Details
LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER, Marquis de, Major General, Continental Army. Autograph letter signed ("Lafayette") TO BRIGADIER GENERAL ELIAS DAYTON at Elizabeth Town, N.J.; Paris, 5 September 1788. 3 pages, 4to, minor staining at upper center, with the original folded cover sheet (patched), addressed in Lafayette's hand and bearing an intact impression of his seal in red wax.
THE CONSTITUTION, ABOUT TO BE RATIFIED, "IS THE WAY FOR AMERICA TO PRESERVE HER GLORY AND INSURE HER HAPPINESS"
An important letter written at a critical juncture in the political affairs of both America and France. To his old colleague-in-arms from the American Revolution, Lafayette remarks on the troubled but apparently encouraging state of affairs in France, where a constitutent assembly is about to be convened, and reacts passionately to news of the impending ratification of the U.S. Constitution. "...The Affairs of Europe are much embroiled, and Russia, Austria on one side, Turkey and Sweden on the other are fighting. Prussia is making movements against, and Danemark [sic] for the Imperial Courts. England spurs Sweden and the Germanic League and commands Holland. But as she fears to involve Herself, as France will in a National Assembly invigorate Her own powers of every kind, and the Winter is approaching, it is hoped a General peace may be negotiated....The cause of Liberty is thriving in France. What had been done some months ago is now undoing. We shall have a National Assembly early in Winter.
"I am happy to find that eleven States have already adopted the Constitution. God grant it may be unanimous, it is the way for America to preserve Her Glory and insure Her Happiness for which no Heart is more fervently praying that that of Your Servant and Sincere Friend Lafayette." The entire first portion of the letter concerns a complicated financial transaction Lafayette was handling on Dayton's behalf.
Elias Dayton (1737-1807) was the son of Jonathan Dayton (1760-1824) of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. An early member of the Committee of Safety, he rose rapidly in the Continental Army ranks and served throughout the Revolution, becoming a close friend of Washington. He served in Congrtss in 1787-1788. Jonathan Dayton was a delagate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when Elias declined the appointment.
THE CONSTITUTION, ABOUT TO BE RATIFIED, "IS THE WAY FOR AMERICA TO PRESERVE HER GLORY AND INSURE HER HAPPINESS"
An important letter written at a critical juncture in the political affairs of both America and France. To his old colleague-in-arms from the American Revolution, Lafayette remarks on the troubled but apparently encouraging state of affairs in France, where a constitutent assembly is about to be convened, and reacts passionately to news of the impending ratification of the U.S. Constitution. "...The Affairs of Europe are much embroiled, and Russia, Austria on one side, Turkey and Sweden on the other are fighting. Prussia is making movements against, and Danemark [sic] for the Imperial Courts. England spurs Sweden and the Germanic League and commands Holland. But as she fears to involve Herself, as France will in a National Assembly invigorate Her own powers of every kind, and the Winter is approaching, it is hoped a General peace may be negotiated....The cause of Liberty is thriving in France. What had been done some months ago is now undoing. We shall have a National Assembly early in Winter.
"I am happy to find that eleven States have already adopted the Constitution. God grant it may be unanimous, it is the way for America to preserve Her Glory and insure Her Happiness for which no Heart is more fervently praying that that of Your Servant and Sincere Friend Lafayette." The entire first portion of the letter concerns a complicated financial transaction Lafayette was handling on Dayton's behalf.
Elias Dayton (1737-1807) was the son of Jonathan Dayton (1760-1824) of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. An early member of the Committee of Safety, he rose rapidly in the Continental Army ranks and served throughout the Revolution, becoming a close friend of Washington. He served in Congrtss in 1787-1788. Jonathan Dayton was a delagate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when Elias declined the appointment.