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> people
were always present to him, and he took the most direct course he could
to relieve and satisfy them.</p>
<p>When he saw that the Assembly of Notables would accomplish nothing to
help the situation Lafayette startled the meeting by asking that they
beg the King to summon a National Assembly of the States-General, a council
that had not met for one hundred and seventy-three years and the existence
of which had almost been forgotten.</p>
<p>The Notables were amazed. “What, sir!” exclaimed the Count d’Artois,
who was presiding at the meeting. “You ask the convocation of the States-General?”</p>
<p>“Yes, monseigneur,” said Lafayette, “and even more than that.”</p>
<p>“You wish that I write,” said the Count, “and that I carry to the King,
‘Monsieur de Lafayette moves to convoke the States-General’?”</p>
<p>“Yes, monseigneur,” was Lafayette’s answer.</p>
<p>The proposal was sent to the King, with Lafayette’s name the only one
attached to the request. But as soon as the news of his petition<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> became
known the people hailed the idea with delight.</p>
<p>The States-General was a much more representative body than the Assembly
of Notables, and Louis XVI. was loath to summon it. The situation of
the country was so unsatisfactory, however, that he finally yielded and
ordered the States-General to meet in May, 1789.</p>
<p>Lafayette had great hopes of this new parliament. He wrote to Washington,
describing the situation. “The King is all-powerful,” he said. “He possesses
all the means of compulsion, of punishment, and of corruption. The ministers
naturally incline and believe themselves bound to preserve despotism.
The court is filled with swarms of vile and effeminate courtiers; men’s
minds are enervated by the influence of women and the love of pleasure;
the lower classes are plunged in ignorance. On the other hand, French
character is lively, enterprising, and inclined to despise those who
govern. The public mind begins to be enlightened by the works of philosophers
and the example of other nations.” And when the state of affairs grew
even more disturbed he wrote again to the same<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> friend,
“In the midst of these troubles and this anarchy, the friends of liberty
strengthen themselves daily, shut their ears to every compromise, and
say that they shall have a national assembly or nothing. Such is, my
dear general, the improvement in our situation. For my part, I am satisfied
with the thought that before long I shall be in an assembly of representatives
of the French nation or at Mount Vernon.”</p>
<p>Elections were held throughout the country to choose the members of
the States-General, which was composed of representatives of the three
orders, the nobles, the clergy, and what was known as the third estate,
or the middle class. Lafayette went to Auvergne to make his campaign
for election, and was chosen as deputy to represent the nobility of Riom.
On May 2, 1789, the States-General paid their respects to the King, and
on May fourth they marched in procession to hear Mass at the Church of
St. Louis. The third estate marched last, dressed in black, and in their
ranks were men destined before long to upset the old order, Mirabeau,
Danton, Marat, Guillotin, Desmoulins, Robespierre.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
<p>On May fifth the States-General formally met for business. Then began
continual struggles between the orders of nobles and clergy on the one
hand and the third estate on the other, finally ending by a declaration
of the latter that if the first two orders would not act in agreement
with them they would organize themselves, without the other two, as the
States-General of France.</p>
<p>On June twelfth the third estate met and called the roll of all the
deputies, but none of the nobles or clergy answered to their names. Next
day, however, three clerical members appeared, and the meeting felt itself
sufficiently bold, under the leadership of Mirabeau, to declare itself
positively the National Assembly of France. The indignant nobles answered
this by inducing the King to suspend all meetings until a “royal session”
could be held on June twentieth. But the third estate, having had a taste
of power, would not bow to command so easily, and when they found that
the hall where they had been meeting was closed they withdrew to the
tennis-court, where they took the famous oath not to separate until they
had given a constitution to France.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
<p>At their next meeting the third estate were joined by a large number
of the clerical members of the States-General and by two of the nobles.
This gave them greater assurance. At the “royal session” on June twentieth,
however, the King tried to ignore the power that the third estate had
claimed, and the latter had to decide between submitting to the royal
orders or rebelling. They decided to take the second course and stand
firmly on their rights as representatives of the people. When the master
of ceremonies tried to clear the hall where they had gathered Mirabeau
said defiantly, “The commons of France will never retire except at the
point of the bayonet.”</p>
<p>The King, although surrounded by weak and selfish advisers, at last
yielded to the demands of the third estate, and the nobles and clergy
joined the meetings of the National Assembly.</p>
<p>Lafayette, who had been elected as a deputy of the nobility, had found
his position extremely difficult. He had thought of resigning and trying
to be elected a second time as a deputy of the people, although Thomas
Jefferson, the American minister, had urged him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> to
take his stand outright with the third estate, arguing that his well-known
liberal views would prevent his gaining any influence with his fellow-nobles
and that if he delayed in taking up the cause of the people the latter
might regard him with suspicion. This difficulty was solved when, at
the King’s command, the deputies of the nobles finally joined with the
third estate.</p>
<p>The States-General, or the National Assembly, as it was now generally
called, went on with its meetings which took on more and more a revolutionary
color. There was rioting in Paris and Versailles, and the King ordered
troops to guard both places. The Assembly considered that the soldiers
were meant to intimidate their sessions and requested that they be sent
away. The King refused this request, and as a result the breach between
the crown and the parliament was still further widened.</p>
<p>Soon afterward Lafayette presented to the Assembly what he called his
“Declaration of Rights,” which was based on Jefferson’s Declaration of
Independence of the United States. This occasioned long discussion, for
the nobles<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> thought
its terms were revolutionary in the extreme while many of the third estate
considered that it did not go nearly far enough. And all the time the
King continued his policy of trying to overawe the Assembly, and finally
appointed the Marshal de Broglie commander of the troops that were gathering
in Paris and Versailles, planning to bring the third estate to its senses
and show the mob in Paris who was the real ruler of France.</p>
<p>Events followed rapidly. July eleventh the King dismissed Necker and
the ministers who had been trying to bring order out of confusion. The
Assembly, fearing that the King would next dissolve their meetings, declared
itself in permanent session, and elected Lafayette its vice-president.
The royal court, blind as usual, paid no attention to the storm the King’s
course was rousing, and a grand ball was held at the palace on the evening
of July thirteenth. Next day, as if in answer to rulers who could dance
while the people starved, the mob in Paris stormed the prison of the
Bastille and captured that stronghold of royal tyranny.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
<p>The storm had broken at last. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
hurried to Versailles, entered the King’s chamber, and told him the news.
“Why,” exclaimed Louis XVI., “this is a revolt!”</p>
<p>“No, sire,” answered the Duke, “it is a revolution!”</p>
<p>Next morning the Marshal de Broglie, who found that instead of a competent
army, he had only a few disorganized troops at his command, resigned.
The King, seeing his army melting away, decided that his only chance
of restoring order lay in making friends with the Assembly, and appeared
before it, begging it to aid him, and promising to recall the dismissed
ministers.</p>
<p>The Assembly, delighted at this evidence of its power, agreed to aid
the King, and sent Lafayette, with fifty other deputies, to see what
could be done to quiet the people in Paris. They found the city in the
wildest confusion. Shops were closed, barricades blocked the streets,
and gangs of ruffians were fighting everywhere. The deputies brought
some order, Lafayette made a speech to the people at the Hôtel de Ville,
and told them that the Assembly<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> was
glad that they had won liberty. Then it was decided that a mayor must
be chosen to govern Paris and a National Guard formed to preserve order.
Moreau de Saint Méry, who was presiding, pointed to the bust of Lafayette
that the State of Virginia had sent to the city of Paris. His gesture
was understood and Lafayette was immediately chosen to command the National
Guard. Bailly was by a like unanimous vote elected mayor.</p>
<p>So, at thirty-two, Lafayette gave up his seat in the National Assembly
and became Commander of the National Guard.</p>
<p>The deputies, on their return to Versailles, told their fellow-members
that the only way in which confidence could be restored in the crown
was for the King personally to visit Paris. This Louis XVI. agreed to
do on July seventeenth. In the meantime Lafayette had collected the nucleus
of a guard, had restored some sort of order, and made arrangements to
receive the King. When Louis arrived at the city gates he was met by
the mayor, Bailly, who handed him the keys of Paris, saying,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> “They
are the same keys that were presented to Henry IV. He had reconquered
his people; now it is the people who have reconquered their king.”</p>
<p>The King was escorted to the Hôtel de Ville through a double line of
National Guards. There he was given the new national cockade, which he
fixed in his hat. Afterward speeches were made and then King Louis rode
back to Versailles. He was still the sovereign in name, but his real
power was gone, shorn from him by the obstinacy of his nobles and himself.</p>
<p>Lafayette had no easy task in keeping order in Paris. His Guards obeyed
his commands, but many of the mob, having tasted revolt, continued on
a wild course, and they were now joined by many of the worst element
from the provinces. Two innocent men were murdered in spite, and Lafayette
could do nothing to prevent it. Disgusted at the trend of events he soon
resigned his office of Commander, but since no one else appeared able
to fill it he finally consented to resume it.</p>
<p>Meantime the Assembly was uprooting the old feudal laws and doing away
with almost all forms of taxation. Their object was to tear down, not
to build up; and the result was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> that
in a very short time people throughout France were making their own laws
in every city and village and paying no attention to the needs of the
nation.</p>
<p>As autumn approached the population of Paris became restless. The Assembly
at Versailles was not sufficiently under the people’s thumb, the lower
classes especially were eager to get both Assembly and King and Queen
in their power. A reception given by Louis to the National Guards at
Versailles roused great indignation. The court, so the people said, was
as frivolous and extravagant as ever, and was trying to win the Guards
over to its side. The excitement reached its climax when, on October
fifth, Maillard, a leader of the mob, called on the people of Paris to
march to Versailles. At once the cry “To Versailles!” echoed through
the city, and men and women flocked to answer the cry.</p>
<p>Lafayette heard of the plan and sent couriers to Versailles to warn
the King and the Assembly of what was in the air. All day he tried his
best to quiet the people and induce them to give up the march. He forbade
the National Guards to leave their posts, and at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> first
they obeyed him. But presently deputation after deputation came to him.
“General,” said one of his men, “we do not think you a traitor; but we
think the government betrays you. It is time that this end. We cannot
turn our bayonets against women crying to us for bread. The people are
miserable; the source of the mischief is at Versailles; we must go seek
the King and bring him to Paris.”</p>
<p>That was the view of the Guards, and it grew more and more positive.
Armed crowds were leaving the city, dragging cannon, and at last the
Guards surrounded their commander and declared their intention to march
and to take him with them. So finally Lafayette set out for Versailles,
preceded and followed by an immense rabble of men and women.</p>
<p>Meantime the couriers sent by Lafayette to Versailles had reported the
news of the march of the mob. The Assembly could think of nothing that
would pacify the people, and contented itself with sending messengers
to the King, who happened to be hunting in the Versailles forests. Louis
returned to his palace to find his body-guards, the Swiss and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> the
Flanders Regiment, drawn up in the courtyards as though to withstand
a siege.</p>
<p>In the middle of the afternoon the first crowd of women, led by Maillard
beating his drum, arrived at Versailles. Some marched to the Assembly
and shouted to the deputies to pass laws at once that should lower the
price of bread. Others paraded through the streets, and still others
went to the palace to see the King, who received them very kindly and
tried to assure them that he entirely agreed with all their wishes.</p>
<p>But the royal family had taken alarm and wanted to fly from the palace.
Their carriages were ordered out, and the body-guards placed in readiness
to serve as escort. This plan became known, however, and when the carriages
drove out from the great stables some of the National Guards themselves
seized the horses’ heads and turned them back.</p>
<p>The National Assembly itself was in an uproar. The President, Mounier,
left the chamber to see the King, and when he came back he found a fat
fishwoman making a speech to the crowd from his own chair. The Assembly
had taken power and authority<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> away
from the King; now the mob was bent on doing the same thing to the Assembly.</p>
<p>At eleven o’clock that evening Lafayette reached Versailles with his
National Guards and the rest of the rabble from Paris. On the way he
had tried to curb the rougher part of the crowd and had made his troops
stop and renew their oaths of allegiance “to the nation, the law, and
the King.” He went at once to the palace to receive King Louis’ orders,
but the Swiss guards would not let him enter until he agreed to go in
without any of the people from Paris. When he did enter he found the
halls and rooms filled with courtiers. One of them, seeing him, exclaimed,
“Here is Cromwell!” Lafayette answered instantly, “Cromwell would not
have entered alone.”</p>
<p>The King received him cordially, and told him to guard the outside of
the palace, leaving the inside to the protection of the royal body-guards.
Lafayette then saw that his men were bivouacked for the night, quieted
noisy marchers, and felt that, at least for the time, Versailles was
at rest. Worn out with the day’s exertions the Marquis finally got a
chance to sleep.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
<p>Early next day, however, the mob burst forth again. A crowd fell to
disputing with the royal body-guards at one of the gates to the palace,
rushed the soldiers, and broke into the inner court. Up the stairs they
streamed, killing the guards that tried to oppose them. Marie Antoinette
had barely time to fly from her room to that of the King before the rioters
reached her apartment, crying out threats against her.</p>
<p>As soon as he heard of all this Lafayette sent two companies of soldiers
to clear the mob from the palace. When he arrived himself he found the
people all shouting “To Paris!” He saw at once that his National Guards
were not to be trusted to oppose the crowd, and urged the King to agree
to go to Paris. Louis consented, and Lafayette went out on the balcony
and announced the King’s decision.</p>
<p>This appeased the throng somewhat, and Lafayette asked the King to appear
on the balcony with him. Louis stepped out and was greeted with cheers
of “<i>Vive le roi!</i>” Then Lafayette said to the Queen, “What are
your intentions, madame?”</p>
<p>“I know the fate which awaits me,” answered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> Marie
Antoinette, “but my duty is to die at the feet of the King and in the
arms of my children.”</p>
<p>“Well, madame, come with me,” said Lafayette.</p>
<p>“What! Alone on the balcony? Have you not seen the signs which have
been made to me?”</p>
<p>“Yes, madame, but let us go.”</p>
<p>Marie Antoinette agreed, and stepped out with her children. The crowd
cried, “No children!” and they were sent back. The mob was making too
much noise for Lafayette to speak to them, so instead he took the Queen’s
hand, and, bowing low, kissed it. The crowd, always ready to go from
one extreme to another, immediately set up shouts of “Long live the General!
Long live the Queen!”</p>
<p>King Louis then asked Lafayette about the safety of his body-guards.
Lafayette stuck a tricolor cockade in the hat of one of these soldiers,
and taking him on to the balcony, embraced him. The mob’s answer was
cheers of “<i>Vive les gardes du corps!</i>”</p>
<p>So peace was restored for the time. Fifty thousand people marched back
to Paris, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> King
and the royal family in their carriage, Lafayette riding beside them.
Close to them marched the royal body-guards, and close to the latter
came the National Guards. And the crowd shouted with exultation at having
forced their sovereign to do their will.</p>
<p>At the gates of the city the mayor met the procession and made a patriotic
address. From there they went to the Hôtel de Ville, where more speeches
were made, and it was late in the day before Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette
and their children were allowed to take refuge in the Palace of the Tuileries.</p>
<p>Lafayette, who had played with the Queen and her friends in the gardens
at Versailles when he was a boy, had stood by her loyally on that day
when the mob had vowed vengeance against her. He believed in liberty
and constitutional government, but he also believed in order. He wanted
to protect the weak and defenseless, and he hated the excesses of the
mob. He thought he could reproduce in France what he had seen accomplished
in America. But conditions were too different. The people of France had
been ground down too long by their nobles. Their first taste of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> liberty
had gone to their heads like strong wine. So, like a boat that has lost
its rudder, the ship of state of France plunged on to the whirlpool of
the French Revolution.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="X">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">X<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">STORM-CLOUDS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">King Louis XVI.</span>, Queen Marie Antoinette,
and their children were now virtually prisoners in the Palace of the
Tuileries in Paris, the nobles were leaving France for their own safety,
and the Assembly was trying to govern the country. But the Assembly was
very large and unwieldy, and its members were more interested in making
speeches denouncing the present laws than in trying to frame new ones.
Lafayette was commander of the National Guard, and so in a way the most
powerful man in France, although the most able statesman and leader was
Mirabeau. Occasionally Lafayette found time to attend the meetings of
the Assembly, and at one of these sessions a deputy demanded that all
titles of nobility should be abolished. Another member objected, saying
that merit ought to be recognized, and asking what could be put in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> place
of the words, “Such a one has been made noble and count for having saved
the State on such a day.”</p>
<p>Lafayette rose at once to answer. “Suppress the words ‘made noble and
count,’” said he; “say only, ‘Such a one saved the State on such a day.’
It seems to me that these words have something of an American character,
precious fruit of the New World, which ought to aid much in rejuvenating
the old one.”</p>
<p>The measure was carried immediately, and Lafayette dropped from his
name both the “marquis” and the “de.” He never used them again; and when,
after the French Revolution was over, all titles were restored, Lafayette,
steadfast to his convictions, never called himself or allowed himself
to be addressed as the Marquis de Lafayette, but was always known simply
as General Lafayette.</p>
<p>Lafayette did all he could to ease the difficult position of King Louis,
though relations between the two men were necessarily strained, since
the King could hardly look with pleasure on the commander of the National
Guard, who held his office from the Assembly and people<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> and
not from the crown. Louis chafed at having to stay in the Tuileries and
wanted to go hunting in the country, but the people would not allow this.
And it fell to Lafayette to urge the King to show as little discontent
as possible, which naturally made the sovereign resentful toward the
General.</p>
<p>During the winter of 1789-90 Lafayette was busy trying to keep order
in Paris and drilling the Guard. He sent the Duke of Orleans, who had
been stirring up the worst elements to dethrone Louis XVI. and make him
king instead, in exile from the country. Violent bread riots broke out
and mobs tried to pillage the convents, but Lafayette and his Guards
prevented much damage being done. It took all his tact and perseverance
to handle these soldiers under his command; they were quick-tempered
and restive under any authority, and only too ready to follow the last
excitable speaker they had heard. Lafayette said to his officers,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> “We
are lost if the service continues to be conducted with such great inexactitude.
We are the only soldiers of the Revolution; we alone should defend the
royal family from every attack; we alone should establish the liberty
of the representatives of the nation; we are the only guardians of the
public treasury. France, all Europe, have fixed their eyes on the Parisians.
A disturbance in Paris, an attack made through our negligence on these
sacred institutions, would dishonor us forever, and bring upon us the
hatred of the provinces.”</p>
<p>He did not want any great office or power for himself, his desires were
always very much like those of George Washington, he simply wanted to
serve the sacred cause of liberty. Yet he was at that time the most powerful
and the most popular man in France. The court, though it disliked him
as the representative of the people, depended on him for its personal
safety. The Assembly relied on him as its guardian, the soldiers trusted
him as their commander, and the people considered him their bulwark against
any return to the old despotism.</p>
<p>Through all this time he wrote regularly to Washington, and when, by
his orders, the Bastille was torn down he sent the keys of the fortress
to his friend at Mount Vernon. The keys were sent, he wrote, as a tribute
from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> “a son to
an adopted father, an aide-de-camp to his general, a missionary of liberty
to her patriarch.”</p>
<p>On the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1790,
a great celebration was held in Paris. A vast crowd of more than three
hundred thousand persons, including the court, the Assembly, the National
Guard, and men from the provinces as well as from the city, met in the
amphitheatre of the Champs de Mars to swear obedience to the new constitution
which was to govern them all. First Louis XVI. took the oath, and then
Lafayette, who was made for that day commander-in-chief of all the armed
forces of France, stepped forward, placed the point of his sword on the
altar, and took the oath as the representative of the French people.
A great roar of voices greeted the commander’s words.</p>
<p>But although Lafayette meant to remain faithful to the principles of
a constitutional monarchy, the mass of his countrymen soon showed that
they had no such intention. Disorder and rioting grew more frequent,
the people demanded more of the Assembly than the latter felt it could
grant, the Guards grew increasingly unpopular as the symbol of a law<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> and
order the mob did not like. Within the Assembly itself there were many
quarrels and wrangles; sometimes the mob vented its feelings on an unpopular
member by attacking his house. And as often as not the National Guards,
when they were sent to protect property, joined with the crowd and helped
to destroy it instead.</p>
<p>In February, 1791, a crowd from Paris attacked the fortress of Vincennes,
which had once been a state prison, but had been unused for some time.
Lafayette, with his staff and a considerable number of National Guards,
marched out to the place, quelled the disturbance, and arrested sixty
of the ringleaders. When he brought his prisoners back to the city he
found the gates of the Faubourg St. Antoine closed against him, and he
had to threaten to blow the gates open with cannon before the people
would allow him to enter. All the way to the Conciergerie, where he took
his prisoners, the General and his soldiers were targets for the abuse
of the crowds.</p>
<p>On the same day some of the nobles who lived in the neighborhood of
the royal palace of the Tuileries, hearing of the attack at Vincennes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> thought
that the King might also be in danger, and went to the palace, armed
with pistols and daggers. This angered the National Guards who were posted
about the Tuileries and who thought that the noblemen were poaching on
their territory. The King had to appear in person to settle the dispute,
and even then some of the nobles were maltreated by the soldiers. Immediately
revolutionary orators made use of the incident to inflame the people’s
mind, representing that the King’s friends had planned to murder officers
of the Guards.</p>
<p>It was clear that the National Guards were growing less and less trustworthy,
and equally evident that the people of Paris were becoming more and more
hostile to their King. Louis disliked staying at the Tuileries, where
he was constantly under the eyes of enemies, and at Easter decided to
go to the palace of St. Cloud, which was near Paris, and celebrate the
day there. Word of this got abroad, and the people grumbled; more than
that they said that Louis should not go to St. Cloud.</p>
<p>On the morning of April eighteenth the King and his family entered their
traveling-carriage,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> only
to have an angry crowd seize the horses’ heads and forbid the King to
move. Louis appealed to the National Guards who were in attendance, but
the soldiers took the side of the people and helped to block the way.
The mob swarmed close to the carriage, insulting the King and his servants.
Louis had courage. He put his head out at the window and cried, “It would
be an astonishing thing, if, after having given liberty to the nation,
I myself should not be free!”</p>
<p>At this point Lafayette and the mayor, Bailly, arrived, and urged the
mob and the Guards to keep the peace and disperse. The crowd was obstinate;
most of the Guards were openly rebellious. Then Lafayette went to the
royal carriage, and offered to use force to secure the King’s departure
if Louis would give the word. The King answered promptly, “It is for
you, sir, to see to what is necessary for the due fulfilment of your
constitution.” Again Lafayette turned to the mob and addressed it, but
it showed no intention of obeying his orders, and at last he had to tell
Louis that it would be dangerous for him to drive forth. So the King
and his family returned to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> the
Tuileries, fully aware now that they were prisoners of the people and
could not count on the protection of the troops.</p>
<p>Everywhere it was now said that the King must obey “the supreme will
of the people.” Louis protested; he went to the National Assembly and
told the deputies that he expected them to protect his liberty; but Mirabeau,
the leader who had used his influence on behalf of the sovereign in earlier
meetings, was dead, and the party of Robespierre held the upper hand.
The Assembly had no intention of opposing the people, and paid little
heed to the King’s demands.</p>
<p>Lafayette saw that a general whose troops would not obey him was a useless
officer, and sent in his resignation as commander of the Guards. But
the better element in Paris wanted him to stay, and the more loyal of
the troops begged him to resume his command. No one could fill his place,
and so he agreed to take the office again. He went to the Commune of
Paris and addressed its members. “We are citizens, gentlemen, we are
free,” said he;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> “but
without obedience to the law, there is only confusion, anarchy, despotism;
and if this capital, the cradle of the Revolution, instead of surrounding
with intelligence and respect the depositaries of national power, should
besiege them with tumult, or fatigue them with violence, it would cease
to be the example of Frenchmen, it would risk becoming their terror.”</p>
<p>The Commune applauded his words, and he went forth again as Commander-in-chief,
the Guards taking a new oath to obey the laws. But at the same time the
Jacobins, or revolutionaries, placarded the walls of Paris with praises
of the soldiers who had rebelled and feasted them as models of patriotism.</p>
<p>Meantime King Louis and his closest friends determined that the royal
family must escape from the Tuileries. Careful plans were laid and a
number of the nobles were told of them. Rumors of the intended escape
got abroad, but such rumors had been current for the past year. Lafayette
heard them and spoke of them to the King, who assured him that he had
no such design. Lafayette went to the mayor, Bailly, and the two men
discussed the rumor, concluding that there was nothing more to it than
to the earlier stories.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
<p>The night of June twentieth was the time chosen by the King and his
intimate friends. Marie Antoinette placed her children in the care of
Madame de Tourzel, her companion, saying, “The King and I, madame, place
in your hands, with the utmost confidence, all that we hold dear in the
world. Everything is ready; go.” Madame de Tourzel and the children went
out to a carriage, driven by the Count de Fersen, and rode along the
quays to a place that had been decided on as the rendezvous.</p>
<p>Lafayette and Bailly had spent the evening with the King. As soon as
they had gone, to disarm suspicion Louis undressed and got into bed.
Then he got up again, put on a disguise, and walked down the main staircase
and out at the door. He reached his carriage, and waited a short time
for the Queen, who presently joined him; and then the royal couple drove
out of Paris.</p>
<p>The flight was not discovered until about six o’clock in the morning.
Then Lafayette hurried to the Tuileries with Bailly. He found that a
mob had already gathered there, vowing vengeance on all who had had charge<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> of
the King. With difficulty he rescued the officer who had been on guard
the night before. He sent messengers in every direction with orders to
stop the royal fugitives. He went to the Assembly, and addressed it.
At the Jacobin Club, Danton, the fiery orator, declared, “The commander-general
promised on his head that the King would not depart; therefore we must
have the person of the King or the head of Monsieur the commander-general!”
But Lafayette’s reputation was still too great for him to be reached
by his enemies.</p>
<p>The unfortunate royal family were finally arrested at Varennes and brought
back to Paris. Louis was received in an ominous silence by his people.
Lafayette met him at the gates and escorted him back to the palace. There
Lafayette said, “Sire, your Majesty is acquainted with my personal attachment;
but I have not allowed you to be unaware that if you separated your cause
from that of the people I should remain on the side of the people.”</p>
<p>“That is true,” answered King Louis.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> “You
have acted according to your principles; it is an affair of party. At
present, here I am. I will tell you frankly, that up to these last days,
I believed myself to be in a vortex of people of your opinion with whom
you surrounded me, but that it was not the opinion of France. I have
thoroughly recognized in this journey that I was mistaken, and that this
opinion is the general one.”</p>
<p>When Lafayette asked the King for his orders, the latter laughed and
said, “It seems to me that I am more at your orders than you are at mine.”</p>
<p>The commander did all that he could to soften the hard position of the
royal captives, but he took care to see that the Tuileries was better
guarded after that.</p>
<p>Some Jacobins now petitioned the Assembly to dethrone the King, and
a great meeting was held in the Champs de Mars on the seventeenth of
July. As usual the meeting got out of hand and the mob turned to murder
and pillage. Lafayette and Bailly rode to the field with some of their
soldiers; Bailly proclaimed martial law and ordered the crowd to disperse.
Jeers and threats followed, and at last Lafayette had to give his men
the command to fire. A dozen of the mob were killed, and the rest took
to flight.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p>
<p>This seemed to bring peace again, but it was only the quiet that precedes
the thunder-storm. The Assembly finished its work on the new constitution
for France and the King signed it. Then Lafayette, tired with his constant
labors, resigned his commission and stated his intention of retiring
to private life. Paris voted him a medal and a marble statue of Washington,
and the National Guards presented him with a sword forged from the bolts
of the Bastille. At last he rode back to his country home at Chavaniac,
looking forward to rest there as Washington looked for rest at his beloved
Mount Vernon.</p>
<p>To friends at his home in Auvergne the General said, “You see me restored
to the place of my birth; I shall leave it only to defend or consolidate
our common liberty, if attacked, and I hope to remain here for long.”
He believed that the new constitution would bring liberty and peace to
his country. But the French Revolution had only begun its course, and
he was destined soon to be called back to its turmoil.</p>
<p>He had several months of rest in his home in the mountains, happy months
for his wife,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> who
for two years had hardly ever seen her husband leave their house in Paris
without fearing that he might not return. She had been a wonderful helpmate
for the General during the turbulent course of events since his return
from America and had loyally entertained the guests of every varying
shade of political opinion who had flocked to his house in the capital.
But she liked to have her husband away from the alarms of Paris and safe
in the quiet of his country home at Chavaniac. There he had more time
to spend with her and their three children, Anastasie, George Washington,
and Virginia, who had been named after the State where her father had
won his military laurels.</p>
<p>The Legislative Assembly of France, which was trying to govern the country
under the new constitution, was finding the making of laws which should
satisfy every one a very difficult task. There were countless cliques
and parties, and each had its own pet scheme for making the land a Utopia.
The court party hoped that the more reckless element would lose all hold
on the people through its very extravagance, and so actually encouraged<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> many
wildly absurd projects. The royalists were always expecting that a counter-revolution
would bring them back into power, and the nobles who had left the country
filled the border-towns and plotted and conspired and used their influence
to induce foreign sovereigns to interfere and restore the old order in
France. Naturally enough news of these plots and conspiracies did not
tend to make King Louis or his nobles any more popular with the lawgivers
in Paris.</p>
<p>In August, 1791, the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria met
the Count d’Artois and the Marquis de Bouillé at the town of Pilnitz
and formed an alliance against France, making the cause of Louis XVI.
their own. The royalists who had emigrated were delighted, and filled
Europe with statements of what they meant to do to the revolutionary
leaders when they won back their power. The revolutionists grew more
and more angry, and as they saw foreign troops gathering on the French
frontiers they decided that it was high time to oppose force with force.
Narbonne, the Minister of War, announced that the King and government
meant to form three armies<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> of
fifty thousand men each, and that the country had chosen as commanding
generals Rochambeau, Luckner, and Lafayette.</p>
<p>Lafayette at once returned to Paris from Chavaniac, paid his respects
to the King, and going to the Assembly thanked the members for his new
appointment and declared his unalterable devotion to the maintenance
and defense of the constitution. The president of the Assembly answered
that “the French people, which has sworn to conquer or to die in the
cause of liberty, will always confidently present to nations and to tyrants
the constitution and Lafayette.”</p>
<p>In view of what happened afterward it is important to remember that
Lafayette accepted his appointment under the constitution of France and
that he felt himself bound to support and obey it under all circumstances.</p>
<p>Then he departed from Paris for the frontier, the cheers of the people
and the National Guards ringing in his ears. He was popular with all
parties except those of the two extremes, the friends of the King considering
him a rebel and the Jacobins calling him a courtier.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
<p>At Metz Lafayette met Rochambeau, Luckner, and Narbonne, and it was
arranged that the three generals should make their headquarters at Liège,
Trèves, and Coblentz. News of these military measures somewhat cooled
the ardor of the alliance against France and enemy troops stopped collecting
along the border. Lafayette took advantage of this to prepare his raw
recruits for a possible struggle. They needed this preparation, for the
army of France, which had once been the proudest in Europe, had been
allowed to scatter during the past few years.</p>
<p>He accomplished much in the way of discipline, was called to Paris to
consult on a plan of campaign, found the leaders there as much at odds
as ever, and returned to his post at Metz. Again the emigrant nobles
and their allies were uttering threats against the French government,
and finally, on April 20, 1792, the government declared war on its enemies.</p>
<p>Lafayette’s orders were to proceed against the Netherlands, marching
from Metz to Givet, and thence to Namur. Meantime Rochambeau’s army was
to attack the Austrians. But there was so much discord among Rochambea<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>u’s
divisions that the attack turned into a retreat, and Lafayette, learning
this when he arrived at Givet, was obliged to wait there instead of marching
farther. The conduct of his soldiers so discouraged Rochambeau that he
resigned his commission and the territory to be defended was divided
between Lafayette and Luckner. The former concentrated his troops at
Maubeuge, and spent the month of May drilling and occasionally making
sorties.</p>
<p>In Paris the cause of law and order was having a hard time. The Jacobins
wanted to upset the constitution, dethrone the King, and establish a
republic, and they were steadily growing stronger. The spirit of revolution
was spreading through the country, and everywhere the people gave the
greatest applause to the most revolutionary orators. The Assembly was
treating Louis XVI. with insolence and the King was retaliating by regarding
the deputies with unconcealed contempt. The monarchy and the constitution
were fast falling to pieces, and the news of the defeat of the army on
the frontier helped to hasten the climax. Gouverneur Morris wrote to
Thomas Jefferson in June, 1792,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> “The
best picture I can give of the French people is that of cattle before
a thunder-storm.” And a week later he wrote, “We stand on a vast volcano;
we feel it tremble and we hear it roar; but how and where and when it
will burst, and who may be destroyed by its irruption, are beyond the
ken of mortal foresight to discover.”</p>
<p>Lafayette, in camp at Maubeuge, alarmed at the reports from Paris, felt
that the cause of liberty and order would be lost unless some effective
blow could be dealt at the power of the Jacobins. If some one would take
the lead in opposing that group, or club, he believed that the Assembly
and the rest of the people would follow. So he wrote a letter to the
Assembly, and in this he said, “Can you hide from yourselves that a faction,
and, to avoid vague terms, the Jacobite faction, has caused all these
disorders? It is this club that I openly accuse.” Then he went on to
denounce the Jacobins as the enemies of all order.</p>
<p>When the letter was read in the Assembly the Jacobins attacked it furiously,
charging that the General wanted to make himself a dictator. His friends
supported him, but the Jacobins were the more powerful. Through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> their
clubs, their newspapers, and their street orators they soon led the fickle
people to believe that Lafayette, their idol of a few years before, was
now a traitor to them and their greatest enemy.</p>
<p>Another quarrel arose between King Louis and the Assembly, and the former
dismissed his ministers. The Jacobins seized on this to inaugurate a
reign of terror. The streets were filled with mobs, passionate orators
harangued the crowds, men and women pushed their way into the meetings
of the Assembly and told the deputies what they wanted done. June twentieth
was the anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath, and on that day a great
rabble invaded the Assembly, denounced the King, and then marched to
the Tuileries, where it found that the gates had been left open. The
mob surged through the palace, singing the revolutionary song “<i>Ça
ira</i>,” and shouting “Down with the Austrian woman! Down with Marie
Antoinette!” The Queen and her children fled to an inner room, protected
by a few grenadiers. The King watched the crowd surge by him, his only
concession to their demands being to put a liberty cap on his head. After
three hours<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> of
uproar the leaders felt that Louis had been taught a sufficient lesson
and led their noisy followers back to the streets.</p>
<p>A story is told that a young and penniless lieutenant by the name of
Napoleon Bonaparte was dining with a friend in the Palais Royal when
the mob attacked the Tuileries. Taking a position on the bank of the
Seine he watched the scene with indignation. When he saw the King at
the window with the red liberty cap on his head, he exclaimed, “Why have
they let in all that rabble? They should sweep off four or five hundred
of them with cannon; the rest would then set off fast enough.” But the
time had not yet come for this lieutenant to show how to deal with the
people.</p>
<p>Lafayette heard of the mob’s invasion of the Tuileries and decided to
go to Paris to see what he could do to check the spirit of revolution.
General Luckner had no objection to his leaving his headquarters at Maubeuge,
but warned him that if the Jacobins once got him in their power they
would cut off his head. Undaunted by this idea Lafayette went to the
capital, and arrived at the house of his friend<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> La
Rochefoucauld, entirely unexpected, on the twenty-eighth of June.</p>
<p>His visit caused great excitement. He went to the Assembly and made
a stirring speech in which he said that the violence committed at the
Tuileries had roused the indignation of all good citizens. His words
were cheered by the more sober deputies, but the Jacobins protested loudly.
One of the latter asked how it happened that General Lafayette was allowed
to leave his army to come and lecture the Assembly on its duties. The
General’s speech had some influence in restoring order, but the power
of the Jacobins was steadily increasing.</p>
<p>Lafayette then went to the Tuileries, where he saw the royal family.
Louis was ready to receive any assurance of help that the General could
give him, for the King saw now that his only reliance lay in the constitution
he had signed, and felt that might prove a slight support. Marie Antoinette,
however, refused to forgive Lafayette for the part he had taken in the
early days of revolution, and would have no aid at his hands.</p>
<p>When he left the Tuileries some of his former<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> National
Guards followed his carriage with shouts of “Vive Lafayette! Down with
the Jacobins!” and planted a liberty pole before his house. This gave
Lafayette the idea of appealing to the whole force of the National Guard
and urging them to stand by the constitution. He asked permission to
speak to them at a review the next day, but the mayor, fearing Lafayette’s
influence, countermanded the review. Then the General held meetings at
his house and did all he could to persuade Guards and citizens to oppose
the Jacobins, who, if they had their way, would, in his opinion, ruin
the country.</p>
<p>At the end of June he returned to the army. Daily he heard reports of
the growing power of his enemies, the Jacobins. Then he resolved to make
one more attempt to save the King and the constitution. He received orders
to march his troops by a town called La Capelle, which was about twenty
miles from Compiègne, one of the King’s country residences. His plan
was that Louis XVI. should go to the Assembly and declare his intention
of passing a few days at Compiègne; there Lafayette’s army would meet
him, and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> King
would proclaim that he was ready to send his troops against the enemies
of France who had gathered on the frontiers and should reaffirm his loyalty
to the constitution. The General thought that if the King would do this
it would restore the confidence of the people in their sovereign.</p>
<p>But neither the King nor the nobles who were with him at the Tuileries
were attracted by this plan, which meant that Louis would openly declare
his hostility toward those emigrant nobles who had gathered on the borders.
And when the Jacobins learned that Lafayette had been communicating secretly
with the King they used this news as fresh fuel for their fire. So the
result of the scheme was only to add to the currents of suspicion and
intrigue that were involving Paris in the gathering storm.</p>
<p>The power of the Assembly grew weaker; its authority was more and more
openly thwarted; the deputies wanted to stand by the constitution, but
it appeared that the country did not care to live under its laws. The
government of Paris was now entirely under the control of the Jacobins.
They filled the ranks<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> of
the National Guards with ruffians in their pay. On July fourteenth the
King reviewed soldiers who were secretly ready to tear the crown from
his head and was forced to listen to bitter taunts and jibes.</p>
<p>Then, at the end of July, the allied armies of Austria and Prussia,
accompanied by a great many French noblemen, crossed the frontier and
began their heralded invasion. The general in command, the Duke of Brunswick,
issued a proclamation calling on the people of Paris to submit to their
king, and threatening all sorts of dire things if they persisted in their
rebellion. The proclamation acted like tinder to powder. The invasion
united all parties for the moment. If the Duke of Brunswick succeeded,
no man who had taken part in the Revolution could think his life or property
secure, and France would return to the old feudal despotism, made worse
by its dependence on foreign armies.</p>
<p>The people of Paris and of France demanded immediate and vigorous action;
the Assembly could not lead them, and the Jacobins seized their chance.
Danton and his fellows addressed the crowds in the streets and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> told
them that France would not be safe until the monarchy and the aristocracy
had been exterminated. The people heard and believed, and by August first
were ready to strike down any men their leaders pointed out to them.</p>
<p>Danton and the Jacobins made their plans rapidly. They filled the floor
and the galleries of the Assembly with men whose violent threats kept
the deputies constantly in fear of physical force. They taught the people
to hate all those who defended the constitution, and chief among the
latter Lafayette, whom the Jacobins feared more than any other man in
France. So great was their fury against him that Gouverneur Morris wrote
to Jefferson at the beginning of August, “I verily believe that if M.
de Lafayette were to appear just now in Paris unattended by his army,
he would be torn in pieces.”</p>
<p>On August tenth the mob, armed with pikes, surrounded the Tuileries.
The King looked out on a crowd made up of the most vicious elements of
the city. He tried to urge the National Guards to protect him, but they
were demoralized by the shouts of the throngs. Finally he decided to
take refuge with the National<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> Assembly,
and with the Queen and their children succeeded in reaching the Assembly
chamber.</p>
<p>The Swiss guards at the Tuileries attempted to make some resistance,
but the mob drove them from their posts and killed many of them. The
reign of terror spread. Nobles or citizens who had opposed the Jacobins
were hunted out and murdered. When the Assembly adjourned the deputies
found armed bands at the doors, waiting to kill all those who were known
to have supported the constitution.</p>
<p>Meantime the royal family had found the Assembly a poor refuge. A deputy
had moved that the King be dethroned and a convention summoned to determine
the future government of the country. The measure was instantly carried.
Louis XVI. and his family were handed over to officers who took them
to the Temple, which then became their prison.</p>
<p>The Jacobins had won the day by force and violence. They formed a government
called the “Commune of August 10th,” filled it with their own men, drove
all respectable soldiers out of the National Guard and placed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> Jacobin
pikemen in their places. All nobles and friends of the King who were
found in Paris were thrown into the prisons, which were soon crammed.
The Reign of Terror had begun in fact. Only a short time later the prisoners
were being tried and sent to the guillotine.</p>
<p>Lafayette heard of the events of August tenth and begged his troops
to remain true to the King and the constitution. Then the Commune of
Paris sent commissioners to the armies to announce the change of government
and to demand allegiance to the Commune. Lafayette met the commissioners
at Sedan, heard their statements, and declaring them the agents of a
faction that had unlawfully seized on power, ordered them imprisoned.</p>
<p>News of Lafayette’s arrest of the commissioners added to the turmoil
in Paris. Some Jacobins wanted to have him declared a traitor at once;
others, however, feared that his influence with the army might be too
great for them to take such a step safely. But troops in the other parts
of France had come over to the Commune, and so, on the nineteenth of
August the Jacobin leaders felt their power<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> strong
enough to compel the Assembly to declare Lafayette a traitor.</p>
<p>Lafayette now had to face a decision. France had declared for the Commune
of Paris and overthrown King and constitution. He had three choices.
He might accept the rule of the Jacobins and become one of their generals;
he might continue to oppose them and probably be arrested by his own
soldiers and sent to the guillotine; he might leave the country, seek
refuge in some neutral land, and hope that some day he could again be
of service to liberty in France. To accept the first course was impossible
for him, because he had no confidence in Jacobin rule. To take the second
would be useless. Therefore the third course was the one he decided on.</p>
<p>He turned his troops over to other officers, and with a few friends,
who, like himself, had been declared traitors because they had supported
the constitution, rode away from Sedan and crossed the border into Belgium
at the little town of Bouillon. He was now an exile from his own country.
The cause of liberty that he had fought so hard for had now become the
cause of lawlessness. His dream of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> France,
safe and prosperous under a constitution like that of the young republic
across the sea, had come to an end, at least for the time being. He could
do nothing but wash his hands of the Reign of Terror that followed on
the footsteps of the Revolution he had helped to start.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="XI">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">XI<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">LAFAYETTE IN PRISON AND EXILE</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">Lafayette</span> knew that he could expect to find
no place of refuge on either side of the French frontier; on the one
hand were the Jacobin soldiers of the Reign of Terror who held him to
be a traitor, and on the other the emigrant noblemen and their allies
who regarded him as in large part responsible for all the troubles that
had befallen Louis XVI. and his court. He had got himself into a position
where both sides considered him an enemy; and his best course seemed
to be to make his way to England and there take ship for America, where
he was always sure to meet a friendly welcome.</p>
<p>Austrian and Prussian troops held the northern border of France and
garrisoned the outpost towns of Belgium. Lafayette and his companions
crossed the frontier on their road to Brussels, but were stopped at the
town of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> Rochefort
because they had no passports. One of the party, Bureaux de Pusy, rode
to Namur, the nearest large town, to try to get the necessary papers,
but when he told the officer in charge there that the passports were
wanted for General Lafayette and several friends there was great commotion.
“Passports for Lafayette, the enemy of the King and of order!” the Austrian
officer exclaimed. Lafayette was too important a man to let escape in
any such fashion. And at once the command was given to arrest the Frenchman
and his companions.</p>
<p>They were found at Liège and arrested. Lafayette protested that he and
his friends were now non-combatants, and moreover were on neutral territory
in Belgium. In spite of that they were held as prisoners, although a
secret message was sent to Lafayette that he could have his freedom if
he would forswear his republican principles and give certain information
about conditions in France. Indignantly he refused to buy his liberty
in any such way, and then was sent to the Prussian fortress of Wesel
on the Rhine. On the journey there he was questioned several times about<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> the
French army he had commanded, but the haughty contempt with which he
refused to make any answers quickly showed his captors the sort of man
they had to deal with. At one town an officer of the Duke of Saxe Teschen
came to him and demanded that Lafayette turn over to the Duke the treasure
chest of his army that his enemies supposed he had taken with him. At
first Lafayette thought the request a joke; but when the demand was repeated
he turned on the officer. “I am to infer, then, that if the Duke of Saxe
Teschen had been in my place, he would have stolen the military chest
of the army?” said he. The officer backed out of the room in confusion,
and afterward no one dared to doubt the Frenchman’s honesty.</p>
<p class="center" id="prisoner"><img src="images/lafayette.jpg" width="414" height="600" alt="" /><br />
<span class="smcap">Lafayette, a Prussian Prisoner</span></p>
<p>The prison at Wesel was mean and unhealthy, and the cells so small and
cold and damp that the prisoners suffered greatly. Yet to every protest
of Lafayette the only answer vouchsafed was that he should have better
treatment if he would tell his captors the military plans of the army
of France. His reply was always the same, an indignant refusal. The Jacobins
had declared him a traitor to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> government
of the Commune, but he never repaid them by any treachery.</p>
<p>The Prussians and Austrians, arch-enemies of liberty, felt that in Lafayette
they had caught the chief apostle of freedom in all Europe, and for greater
security they presently moved him from the prison at Wesel to the stronger
fortress at Magdeburg on the Elbe. There Lafayette had a cell about eight
feet by four in size, under the outer rampart, never lighted by a ray
of sun. Its walls were damp with mould, and two guards constantly watched
the prisoner. Even the nobles in Paris, victims of the Terror, were treated
better than the Prussians treated Lafayette. For five months he stayed
there, with no chance for exercise or change, proof against every threat
and bribe. Then the King of Prussia, seeing that he would soon have to
make peace with France, and unwilling that this leader of liberty should
be set free, decided to hand Lafayette and his comrades over to the Emperor
of Austria, the bitterest foe of freedom and of France.</p>
<p>So Lafayette and several of the others were secretly transferred across
the frontier to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> fortress
of Olmutz, a town of Moravia in central Austria. Here they were given
numbers instead of names, and only a few officials knew who the prisoners
were or where they were kept. Lafayette practically disappeared, as many
other famous prisoners had disappeared in Austrian dungeons. Neither
his wife and friends in France nor Washington in America had any inkling
of what had become of him.</p>
<p>When he had first left France on his way to Brussels he had written
to his wife at Chavaniac. “Whatever may be the vicissitudes of fortune,
my dear heart,” he said, “you know that my soul is not of the kind to
give way; but you know it too well not to have pity on the suffering
that I experienced on leaving my country.... There is none among you
who would wish to owe fortune to conduct contrary to my conscience. Join
me in England; let us establish ourselves in America. We shall find there
the liberty which exists no longer in France, and my tenderness will
seek to recompense you for all the enjoyments you have lost.” Later,
in his first days in prison, he wrote to a friend in England, using a
tooth-pick with some lemon juice and lampblack for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> pen
and ink. “A prison,” he said, “is the only proper place for me, and I
prefer to suffer in the name of the despotism I have fought, than in
the name of the people whose cause is dear to my heart, and which is
profaned to-day by brigands.”</p>
<p>For as brigands he thought of Robespierre and his crew who were making
of France a country of horror and fear. From time to time he had news
of the execution in Paris of friends who had been very near and dear
to him. When Louis XVI. was beheaded he wrote of it as “the assassination
of the King, in which all the laws of humanity, of justice, and of national
faith were trampled under foot.” When his old friend La Rochefoucauld
had fallen at the hands of the Terror he said, “The name of my unhappy
friend La Rochefoucauld ever presents itself to me. Ah, that crime has
most profoundly wounded my heart! The cause of the people is not less
sacred to me; for that I would give my blood, drop by drop; I should
reproach myself every instant of my life which was not devoted to that
cause; <i>but the charm is lost</i>.”</p>
<p>The lover of liberty saw anarchy in the land<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> he
had worked to set free; king, nobles and many citizens swept away by
the fury of a mob that mistook violence for freedom. Few things are more
bitter than for a man who has labored for a great cause to see that cause
turn and destroy his ideals.</p>
<p>Meantime Madame Lafayette was suffering also. She was arrested at the
old castle of Chavaniac and for a time imprisoned, persecuted, and even
threatened with death. The state had denounced Lafayette as an <i>émigré</i>,
or runaway, and had confiscated all his property. Yet through all these
trials his wife remained calm and determined, her one purpose being to
learn where her husband was and secure his release if possible. She wrote
to Washington, who was then the President of the United States, begging
him to intercede for her husband, and when she finally managed to find
out where Lafayette was imprisoned she urged the Austrians to allow her
to share his captivity.</p>
<p>The Emperor of Austria turned a deaf ear to all requests made on behalf
of Lafayette. The United States, however, was able to do something for
the man who had befriended it,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> and
deposited two thousand florins in Prussia, subject to his order, and
obtained permission of the King of Prussia that Lafayette should be informed
that his wife and children were alive.</p>
<p>The prisoner might well have thought that his own family had shared
the fate of so many of their relatives and friends. The name of Lafayette
was no protection to them, rather an added menace in a land where the
Jacobins held sway. On September 2, 1792, when the Reign of Terror was
in full flood in Paris, Minister Roland ordered that Madame Lafayette
should be arrested at Chavaniac. She was taken, with her aunt and her
elder daughter, who refused to leave her, as far as the town of Puy,
but there she wrote such vigorous letters of protest to Roland and other
officials that she was allowed to return to her home on parole. In October
of the next year she was again arrested, this time under the new law
that called for the arrest of all persons who might be suspected of hostility
to the government, and now she was actually put into a country prison.
In June, 1794, Robespierre’s agents brought her to Paris, and she was
imprisoned<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> in
the College du Plessis, where her husband had gone to school as a boy.
From there her next journey, according to the custom of that time, would
have been to the guillotine.</p>
<p>At this point, however, Gouverneur Morris, the Minister of the United
States, stepped upon the scene. He had already advanced Madame Lafayette
large sums of money, when her property had been confiscated; now when
he heard that she was to be condemned to the guillotine by the butchers
of the Revolution he immediately bearded those butchers in their den.
He wrote to the authorities, the Committee of Safety, as the officials
grotesquely called it, and told them that the execution of Madame Lafayette
would make a very bad impression in America.</p>
<p>The Committee of Safety were not disposed to listen to reason from any
quarter. Yet, when they heard Gouverneur Morris say, “If you kill the
wife of Lafayette all the enemies of the Republic and of popular liberty
will rejoice; you will make America hostile, and justify England in her
slanders against you,” they hesitated and postponed ordering her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> execution.
But, because of his protests against such violent acts of the Reign of
Terror, Gouverneur Morris was sent back to America, on the ground that
he had too much sympathy with the victims of “liberty!”</p>
<p>Madame Lafayette was brought into court, and the Committee of Safety
did its best to insult her. Said the Chief Commissioner, “I have old
scores against you. I detest you, your husband, and your name!”</p>
<p>Madame Lafayette answered him fearlessly, “I shall always defend my
husband; and as for a name—there is no wrong in that.”</p>
<p>“You are insolent!” shouted the Commissioner, and was about to order
her execution when he remembered Morris’s words and sent her back to
her prison instead.</p>
<p>With her husband in prison in Austria, her young children left unprotected
and far away from her, the plight of Madame Lafayette was hard indeed.
But she was very brave, though she knew that any day might take her to
the scaffold. Almost all the old nobility were brave. While Robespierre
and his rabble made liberty and justice a mockery the prisoners maintained
their old contempt for their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> jailers
and held their heads as high as in the old days when they had taken their
pleasure at Versailles.</p>
<p>On July 22, 1794, Madame Lafayette’s grandmother, the Maréchale de Noailles,
her mother, the Duchess d’Ayen, and her sister, the Vicomtesse de Noailles,
were beheaded by the guillotine, victims of the popular rage against
all aristocrats. A few days later the Reign of Terror came to a sudden
end, the prey of the very excesses it had committed.</p>
<p>The people were sick of blood; even the judges and executioners were
weary. On July twenty-eighth Robespierre and his supporters were declared
traitors and were carted off to the guillotine in their turn. The new
revolution opened the prison doors to most of the captives, but it was
not until February, 1795, that Madame Lafayette obtained her freedom,
and then it was largely owing to the efforts of the new Minister of the
United States, James Monroe. At once she flew to her children, and sent
her son George to America to be under the protection of Washington. A
friend had bought Chavaniac and gave it back to her, but another Reign
of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> Terror seemed
imminent and Madame Lafayette wanted to leave France. A passport was
obtained for her, and with her daughters she went by sea to Hamburg.
There the American consul gave her another passport, made out in the
name of “Madame Motier, of Hartford, in Connecticut.” Then she went to
Austria and at Vienna presented herself to the grand chamberlain, the
Prince of Rosemberg, who was an old acquaintance of her family. He took
her to the Emperor, and from the latter she finally won permission to
share her husband’s captivity at Olmutz.</p>
<p>Meantime Lafayette’s health had suffered under his long imprisonment.
In the dark damp fortress, deprived of exercise, of company, of books,
he had passed many weary days. But the Fourth of July he remembered as
the birthday of American freedom and spent the hours recollecting the
happy time he had known in the young republic across the Atlantic.</p>
<p>At last his wife and daughters joined him in his prison and told him
of what had happened in France. Imprisonment was easier to bear now that
his family was with him, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> the
confinement was hard on all of them, and presently the prison authorities,
seeing Lafayette in need of exercise, gave him more liberty, allowing
him to walk or ride each day, but always strongly guarded.</p>
<p>His friends in America were not idle. Washington had earlier sent a
letter to Prussia asking the liberation of Lafayette as a favor. But
the prisoner had already been transferred to Austria. In May, 1796, Washington
wrote to the Emperor of Austria, and the American Minister, John Jay,
presented the letter. “Permit me only to submit to your Majesty’s consideration,”
wrote Washington, “whether his long imprisonment and the confiscation
of his estate and the indigence and dispersion of his family, and the
painful anxieties incident to all these circumstances, do not form an
assemblage of sufferings which recommend him to the mediation of humanity.
Allow me, sir, on this occasion, to be its organ; and to entreat that
he may be permitted to come to this country, on such conditions and under
such instructions as your Majesty may think it expedient to prescribe.”</p>
<p>Austria, however, did not intend to release<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> the
prisoner. She had too much fear of him as a leader of liberty. When at
an earlier time a friend of Lafayette had asked for his release an official
of Frederick the Great had refused the request on the same ground that
Austria’s emperor now took. “Monsieur de Lafayette,” said this official,
“is too fanatic on the subject of liberty; he does not hide it; all his
letters show it; he could not keep quiet, if out of prison. I saw him
when he was here, and still remember a statement of his, which surprised
me very much at that time: ‘Do you believe,’ said he to me, ‘that I went
to America to make a military reputation for myself? I went for the sake
of liberty. When a man loves it, he can rest only when he has established
it in his own country.’”</p>
<p>Before Madame Lafayette had joined her husband in the prison at Olmutz
a friend had tried to help the captive to escape. At the time the Austrian
officials were allowing Lafayette a little more freedom, although he
was practically never out of the watchful sight of guards. The friend
was a young man who had come to Vienna to try to find out where the famous
Frenchman was imprisoned, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> young
American, Francis Kinloch Huger, who, as a small boy, had stood in the
doorway of his father’s house in South Carolina at midnight and helped
to welcome Lafayette and his companions when they first reached American
soil. Francis Huger’s father had been attached to Lafayette’s command
during the campaign in Virginia, and the son had retained so deep an
admiration for his hero that he had come to Europe to help him if he
could.</p>
<p>After he had been in Vienna some time Francis Huger met a German physician,
Doctor Bollman, who was as great an admirer of Lafayette as the young
American. Bollman said to Francis Huger, “Lafayette is in Olmutz,” and
then explained how he had found out the place where their hero was hidden.
He had become acquainted with the physician who was visiting the Frenchman
in prison, and had used this doctor, who knew nothing of his plans, as
a go-between. By means of chemically-prepared paper and sympathetic ink
he had actually communicated with Lafayette and had arranged a method
of escape to be attempted some day when the prisoner was outdoors.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p>
<p>Francis Huger entered eagerly into the plot, and the two conspirators
made ready their horses and signals and other preparations for escape.
Lafayette had learned part of their plans. As he rode out one day in
November, 1794, accompanied by an officer and two soldiers, his two friends
were ready for him. Lafayette and the officer got out of the carriage
to walk along the road. The carriage, with the two soldiers, drove on.
When it was far ahead, Huger and Bollman, who had been watching from
their saddles, charged on the officer, while Lafayette turned on the
latter, snatched at his unsheathed sword, and tried to disarm him.</p>
<p>The Austrian officer fought gamely, and while Huger held the horses
Bollman ran to the aid of the Frenchman, whose strength had been sapped
by his long imprisonment. The two soldiers, alarmed at the sudden assault,
made no effort to help their officer, but drove away for aid. Meantime
the officer was thrown to the ground and held there by Doctor Bollman.</p>
<p>Francis Huger, holding the restive horses with one hand, helped to gag
the Austrian<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> officer
with his handkerchief. Then one of the horses broke from his grasp and
dashed away. Bollman thrust a purse full of money into Lafayette’s hand,
and, still holding the struggling Austrian, called to Lafayette in English,
so that the officer should not understand, “Get to Hoff! Get to Hoff!”</p>
<p>Lafayette, who was very much excited, was too intent on escaping to
pay special attention to Bollman’s directions. He thought the latter
was merely shouting, “Get off; get off!” and so, with the help of Francis
Huger, he sprang to the saddle of the remaining horse and galloped away
as fast as he could go. He did not take the road to Hoff, where his rescuers
had arranged to have fresh horses waiting, but took another road which
led to Jagerndorf on the German frontier. Before he reached Jagerndorf
his horse gave out, and while he was trying to get a fresh mount he was
recognized, arrested, and taken back to his prison at Olmutz.</p>
<p>So the attempted escape failed. Huger and Bollman were arrested while
they were hunting for the lost Lafayette. They were thrown into prison,
put in chains, and nearly starved<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> to
death. And for some time after that the officials made Lafayette’s life
in prison even more uncomfortable than it had been before.</p>
<p>Fortunately neither Huger nor Bollman died in their Austrian prison.
After eight months in their cells they were set free and sent out of
the country. Both went to America, where in time Doctor Bollman became
a political adventurer and aided Aaron Burr in those schemes which ultimately
brought Burr to trial for treason. Then Bollman might have been punished
had not Lafayette remembered what he had done at Olmutz and begged President
Jefferson to set him free. Francis Huger was among the Americans who
welcomed Lafayette to the United States in 1824.</p>
<p>The Frenchman, however, had to continue in prison in Austria. After
his wife and daughters joined him the imprisonment grew less hard. But
after a time his daughters fell ill of prison-fever, and soon their mother
was sick also. She appealed to the Emperor for permission to go to Vienna
to see a doctor. The Emperor answered that she could go to Vienna<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> “only
on condition that you do not go back to Olmutz.”</p>
<p>She would not desert her husband. “I will never expose myself to the
horrors of another separation from my husband,” she declared; and so
she and her daughters stayed with Lafayette, enduring all manner of privations
and sufferings for his sake.</p>
<p>The world, however, had not forgotten Lafayette. America worked constantly
to free him, Washington and Jefferson and Jay, Morris and Marshall and
Monroe used all their influence with Austria, but America was not loved
in the tyrannical court of Vienna and the appeals of her statesmen passed
unheeded. England was generous also toward the man who had once fought
against her. The general who had commanded the forces against him at
the Brandywine moved Parliament again and again to interfere on behalf
of the French hero, and Charles James Fox, the great English orator,
pleaded in favor, as he said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> “of
a noble character, which will flourish in the annals of the world, and
live in the veneration of posterity, when kings, and the crowns they
wear, will be no more regarded than the dust to which they must return.”</p>
<p>Help finally came from his own land, though in a very strange guise.
While Lafayette lay in his cell at Olmutz a new star was rising in the
skies, a planet succeeding to the confusion of the Reign of Terror in
France. A Corsican officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, was winning wonderful
laurels as a general. From victory he strode to victory, and by the spring
of 1797 he had broken the power of Austria, had crossed the Italian Alps,
and in sight of the Emperor’s capital was ready to dictate the terms
of the treaty of Campo Formio. Then he remembered that a Frenchman, Lafayette,
was still in an Austrian dungeon. Neither Bonaparte nor the Directory
that now governed France wanted Lafayette to return to that country,
but both were determined that Austria must give him up. Napoleon wrote
that demand into the treaty. The Austrian Emperor objected, but Napoleon
insisted and finally threatened, and he held the upper hand. The Emperor
sent an officer to demand a written acknowledgment of his past good treatment
from Lafayette and a promise never to enter Austria again. Lafayette
refused to say anything about his past treatment but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> agreed
to the second condition. Dissatisfied with this the Austrians represented
to General Bonaparte that the prisoner had been set free and urged him
to sign the treaty. Bonaparte saw through the ruse. He sent an officer
to see that Lafayette was liberated, and only when he was satisfied of
this would he make peace with the crafty Emperor.</p>
<p>On September 17, 1797, Lafayette, after five years in prison, walked
out of Olmutz with his wife and daughters a free man. Even then, however,
the Emperor did not hand him over to the French; instead he had him delivered
to the American consul, with the statement that “Monsieur the Marquis
de Lafayette was released from imprisonment simply because of the Emperor’s
desire to favor and gratify America.”</p>
<p>The French Revolution had swept away Lafayette’s estates and fortune,
but his friends came to his assistance and helped to provide for him.
Especially Americans were eager to show their appreciation of what he
had done for their country. Washington, who had been caring for Lafayette’s
son at Mount Vernon, now sent him back to Europe, with a letter<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> showing
that the great American was as devoted as ever to the great Frenchman.</p>
<p>Lafayette knew that his liberation was due to the brilliant young general,
Bonaparte, and he wrote a letter to the latter expressing his gratitude.
But there was considerable jealousy in the French government at that
time; the letter was distasteful to some of the Directory, and they took
their revenge by confiscating the little property that still belonged
to Lafayette. Two Englishwomen, however, had left money to the Frenchman
as a tribute to his “virtuous and noble character,” and this enabled
him to tide over the period until he could get back some of his native
estates.</p>
<p>The Netherlands offered Lafayette a home, and he went to the little
town of Vianen, near Utrecht, to live. Here he wrote many letters to
his friends in America, studied the amazing events that had happened
in France since the day on which the States-General had first met at
Versailles, and watched the wonderful course of the new leader, Napoleon
Bonaparte, across the fields of Europe. Bonaparte puzzled him; he was
not sure whether the Corsican was a liberator or a despot; but he saw<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> that
the General was restoring order to a France that was greatly in need
of it, and hoped that he might accomplish some of the ends for which
Lafayette and his friends had worked. Presently the time came when the
exile felt that he might safely return to his home.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="XII">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">XII<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">IN THE DAYS OF NAPOLEON</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the treaty of Campo Formio with Austria,
which had secured the liberation of Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte returned
to Paris the leading man of France. The government in Paris, which had
gone through one change after another since the end of the Reign of Terror,
was now in the hands of what was known as the Directory. But the members
of this, divided in their views, were not very popular with the people,
who were so tired of disorder that they desired above everything else
a strong hand at the helm of the state. The people were already looking
to the brilliant young general as such a helmsman, and the Directors
knew this, and so grew increasingly jealous of Bonaparte.</p>
<p>Having settled his score with Austria Bonaparte suggested to the French
government that he should strike a blow at England by invading Egypt.
The Directory, glad to have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> him
out of the country, agreed to this, and in May, 1798, Bonaparte departed
on such an expedition. As soon as Bonaparte was safely away the enemies
of France resumed their attacks, and when the French people saw that
the Corsican was their surest defender they began to clamor more loudly
against the Directory. Bonaparte kept himself informed of what was happening
at home, and when he thought that the proper moment had come he left
his army in Egypt and appeared in France. His welcome there made it clear
that the people wanted him for their leader; they were weary of turmoil
and constant changes in government, they were ready for a strong and
able dictator.</p>
<p>France had known ten years of disorder, bloodshed, anarchy, democratic
misrule, financial ruin, and political failure, and the people were no
longer so much concerned about liberty as they had once been. Bonaparte
was crafty; he pretended that he wanted power in order to safeguard the
principles that had been won in the Revolution. He went to Paris, and
there, on November 9, 1799, was made First Consul, and the real dictator
of France. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> country
was still a republic in name, but at once the First Consul began to gather
all the reins of authority in his own hands.</p>
<p>Under the Directory Lafayette had been an exile, forbidden to enter
French territory. But with Napoleon in power conditions changed. Lafayette
felt the greatest gratitude to the man who had freed him from Olmutz,
he had the deepest admiration for the general who had won so many brilliant
victories for France, and he was disposed to believe that Napoleon really
intended to secure liberty for the country. When he heard of Napoleon’s
return from Egypt he wrote to his wife, who was in France at the time,
“People jealous of Bonaparte see in me his future opponent; they are
right, if he wishes to suppress liberty; but if he have the good sense
to promote it, I will suit him in every respect. I do not believe him
to be so foolish as to wish to be only a despot.”</p>
<p>He also sent a letter to Napoleon, in which he said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> “The
love of liberty and country would suffice for your arrival to fill me
with joy and hope. To this desire for public happiness is joined a lively
and profound sentiment for my liberator. Your greetings to the prisoners
of Olmutz have been sent to me by her whose life I owe to you. I rejoice
in all my obligations to you, citizen-general, and in the happy conviction
that to cherish your glory and to wish your success is an act of civism
as much as of attachment and gratitude.”</p>
<p>Friends procured the exile a passport and he returned to Paris. But
Bonaparte was not glad to have him come back; the First Consul was in
reality no friend of the principles of the Revolution, and he felt that
such a man as Lafayette must inevitably oppose him and might even prejudice
the people against him. He showed his anger unreservedly when friends
told him of Lafayette’s arrival, and the friends immediately advised
the latter that he had better return to the Netherlands. But Lafayette,
having made up his mind to come, would not budge now. “You should be
sufficiently acquainted with me,” he said to the men who brought him
the news from the First Consul, “to know that this imperious and menacing
tone would suffice to confirm me in the course which I have taken.” And
he added,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> “It
would be very amusing for me to be arrested at night by the National
Guard of Paris and imprisoned in the Temple the next day by the restorer
of the principles of 1789.”</p>
<p>Madame Lafayette called on the First Consul, who received her kindly.
She pleaded so eloquently for her husband, pointing out his natural desire
to be in France, that Napoleon’s anger vanished. He said that he regretted
Lafayette’s return only because it would “retard his progress toward
the reëstablishment of Lafayette’s principles, and would force him to
take in sail.” “You do not understand me, madame,” he continued, “but
General Lafayette will understand me; and not having been in the midst
of affairs, he will feel that I can judge better than he. I therefore
conjure him to avoid all publicity; I leave it to his patriotism.” Madame
Lafayette answered that that was her husband’s wish.</p>
<p>Believing that Lafayette had no desire to oppose him, Napoleon soon
restored him to citizenship. Different as the two men were, each admired
the strong qualities of the other. The First Consul could appreciate
Lafayette’s devotion to the cause of liberty, and Lafayette said to Napoleon,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> “I
have but one wish, General,—a free government and you at the head
of it.”</p>
<p>Napoleon, however, had no real liking for a free government. He had
forgotten any belief in liberty that he might have had in the days when
he was a poor and obscure lieutenant. He had tasted power, and was already
looking forward to the time when he should be not only the most powerful
man in France but in the whole world. To do that he must make his countrymen
forget their recently won liberties. He must keep Lafayette, the greatest
apostle of freedom, in the background, and not allow him to remind the
people of his liberal dreams. So Napoleon adopted a policy of silence
toward Lafayette. In February, 1800, the celebrated French orator Fontanes
delivered a public eulogy on the character of Washington, who had lately
died. Napoleon forbade the orator to mention the name of Lafayette in
his address, and saw to it that Lafayette was not invited to the ceremony,
nor any Americans. The bust of Washington was draped in banners that
the First Consul had taken in battle.</p>
<p>Lafayette’s son George applied for and was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> given
a commission in one of Napoleon’s regiments of hussars. When his name
was erased from the list of exiles Lafayette himself was restored to
his rank of major-general in the French army, but he did not ask for
any command. He went to Lagrange, an estate that his wife had inherited
from her mother, and set himself to the work of trying to pay off the
debts that had piled up while he was in prison in Austria. Like all the
old aristocracy that returned to France after the Revolution he found
that most of his property had been taken by the state and now had new
owners and that the little that was left was burdened by heavy taxes.</p>
<p>Chavaniac and a few acres near it came into his possession, but there
were relatives who needed it as a home more than he did and he let them
live there. He himself cultivated the farm at Lagrange, and was able
in a few years to pay off his French creditors. But he was still greatly
in debt to Gouverneur Morris and other Americans who had helped his wife
with money when she had need of it, and these were loans that were difficult
to pay.</p>
<p>Lafayette was living quietly on his farm<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> when
Napoleon returned with fresh triumphs from Italy. The man who had been
a general could not help but admire the great military genius of the
First Consul. The latter felt that he had little now to fear from Lafayette,
and the relations between the two men became quite friendly. Had they
only been able to work together they might have accomplished a great
deal for the good of France, but no two men could have been more fundamentally
different in their characters and ideals than Lafayette and Napoleon.</p>
<p>Occasionally they discussed their views on government, and Lafayette
once said to the First Consul, “I do not ignore the effect of the crimes
and follies which have profaned the name of liberty; but the French are,
perhaps, more than ever in a state to receive it. It is for you to give
it; it is from you that it is expected.” Napoleon smiled; he had his
own notions about liberty, and he felt himself strong enough to force
those notions upon France.</p>
<p>Yet the First Consul did wish for the good opinion and support of Lafayette.
It was at his suggestion that certain friends urged the latter to become
a Senator. Lafayette felt<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> that,
disapproving as he did of some of the policies of the new government,
he must decline, and did so, stating his reasons frankly. Then Napoleon’s
minister Talleyrand offered to send him as the French representative
to the United States, but this Lafayette declined also. His political
views and the need of cultivating the farm at Lagrange were sufficient
to keep him from accepting office.</p>
<p>Lafayette enjoyed his talks with Napoleon, though the latter was often
inclined to be domineering. Lord Cornwallis came to Paris in 1802 to
conclude the Treaty of Amiens between France and England, and Lafayette
met his old opponent at dinner at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, the
brother of Napoleon. The next time Napoleon and Lafayette met the former
said, “I warn you that Lord Cornwallis gives out that you are not cured
yet.”</p>
<p>“Of what?” answered Lafayette. “Is it of loving liberty? What could
have disgusted me with it? The extravagances and crimes of the tyranny
of the Terror? They only make me hate still more every arbitrary system,
and attach me more and more to my principles.”</p>
<p>Napoleon said seriously,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> “I
should tell you, General Lafayette, and I see with regret, that by your
manner of expressing yourself on the acts of this government you give
to its enemies the weight of your name.”</p>
<p>“What better can I do?” asked Lafayette. “I live in retirement in the
country, I avoid occasions for speaking; but whenever any one comes to
ask me whether your system is conformant to my ideas of liberty, I shall
answer that it is not; for, General, I certainly wish to be prudent,
but I shall not be false.”</p>
<p>“What do you mean,” said Napoleon, “with your arbitrary system? Yours
was not so, I admit; but you had against your adversaries the resource
of riots.... I observed you carefully.... You had to get up riots.”</p>
<p>“If you call the national insurrection of July, 1789, a riot,” Lafayette
answered, “I lay claim to that one; but after that period I wanted no
more. I have repressed many; many were gotten up against me; and, since
you appeal to my experience regarding them, I shall say that in the course
of the Revolution I saw no injustice, no deviation from liberty, which
did not injure the Revolution itself.”</p>
<p>Napoleon ended the conversation by saying,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> “After
all, I have spoken to you as the head of the government, and in this
character I have cause to complain of you; but as an individual, I should
be content, for in all that I hear of you, I have recognized that, in
spite of your severity toward the acts of the government, there has always
been on your part personal good-will toward myself.”</p>
<p>And this in truth expressed Lafayette’s attitude toward Napoleon, admiration
and friendship for the General, but opposition to the growing love of
power of the First Consul.</p>
<p>That love of power soon made itself manifest in Napoleon’s election
to the new office of “Consul for life.” Meantime Lafayette was busy cultivating
his farm, work which he greatly enjoyed. And to Lagrange came many distinguished
English and American visitors, eager to meet the owner and hear him tell
of his adventurous career on two continents.</p>
<p>The United States treated him well. While he was still in prison at
Olmutz he was placed on the army list at full pay. Congress voted to
him more than eleven thousand acres on the banks of the Ohio, and when
the great territory<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> of
Louisiana was acquired a tract near the city of New Orleans was set aside
for him and he was informed that the government of Louisiana was destined
for him. But Madame Lafayette’s health had been delicate ever since those
trying days in Austria, and that, combined with Lafayette’s own feeling
that he ought to remain in France, led him to decline the eager invitations
that were sent him to settle in America.</p>
<p>Napoleon’s star led the Corsican on, farther and farther away from the
path that Lafayette hoped he would follow. In May, 1804, the man who
was “Consul for life” became the Emperor of France, and seated himself
on the most powerful throne in Europe. Lafayette was tremendously disappointed
at this step. Again Napoleon’s friends made overtures to the General,
and the latter’s own cousin, the Count de Segur, who had wanted to go
with him to America to fight for freedom, and who was now the Grand Master
of Ceremonies at the new Emperor’s court, wrote to him asking him to
become one of the high officers of the Legion of Honor. Lafayette refused
the invitation, and from that time the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> friendship
between him and Napoleon ceased. The Emperor had now no use for the lover
of liberty, and carried his dislike for the latter so far that Lafayette’s
son George, though a brave and brilliant officer in the army, was forced
to resign his commission.</p>
<p>Napoleon went on and on, his victories over all the armies of Europe
dazzling the eyes of his people. Those who had been aristocrats under
Louis XVI. and those who had been Jacobins during the Reign of Terror
were glad to accept the smallest favors from the all-powerful Emperor.
But Lafayette stayed away from Paris and gave all his attention to his
farm, which began to prove productive. In his house portraits of his
great friends, Washington, Franklin, La Rochefoucauld, Fox, kept fresh
the memory of more stirring times.</p>
<p>But France, and even the Emperor, had not forgotten him. Once in an
angry speech to his chief councilors about the men who had brought about
the French Revolution, Napoleon exclaimed,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> “Gentlemen,
this talk is not aimed at you; I know your devotion to the throne. Everybody
in France is corrected. I was thinking of the only man who is not,—Lafayette.
He has never retreated an inch.”</p>
<p>And at another time, when a conspiracy against the life of the Emperor
was discovered, Napoleon was inclined to charge Lafayette with having
been concerned in it. “Don’t be afraid,” said Napoleon’s brother Joseph.
“Wherever there are aristocrats and kings you are certain not to find
Lafayette.”</p>
<p>Meantime at Lagrange Madame Lafayette fell ill and died in December,
1807. No husband and wife were ever more devoted to each other, and Lafayette
expressed his feelings in regard to her in a letter to his friend Maubourg.
“During the thirty-four years of a union, in which the love and the elevation,
the delicacy and the generosity of her soul charmed, adorned, and honored
my days,” he wrote,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> “I
was so much accustomed to all that she was to me, that I did not distinguish
her from my own existence. Her heart wedded all that interested me. I
thought that I loved her and needed her; but it is only in losing her
that I can at last clearly see the wreck of me that remains for the rest
of my life; for there only remain for me memories of the woman to whom
I owed the happiness of every moment, undimmed by any cloud.”</p>
<p>Madame Lafayette deserved the tribute. Never for one moment in the course
of all the storms of her husband’s career had she wavered in her loyal
devotion to his ideals and interests. The little girl who had met him
first in her father’s garden in Paris had stood by him when all her family
and friends opposed him, had been his counselor in the days of the French
Revolution, and had gone to share his prison in Austria. History rarely
says enough about the devoted wives of the great men who have helped
the world. No hero ever found greater aid and sympathy when he needed
it most than Lafayette had from his wife Adrienne.</p>
<p>From his home at Lagrange the true patriot of France watched the wonderful
course of the Emperor of France. It was a course amazing in its victories.
The men who had been an undrilled rabble in the days of the Revolution
were now the veterans of the proudest army in Europe. The people did
not have much more liberty than they had enjoyed under Louis XVI.; they
had exchanged one despotic government for another, but Napoleon fed them<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> on
victories, dazzled their vision, swept them off their feet by his long
succession of triumphs.</p>
<p>The treaty of Tilsit, made in July, 1807, followed the great victories
of Eylau and Friedland, which crushed the power of Prussia and changed
Russia into an ally of France. Napoleon’s might reached its zenith then.
No European nation dared to contest his claim of supremacy. He was the
ruler of France, of Northern Italy, of Eastern Germany; he had made Spain
a dependency, and placed his brothers on the thrones of Holland, Naples,
and Westphalia. For five years his power remained at this height. In
1812 he set out to invade Russia with an army of five hundred thousand
men, gathered from half the countries of Europe. He stopped at Dresden,
and kings of the oldest lineage, who only held their crowns at his pleasure,
came to do homage to the little Corsican soldier who had made himself
the most powerful man in the world. Only one country still dared to resist
him, England, who held control of the seas, but who was feeling the effect
of the commercial war he was waging against her.</p>
<p>But the very size of Napoleon’s dominion<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> was
a source of weakness. The gigantic power he had built up depended on
the life and abilities of one man. No empire can rest for long on such
a foundation. When Napoleon left the greater part of the grand army in
the wilderness of Russia and hurried back to Paris the first ominous
signs of cracks in the foundation of his empire began to appear. France
was almost exhausted by his campaigns, but the Emperor needed more triumphs
and demanded more men. He won more victories, but his enemies increased.
The French people were tired of war; there came a time when they were
ready to barter Napoleon for peace. The allied armies that were ranged
against him occupied the hills about Paris in March, 1814, and on April
fourth of that year the Emperor Napoleon abdicated his throne at Fontainebleau.</p>
<p>The illness of relatives brought Lafayette to Paris at the same time,
and seeing the storms that again threatened his country he did what he
could to bring order out of confusion. His son and his son-in-law Lasteyrie
enlisted in the National Guard, and his other son-in-law, Maubourg, joined
the regular army. When<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> the
allies entered Paris Lafayette witnessed the downfall of the Empire with
mixed emotions. He had never approved of Napoleon, but he knew that he
had at least given the country a stable government. And when the allies
placed the brother of Lafayette’s old friend Louis XVI. on the throne,
with the title of Louis XVIII., he hoped that the new king might rule
according to a liberal constitution, and hastened to offer his services
to that sovereign.</p>
<p>The people, tired of Napoleon’s wars, wanting peace now as they had
wanted it after the Revolution, agreed passively to the change of rulers.
But Louis XVIII., a true Bourbon, soon showed that he had learned nothing
from the misfortunes of his family. Lafayette met the Emperor of Russia
in Paris, and the latter spoke to him with misgiving of the fact that
the Bourbons appeared to be returning as obtuse and illiberal as ever.
“Their misfortunes should have corrected them,” said Lafayette.</p>
<p>“Corrected!” exclaimed the Emperor.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> “They
are uncorrected and incorrigible. There is only one, the Duke of Orleans,
who has any liberal ideas. But from the others expect nothing at all.”</p>
<p>Lafayette soon found that was true. The new king proved the saying about
his family, that the Bourbons never learned nor forgot. Louis XVIII.
was that same Count of Provence whom Lafayette had taken pains to offend
at Versailles when he did not want to be attached as a courtier to his
staff. The King remembered that incident, and when Lafayette offered
to serve him now showed his resentment and anger very plainly.</p>
<p>Seeing that there was nothing he could do in Paris, Lafayette retired
again to Lagrange, and there watched the course of events. Napoleon,
in exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, was watching too,
and he soon saw that France was not satisfied with her new sovereign.
Agents brought him word that the people were only waiting for him to
overthrow the Bourbon rule, and on March 1, 1815, he landed on the shores
of Provence with a few hundred soldiers of his old Guard to reconquer
his empire.</p>
<p>He had judged the situation rightly. As he advanced the people rose
to greet him, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> cities
opened their gates, the soldiers sent to oppose him rallied to his standard.
As Napoleon neared Paris Louis XVIII. fled across the frontier.</p>
<p>Again Lafayette went to the capital. “I had no faith in the conversion
of Napoleon,” he said, “and I saw better prospects in the awkward and
pusillanimous ill-will of the Bourbons than in the vigorous and profound
perversity of their adversary.” But he found that the people of Paris
wanted Napoleon again, and he heard with hope that the restored Emperor
had agreed to a constitution and had established a Senate and a Representative
Assembly elected by popular vote. These decisions sounded well, and as
a result of them Lafayette allowed himself to be elected a member of
the Representative Assembly, or Chamber of Deputies.</p>
<p>The other nations of Europe were furious when they heard of Napoleon’s
return. They collected their armies again and prepared for a new campaign.
Exhausted though France was, the Emperor was able to raise a new army
of six hundred thousand men. With these he tried to defeat his enemies,
but on the field of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> Waterloo
on June 18, 1814, he was decisively beaten and hurried back to Paris
to see what could be done to retrieve defeat.</p>
<p>He found the Chamber of Deputies openly hostile; its members wanted
him to abdicate. He held meetings with the representatives, among whom
Lafayette now held a chief place. At last the Assembly gave Napoleon
an hour in which to abdicate the throne. Finally he agreed to abdicate
in favor of his son. The Assembly did not want the young Napoleon as
Emperor, and decided instead on a government by a commission of five
men. Napoleon’s hour was over, his star had set; he was sent a prisoner
to the far-distant island of St. Helena to end his days.</p>
<p>Lafayette wanted to see the new government adopt the ideas he had had
in mind when France had first wrung a constitution from Louis XVI., and
would have liked to serve on the commission that had charge of the country.
Instead he was sent to make terms of peace with the allied armies that
had been fighting Napoleon. And while he was away on this business the
commission in Paris was dickering behind his back to restore Louis XVIII.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> The
allies had taken possession of the French capital with their soldiers,
the white flag of the Bourbons was everywhere replacing the tricolor
of the Empire, and when Lafayette returned he found the King again upon
his throne. Lafayette was disgusted with what he considered the folly
and selfishness of the rulers of his country; he protested against the
return of the old autocratic Bourbons, but the people were now more than
ever eager for peace and harmony and accepted meekly whomever their leaders
gave them.</p>
<p>Louis XVIII. was a weak, despotic ruler; the members of his house were
equally narrow-minded and overbearing. Lafayette opposed their government
in every way he could. In 1819 he was elected a member of the new Assembly,
and for four years as a deputy he fought against the encroachments of
the royal power. He took part in a conspiracy to overthrow the King,
and when his friends cautioned him that he was risking his life and his
property he answered, “Bah!
I have already lived a long time, and it seems to me that I would worthily
crown my political career by dying on a scaffold in the cause of liberty.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>That conspiracy failed, and although Lafayette was known to have been
connected with the plot, neither the King nor his ministers dared to
imprison him or even to call him to account. A year later he joined with
other conspirators against the Bourbons, but again the plans failed through
blunders. The Chamber of Deputies attempted to investigate the affair,
but Lafayette so boldly challenged a public comparison of his own and
the government’s course that the royalists shrank from pursuing the matter
further. They knew what the people thought of their champion and did
not dare to lay a hand upon him.</p>
<p>He retired from public life after this second conspiracy and went to
live with his children and grandchildren at his country home of Lagrange.
From there he wrote often to Thomas Jefferson and his other friends in
the United States. If the Revolution in France had failed to bring about
that republic he dreamed of the struggle in America had at least borne
good fruits. More and more he thought of the young nation across the
sea, in the birth of which he had played a great part, and more and more
he wished to visit it again.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> So
when he was invited by President Monroe in 1824 he gladly accepted, and
for the fourth time set out across the Atlantic.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="XIII">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">XIII<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">THE UNITED STATES WELCOMES THE HERO</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> first half century of American independence
was drawing near, and the Congress of the United States, mindful of the
days when Lafayette had offered his sword in defense of liberty, voted
unanimously that President Monroe be requested to invite the General
to visit America as the guest of the nation. President Monroe joyfully
acted as Congress requested, and placed at Lafayette’s service an American
war-ship. The Frenchman, now sixty-seven years old, was eager to accept,
but he declined the use of the war-ship, and sailed instead, with his
son George Washington Lafayette and his private secretary on the American
merchantman <i>Cadmus</i>, leaving Havre on July 13, 1824.</p>
<p>As he sailed out of Havre the American ships in the harbor ran up their
flags in his honor and fired their guns in salute, an intimation<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> of
the welcome that was awaiting him on the other side of the Atlantic.
The <i>Cadmus</i> reached Staten Island on August fifteenth, and the
guest landed in the midst of cheering throngs. Most of the men who had
taken part with him in the birth of the country had now passed off the
scene, and to Americans Lafayette was a tradition, one of the few survivors
of the nation’s early days of strife and triumph. He was no longer the
slim and eager boy of 1777; he was now a large, stout man, slightly lame,
but his smile was still the same, and so was the delight with which he
greeted the people.</p>
<p>The United States had grown prodigiously in the interval between this
visit and his last. Instead of thirteen separate colonies there were
now twenty-four united States. The population had increased from three
to twelve millions. What had been wilderness was now ripe farmland; backwoods
settlements had grown into flourishing towns built around the church
and the schoolhouse. Agriculture and commerce were thriving everywhere,
and everywhere Lafayette saw signs of the wisdom, honesty, and self-control
which had established<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> a
government under which men could live in freedom and happiness.</p>
<p>His visit carried him far and wide through the United States. From New
York he went by way of New Haven and Providence to Boston, from there
to Portsmouth by the old colonial road through Salem, Ipswich, and Newburyport.
From there he returned to New York by Lexington, Worcester, Hartford,
and the Connecticut River. The steamer <i>James Kent</i> took him to
the old familiar scenes on the banks of the Hudson, reminding him of
the day when he and Washington had ridden to the house of Benedict Arnold.</p>
<p>Starting again from New York he traveled through New Jersey to Philadelphia,
the scene of the stirring events of his first visit, and thence to Baltimore
and Washington. He went to Mount Vernon, Yorktown, Norfolk, Monticello,
Raleigh, Charleston, and Savannah. In the spring of 1825 he was at New
Orleans, and from there he ascended the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers,
sailed up Lake Erie, saw the Falls of Niagara, went through Albany and
as far north as Portland, Maine. Returning by Lake Champlain he reached<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> New
York in time for the great celebration of the Fourth of July in 1825.
He had made a very comprehensive tour of the United States.</p>
<p>The whole of this long journey was one triumphal progress. He constantly
drove through arches bearing the words “Welcome, Lafayette!” Every house
where he stopped became a Mecca for admiring crowds. The country had
never welcomed any man as it did the gallant Frenchman. Balls, receptions,
dinners, speeches, gifts of every kind were thrust upon him; and the
leading men of the republic were constantly by his side.</p>
<p>He was present at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill
Monument and heard the great oration of Daniel Webster. “Fortunate, fortunate
man!” exclaimed the orator turning toward Lafayette. “With what measure
of devotion will you not thank God for the circumstances of your extraordinary
life! You are connected with both hemispheres and with two generations.
Heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of liberty should be
conducted, through you, from the New World to the Old; and we, who are
now here to perform this duty of patriotism,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> have
all of us long ago received it from our fathers to cherish your name
and your virtues. You now behold the field, the renown of which reached
you in the heart of France and caused a thrill in your ardent bosom.
You see the lines of the little redoubt, thrown up by the incredible
diligence of Prescott, defended to the last extremity by his lion-hearted
valor, and within which the corner-stone of our monument has now taken
its position. You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardner, M’Cleary,
Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. Those who survived that
day, and whose lives have been prolonged to the present hour, are now
around you. Some of them you have known in the trying scenes of the war.
Behold, they now stretch forth their feeble arms to embrace you! Behold,
they raise their trembling voices to invoke the blessing of God on you
and yours forever!”</p>
<p>The welcome he received in New York and New England was equaled by that
of Philadelphia and Baltimore and the South. At Charleston Colonel Huger,
the devoted friend who had tried to rescue Lafayette from his Olmutz
prison, was joined with him in demonstrations<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> of
the people’s regard. A great military celebration was given in Lafayette’s
honor at Yorktown, and in the course of it a box of candles was found
which had formed part of the stores of Lord Cornwallis, and the candles
were used to furnish the light for the evening’s entertainment.</p>
<p>Lafayette first went to Washington in October, 1824. He was met by twenty-five
young girls dressed in white and a military escort. After a short reception
at the Capitol he was driven to the White House. There President Monroe,
the members of his cabinet, and officers of the army and navy were gathered
to receive him. As the guest of the nation entered, all rose, and the
President advanced and welcomed him in the name of the United States.
Lafayette stayed in Washington several days and then went to make some
visits in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>During his absence Congress met and received a message from the President
which set forth Lafayette’s past services to the country, the great enthusiasm
with which the people had welcomed him, and recommended that a gift should
be made him which should be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> worthy
of the character and greatness of the American nation. Senator Hayne
described how the rights and pay belonging to his rank in the army had
never been claimed by Lafayette and how the land that had been given
him in 1803 had afterward through a mistake been granted to the city
of New Orleans. Then Congress unanimously passed a bill directing the
treasurer of the United States to pay to General Lafayette, as a recognition
of services that could never be sufficiently recognized or appreciated,
the sum of two hundred thousand dollars.</p>
<p>When he returned to Washington he went to the Capitol, where Congress
received him in state, every member springing to his feet in welcome
to the nation’s guest. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
held out his hand to the gallant Frenchman. “The vain wish has been sometimes
indulged,” said Henry Clay to Lafayette,
“that Providence would allow the patriot,
after death, to return to his country and to contemplate the immediate
changes which had taken place; to view the forests felled, the cities
built, the mountains leveled, the canals cut, the highways<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> constructed,
the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase
of population. General, your present visit to the United States is a
realization of the consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst
of posterity. Everywhere you must have been struck with the great changes,
physical and moral, which have occurred since you left us. Even this
very city, bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us,
has since emerged from the forest which then covered its site. In one
respect you behold us unaltered, and this is the sentiment of continued
devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to
your departed friend, the Father of his Country, and to you, and to your
illustrious associates in the field and in the Cabinet, for the multiplied
blessings which surround us, and for the very privilege of addressing
you which I now exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by more
than ten millions of people, will be transmitted with unabated vigor
down the tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined
to inhabit this continent to the latest posterity.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280">[280]</a></span></p>
<p>Henry Clay was a great prophet as well as a great orator. We know now
how the affection of the United States for Lafayette has grown and grown
during the century in which the republic has stretched from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and its people increased from ten millions to more than
a hundred millions.</p>
<p>In his journey through the country Lafayette passed through thousands
of miles of wilderness and had several opportunities to renew his old
acquaintance with the Indians. He had won their friendship during the
Revolution by his sympathy for all men. Now he found that they had not
forgotten the young chief whom they had called Kayoula. A girl of the
Southern Creeks showed him a paper she had kept as a relic which turned
out to be a letter of thanks written to her father by Lafayette forty-five
years before. In western New York he met the famous chief Red Jacket,
who reminded him that it was he who had argued the cause of the Indians
at the council at Fort Schuyler in 1784. Lafayette remembered, and it
delighted him greatly that the Indians were as eager to greet him as
their white brothers.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
<p>Only one mishap occurred during the many journeys which might easily
have proved full of perils. While ascending the Ohio River on his way
to Louisville his steamer struck on a snag on a dark and rainy night.
The boat immediately began to fill. Lafayette was hurried into a small
boat and rowed ashore, in spite of his protests that he would not leave
the steamer until he secured a snuff-box that Washington had given him.
His secretary went below and got the snuff-box and his son George saved
some other articles of value. All the party were safely landed, but they
had to spend some hours on the river-bank with no protection from the
rain and only a few crackers to eat. The next morning a freight steamer
took them off and they proceeded on their journey.</p>
<p>When he was in Washington Lafayette made a visit to Mount Vernon, and
spent some time in the beautiful house and grounds where he had once
walked with the man whose friendship had been so dear to him. Like Washington,
almost all the men of the Revolution had departed. The Frenchman found
few of the soldiers and statesmen he had known then.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> One,
however, Colonel Nicholas Fish, who had been with him at the storming
of the redoubt at Yorktown, welcomed him in New York and went with him
up the Hudson. “Nick,” said Lafayette, pointing out a certain height
to Colonel Fish, “do you remember when we used to ride down that hill
with the Newburgh girls on an ox-sled?” Many places along the Hudson
served to remind him of incidents of the time when Washington had made
his headquarters there.</p>
<p>In New York the Frenchman visited the widow of General Montgomery and
Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. He found some old friends in Philadelphia and
Baltimore. In Boston he saw again the venerable John Adams, who had been
the second President of the country. He went to Thomas Jefferson’s home
of Monticello in Virginia, and passed some days with the man whom he
revered almost as much as he did Washington. With Jefferson he talked
over the lessons that were to be learned from the French Revolution and
the career of Napoleon. And he met foreigners in the United States who
called to mind the recent eventful days in his own land. He<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> visited
Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, at Bordentown in New Jersey. At
Baltimore he found Dubois Martin, the man who as secretary to the Duke
de Broglie had helped Lafayette to secure the ship in which he had first
sailed to America. And at Savannah he discovered Achille Murat, the son
of Joachim, the ex-king of Naples, one of the men Napoleon had placed
upon a temporary throne, and learned that Murat was now cultivating an
orange-orchard in Florida.</p>
<p>A man named Haguy came one hundred and fifty miles to see the General,
and proved to be one of the sailors who had crossed on the <i>Victory</i> with
him and had later fought under him in the Continental Army. Here and
there he found veterans of his campaign in Virginia, and Lafayette was
as glad to see his old soldiers as they were to welcome him.</p>
<p>Before he left for Europe John Quincy Adams, the son of the second President,
was elected to succeed Monroe. The new President invited Lafayette to
dine at the White House in company with the three ex-Presidents Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe, all of them old and trusted friends of the Frenchman.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> What
a dinner that must have been, with five such men at the table!</p>
<p>Perhaps the thing that delighted him most in America was the self-reliant
independence that marked the people everywhere. This type of democracy
was most inspiring to a man who had seen the constant turmoil and bickerings
of the Revolution and Napoleonic era in France. America was young and
her citizens were too busy developing their country to pay much attention
to class distinctions or the social ambitions that were so prominent
in Europe. They felt quite able to run their government to suit themselves,
and it seemed to Lafayette that they were working out their problems
in a most satisfactory manner.</p>
<p>In 1824 he witnessed a Presidential election with four candidates, Adams,
Jackson, Clay, and Crawford. Party feelings ran high, and there was great
excitement. But when the election was over the people settled down to
their work again in remarkable harmony and the government continued its
course serenely. This Lafayette, with his knowledge of other countries,
regarded as evidence of a most<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> unusual
genius for self-control in the American nation.</p>
<p>All parties, all classes of men, praised and venerated him as they praised
and venerated the founders of their republic. His tour was a tremendous
popular success, the greatest reception ever given to a guest by the
United States. It must have made up to him for the many disappointments
of his career in France. And when he sailed for home he knew that the
country to which he had given all he had in youth would never cease to
love and honor him.</p>
<p>President John Quincy Adams at the White House, standing beside Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe, said to Lafayette,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> “You
are ours, sir, by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for your services
which is a precious portion of our inheritance; ours by that tie of love,
stronger than death, which has linked your name for the endless ages
of time with the name of Washington. At the painful moment of parting
with you we take comfort in the thought that, wherever you may be, to
the last pulsation of your heart, our country will ever be present to
your affections. And a cheering consolation assures us that we are not
called to sorrow,—most of all that we shall see your face no more,—for
we shall indulge the pleasing anticipation of beholding our friend again.
In the name of the whole people of the United States, I bid you a reluctant
and affectionate farewell.”</p>
<p>An American frigate, named the <i>Brandywine</i>, in compliment to Lafayette’s
first blow for liberty in America, carried the guest of the nation back
to France. And the memory of that visit, and of what it stood for, has
been kept green in American history ever since.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="XIV">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">XIV<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">THE LOVER OF LIBERTY</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> frigate <i>Brandywine</i> reached Havre
on October 5, 1825. The French people had heard of the wonderful reception
given Lafayette by the United States and now they, in their turn, wanted
to welcome the returning hero of liberty. But the Bourbon king who sat
on the throne of France and the royalists disliked Lafayette so much
that they did their best to prevent the people from greeting him. It
was only after a long discussion that the forts of the harbor at Havre
were permitted to return the salute of the <i>Brandywine</i>, and at
Rouen, while citizens were serenading their hero beneath the windows
of the house where he was staying, officials of the government ordered
a troop of soldiers to charge upon the crowd and disperse it with drawn
swords. The people, however, insisted on honoring their famous fellow-countryman.
They, as well as<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> the
Bourbon king, saw in him the patriot and champion of independence. Louis
XVIII. had been succeeded on the throne by his brother, Charles X., and
the latter said of Lafayette, “There is a man who never changes.” And
the people knew this, and honored the General for his lifelong devotion
to their cause.</p>
<p>He went back to his quiet family life at Lagrange. Prominent statesmen
came to him for advice, but he rarely went to Paris. The nobility had
been restored to their ancient social standing, and Lafayette was urged
to resume his title of marquis. He refused to do this, however, and the
refusal embittered the royalists even more against him. The Bourbon government
feared his influence in 1825, just as the aristocrats had feared it in
1785, the Jacobins in 1795, and Napoleon in 1805.</p>
<p>Yet Charles X. could not always conceal the fact that he had a strong
personal liking for the old republican. One day in 1829 the newspapers
announced that Lafayette was ill. The King met several members of the
Chamber of Deputies. “Have you any news of Monsieur de Lafayette?” asked
King Charles.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> “How
is he?”</p>
<p>“Much better, sire,” answered a deputy.</p>
<p>“Ah! I am very glad of it!” said the King. “That is a man whom I like
much, and who has rendered services to our family that I do not forget.
We have always encountered each other, although moving in opposite directions;
we were born in the same year; we learned to ride on horseback together
at the Versailles riding-school, and he belonged to my bureau in the
Assembly of the Notables. I take a great deal of interest in him.”</p>
<p>King Charles and his friends, however, paid no attention to the new
spirit that was awake in France. The people had won a constitution, but
the King tried to limit it as far as he could and to override it in some
ways. He roused the resentment of the country by trying to bring back
the old extravagance of his ancestors, and he even dared to attempt to
intimidate the Chamber of Deputies. In 1829 he dissolved the National
Assembly and appointed as ministers men who had won the hatred of the
nation for their autocratic views. The gauntlet was thrown down between
king and people, and the latter were not slow to pick it up.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p>
<p>At this time Lafayette happened to be traveling to Chavaniac, where
his son now lived. He was greeted at every town with the usual marks
of respect. At Puy he was given a public dinner, and toasts were drunk
to “The charter, to the Chamber of Deputies, the hope of France!” When
he reached the city of Grenoble he was met by a troop of horsemen, who
escorted him to the gates. There citizens presented him with a crown
of oak leaves made of silver “as a testimony of the gratitude of the
people, and as an emblem of the strength with which the inhabitants of
Grenoble, following his example, will sustain their rights and the constitution.”</p>
<p>All along his route he was greeted with cheers and expressions that
showed the people looked to him to protect their rights. At Lyons a speaker
protested against the recent unlawful acts of the King and spoke of the
situation as critical. “I should qualify as critical the present moment,”
Lafayette replied,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> “if
I had not recognized everywhere on my journey, and if I did not perceive
in this powerful city, the calm and even scornful firmness of a great
people which knows its rights, feels its strength, and will be faithful
to its duties.”</p>
<p>Through the winter of 1829-30 the hostile attitude of Charles X. to
his people continued. The new Chamber of Deputies was rebellious, and
again the King dissolved it and ordered fresh elections. The country
elected new deputies who were even more opposed to the King than the
former ones had been. Then King Charles, urged on by his ministers, resolved
to take a decisive step, to issue four edicts revoking the liberty of
the press and taking from the deputies their legal powers. “Gentlemen,”
said the King to his ministers as he signed the edicts, “these are grave
measures. You can count upon me as I count upon you. Between us, this
is now a matter of life and death.”</p>
<p>The King had virtually declared war on the country. The country answered
by taking up arms. The royal troops in Paris, moving to take control
of important points in the city, were met by armed citizens who fought
them in the streets. Marmont, head of the King’s military household,
sent word to Charles,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> “It
is no longer a riot, it is a revolution. It is urgent that your Majesty
should adopt measures of pacification. The honor of the crown may yet
be saved; to-morrow perhaps it will be too late.”</p>
<p>King Charles paid no heed. The citizens defeated the royal troops, and
in a few days had them besieged in their headquarters. Then the deputies
turned to Lafayette and urged him to accept the position of commander
of the National Guard, the same position he had held many years before.
“I am invited,” he answered, “to undertake the organization of the defense.
It would be strange and even improper, especially for those who have
given former pledges of devotion to the national cause, to refuse to
answer the appeals addressed to them. Instructions and orders are demanded
from me on all sides. My replies are awaited. Do you believe that in
the presence of the dangers which threaten us immobility suits my past
and present life? No! My conduct at seventy-three years of age shall
be what it was at thirty-two.”</p>
<p>Lafayette took command of the Guards and quickly had the city of Paris
in his possession. Only then did King Charles, fearing alike for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> his
crown and his life now, consent to sign a new ordinance revoking his
former edicts. Commissioners brought the ordinance of the King to Lafayette
at the Hôtel de Ville. “It is too late now,” Lafayette declared. “We
have revoked the ordinances ourselves. Charles X. has ceased to reign.”</p>
<p>The question now was as to the new form of government for the country.
The people still remembered the days of the Reign of Terror and were
not ready for a real republic. The Duke of Orleans, who had opposed King
Charles, was very popular, and it was decided to appoint him lieutenant-general
of the nation. The people would have liked to have Lafayette as their
governor. The French captain of the ship that carried the fugitive Charles
X. away from France, said to the ex-King, “If Lafayette, during the recent
events, had desired the crown, he could have obtained it. I myself was
a witness to the enthusiasm that the sight of him inspired among the
people.”</p>
<p>But Lafayette did not want the crown, nor even to be the constitutional
head of the nation. It seemed to him best that the Duke of Orleans<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> should
receive the crown, not as an inheritance, but as a free gift of the people
accompanied by proper limitations. So he took steps to have the country
accept the Duke as its new ruler.</p>
<p>The people of France had at last become an important factor in deciding
on their own form of government. The Duke of Orleans, better known as
Louis Philippe, did not seize the crown, as earlier kings had done; he
waited until the Chamber of Deputies and Lafayette, representing the
nation, offered it to him, and then he accepted it as a republican prince.
The deputies marched with the Duke to the Hôtel de Ville, and as they
went through the streets there were more shouts of “<i>Vive la liberté!</i>”
than there were of “<i>Vive le Duc d’Orléans!</i>” Liberty meant far
more to the people now than a king did, and Prince Louis Philippe knew
it. As he went up the stairs of the Hôtel de Ville he said conciliatingly
to the armed men among whom he passed, “You see a former National Guard
of 1789, who has come to visit his old general.”</p>
<p>Lafayette had always wanted a constitutional monarchy for France; he
knew Louis<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> Philippe
well, being allied to him through marriage with the Noailles family,
and he believed that the Duke would make a capable ruler, his authority
being limited by the will of the people. So when Louis Philippe came
to him at the Hôtel de Ville Lafayette placed a tricolored flag in the
Duke’s hand, and leading him to a window, embraced him in full sight
of the great throng in the street. The people had been undecided; they
did not altogether trust any royal prince; but when they saw Lafayette’s
act, they immediately followed his lead, and cheers for the constitution
and the Duke greeted the men at the window.</p>
<p>Lafayette had given France her new ruler, declining the crown for himself,
even as Washington had done in the United States. He made it clear to
the new king that he expected him to rule according to the laws. He said
to Louis Philippe, “You know that I am a republican and that I regard
the Constitution of the United States as the most perfect that has ever
existed.”</p>
<p>“I think as you do,” answered Louis Philippe.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> “It
is impossible to have passed two years in America and not to be of that
opinion. But do you believe that in the present situation of France and
in accordance with general opinion that it would be proper to adopt it?”</p>
<p>“No,” said Lafayette; “what the French people want to-day is a popular
throne surrounded by republican institutions.”</p>
<p>“Such is my belief,” Louis Philippe agreed.</p>
<p>Charles X. had fled from his kingdom before Lafayette and the people
even as his brother Louis XVIII. had once fled from it before Napoleon
and the people. On August 9, 1830, the Duke of Orleans entered the Palais
Bourbon, where the Chambers were assembled, as lieutenant-general of
the kingdom, and left it as Louis Philippe, King of the French. The constitution
which he had sworn to obey was not, like former charters, a favor granted
by the throne, but was the organic law of the land, to the keeping of
which the sovereign was as much bound as the humblest of his subjects.
Lafayette and the people had at last won a great victory for independence
after all the ups and downs of the Revolution and the days of Napoleon.</p>
<p>As Lafayette marched his reorganized<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> National
Guard, thirty thousand strong, in review before the King, it was clear
that the General was the most popular, as well as the most powerful,
man in France. And at the public dinner that the city of Paris gave him
on August fifteenth, when he congratulated his fellow-citizens on the
success and valor with which they had defended their liberties and besought
them to preserve the fruits of victory by union and order, he could justly
feel that a life devoted to the cause of freedom had not been spent in
vain.</p>
<p>The coming years were to show that the people of France had much yet
to learn about self-government, but when one contrasts the results of
the revolution of 1830 with that of 1789 one sees how far they had progressed
in knowledge.</p>
<p>Lafayette’s presence was needed at Louis Philippe’s court to act as
a buffer between the sovereign and the people, and again and again he
saw revealed the truth of the old adage, “Uneasy lies the head that wears
a crown.” Presently a revolution in Belgium left the throne of that country
vacant and it was offered to Lafayette.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> “What
would I do with a crown!” he exclaimed. “Why, it would suit me about
as much as a ring would become a cat!”</p>
<p>The duties of his office as Commander of the National Guard, the tact
that was constantly required of him as intermediary between the people
and the royal court began to wear upon him, and he soon resigned his
position as Commander. Then, as a member of the Chamber of Deputies,
he continued his political labors. In time he saw many incidents that
pointed in the direction of new aggressions on the part of the King,
and he even came to believe that the fight for liberty was not yet won
and never would be so long as a Bourbon occupied the throne of France.
But he wanted the desired end to be reached by peaceful means, constantly
preached loyalty to the government they had founded as the chief duty
of the nation, and when, in 1832, a new revolution seemed imminent he
would have no part in it and by his indignant words quickly brought the
attempt to an end. He was now seventy-seven years old and great-grandchildren
played about his knees at his home at Lagrange.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
<p>His work for France and for America and for the world was done. In the
spring of 1834 he caught a severe cold, which sapped his strength. On
May twentieth of that year he died, having worked almost to the last
on problems of government. As his funeral wound through the streets of
Paris to the little cemetery of Picpus, in the center of the city, a
great throng followed. On that day church-bells tolled in France, Belgium,
Poland, Switzerland, and England. All nations that loved liberty honored
the great apostle of it. In the United States the government and the
army and navy paid to Lafayette’s memory the same honors they had given
to Washington, the Congress of the United States went into mourning for
thirty days and most of the people of the nation followed its example.
America vowed never to forget the French hero; and America never has.</p>
<p>Men have sometimes said that Lafayette’s enthusiasm was too impulsive,
his confidence in others too undiscriminating, his goal too far beyond
the reach of his times; but these were the marks of his own sincere and
ardent nature. He was remarkably consistent in all the sudden<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> shiftings
of an age full of changes. Other men had sought favor of the Jacobins,
of Napoleon, and of Louis XVIII. as each came into power; but Lafayette
never did. All men knew where he stood. As Charles X. said of him, “There
is a man who never changes.” He stood fast to his principles, and by
standing fast to them saw them ultimately succeed.</p>
<p>He was a man who made and held strong friends. Washington, Jefferson,
and Fox loved him as they loved few others. Napoleon and Charles X. could
not resist the personal attraction of this man whom neither could bribe
and whom both feared. Honesty was the key-note of his character, and
with it went a simplicity and generosity that drew the admiration of
enemies as well as of friends.</p>
<p>He had done a great deal for France, he had done as much for the United
States. His love of liberty bound the two nations together, and when,
in 1917, one hundred and forty years after his coming to America to fight
for freedom, the United States proclaimed war as an ally of France in
that same great cause, the thought of Lafayette sprang to every mind.
The cause for which he had fought was again<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> imperiled.
The America in which Lafayette had believed was now to show that he had
not been mistaken in his vision of her.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="chapter" id="XV">
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></p>
<h2 class="chapternumber">XV<br />
<span class="chaptertitle">AMERICA’S MESSAGE TO FRANCE—​“LAFAYETTE,
WE COME!”</span></h2>
<p><span class="smcap">There</span> have been many great changes in all
the countries of the world since the time of Lafayette, and in most nations
liberty has become more and more the watchword and the goal. The French
Revolution was like a deep chasm between the era of feudalism and the
era of the rights of man, and though the pendulum has sometimes seemed
to swing backward for a short time it has almost constantly swung farther
and farther forward in the direction of independence. The right of the
common man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has gradually
taken the place of the so-called divine right of kings to do as they
pleased with their subjects.</p>
<p>In a sense the United States blazed the trail and led the way. The men
of 1776 proclaimed the principles of liberty and drew up a constitution
which has required few changes to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> present
day. They were remarkably wise men; and the people of America were almost
as wise, for they appreciated the laws under which they lived and showed
no disposition to thwart or overthrow the statesmen they themselves elected
to guide the nation. The United States grew and grew, crossed the Mississippi,
crossed the Rocky Mountains, reached the Pacific coast, and fronted on
two oceans. As pioneers from the east had pushed out into the middle
of the continent, cleared the wilderness, and filled it with prosperous
cities and villages, so pioneers from the middle-west went on across
the deserts and the mountains and made the far west flourish like the
rose. The great northern territory of Alaska became part of the republic;
to the south Porto Rico; far out in the Pacific Hawaii and the Philippines
joined the United States; the Panama Canal was cut between the two oceans;
and the republic that had begun as thirteen small states along the Atlantic
seaboard became one of the most powerful nations in the world. Her natural
resources were almost limitless and the energy of her people made the
most of what nature had provided.</p>
<p class="center" id="answer"><img src="images/america.jpg" width="417" height="600" alt="" /><br />
“<span class="smcap">America’s Answer</span>”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p>
<p>The republic fought several wars. That with Mexico settled boundary
disputes. The Civil War between the North and the South resulted in the
abolition of slavery and made the country a united whole, no State having
a right to secede from the rest. The war with Spain freed Cuba and other
Spanish possessions in the western hemisphere. But none of these wars
changed the system of government of the country. The United States was
still the great republic during all the eventful happenings of the Nineteenth
Century.</p>
<p>Meantime what had happened in France? Louis Philippe had shown himself
in his true lights as a Bourbon, had been driven from his throne, and
had been followed by various kinds of government. A new Napoleon, the
nephew of the first one, had come into power, had made himself Emperor
as Napoleon III., and had tried to restore the glories of the First Empire.
For a time France seemed to prosper under his rule, but it came to a
sudden end when the King of Prussia defeated the armies of France in
1871 and drove Napoleon III. into exile. France lost her provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine and William I. of Prussia was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> proclaimed
Emperor of Germany in the great hall of Versailles. There followed in
Paris the days of the Commune, which almost equaled the Reign of Terror
for lawlessness. Gradually order was evolved under a new constitution
with a President at the head of the government, and ever since France
has been a real republic. From much turmoil and bloodshed she had won
the liberty that Lafayette had dreamed of.</p>
<p>Other countries in Europe had won independence too. England required
no revolution; by peaceful means she grew more liberal; her sovereign
became largely a figurehead, and the House of Commons, elected by the
people, was the real seat of government. Italy, which in Lafayette’s
time was mainly a collection of small kingdoms and duchies, ruled by
Austrian archdukes or by the Pope, united under the leadership of Victor
Emmanuel, the King of Savoy, drove out the Austrians, deprived the Papacy
of its temporal power, and became a nation under a constitutional king.
The west of Europe was really republican, like the United States; it
was only in the east that the ideas of feudalism still held sway.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p>
<p>Russia had her Czar, an autocrat of the worst type, Turkey her Sultan,
a relic of the Dark Ages, Austria her Hapsburg Emperor, a thorough Bourbon,
who learned nothing and forgot nothing. And Germany had her Hohenzollern
and Prussian Emperor, the descendant of a long line of autocratic rulers,
the sovereign made by Bismarck, “the man of blood and iron,” the stanch
believer in the old doctrine of the divine right of kings. Germany had
become an empire by the power of the sword, and her Emperor never allowed
his people to forget that fact.</p>
<p>Power goes to the head of a nation like strong wine. The true test of
the greatness of a nation is its ability to use its power for the good
of the world rather than for selfish ends. Prussia had always been selfish.
She had fought a number of successful wars, against Denmark, against
Austria, and against France, and each time she had taken territory from
her adversary. Her statesmen regarded her power only as a means to gain
greater material strength, and from the birth of the empire they trained
the people to think only of that end.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p>
<p>It was inevitable that the forces of freedom and those of autocracy
should come into conflict some day. Germany knew this, and her autocrats
carefully prepared themselves for the coming strife with the lovers of
freedom. They paid little or no attention to programs for peace offered
by other nations, they refused to agree to limit their armaments, they
openly showed their contempt for the conferences at the Hague. Like a
fighter who feels his strength they were constantly wanting to force
other people to acknowledge their power; time and again they could barely
restrain themselves from leaping at some opponent; they only waited for
the most auspicious moment to strike.</p>
<p>What they regarded as the right moment came in July, 1914. The assassination
of the heir apparent to the Austrian throne by a Servian gave the rulers
of Germany a pretext to make war on the world. Austria, always haughty,
always greedy, always weak and blind, was simply the catspaw of the Hohenzollerns.
Austria sent an overbearing message to Servia, and Russia, taking the
rôle of protector of the small Balkan states, made it<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> clear
that she sided with Servia. Germany pretended to take fright and warned
Russia not to attempt to oppose Austria. England and France tried to
keep peace in Europe by suggesting a conference to discuss the matter.
But the Kaiser of Germany and his generals did not want peace; they wanted
to show the world how strong they were, they wanted the world to bow
down absolutely before them; they precipitated the crisis and, pretending
that they acted in self-defense, declared war on Russia, France, and
England.</p>
<p>In the first days of August, 1914, the enemy of liberty began its march.
With a ruthlessness that has no counterpart except in the acts of those
barbarian hordes that swept across Europe in the Dark Ages Germany marched
into Belgium, a small and peaceful country, giving as the only excuse
for her wanton invasion the fact that the easiest road to France lay
across that land. She expected Belgium to submit. The giant, swollen
with power, would do as it pleased with the pigmy. And when the British
Ambassador remonstrated with the German Chancellor over this illegal
treatment of a nation that all the powers of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> Europe
had promised to protect the Chancellor answered that the treaty of Germany
with Belgium was simply “a scrap of paper.” Germany knew no treaties
that opposed her desires; Germany has cared for nothing but her own selfish
goal. And the great German people consented to this infamous course,
because they had been taught that their first duty was blind obedience
to the will of the Fatherland, which meant the will of the House of Hohenzollern.
Never in history has a people,—and in this case a people that was
supposed to be civilized and thoughtful,—bowed its neck so meekly
to the yoke of its overlords.</p>
<p>But as the hordes of power-drunk Germans,—whom civilization has
rightly named the Huns, in memory of those earlier barbarian invaders
of western Europe,—advanced through the peaceful fields of little
Belgium they found, to their great surprise, that the Belgian people
did not intend to submit to such an outrage without protest. Led by their
heroic king, Albert, the Belgians threw themselves in the path of the
Huns and checked them for a few days. They could not save their country,
but they saved precious<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> days
for the French and English, and the Huns found that their march to Paris
was not the easy, triumphal progress they had planned.</p>
<p>Yet the German army was a mighty and effective machine in that autumn
of 1914, built by men who had devoted their lives to perfecting instruments
of destruction. It rolled on and on, across Belgium, southward and westward
into France, crushing the small Belgian army, forcing the outnumbered
British into retreat, driving back the French by sheer weight of cannon
and men. The Kaiser thought to repeat the act of his grandfather and
make the French sign a treaty with him at Versailles, taking more territory
and wealth from them as the next step toward making the House of Hohenzollern
the greatest power in the world. As the Huns drove on their over-mastering
pride and self-conceit grew and grew, inflating them like over-swollen
frogs, until a chorus of what the rest of the world had formerly considered
intelligent professors, scientists, and writers, actually dared to announce
that the German will to victory was the supreme achievement of the ages.
Cæsar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, at the height of their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> power,
never lost some sense of proportion, some human notion of justice; it
was left to this Germany of 1914 to show how blind, how mad, how intolerant
the mind of man can be.</p>
<p>Rapidly the Huns marched toward Paris; and then something happened.
The French turned at bay, held, drove the invaders back. Over the ground
they had crossed in triumph the Huns retreated, back and back until they
had reached the line of the River Marne. And when the French General
Joffre drove them back to the Marne he won one of the greatest victories
for civilization in the annals of history.</p>
<p>Meantime Russia was attacking in the east and the Germans had to look
to the protection of their own territory. Europe was now ablaze, England
was training men, France was digging trenches, the flames of war, lighted
by Germany’s reckless torch, were spreading across the world. Italy,
true to the principles of her great leaders of the last century, Mazzini,
Cavour, Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel, hating that power of Austria whose
history had been one long record of deceit and enslavement, joined hands
with the countries<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> that
stood for liberty and justice. The Turk, true to his nature, united with
the Hun. The war raged back and forth, its battle-fields the greater
part of Europe.</p>
<p>The issue was clearly drawn between liberty and tyranny. The Germans
were now the Bourbons, the Allied Powers were the true descendants of
Lafayette and Washington. The land of Lafayette lay next to the Menace
and her fair breast had been the first to bear the scars of war. The
land of Washington, however, lay far across the Atlantic, and one of
her guiding principles had been to avoid taking part in the affairs of
Europe. Some of her sons, loving Lafayette’s country for what she meant
to the world, volunteered in the French army, joined the French flying
corps, worked in the hospital service; but the great republic across
the sea proclaimed herself a neutral, although the hopes of her people
lay on the side of France and England.</p>
<p>But Germany knew no law, either that of Christ or man. The Sermon on
the Mount, the merciful provisions of the Hague Conventions, might never
have been given to the world as far as she was concerned. See what some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> of
her writers, men supposedly human, dared to say. “Might is right and
... is decided by war. Every youth who enters a beer-drinking and dueling
club will receive the true direction of his life. War in itself is a
good thing. God will see to it that war always recurs. The efforts directed
toward the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but absolutely
immoral. The peace of Europe is only a secondary matter for us. The sight
of suffering does one good; the infliction of suffering does one more
good. This war must be conducted as ruthlessly as possible.” And another
German said, “They call us barbarians. What of it? The German claim must
be: ... Education to hate.... Organization of hatred.... Education to
the desire for hatred. Let us abolish unripe and false shame.... To us
is given faith, hope, and hatred; but hatred is the greatest among them.”</p>
<p>This was indeed a strange religion for a nation that was supposed to
have heard of the Sermon on the Mount; a religion that might have been
made by Satan himself, with hate for its foundation instead of love.
Yet this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> was the
German religion; if any one dare to deny that the words of these writers
truly represent Germany let him look at Germany’s acts, let him think
of the treatment of Belgium, the bombing of unprotected cities and towns,
the enslavement of women and children, the destruction of hospital ships
and of Red Cross camps, the murder of Edith Cavell, the sinking of the <i>Lusitania</i>!</p>
<p>The submarine captain who fired the torpedo that sank the <i>Lusitania</i> was
a true son of Germany. He sent non-combatants to their death in the sea
as ruthlessly as might a demon of darkness. There was no humanity in
him, nor in those who commanded the deed. But there is no act of evil
that does not bear its own just consequences. The innocent men, women
and children who went down with the <i>Lusitania</i> called forth the
hate of the world on the Huns, and set America on fire with indignation.
For every victim there Germany was to pay a thousandfold in time.</p>
<p>The United States had a great President, a man who knew the temper of
his people far better than those who criticized him. He knew the history
of the country, he knew that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> its
people loved peace and hated war, that Europe was far from the vision
of most of them, and that they still cherished Washington’s advice against
the making of “entangling alliances.” He tried to be patient, even with
Germany, though he knew her for what she was; he waited, urging her to
obey the laws of civilization, hoping that he might act as a peacemaker
between the warring nations, feeling that peace might lie in the power
of America, provided she kept neutral. But his efforts meant nothing
to Germany; she believed in insincerity and the piling of lies on lies.</p>
<p>In many ways the United States had been very successful. It had grown
tremendously, it had carried out many of the ideals of its founders.
But in some ways it had fallen from its true course. Special privileges
had allowed some men to grow enormously rich at the expense of their
neighbors, city governments were too often the playthings of grafting
politicians, men were often apt to prefer the liberty of the individual
to the welfare of the state. The real question of the country was not
as to whether we had won success, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> as
to whether liberty was still worth striving for. A nation is very much
like an individual, and an individual often loses his ideals as he wins
material success. Had America grown to be like a rich and torpid man
who cares more for his ease and comfort than for the dreams of his youth?
Had America forgotten Lafayette’s vision of her, forgotten that liberty
is the one priceless gift? Were the youths, few in number but great in
spirit, who were offering their lives for freedom in the airplanes and
trenches of Europe the only part of the nation that still saw the vision
clear?</p>
<p>Woodrow Wilson never doubted his people in that time of stress and strain.
He knew what their answer must be when the call came to them. They had
forgotten their heritage no more than he. The Declaration of Independence
was still their testament; the hundred millions were the true sons of
the few millions of the days of Washington. And when the German Menace
dared to forbid Americans to travel in safety on the seas the answer
of America came instantly. Yes, there was something better than comfort
and peace and wealth; there was freedom, there was the goal<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> of
helping humanity to throw off the beasts of prey! The world must be made
safe for all men! The mailed fist must be shown that might <i>does not</i> make
right!</p>
<p>Germany notified the United States that she intended to carry on unrestricted
submarine warfare, to become the lawless pirate of the seas. President
Wilson handed the German Ambassador his passports and waited to see if
Germany intended to carry out her threat. As usual, the House of Hohenzollern
would not listen to reason. Germany turned pirate, throwing away the
last vestige of any respect for law. And when this was plain the President
went to Congress on April 2, 1917, and advised the representatives of
the nation to accept the challenge of war thrust upon us by the German
Empire.</p>
<p>“Let us be very clear,” said the President, “and make very clear to
all the world what our motives and our objects are.... Our object ...
is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the
world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the
really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of
purpose<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> and of
action as will henceforth ensure the observance of those principles.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the
world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that
peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed
by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the
will of their people....</p>
<p>“We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to
liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation
to check and nullify its pretentions and its power.... The world must
be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested
foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We
desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves,
no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We
are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied
when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom
of nations can make them.”</p>
<p>Let us be thankful that our President could voice the same spirit in
1917 that Jefferson<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> wrote
into the Declaration of Independence and that Lincoln proclaimed on the
field at Gettysburg. Our country bore malice toward none, we wanted to
be friends to all, we had no selfish desires for power or dominion. But
as Lafayette heard the call to battle for the freedom of men in America
in 1776, so America now heard the same call from the fields of Europe.
On April 6, 1917, the United States formally declared war against the
autocracy of Germany.</p>
<p>What were we fighting against? Against the old idea of feudalism that
the ruler need respect no rights of the ruled, against the old Bourbon
theory that the sovereign need obey none of the laws that govern the
rest of humankind, against the principles of Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns
that the people exist solely for the benefit of the ruling dynasties.
All this Prussia had converted into the principle that the Fatherland
is supreme, and that the people must obey the Fatherland in everything;
and the autocrats of Prussia had made the Fatherland a savage monster,
ruthless, unjust and cruel, devouring all it could to satisfy its greed.
If you look back through history you will see<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> that
the crimes of all the despots are the crimes of Germany to-day and that
whenever men were fighting tyranny, rapacity and cruelty they were fighting
the same battle that America and her allies fight to-day.</p>
<p>More than that. In fighting for freedom we are fighting for our preservation.
The world cannot exist one half slave, the other half free. Let tyranny
succeed in Europe and it can only be a short time before it will look
hungrily at America. The Menace must be destroyed before it grows so
powerful that none can withstand it. “The time has come,” wrote President
Wilson shortly after the declaration of war, “to conquer or submit.”
Submission would have been to surrender all the principles of the republic,
the country to which lovers of liberty had looked for more than a century
to prove the actual realization of their dreams.</p>
<p>It is the German machine-made government, the autocratic ruling military
caste, the idea that might makes right, and that small nations have no
rights that big nations need respect, it is all these old and hideous
beliefs of the Dark Ages and the era of despots that the liberty-loving
nations are fighting to-day. The individual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> German
is, after all, a human being like ourselves, though warped and twisted
in his ideas of what is right and wrong by his selfish and barbarous
government. The individual German may become a civilized man again, provided
he can come to see the monstrous tyranny of his government. And for this
reason President Wilson said to Congress in his speech of April 2, 1917,
“We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward
them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse
that their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their
previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars
used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were
nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked and waged in
the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were
accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools.”</p>
<p>It was a war in fact deliberately determined upon and brought about
by that same dark enemy of liberty that thrust Lafayette into an Austrian
dungeon a century ago, that oppressed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> the
people of Italy and wantonly imprisoned some of the noblest patriots
that ever lived, that tore Alsace-Lorraine from France, and that has
rattled its sabre and clanked its spurs and declared that war and destruction
are the noblest objects of man. But the people have let themselves be
treated like galley-slaves, have allowed that dark enemy of liberty to
chain them to the benches and make them row that ship of state which
is nothing less than a pirate bark upon the seas of the world. The people
have been blind. Our President has tried to help them to see the light
of freedom.</p>
<p>Treachery, deceit, lies, these have been the watchwords of the rulers
of the Huns. When our government was still at peace with Germany her
statesmen tried to make a secret agreement with Mexico that in case we
should declare war the latter country should attack us and take our southwestern
states. Again and again they lied to our Ambassador at Berlin and tried
to intimidate him. Nothing has been sacred to them. They talk of religion
and God and in the same breath outrage every teaching of Christianity.
They have no respect for the great works of art of the world;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> cathedrals,
libraries are destroyed without a thought other than to impress the enemy
peoples with the frightfulness of their warfare. The world must be taught
to fear them is their creed. And they have no more sense of humor than
a stone. Over the slaughter of thousands of poor slave-driven soldiers
the Kaiser can still send decorations to his sons, complimenting them
and extolling their valor and generalship while all the world knows them
to be mere pawns and puppets tricked out in the gaudy dress of the Hohenzollerns.
Neither Kaiser nor generals nor statesmen have the least sense of humor,
and a sense of humor is more than a saving grace, it is the mark of a
sanity of judgment. But how can any sane judgment be found in a nation
that thinks to frighten the rest of the world into submission by bombing
hospital camps and Red Cross workers? There is no health in the monster.
All the poisons of the past ages have collected in his blood.</p>
<p>America has never forgotten Lafayette. As John Quincy Adams said to
him, he was ours<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> “by
that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for ... services which is a precious
portion of our inheritance; ours by that tie of love, stronger than death,
which has linked” Lafayette’s “name for the endless ages of time with
the name of Washington.” In 1916 the old Château of Chavaniac, Lafayette’s
birthplace, one hundred and fifty miles to the south of Paris, was put
up for sale by the owner, a grandson of George Washington Lafayette.
Patriotic Americans bought it, desiring to make a French Mount Vernon
of the historic castle and grounds. At first it was intended to convert
the château into a museum, to be filled with relics of Lafayette and
Washington and the American Revolution, but the great needs that were
facing France led to a change of plan. The castle should become more
than a museum; it should be a home and school for as many children of
France as could be provided for. This would have been Lafayette’s own
wish, and in doing this the American society known as the French Heroes
Lafayette Memorial has paid the noblest tribute to the great patriot.
And the people of France, the most appreciative people in the world,
have welcomed the gift and the spirit that underlay it.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325">[325]</a></span></p>
<p>Anatole France, the great French writer, has summed up the sentiment
of his nation in glowing words. “American thought,” he says, “has had
a beautiful inspiration in choosing the cradle of Lafayette, in which
to preserve memoirs of American independence and to establish an institution
for the public good. In preserving in the Château de Chavaniac d’Auvergne
the testimonies and relics of the war which united under the banner of
liberty, Washington and Rochambeau, and in founding the Lafayette museum,
ties which have bound the two great democracies to an eternal friendship
have been commemorated. But this was not enough for the inexhaustible
liberality of the Americans. It went further, and it was decided that
upon this illustrious corner of France, the children of those who died
in defense of liberty, should find a refuge and home, and that, deprived
of their natural protection, some of these children should be adopted
by the great American people, while others of delicate constitution should
recover health and strength on this robust land. It is a large heart
that these men reveal in preserving a grateful remembrance of past services,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> and
in coming to the assistance of the orphaned of a past generation who
fought for their cause a hundred and forty years ago. May I venture,
as an aged Frenchman and a lover of liberty, to proffer to America the
tribute of my heartfelt homage?”</p>
<p>And so the castle where Lafayette was born and the fields and woods
he knew so well in his boyhood among the Auvergne Mountains are now to
be the home of generations of French children whose fathers gave their
lives that the world might be set free from tyrants and war cease to
be. What could be more fitting! It is one of the beautiful things of
history that Americans could do this for France. It is in such ways that
the spirit of brotherly love may some day encircle the earth.</p>
<p>For all wise men know that it is not riches, nor material possessions
nor great territories that make either men or nations noble. The United
States might cover half the globe, her wealth be beyond what man has
ever dreamed of, her population run into the hundreds of millions, and
yet our country be only hated and feared by other peoples. That was the
future the rulers of Germany had been planning for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> their
nation; so they might possess material things they were willing, nay,
they were glad that the rest of the world should hate them. They had
no wisdom at all; they had forgotten all the lessons of history. Christ
might never have taught, churches never been more than bricks and stone,
patriots and poets never have striven to show men their ideals, so far
as these rulers, and through them their people, were concerned. Lafayette
knew the truth, but the spirit of Lafayette was what Germany and Austria
most hated; they are trying to-day to imprison that spirit just as they
did imprison the man himself when they had the chance.</p>
<p>Nations, like men, live to serve, not to conquer for the lust of power.
Only when nations have learned that are they worthy of admiration. Had
America drawn her cloak about her, said “I am safe between my two oceans,”
made money out of the sufferings of other peoples, held fast to safety
and ease, then America would have betrayed every ideal of her founders,
every hope of the men who have loved and worshipped their “land of the
free.” Only when America said there were greater<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> things
than ease and safety, that the liberty of all peoples was indissolubly
bound up with her own freedom, did she show herself as the great republic
in spirit as well as in name; only when she was willing to serve others
did she rise to the true heights of her national soul.</p>
<p>One of our poets, James Russell Lowell, has written the beautiful line,
“‘Tis man’s perdition to be safe, when for the truth he ought to die!”
The truth of that was known to the farmers of 1775 who took their guns
and at Lexington and Concord fired “the shot heard round the world.”
And the same truth was known to the men of 1861 who went out to keep
the republic their fathers had given them. For we have all received a
great legacy from those who have gone before, and now we know what it
is, and have again gone forth to fight for truth.</p>
<p>We know that this is the greatest of all crusades. We know that men
must be set free. Tyrants, whether they be emperors and kings or governments
that place greed above justice, must be cleared from the earth. This
last and greatest of tyrants, this league of the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs,
has by its very<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> brutality
and injustice opened men’s eyes and let loose a new spirit in the world.
Russia was autocratic, her ruling house of Romanoff was in many ways
true brother of the other tyrants, but the people of Russia felt the
new spirit and have already driven their Czar from his throne. When we
think of the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, Napoleon, and all
that France had to endure on the hard road to liberty we may well imagine
that dark days lie before the Russian people, but in time France rose
like a phœnix from the ashes of revolt, and when we see what France is
to-day we may look confidently to the future of this other great people.</p>
<p>For the spirit liveth! The truest words that were ever spoken! And the
spirit that fills France to-day, the spirit that fills England and Belgium
and America and all the allies, yes, even that same spirit in Russia,
will carry mankind a long way on the road to liberty. For no one can
conquer that spirit; it is the immortal part of man.</p>
<p>Let us read again the glorious lines of Julia Ward Howe in “The Battle-Hymn
of the Republic,” lines as true in this crusade as they<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> were
in the crusade against slavery for which they were written.</p>
<p class="stanza"><span class="stanza-line1">“Mine eyes have seen the glory
of the coming of the Lord:<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">He is trampling out the vintage where the
grapes of wrath are stored;<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His
terrible swift sword:<br /></span>
<span class="refrain">His truth is marching on.</span></p>
<p class="stanza"><span class="stanza-line1">“I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">They have builded Him an altar in the evening’s dews and damps;<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.<br /></span>
<span class="refrain">His day is marching on.</span></p>
<p class="stanza"><span class="stanza-line1">“I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line3">‘As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,<br /></span>
<span class="refrain">Since God is marching on.’</span></p>
<p class="stanza"><span class="stanza-line1">“He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!<br /></span>
<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331">[331]</a></span><span class="refrain">Our
God is marching on.</span></p>
<p class="stanza"><span class="stanza-line1">“In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:<br /></span>
<span class="stanza-line2">As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,<br /></span>
<span class="refrain">While God is marching on.”</span></p>
<p>America heard the call; America saw that there were no limits to the
evils of the powers of darkness unless the powers of light should fight
them; and on April 6, 1917, America declared her purpose to do so. As
the small American republic once heard with rejoicing and confidence
the word that Lafayette and Rochambeau were to bring aid westward across
the Atlantic, so now the great French republic heard with the same emotions
the declaration that American soldiers were to bring succor to them eastward
across the same sea. The last great neutral nation, immense in power
of men and wealth and energy, had cast in its lot with the forces that
were fighting for freedom. The Allies, weary and worn with more than
two years of fighting, looked to this fresh, great people to bring them
victory.</p>
<p>A month after we joined the cause of liberty French generals and statesmen
came to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> America.
At their head was Marshal Joffre, the hero of the Marne. He visited Mount
Vernon and laid a wreath on the tomb of Washington; he traveled through
the country and everywhere he found statues of Lafayette and Joan of
Arc and memories of great Frenchmen. To America Joffre stood for the
ideals of France, courage, endurance, nobility of thought and action.
Not since Lafayette’s visit in 1824 had the people of the United States
welcomed any visitor with such love and admiration.</p>
<p>The tour of Marshal Joffre was the outward symbol of the new union.
Instantly the United States, a peaceful nation with a very small standing
army, an insignificant merchant marine, its farms devoted to supplying
its own needs, its factories busy with the commerce of peace, changed
to a nation at war. It faced a stupendous problem. From its untrained
men it must create great armies, fitted to cope with and defeat the fighting
machine that the enemy had spent years in building. It must have the
ships to carry those millions of soldiers to Europe and it must supply
them in Europe with the food, the clothing, the guns,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> the
ammunition they would need. That in itself was a task beside which the
greatest military achievements in history paled into insignificance.
Napoleon crossed the Alps, but he could feed his army on the supplies
of the countries on the other side of the mountains. We must supply everything,
must transport America into Europe, and then keep America there by an
unending bridge of boats.</p>
<p>More than that, we must do our part in building ships to provision our
allies, ships that should replace those the pirates of the sea were sinking
daily. And we must feed not only our own people, but the people of starving
countries, and particularly the people of Belgium, whom we had helped
since the war began. Here in the broad and fertile land that lay between
the two oceans was to be the granary and factory and training-camp that
were to make liberty victorious. The nation turned to its new task with
the same indomitable energy that had conquered the wilderness in the
days of the pioneers.</p>
<p>At the call of the love of country men instantly volunteered. Congress
passed the Conscription Act, and young men who had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> dreamed
of peaceful occupations went to be trained as soldiers. Ceaselessly,
tirelessly the great work went on. Americans landed in France to reinforce
the volunteers who were already there as engineers, as motor-drivers,
as aviators. Railroads had to be built, and docks and factories; the
most skilled men in every line of work hurried to be in the vanguard.
Then General Pershing reached France as commander-in-chief of the vast
American army that was to come. As we had received Joffre so France now
welcomed Pershing. And he went to Lafayette’s tomb and laid a wreath
upon it, declaring that America had come to the aid of France.</p>
<p>Great armies are not built in a day, nor are gigantic fleets of merchant
ships. Mistakes must always be made, and there are always critics. But
in spite of critics and mistakes the American government, and under it
the people, went on with the work in hand. Men became skilled soldiers
and ships were launched, and at the end of the first year after our entrance
into the war our troops were in the trenches, fighting side by side with
their allies, and a steady stream of more troops flowed day<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> by
day from west to east. America had already thrown the first part of her
power into the conflict and given earnest of the greater power to come.</p>
<p>Americans have already given their lives for freedom. First there were
the eager, intrepid young spirits who volunteered as flying-men, in the
French Foreign Legion, in the regiments of England, in the driving of
ambulances at the call of mercy. How gloriously their sacrifices will
live in the pages of history and in the hearts of their countrymen! And
then there have been men of the first American army, such men as the
private soldiers Hay, Enright, and Gresham, above whose graves in France
is the inscription “Here lie the first soldiers of the Illustrious Republic
of the United States who fell on French soil for Justice and Liberty
November 3, 1917.” Truly have they proved the truth of the Latin motto,
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.”</p>
<p>What is the lesson of Lafayette, of Washington, of Lincoln, of all men
who have put the ideal of justice and liberty above their material wants,
of the men who have fought in France and in all parts of the world for
the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> cause of freedom?
The lesson is simply this, that service and self-sacrifice for others
is the noblest goal of man, that life is given us not to keep but to
spend, and that to follow the teachings of Christ is the only road to
happiness for men or nations.</p>
<p>“Where there is no vision the people perish.” History is filled with
instances of the truth of that; the greatest empires of the world became
decadent, were defeated by enemies, and vanished from the earth when
their rulers and people saw no vision beyond wealth and power. Nineveh
and Babylon and Troy, Byzantium, Persia, the Macedonia of Alexander the
Great, Carthage and Imperial Rome all fell because gold and possessions
had blinded their eyes. Material power, and the wealth that often goes
with it, has been as dangerous to nations as it has been to individual
men. It is only too apt to lead to the greed for greater and greater
power, to bend other peoples to its will, to magnify itself at the expense
of everything else in the world. It is easy for power to make nations
forget their dreams of nobler things, of freedom and justice, of the
rights of men everywhere to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Strength is a splendid thing,
but it must be used to help other and weaker people, not to aggrandize
oneself.</p>
<p>That the great nations of the ancient world forgot, and that such empires
as the Ottoman Turks and Austria-Hungary have never known. Has the Turk
ever held any vision of helping other peoples? Have the rulers of Austria
ever cared for the welfare of their subject races? The history of both
empires shows that the men in power have thought only of themselves.
And what vision those countries have ever known has been that of a few
devoted patriots who struggled for liberty and were suppressed.</p>
<p>Now in the past century Germany has been blinded by her growing power.
Her rulers lost their vision, they made might their God; then her people
were tempted, as Satan tempted Christ with a prospect of the world’s
dominion, and the people fell and were blinded, and so the spirit perished
in them as it has perished in other and greater peoples. They talked
of German “culture,” of the blessings of German civilization; and they
wanted to thrust it by force on the rest of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> world,
not for the good of that world, but for the glory of Germany alone. Their
God became the God of the savage tribe, a God who belonged to them and
to them only.</p>
<p>There are times when all peoples are apt to forget the vision, times
when ease and plenty wrap them about. Few men are like Lafayette, who
from youth to old age hold fast to their ideals, no matter what comes.
Then, in a time of stress, the question is put to them: What will you
do? Take the easy road of blindness or follow the rough road of vision?
Belgium had her choice; she chose to lose all her worldly possessions
rather than lose her soul. France had her choice, and England and Italy:
to each the vision of liberty was greater than safety of life. And as
each has had to pay in countless suffering so the soul of each nation
has risen to greater heights. Their people do not perish like the blind;
they have seen the vision of a more Christlike world when the tyrants
have been destroyed.</p>
<p>America had her choice. Under all the power and wealth that her hundred
years and more had brought her she had kept her vision; she too knew
that liberty is priceless, immeasurably<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> above
all things else in the world. And this is the America that we all love.
For unless we would go the way of the great nations of the old world,
the nations that have perished in their blindness, we must have ever
in mind the sacred duty to set and keep all men free. Eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty. And lasting peace comes only with liberty to
men and nations.</p>
<p>We cannot read the story of Lafayette without feeling that in his generous
youth he gave us the best he had, his love and devotion, his courage
and perseverance, his dauntless spirit that would not be denied its purpose
to fight for liberty. All this Lafayette gave us because he saw in us
the hope of the world. And now our precious opportunity has come to repay
that great debt. It is for us to give the land of Lafayette all that
he brought to us, and we do it for the same reason, because we see in
France and her allies the present hope of the world.</p>
<p>It is for youth to fight, for age to counsel and help youth in the combat.
Glorious is the opportunity that lies before the youth of our country
now; as glorious as was the opportunity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> that
called to the boy of seventeen in the days of Louis XVI. We may not all
accomplish as much as he did, but we can all thrill to the same generous
impulses, see the same great vision, resolve that we will do all that
lies within our power to win the crusade of freedom against tyrants.
Every boy and man in America should learn the lesson of Lafayette’s life
and then go into the struggle with the feeling that he is following in
the footsteps of that great idealist, that great patriot whose country
was not limited to his own nation but to all men who yearned for liberty.
The greatest gift of patriots is not the material things they may build,
but the devotion to ideals they show to other men. We may each be Lafayettes
in our own way.</p>
<p>“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock.”
So is liberty built; founded upon a rock; as unconquerable as the soul
of man. Liberty must win after floods and storms; its beacon-light must
in the time to come illumine the whole world. Its enemies are strong
and well-prepared; they call to their aid all the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> powers
and devices of darkness; but as truth is greater than falsehood so is
liberty greater than all the oppressors of man can bring against it.</p>
<p>America answers France and her answer is clear and dauntless. It is
as ringing as the Declaration of Independence, the rock upon which America
built her house. The power of Prussia, the power of the Hun, the power
of tyrants, must be utterly crushed before the world can be free. Germany
sought this war in all wickedness and greed; to satisfy her ambition
she has pulled down all the piers that support the house of civilization
that men have been building for ages; she would destroy the world in
her purpose to dominate it. And America intends that Germany shall have
war until all the devils are driven out of her.</p>
<p>America can do it. America came to this conflict with clean hands and
a clean soul; no selfishness was in her; she fights for no ends of her
own save the highest end to make the world safe for democracy. And as
she has truth and justice on her side she fights with a spirit unknown
to the servile bondsmen of autocracy.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> She
is young and immensely strong, she is still the land of freedom. And
when she rises in full, relentless might, thrice armed in that she has
a just cause, she will destroy the serpent and cast him from the earth.
The greatest page in our history is being written; we shall write it
so that the better world to come shall call us blessed.</p>
<p>“We are coming, Lafayette!” What a call to victory is that! We have
already come. We have joined with the descendants of that youth of France
who came to us in our hour of need. The spirit of Washington must glory
in that fact. The great Father of our country loved the Frenchman as
his son. To what nobler end could Washington’s children dedicate themselves
than to help their brethren? And the spirit of Lafayette must rejoice
to see his dreams fulfilled, his dreams of the great republic and of
the dawn of the brotherhood of men!</p>
<p>Lover of liberty and justice, we salute you! The time has come for us
to show that what you hoped of us we now are, and to show it to the end
that liberty shall not perish from the earth, that all men be free, and
that in truth<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> man
was endowed by his Creator with the inalienable rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.</p>
<hr class="divrule" />
</div>
<div class="transnotes" id="transcribers_notes">
<p class="center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes</b></p>
<ul>
<li>This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic
and inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except that obvious
printer’s errors have been silently corrected.</li>
<li>Illustrations have been moved to below any enclosing paragraph.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43843 ***</div>
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