Details
LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER, MARQUIS DE. Autograph letter signed ("Lafayette") TO PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE, Richmond, [Virginia], 26 January 1825. 1 page, 4to, integral address leaf [with] Autograph cover with stamped frank, addressed by Lafayette to "James Monroe President of the United States Washington City," red circular "Baltimore MD." datestamp and "Free" handstamp, with Monroe's autograph endorsement "Jany 26 1825 Genl. La Fayette," seal hole, otherwise in very fine condition.
LAFAYETTE'S EPOCHAL LAST VISIT TO AMERICA
An important letter to the President written by Lafayette during his last visit to the nation whose independence he had helped acheive. Lafayette's personal finances were on the verge of ruin, and Monroe, who had served in 1777 with Lafayette as aide to Lord Stirling at the Battle of Brandywine) was instrumental in engineering a congressional appropriation for the gift to Lafayette of the generous sum of $200,000 as well as a grant of 24,000 acres of land in the Florida portion of the Louisiana Territory. At Jefferson's recommendation, the money had been placed in the Bank of the United States at 4 interest. The formal presentation had taken place on 4 January 1825, and Lafayette had expressed "the warmest acknowledgements of an old American soldier, and adopted son of the United States, two titles dearer to my heart than all the treasuries in all the world."
"Had I been at Washington I would have presented to you and to Mr. Crawford [William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury] the inclosed letter [no longer present] before I had conferred to [sic] Mr. Biddle [President of the Bank of the United States] my thankful acceptance. But it seems to me what I have done is precisely what had been wished by you both and I have thought I must immediately acknowledge and accept. Should there be on my part any impropriety in availing myself of the Resolution I depend upon you to mend the error. As to the matter of interest, this placement [the deposit of the funds in the Bank of the United States] answers precisely what I ever thought I had best do with my money. Will you please to show it to Mr. Crawford...."
By resolution of Congress and a formal invitation from President Monroe, Lafayette had been invited to revisit America for the observance of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Landing at Staten Island in August 1824, he began a remarkable tour which "provoked demonstrations of frenzied enthusiasm without precedent or parallel in American history" (DAB). It is interesting to note that in the many years since he had last visited America, Lafayette's facility with the English language had deterioriated noticeably; compare the stilted English of the present letter with that of the preceding letter, written almost 50 years earlier.
LAFAYETTE'S EPOCHAL LAST VISIT TO AMERICA
An important letter to the President written by Lafayette during his last visit to the nation whose independence he had helped acheive. Lafayette's personal finances were on the verge of ruin, and Monroe, who had served in 1777 with Lafayette as aide to Lord Stirling at the Battle of Brandywine) was instrumental in engineering a congressional appropriation for the gift to Lafayette of the generous sum of $200,000 as well as a grant of 24,000 acres of land in the Florida portion of the Louisiana Territory. At Jefferson's recommendation, the money had been placed in the Bank of the United States at 4 interest. The formal presentation had taken place on 4 January 1825, and Lafayette had expressed "the warmest acknowledgements of an old American soldier, and adopted son of the United States, two titles dearer to my heart than all the treasuries in all the world."
"Had I been at Washington I would have presented to you and to Mr. Crawford [William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury] the inclosed letter [no longer present] before I had conferred to [sic] Mr. Biddle [President of the Bank of the United States] my thankful acceptance. But it seems to me what I have done is precisely what had been wished by you both and I have thought I must immediately acknowledge and accept. Should there be on my part any impropriety in availing myself of the Resolution I depend upon you to mend the error. As to the matter of interest, this placement [the deposit of the funds in the Bank of the United States] answers precisely what I ever thought I had best do with my money. Will you please to show it to Mr. Crawford...."
By resolution of Congress and a formal invitation from President Monroe, Lafayette had been invited to revisit America for the observance of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Landing at Staten Island in August 1824, he began a remarkable tour which "provoked demonstrations of frenzied enthusiasm without precedent or parallel in American history" (DAB). It is interesting to note that in the many years since he had last visited America, Lafayette's facility with the English language had deterioriated noticeably; compare the stilted English of the present letter with that of the preceding letter, written almost 50 years earlier.