Adopted Son
Page 53
One of Lafayette’s doctors saw him, whenever he was alert, kissing a picture he wore around his neck in a gold locket, a miniature of Adrienne. Around it he had engraved her last words, “I am entirely yours.” On the back was another inscription: “So I have been a pleasant companion for you? Then bless me.” He died quietly on May 20, 1834, and was buried at Picpus, beside his wife. George poured the dirt from Bunker Hill over him before the grave was sealed. In later years, French and American flags flew together above his resting place.29
Louis-Philippe made no public pronouncement about the man who had put him on the throne. Instead, he ordered a military funeral with the intent of keeping the public away. There were no speeches. Crowds protested, furious at being barred by troops. Newspapers compared the French government’s imprisoning Lafayette in death to the way the Austrians had imprisoned him in life.
The French writer Stendhal said at the time, “I had the feeling, that Monsieur de La Fayette was quite simply a figure out of Plutarch. He took each day as it came, a man not overburdened with intelligence, who…dealt with each heroic situation as it arose, and in between times was solely occupied, in spite of his age, in fumbling at pretty girls’ plackets, not occasionally but constantly, and not much caring who saw.”30
Americans had no such ambivalence. Lafayette was, purely and simply, their hero, and a great man. When word of his death arrived, President Jackson called for the same honors that Adams had ordered for Washington thirty-five years earlier. Flags flew at half-staff, twenty-four-gun national salutes boomed out from every army post and navy ship, and officers wore crepe for six months. Congress passed resolutions of condolence to the Lafayette family, its chambers hung with black bunting. The lawmakers asked the whole country to wear mourning clothes for thirty days.
John Quincy Adams delivered the official eulogy to a joint session of Congress, with government officers and the diplomatic corps in attendance. “Pronounce him one of the first men of his age,” he proclaimed, “and you have yet not done him justice…. Turn back your eyes up on the records of time; summon from the creation of the world to this day the mighty dead of every age and every clime—and where, among the race of merely mortal men, shall one be found, who, as the benefactor of his kind, shall claim to take precedence of Lafayette?”31
In England, which had lost thirteen colonies at the hands of Washington, Lafayette, and the others, philosopher John Stuart Mill was more thoughtful. “His was not the influence of genius,” he said, “nor even of talents; it was the influence of a heroic character: it was the influence of one who, in every situation, and throughout a long life, had done and suffered everything which opportunity had presented itself of doing and suffering for the right…. It will be long ere we see his equal, long ere there shall arise such a union of character and circumstances as shall enable any other human being to live such a life.”32
He was describing Lafayette. He could have been talking about Washington.
AFTERWORD
Greatness of Name in the Father Oft-Times Overwhelms the Son
He that will have his son have a respect for him and his orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son.
—JOHN LOCKE
It is impossible to imagine the American Revolution turning out the way it did without either Washington or Lafayette. Its outcome, however, was not a result of their individual actions so much as those of the two of them together. The relation each had with the other was entirely unlike any he had with another person. They kept each other in the fight, through a bond forged in the Conway Cabal. They had no secrets between them.
Lafayette contributed the weight of his native country to Washington’s struggle, along with his own fortune. He left home on a hunt for glory, and to defy his father-in-law. His daring departure fired the country’s imagination and set off a chain of events that carried France into the war on the American side. When the marquis returned home the first time, he exploited his popularity and badgered his government into upping the ante against the British. He deserves credit for the decision to send more money and supplies, and an army and navy, to America. The alliance was a difficult one—as relations between the United States and France have been ever since—but it tipped the balance in the war.
Lafayette’s best-known contribution to the struggle was the brilliant Virginia Campaign that ended at Yorktown. Washington had few generals to whom he would risk giving command of such a chancy operation. The commander in chief trusted the young man’s unquestioning loyalty and filial obedience, as well as his skills as a campaigner. His constant, fatherly reassurance and approval kept Lafayette on the job.
Lafayette ended the Revolutionary War as the self-appointed arm of the adoptive father he revered. Not as well-known as Yorktown was his continuing service to his father’s cause after the war. The French loans and trade concessions and his mediation with Spain were critical, keeping the United States alive long enough to adopt its Constitution and stand on its own feet.
Lafayette did not do these things because he was a dedicated republican. He did not do them for the new nation. He did them to serve his adoptive father.
Lafayette’s love for Washington opened him to the human truths that the elder man had fought for. He became a liberal republican, and an advocate for enlightened government, religious freedom, and the abolition of slavery. In the last he opened his father’s conscience. Washington was already troubled by slavery’s contradiction to his principles, and the younger man prodded him along the road to abolition. He got there with his last act in life.
Lafayette tried to do everything as he thought Washington would, but he lacked his father’s experience, wisdom, and sound political judgment. His decisions were often a superficial aping of the elder man and not actually a reflection of how Washington would have acted. He failed to reproduce the American Revolution in France and made the whole horrible situation there worse than it had to be.
So Lafayette made mistakes, misreading the lessons his adoptive father had taught him. But then, he was only human. His contributions to American history were important beyond measure. His contributions to world history, for all his errors, were also magnificent. Through six turbulent decades, he championed human rights, self-government, and the end of slavery. No one else came close to matching his record or his influence on events.
It is a pity that Lafayette is so little remembered on either side of the Atlantic. France has a great hole in its national memory where the revolutionary period should be. That country’s revolution and Napoleonic years are a national embarrassment, not mentioned in public. Lafayette was a prominent figure during that period, so he is seldom mentioned either.
The small memory of Washington’s best friend on the western side of the water, where the map is littered with places named in Lafayette’s honor, is harder to explain. His tour of the United States in 1824 and 1825 can be compared only to those of some rock musicians in more recent times. The last surviving general of the Revolution, he was then the best-known of them all. Now Washington is the most famous, as he should be, and all the others, including Lafayette, have faded into the mist.
“Greatness of name in the father oft-times overwhelms the son,” said playwright Ben Jonson, long before either Washington or Lafayette was born; “they stand too near one another. The shadow kills the growth.”
The affection the two soldiers had for each other is their most touching lesson for our time. Americans today often think of Washington as the old sourpuss on the dollar bill and of Lafayette as a pigeon perch on a courthouse lawn. But they were not carved monuments in real life. They were people, with all the strengths and weaknesses of that species. They started out as children, as we all do. They grew up, and changed, and did some amazing things, and made mistakes.
Both were orphans, and that is where their connection began. Washington needed substitute fathers as he grew up, and he found them. Lafayette also longed for a father, and at the age of nineteen he found one in
Washington and never let go. Washington was childless and naturally responded when the boy reached out to him. They supported and comforted each other through war and peace. Washington received from his adopted son the unquestioning loyalty and trust that he got from no one else. Lafayette received in return the reassurance, guidance, and approval that he craved. They loved each other, openly and without limits, for the rest of their lives.
Picture the commander in chief asleep on his cloak after Monmouth, with the boy general curled up beside him. That image reflects the enduring truth in their story. Who they were cannot be measured only by how much they shook the world.
NOTES
Complete data on works cited in the chapter notes are presented in the Bibliography. Names of months are given standard three-letter abbreviations in the notes.
Abbreviations Used in Notes
adc
Aide-de-camp
Adr
Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, marquise de Lafayette (Laf’s wife)
AH
Alexander Hamilton
AW
Anthony Wayne
BF
Benjamin Franklin
Boatner
Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
BTJ
Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson
CIG
Clary, Inspectors General (3 vols.)
CW
Clary and Whitehorne, Inspectors General
Des
Charles-Henri-Théodat, comte d’Estaing
DM
Daniel Morgan
Duer
Duer, Memoirs, Correspondence, and Manuscripts of General Lafayette
FGW
Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington
FVS
Friedrich Wilhelm (Frederick William) von Steuben
GLW
Gottschalk, Letters of Lafayette to Washington
GM
Gouverneur Morris
GW
George Washington
GWD
Jackson and Twohig, Diaries of George Washington
GWL
George-Washington-Louis-Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette (Laf’s son)
Heitman
Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army
HG
Horatio Gates
HJM
Hutchinson, Papers of James Madison
HK
Henry Knox
HL
Henry Laurens
ILA
Idzerda, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected Letters and Papers
JA
John Adams
JH
John Hancock
JJ
John Jay
JL
John Laurens
JM
James Monroe
JMA
James Madison
JPJ
John Paul Jones
JS
John Sullivan
Laf
Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
LAH
Lodge, Works of Alexander Hamilton
Lasteyrie
Lasteyrie, Vie de Madame de Lafayette
LBF
Labaree, Papers of Benjamin Franklin
Luz
Anne-César, chevalier de la Luzerne
Memoirs
Laf, Mémoires, correspondance et manuscrits du Général Lafayette
nd
no date given
NG
Nathanael Greene
np
no place given
npub
no publisher given
NYC
New York City
OED
Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
PC
President of Congress
RM
Robert Morris
Roc
Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau SAH Syrett, Papers of Alexander Hamilton
SD
Silas Deane
SGW
Sparks, Writings of George Washington
Smith
Smith, Letters of Delegates to Congress
Sparks
Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution
SS
Secretary of State
TJ
Thomas Jefferson
Tower
Tower, Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution
TP
Thomas Paine
Ver
Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
Wharton
Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States
Chapter One
1. Bernier, Lafayette, 1–3. Biographers have argued about the correct form of Laf’s name for two centuries. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 153–54, points out that it was often written “Lafayette” before and after the American and French revolutions, sometimes “la Fayette.” Laf himself wrote it as one word. It will be so presented here, except for quotations where it appears otherwise.
2. Bernier, Lafayette, 1–3; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 7–9.
3. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 7–11. Although the term “musketeer” means someone armed with a musket, the King’s Musketeers evolved over the years to become four companies of household dragoons (heavy cavalry or mounted infantry), two each of “Grays” and “Blacks,” after the color of their horses. They were armed with musketoons, heavy swords, and horse pistols.
4. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 2–3.
5. Ibid. Laf offered variations on this “it’s not my fault” routine in several letters and revisions of the Memoirs.
6. Anderson, Crucible, 378–80. The Battle of Minden followed a triumphant campaign by a French army commanded by the comte de Broglie, who had amassed huge territorial gains on the southern approaches to Hanover. Prussian Prince Ferdinand moved to counter de Broglie’s successes by recapturing the town of Minden and its bridges across the River Weser, defended by an army under Marshal Louis, comte de Contades. Ferdinand regained most of Hesse and pushed Contades’ shattered army back seventy miles to the River Lahn, a tributary of the Rhine. The two armies dug in there, ending the French army’s expensive and ultimately frustrated campaign. Ferdinand could have driven the French out of western Germany. Instead, he sent many of his troops to support Frederick II of Austria on another front.
7. Laf to unknown, nd, Lagrange Collection, quoted Maurois, Adrienne, 23.
8. Ibid.; Boatner, 865.
9. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 3–4. In the feudal world, a family’s wealth was figured not from the inherent value of property it possessed but from the expected income derived from the property, especially rents from tenant farmers. The livre tournois (“pound of Tours,” after the city where it was minted), the French unit of currency before it was replaced by the franc in 1795 (franc had been slang for the livre before that date), was worth generally 19¢ (U.S.) or 9.4d (British pence) during the late eighteenth century. In the Americas, 5 livres equaled a Spanish “hard dollar” (peso duro, or “piece of eight”), and 25 livres bought a British pound. Three livres made a silver écu, or about 55¢. The louis d’or, commonly called the French Guinea in America during this period, was worth 12¢ less than the British Guinea in New York in 1784. (References to U.S. money reflect the system adopted by Congress in the 1790s.) Boatner, 714–15. Attempts to convert eighteenth-century moneys to modern dollar equivalents are futile.
10. Quoted Maurois, Adrienne, 25.
11. Bernier, Lafayette, 1–7; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 5–6.
12. Laf later said that Marie’s death in childbirth while he was in America in 1778 was “one of the greatest griefs” of his life. Laf, Autobiographical Notes III, ILA 2:231n (quotation); Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 5–6; Bernier, Lafayette, 1–7.
13. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:6; marquis de Bouillé qu
oted Maurois, Adrienne, 26; TJ to JMA, JAN 30, 1787, quoted Gottschalk, Lafayette Joins, 328. JA described him as “panting for glory.” Bailyn, Faces, 16.
14. Laf, Memoir of 1779, ILA 1:6; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 12; Memoirs quoted Unger, Lafayette, 7–8. La bête de la Gévaudan has been a persistent varmint, still roaming the territory in 2006, according to a quick search of the Internet. Although the word “hyena” now refers to a particular African scavenger, the word is an old one, derived from the Greek for “hog.” In medieval Europe it meant any of a number of large carnivores, which scavenged mostly at night. The broader meaning passed out of usage during Laf’s lifetime, hence the “hyena” (hyène) of his earlier writings became a “beast” (bête) in his later, and in modern legends.
15. Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes, 6; Schama, Citizens, 32.
16. Laf quoted Maurois, Adrienne, 25. The interpretation that follows of what Laf absorbed from history, literature, and family tradition summarizes his later correspondence and the Memoirs; Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes; and Bernier, Lafayette.