Details
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, President. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") as President, TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, Washington, D.C., 30 March 1804. 1 2/3 pages, 4to, 250 x 200mm. (10 x 8 in.), neatly inlaid. Fine.
JEFFERSON TO LAFAYETTE: "I HAD RATHER HAVE YOUR SINGLE PERSON [IN THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY] THAN AN ARMY OF TEN THOUSAND MEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF SECURING THE TRANQUILITY OF THE COUNTRY"
A detailed letter regarding the status of Lafayette's 11,520 acres of land in America which Congress had voted him as a reward for his duty during the Revolutionary War. "I formerly, my dear friend, mentioned to you my wish that we might be able to get the value of your lands here increased by a permission to locate them in some more favorable position, but I feared to represent this to you as any thing more than a wish, that no false hopes might be excited. You understand yourself how little we can answer for the determinations of numerous bodies of men of independent minds [i.e., Congress,] everyone deciding according to his own judgement and his own conscience. The whole session of Congress had passed over to the last day, without...making any proposition of this kind...On the last morning of the session a member of the Senate calling on me to take leave, we happened to speak of N. Orleans...I told him there was a measure which would place that country in entire tranquility, and safety: that if they would permit your lands to be located in the territory of [New] Orleans they would be so valuable that they might induce you to come over with your family and establish yourself there...I had rather have your single person there than an army of ten thousand men for the purpose of securing the tranquility & preservation of the country; that you would immediately attach all the antient French inhabitants to yourself and the U.S. and would reduce to nullity the disorganising foreign adventurers who were flocking thither...
"[When introduced as an amendatory bill, the proposition] passed both houses without a dissenting voice...I this day write to Governor Claiborne at New Orleans to get the best information in his power for locating them on vacant parts the most fertile & nearest to N. Orleans which can be found...And can it be only a wish that it may induce you to come over and plant your family in a country where every circumstance will give them eminence & prosperity? This may be wished, but can be properly weighed only by yourself, Mad[am]e de La Fayette & your friends. It is not for us to decide between the eminence which rests on the affections of a self-governing nation, and that which is raised on other circumstances. You have an acquaintance with both. When Governor Claiborne shall have reported the positions in which your lands may be located, Mr. Madison, Mr. Gallatin & myself will decide for the best, & inform you, and if a proper power comes the lands shall be surveyed & a grant immediately signed..."
The Louisiana Purchase had been finalized just six months prior to this letter. President Jefferson hoped to make the transition of the former Spanish and French citizens to the United States a smooth one, and he believed Lafayette's presence in Louisiana would help to facilitate the assimilation of the former French citizens. Congress had voted the Marquis de Lafayette 11,520 acres in 1803, but took a long time to locate the lands in Louisiana. Lafayette did not realize any profit from them until nearly 1815; he had previously lost his entire fortune during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. He did not return to the United States until 1824 when President James Monroe invited him to tour the country he fought for during the Revolutionary War nearly fifty years earlier.
Provenance: The Century Association of New York (sale, Christie's, 11 June 1982, lot 31).
JEFFERSON TO LAFAYETTE: "I HAD RATHER HAVE YOUR SINGLE PERSON [IN THE LOUISIANA TERRITORY] THAN AN ARMY OF TEN THOUSAND MEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF SECURING THE TRANQUILITY OF THE COUNTRY"
A detailed letter regarding the status of Lafayette's 11,520 acres of land in America which Congress had voted him as a reward for his duty during the Revolutionary War. "I formerly, my dear friend, mentioned to you my wish that we might be able to get the value of your lands here increased by a permission to locate them in some more favorable position, but I feared to represent this to you as any thing more than a wish, that no false hopes might be excited. You understand yourself how little we can answer for the determinations of numerous bodies of men of independent minds [i.e., Congress,] everyone deciding according to his own judgement and his own conscience. The whole session of Congress had passed over to the last day, without...making any proposition of this kind...On the last morning of the session a member of the Senate calling on me to take leave, we happened to speak of N. Orleans...I told him there was a measure which would place that country in entire tranquility, and safety: that if they would permit your lands to be located in the territory of [New] Orleans they would be so valuable that they might induce you to come over with your family and establish yourself there...I had rather have your single person there than an army of ten thousand men for the purpose of securing the tranquility & preservation of the country; that you would immediately attach all the antient French inhabitants to yourself and the U.S. and would reduce to nullity the disorganising foreign adventurers who were flocking thither...
"[When introduced as an amendatory bill, the proposition] passed both houses without a dissenting voice...I this day write to Governor Claiborne at New Orleans to get the best information in his power for locating them on vacant parts the most fertile & nearest to N. Orleans which can be found...And can it be only a wish that it may induce you to come over and plant your family in a country where every circumstance will give them eminence & prosperity? This may be wished, but can be properly weighed only by yourself, Mad[am]e de La Fayette & your friends. It is not for us to decide between the eminence which rests on the affections of a self-governing nation, and that which is raised on other circumstances. You have an acquaintance with both. When Governor Claiborne shall have reported the positions in which your lands may be located, Mr. Madison, Mr. Gallatin & myself will decide for the best, & inform you, and if a proper power comes the lands shall be surveyed & a grant immediately signed..."
The Louisiana Purchase had been finalized just six months prior to this letter. President Jefferson hoped to make the transition of the former Spanish and French citizens to the United States a smooth one, and he believed Lafayette's presence in Louisiana would help to facilitate the assimilation of the former French citizens. Congress had voted the Marquis de Lafayette 11,520 acres in 1803, but took a long time to locate the lands in Louisiana. Lafayette did not realize any profit from them until nearly 1815; he had previously lost his entire fortune during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. He did not return to the United States until 1824 when President James Monroe invited him to tour the country he fought for during the Revolutionary War nearly fifty years earlier.
Provenance: The Century Association of New York (sale, Christie's, 11 June 1982, lot 31).