Adrienne emerged from her husband’s shadow and became one of the most popular hostesses in Paris. When Abigail Adams arrived to join her grumpy husband, she hit it off immediately with Adrienne, and soon with the Noailles family. She described the marquise as “sprightly” and endearing. “You would have supposed I had been some long absent friend who she dearly loved,” Abigail said of her first call at the Hôtel de Lafayette. “She is a good and amiable lady, exceedingly fond of her children…passionately attached to her husband!!!” She was amazed, and repeated, “A French lady and fond of her husband!!!”53
Monday open houses attracted Americans, serious-minded Frenchmen, and even Englishmen. The puritanical Adams acknowledged that the Lafayettes avoided the frivolous entertainments that most French nobles favored. He also admired the gilt-lettered copy of the Declaration of Independence hanging on the wall. He was there in October when William Wilberforce, founder of the British Anti-slavery Society, and William Pitt the Younger, future prime minister, arrived. Lafayette threw a big dinner party so that they could meet Franklin and other American notables. “Since we won the match,” Lafayette told Adélaïde, he took “extreme pleasure in seeing the British.”54
YOU WILL BE MY COMPASS, MY DEAR GENERAL
As Lafayette’s stay in France extended, his correspondence with his adoptive father increased, and the British no longer intercepted their mail. Their exchanges were colored by the belief of both that the younger man soon would land in America.
Washington always patted the marquis on the back. He approved of his reasons for staying in Europe, and so advised Congress. He reminded his young friend “how much we all love & wish to embrace you” when they got back together. “The inhabitants of my humble cottage will salute you with the richest marks of grateful friendship wch…will be a greater feast than the luxuries of the East; the elegancies of Europe—or the ceremonies of a court can afford.”55
Washington was somewhat pessimistic about the future of the United States, however. Americans “now stand an independent people,” he said, “and have yet to learn political tactics. We are placed among the nations of the Earth, and have a character to establish; but how we shall acquit ourselves time must discover—the probability, at least I fear it, is, that local, or state politics will interfere too much with the more liberal & extensive plan of government which wisdom & foresight freed from the mist of prejudice would dictate.” The country needed a stronger national constitution, and the effort to develop one would meet with his aid “as far as it can be rendered in the private walks of life,” but he wondered if he would live to see it. For the first time, he mentioned his own mortality. Washington had already outlived his male ancestors, and he could see his own death coming. He wanted to await it at home, in peace.
The general also answered Lafayette’s antislavery proposal. “The scheme, my dear Marqs. which you propose as a precedent,” he said, “to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this country from that state of bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work; but will defer going into a detail of the business, till I have the pleasure of seeing you.”56
After months of petitions to Congress about back pay, in March 1783 a near rebellion had arisen at Washington’s headquarters at Newburgh. It focused on a list of “Addresses” that hinted at a march on the capital to impose a military dictatorship. In a dramatic appearance, Washington cooled the protesters off by reminding them of the self-government principles they had fought for. When the news reached France, it electrified the country. Here was a general who had been handed the chance to become a dictator and had gracefully turned it aside. “General Washington,” Rochambeau later said, “with that noble and patriotic character which ever formed the basis of his conduct, used his influential power over the minds of his soldiers to bring them round to those feelings of generosity with which they had been animated in the whole course of the Revolution.”57
When Lafayette heard about that—and about Washington’s desire to resign his commission—he was carried away. “In every instance, my dear general, I have the satisfaction to love and to admire you,” he cheered. “Never did a man exist who so honourably stood in the opinions of mankind, and your name, if possible, will become still greater in posterity. Every thing that is great, and every thing that is good were not hitherto united in one man. Never did one man live whom the soldier, states man, patriot, and philosopher could equally admire.” He ended with, “Adieu, adieu, my dear general, do often remember your adopted son.” Washington’s refusal to grab power burned into Lafayette’s consciousness and stayed with him for the rest of his life.58
Washington delayed answering, because he had expected to see Lafayette in person. Awaiting the final treaty and the British evacuation of New York, “[t]ill I get home & have time to look into the situation of my private concerns…I can form no plan for my future life,” so he could not accept the marquis’ repeated invitations to France. He did want to tour the United States, and “there would be nothing wanting to make it perfectly agreeable” but Lafayette’s company.59
So it continued, Lafayette’s expressions of love and loneliness becoming ever more tearful. He compensated by sending gifts, including a portrait of the three Lafayette children—the first view the older man had of his godson and namesake. The commander in chief, meanwhile, began peacefully disbanding his army. On December 23, 1783, Congress accepted his resignation, and he headed home to Mount Vernon.60
Once settled there, Washington wrote to Lafayette. “At length” he had become a private citizen, he said with relief. He was “solacing” himself with “those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier who is ever in pursuit of fame—the statesman whose watchful days & sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own—perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe was insufficient for us all—& the courtier who is always watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception.”
Lafayette’s adoptive father was everything that French nobles were not. He was “not only retired from all public employments,” Washington rejoiced, “but am retireing within myself; & shall be able to view the solitary walk, & tread the paths of private life with heartfelt satisfaction.” But he had a morbid outlook that frightened the young man. “Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all, & this my dear friend, being the order for my march…until I sleep with my Fathers.”
Washington commended Lafayette for his work in Europe, “fresh evidence of your unwearied endeavours to serve this country.” He begged him to “come with Madame la Fayette & view me in my domestic walks. I have often told you; & I repeat it again, that no man could receive you in them with more friendship & affection than I should do…with every sentiment of esteem, admiration & love.”61
If Lafayette was going to see Washington again, he would have to go to Mount Vernon, so he redoubled his efforts to wind up his activities in Europe. They were many, involving both trade and the Society of the Cincinnati. He finally promised to sail to America in June. “You will be my compass, my dear general.”62
At last, on May 14, 1784, he said, “To my great satisfaction, my departure is fixed upon the tenth of next month…. I do most feelingly anticipate the pleasure of our meeting at Mount Vernon.” His biggest news was that he had found a cure for his mal de mer. “A German doctor called Mesmer having made the greatest discovery upon magnetism animal, he has instructed scholars, among whom your humble servant is called one of the most enthusiastic. I know as much as any conjurer ever did.”63
Early in 1784, Lafayette had watched one of Dr. Friedrich (Franz) Anton Mesmer’s performances, and swallowed the hokum about “animal magnetism.” The Viennese charlatan prescribed a cure for seasickness. Let polar magnetic forces prevent it, he advised, by hugging the mainmast while facing north. When Mesmer’s nonsense came under investigatio
n by the king’s government, Lafayette became an outspoken defender of the quack’s theories.64
Like all Lafayette’s sea voyages, this one did not go well. He left Adrienne and the children behind, not wanting any distractions when he hugged his adoptive father. She went to Chavaniac with the children, because that is where he wanted George to be raised. Washington lived on a country estate, and Lafayette had acquired a renewed interest in his own.
He wrote to Adrienne until he disappeared over the horizon, saying how hurt he would be to miss her. The first time the ship sailed out of Lorient, it was blown back by contrary winds. He tried the new seasickness remedy, but he noted that when Mesmer recommended that he “embrace the mainmast, Mesmer did not know, and I forgot, that it is coated with tar up to a certain height, and hugging it is absolutely impossible without getting tarred from head to foot.” He left port on June 29 and was sick all the way across the Atlantic.65
THESE THINGS DARKENED THE SHADES & GAVE A GLOOM TO THE PICTURE
Lafayette and an aide landed at New York on August 4, 1784, to find the city decked out in bunting and wreaths in his honor. He soon discovered that the United States were not really united under the Articles of Confederation. There were rivalries of all kinds between the states, and in some cases shooting had broken out between state forces. There was only one point of agreement—the whole country loved Lafayette.66
He was overwhelmed by receptions, and New York’s was typical. Crowds cheered him in the streets, old army friends greeted him, he could hear church bells and cannons, and he enjoyed banquets, rallies, and interminable speeches welcoming his return. He wanted to press on to Mount Vernon, but he could not resist the adulation that followed him to Philadelphia. “It is true, my dear heart,” he told Adrienne, “that each step I take here brings me a new satisfaction.” After addressing the American Philosophical Society on “the wonderful effects of a certain invisible power, in nature, called animal magnetism,” he pressed on. He reached Mount Vernon on August 17.67
Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, 1784, by Thomas Richard Rossiter and Louis R. Mignot. The indulgence of children represented here was one of a number of influences on Lafayette from this visit. (LILLY LIBRARY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY)
The marquis and the general had a tearful reunion, then settled into a routine. “I am not just turning a phrase,” Lafayette told Adrienne, “when I assure you that in retirement General Washington is even greater than he was during the Revolution. His simplicity is truly sublime, and he is as completely involved with all the details of his lands and house as if he had always been here.” The typical day began with breakfast, after which the general and his guest chatted together for some time. “After having thoroughly discussed the past, the present, and the future,” Washington went off to take care of his affairs, giving Lafayette things to read that had been written during his absence from America. When they reunited for dinner, they found Mrs. Washington with visitors from the neighborhood. The conversation at the table turned to “the events of the war or to anecdotes that we are fond of recalling.” After this “tea” they resumed their private conversations and spent the rest of the evening with the family.
They sat on the veranda overlooking the Potomac, sipping Martha’s peach brandy. They ate Virginia ham and fried chicken. They talked about agriculture, and Lafayette fired off instructions to Adrienne on changes he wanted to make at Chavaniac, to turn it into another Mount Vernon.
His adoptive father’s home life left a great impression. In France, children of nobles were usually out of sight. Here they overran the house and were present even at meals. He was taken with Martha’s orphaned grandchildren, whom Washington had adopted. There were others as well, grandnieces and grandnephews and the offspring of neighbors. Washington was fond of them all and was delighted to read letters Lafayette had brought along from Adrienne and Anastasie. These were the strongest memories the marquis took home with him.68
They talked about slavery. Washington admitted he wanted to “get rid” of his slaves. Lafayette wanted to abolish the whole institution. But Virginia law would prevent the sort of freeman plantation he had proposed, let alone complete abolition of slavery.69
Washington told Lafayette that, expecting his arrival, he had postponed a trip to his western lands, which had been invaded by squatters. They rode together to Alexandria and parted in tears on September 1, 1784, planning a reunion at Mount Vernon in a few weeks. The real reason for Washington’s trip was to scout out his old dream of opening navigation between the Potomac and the Ohio, to link the West to the seaboard. The Spanish had closed the Mississippi to American shipping, and he thought his scheme would compensate for that. If his idea did not pan out, he feared that either the West would break away from the rest of the country or New York would replace Virginia as the gateway to that region by building its own canal.70
Lafayette went on to Baltimore and another round of grand receptions. There he met James Madison, a tiny man with a giant intellect, whom he had met briefly during the war. The son of a wealthy Virginia planter, he shared Lafayette’s emerging interest in political philosophy, and he could speak French. He decided to tag along on the marquis’ swing through New York and New England, all the while keeping his patron Jefferson informed of everything.71
They spent four days in New York City, which declared Lafayette a “freeman and citizen,” an idea that spread to other cities. Madison told Jefferson that he had “endeavored emphatically” to impress on Lafayette “that the ideas of America and of Spain irreconcilably clash—that unless the mediation of France be effectually exerted an actual rupture is near at hand.” He feared that if war broke out, Britain would come in on the Spanish side. France, he told Lafayette, must lean on the Spanish government.72
Lafayette advised Vergennes, “The trade with England is owing to the surprising amount of credit that every American finds there. This abandon will bring about bankruptcies, and next winter will be favorable to us, provided our merchants consult the needs and tastes of the country.” The population of the Ohio country was growing, the outlet for this whole area was the Mississippi, “and the prohibition of trade on the Mississippi will lead to disputes, later than is thought here but much sooner than is thought in Europe. The Americans like us, but they very genuinely hate Spain.”73
James Madison, by James Sharples Senior, 1796–97. Madison and Lafayette became friends during the tour of New York and the negotiations with the Indians in 1784. (INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK)
Congress appointed commissioners to treat with the Six Nations and asked Lafayette to help out. He, Madison, the commissioners, another group from the state of New York, and the French chargé d’affaires François Barbé-Marbois set out for upstate. They detoured to a Shaker village, because Lafayette got the notion that they practiced something similar to mesmerism, a gross misreading of their beliefs. He tried Mesmer’s methods on an injured man, but they did not work, and the disillusioned marquis lost faith in the Austrian quack.
The party continued onward through a war-ravaged landscape, freezing in rain and early snow. To Barbé-Marbois, the whites appeared to live much like the “savages,” and he could scarcely tell the houses of one from the other. Lafayette took three casks of brandy with him to Oneida Castle, the meeting site. That earned him a big welcome, but the chiefs remembered Kayeheanla fondly anyway. They passed late September and early October in a round of drunken feasts, speeches, and dancing. It all ended with a treaty recognizing Indian sovereignty in western New York and American sovereignty between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. Lafayette and Barbé-Marbois also worked out an agreement to establish a French-run fur trade in New York to draw Indian business away from Canada, but the plan was later pigeonholed in Versailles.
Lafayette had a grand time. The balding marquis told the prince de Poix that he could not lose his scalp among the Iroquois, “because one does not lose, says the proverb, what he does not have.” He told Adrienne that his “persona
l credit with the savages—who are as much friends as enemies—has proved to be much greater than I had supposed.” He left with Peter Otchikeita, the twelve-year-old son of a chief, promising to have the boy educated in Paris.74
Madison told Jefferson that Lafayette had become involved with the commission because the Indians were still attached to France and to the marquis. “The commissioners were eclipsed,” however. “All of them probably felt it.” Arthur Lee complained to Madison about being upstaged by the French interloper. Lafayette “was not insensible of it but consoled himself with the service which he thought…he had rendered to the United States.” Madison observed slyly “that the transaction is also pleasing to him in another view as it will form a bright column in the gazettes of Europe.”
As the trip continued, Madison and Lafayette became friends. “The time I have lately passed with the M. has given me a pretty thorough insight into his character,” Madison continued. “With great natural frankness of temper he unites much address; with very considerable talents a strong thirst of praise and popularity. In his politics he says his three hobby-horses are the alliance between France and the United States, the union of the latter and the manumission of the slaves. The two former are the dearer to him as they are connected with his personal glory. The last does him real honor as it is a proof of his humanity.” Madison took the marquis to be “as amiable a man as his vanity will admit and as sincere an American as any Frenchman can be; one whose past services gratitude obliges us to acknowledge and whose future friendship prudence requires us to cultivate.”75
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