Details
LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER, Marquis de. Letter signed ("Lafayette") to former Secretary of War James McHenry in Maryland, La Grange [France], 1st Frimaire, 22 November 1801. 3 pages, 4to, address panel on verso of second leaf, docketed by recipient(?), marked "Duplicate" at head of letter and on address panel, second leaf with two minor repairs, one affecting docket, small hole affecting a letter, removed from an album, short fold break, in English.
RECALLING THE REVOLUTION AND "MY PATERNAL FRIEND," WASHINGTON
A fine, affectionate letter, in which Lafayette expresses cautious optimism about France's future, describes his tranquil rural existence (plagued only by his persistent debts), and explains his reasons for refusing the American ambassadorship. He requests McHenry's help with a history of the American Revolution being written by Washington's nephew, Bushrod, and harks back to "our paternal friend," George Washington and the southern and Yorktown campaigns. "...You will know, before this reaches you, that a General peace has taken place--France has been powerfull at war, happy in her treaties--from the first principles of her revolution, however poisoned, disfigured and sullied they have been, she has derived great means of prosperity--how soon Liberty, her primary object, may become the fruit of her Triumphs and a consolation for her sufferings, depends much upon the temper of one man, and its appreciation of true glory--but I am among the few who persist to profess that the Liberal seeds which among so much weed have been sown upon European and particularly upon French ground cannot and shall not be ultimately lost.
"I live, for my part, in a rural, happy state of retirement. The affairs of my friends or some particular object, such as the other day the pleasure to dine with Lord Cornwallis, call me now and then to Paris. I sometimes visit Bonaparte my deliverer from Ollmutz [one of several foreign prisons where Lafayette was incarcerated by the Jacobins from 1792 to 1797] whose conduct by me is constantly obliging...You will hear that M. Otto is to go over as an Ambassador--I think he will be a very good one--I hope my answer to American friends respecting their idea of of my going in that capacity have appeared to you satisfactory--the health of my wife, family arrangements, some unsettled concerns of my friends and companions might have proved sufficient motives had not the first of all been very obvious, viz my old habits of an American citizen and soldier, which I feel would make me awkward in any foreign emploïement, even from my native [land], which in political interest and national affection I consider for the United States as a sister country. Let me keep myself to be as soon as I can a private visitor to that dear, second home of mine, the freedom and prosperity of which is to me a source of the purest satisfaction, and I may add, a not undeserved reward.
"I apply to you, my dear friend, for an object which I have very much at heart--Bushrod Washington is writing the memoirs of our venerated, my paternal friend--it is a history of the American revolution--Great use will be made of my correspondance with the General--his character will receive a new lustre from those confidential communications which, particularly during the intrigues of 1777 and 1778, he had with me... There will be found the details of that decisive campaign in Virginia which began with the General's desire to me that Virginia might be lost as late as possible, and ended with the capture of Lord Cornwallis [the Yorktown campaign] You remember that on the exertions and manoeuvres of the small army which I commanded the fate of the Southern States and the grand stroke of the War in 1781 did entirely depend, and as you have been in these very important periods my confidential aid and friend none can give a better account of every transaction...during the revolution...." Bushrod's ambitious project was apparently never completed.
Provenance: Max Thorek, ink-stamp on address page.
RECALLING THE REVOLUTION AND "MY PATERNAL FRIEND," WASHINGTON
A fine, affectionate letter, in which Lafayette expresses cautious optimism about France's future, describes his tranquil rural existence (plagued only by his persistent debts), and explains his reasons for refusing the American ambassadorship. He requests McHenry's help with a history of the American Revolution being written by Washington's nephew, Bushrod, and harks back to "our paternal friend," George Washington and the southern and Yorktown campaigns. "...You will know, before this reaches you, that a General peace has taken place--France has been powerfull at war, happy in her treaties--from the first principles of her revolution, however poisoned, disfigured and sullied they have been, she has derived great means of prosperity--how soon Liberty, her primary object, may become the fruit of her Triumphs and a consolation for her sufferings, depends much upon the temper of one man, and its appreciation of true glory--but I am among the few who persist to profess that the Liberal seeds which among so much weed have been sown upon European and particularly upon French ground cannot and shall not be ultimately lost.
"I live, for my part, in a rural, happy state of retirement. The affairs of my friends or some particular object, such as the other day the pleasure to dine with Lord Cornwallis, call me now and then to Paris. I sometimes visit Bonaparte my deliverer from Ollmutz [one of several foreign prisons where Lafayette was incarcerated by the Jacobins from 1792 to 1797] whose conduct by me is constantly obliging...You will hear that M. Otto is to go over as an Ambassador--I think he will be a very good one--I hope my answer to American friends respecting their idea of of my going in that capacity have appeared to you satisfactory--the health of my wife, family arrangements, some unsettled concerns of my friends and companions might have proved sufficient motives had not the first of all been very obvious, viz my old habits of an American citizen and soldier, which I feel would make me awkward in any foreign emploïement, even from my native [land], which in political interest and national affection I consider for the United States as a sister country. Let me keep myself to be as soon as I can a private visitor to that dear, second home of mine, the freedom and prosperity of which is to me a source of the purest satisfaction, and I may add, a not undeserved reward.
"I apply to you, my dear friend, for an object which I have very much at heart--Bushrod Washington is writing the memoirs of our venerated, my paternal friend--it is a history of the American revolution--Great use will be made of my correspondance with the General--his character will receive a new lustre from those confidential communications which, particularly during the intrigues of 1777 and 1778, he had with me... There will be found the details of that decisive campaign in Virginia which began with the General's desire to me that Virginia might be lost as late as possible, and ended with the capture of Lord Cornwallis [the Yorktown campaign] You remember that on the exertions and manoeuvres of the small army which I commanded the fate of the Southern States and the grand stroke of the War in 1781 did entirely depend, and as you have been in these very important periods my confidential aid and friend none can give a better account of every transaction...during the revolution...." Bushrod's ambitious project was apparently never completed.
Provenance: Max Thorek, ink-stamp on address page.