Adopted Son
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59. Maurois, Adrienne, 313–15, including Laf to Napoleon, OCT 6, 1797.
60. Laf to GW, OCT 6, 1797, GLW 363–65.
61. Laf to GW, DEC 27, 1797, GLW 365–67.
62. Whitlock, La Fayette, 90–91; Maurois, Adrienne, 334–36.
63. CW, 73–77; Flexner, George Washington Anguish, 391–402.
64. Laf to GW, APR 26 and MAY 20, 1798, GLW 368–72; De Conde, Quasi War, 217; AH to Laf, APR 28, 1798, SAH 21:451.
65. Laf to GW, AUG 20, 1798, GLW 373–78.
66. Laf to GW, SEP 5, 1798, GLW 378–80; GW to Secretary of State, OCT 18, and Memorandum of an Interview, NOV 13, 1798, FGW 36:496–98, 37:18–20.
67. GW wrote to GWL the same day, knowing others would read the letter also. He told him that he had accepted the army command, “but I hope, and most ardently pray, that the Directory in your country will not, by a perseverence in the insults and injuries which they have heaped on this, make it necessary to resort to arms to repel an invasion, or to do ourselves justice.” GW to Laf, and to GWL, both DEC 25, 1798, FGW 37:63–70.
68. AH to Laf, JAN 6, 1799, quoted Morris, Alexander Hamilton and Founding, 433; Lycan, Alexander Hamilton, 392.
69. Laf to GW, MAY 9, 1799, GLW 391–94. He had also written on APR 19, but only a small fragment survives in Memoirs 5:23–25. It discusses the military picture in Europe.
70. Laf to Adr, AUG 5, 1799, in Maurois, Adrienne, 363–64. Laf continued to write to Adélaïde, but Adr wrote to her more often.
71. GW to C. C. Pinckney, AUG 20, to William Vans Murray, OCT 26, and to SS, NOV 3, 1799, FGW 37:325–27, 399–401, 418–19.
72. Maurois, Adrienne, 379–81; Elting, Sword, 158–162.
73. Flexner, George Washington Anguish, 449–54.
74. GW, Last Will & Testament, FGW 37:275–303. Laf’s pistols are at 286–87, the slavery provisions at 282–83. This has been published separately in Fitzgerald, Last Will. On Laf’s influence, see Wiencek, Imperfect God, 260–64, 269, which concludes that the connection between Laf’s antislavery views, as he expressed them to GW, and the emancipation terms of GW’s will, is direct. Virginia law placed so many restrictions on emancipation that it made it nearly impossible. If a master succeeded in overcoming the obstacles, the newly freed slaves must leave the state immediately. A last will and testament, however, had a priority, descended from the Common Law of England, that state legislatures hesitated to challenge, even on such grounds as not wanting to raise the number of free blacks in the state.
Envoi
1. A typical sentence in the oration was “Yea, your counsel will be heard, O Washington! O warrior! O legislator! O citizen without reproach! He [Napoleon], who still young surpassed you in battles, following your example will heal with his triumphant hands the wounds of the nation.” Quotations in Chinard, George Washington as French, 127–38, which includes the entire eulogy by Louis, marquis de Fontanes. See also Faÿ, Revolutionary, 431–32, and Maurois, Adrienne, 389. The letter “W” began appearing in Western languages in the fifteenth century, replacing the Latin “V,” which was assuming its modern pronunciations. It entered French in the eighteenth century, with inconsistent usage as it took hold.
2. Maurois, Adrienne, 385–91, 398–402; GM quoted Brookhiser, Gentleman, 170; Morgan, True, 394–96.
3. Maurois, Adrienne, 394–98; Memoirs quoted Unger, Lafayette, 329–30.
4. Asprey, Rise of Napoleon, 403; Schom, Napoleon, 224, 305; De Conde, Quasi War, 309; Maurois, Adrienne, 420–22.
5. Maurois, Adrienne, 415–16, 422–23.
6. Asprey, Rise of Napoleon, 451, 453n; Ammon, James Monroe, 213–15; Brant, James Madison Secretary, 244–46; Malone, Jefferson President First, 357.
7. TJ quoted Malone, Jefferson President First, 355–59; Maurois, Adrienne, 424.
8. Maurois, Adrienne, 424–37.
9. The chief account of Adr’s death is a fifty-page, guilt- and grief-ridden letter Laf wrote in JAN 1808 to his friend, brother of his fellow prisoner, and son-in-law Charles-César-Fay de La Tour-Maubourg, in Maurois, Adrienne, 443–61, source of these quotations.
10. Quoted ibid., 462.
11. Laf to TJ, APR 8, 1808, Chinard, Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson, 272.
12. Laf to Mme de Staël, MAR 25, 1808, quoted Kramer, Lafayette, 150–51; de Staël quoted Maurois, Adrienne, viii.
13. Kramer, Lafayette, 137–84; Maurois, Adrienne, 463–65, Napoleon quoted 464.
14. Laf to TJ, AUG 14, 1814, and TJ to Laf, FEB 14, 1815, in Malone, Sage, 131–32.
15. Fouché called Laf “an old imbecile whom one can use like a…ladder which one throws down after one has used it.” Elting, Sword, 638, 658–59, 733 (Fouché quotation); Schom, Napoleon, 761–63; Napoleon quoted Carr, Napoleon Speaks, 380. This had all been brought about, Laf told TJ, because of the outrages and looting committed by the Bourbons. They aroused patriotic anger, and allowed Napoleon “to reappear as a representative of the Revolution.” TJ described Waterloo as the salvation of France. In 1815 Laf told TJ that his eleventh grandchild would receive “the friendly name of Thomas” in his honor. Laf to TJ, OCT 10, 1815, and DEC 10, 1817, and TJ to Laf, MAY 17, 1816, in Malone, Sage, 133.
16. Clary, Fortress, 36–70.
17. Stewart, Restoration, 37–38, 42; Beard, Charles X, 160–61; Artz, France, 60–84; Mansel, Paris, 119–20, 173–74; de Staël quoted Kramer, Lafayette, 146–47.
18. Artz, France, 23–24, 59.
19. Kramer, Lafayette, 154–71.
20. Idzerda, Loveland, and Miller, Lafayette Hero; Kramer, Lafayette, 190–96.
21. Ellis, American Sphinx, 234; Malone, Sage, 402–8, 460; Brandon, Pilgrimage, passim; McCullough, John Adams, 637; Ammon, James Monroe, 541–51.
22. Weinert and Arthur, Defender, 51; Clary, Fortress, 62.
23. Millis, Arms and Men, 89; Hill, Minute Man, 29. Among these punches were Chatham Artillery Punch, Richmond Light Infantry Blues Punch, Charleston Light Dragoon Punch, and National Guard 7th Regiment Punch. Brief histories and recipes are in Beveridge, Cups.
24. Kramer, Lafayette, 253–73. “The state of slavery,” he said, “is a most lamentable draw back on the example of independence and freedom presented to the world by the U.S.” Laf to George and Clara Bomford, JAN 1, 1826, Feinstone Collection, David Library.
25. Beach, Charles X, 207, 243, 301–2; Ridley, Freemasons, 205. Freemasons organized several banquets for speakers to criticize the government in 1847, in a prelude to the Revolution of 1848.
26. Beach, Charles X, 377–91; Pinckney, French 1830, passim; Stewart, Restoration, 60–63; Artz, France, 36–37; La Fuye and Babeau, Apostle, 299; Schama, Citizens, 9–15; Kramer, Lafayette, 227–51.
27. Mansel, Paris Between, 273–75, 284–86.
28. Kramer, Lafayette, 171–84; ibid., 330.
29. Maurois, Adrienne, 468–69.
30. Quoted Maurois, Adrienne, 468.
31. Quoted Kramer, Lafayette, 3.
32. Mill, “Death of Lafayette,” 1834, quoted ibid., 7.
CHRONOLOGY OF WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE
1732
February 22: Washington born
1743
April 12: Washington’s father dies; Washington inherits land and slaves
1748
Washington becomes public surveyor
1751
Washington accompanies ailing brother Lawrence to West Indies, contracts smallpox
1752
July 26: Lawrence Washington dies; Washington executor of estate and residuary heir to Mount Vernon, which becomes his in 1761
November 4: Washington joins the Freemasons
1753
Spring: French forces occupy Ohio Country
Fall: Washington carries Governor Dinwiddie’s ultimatum to the French
1754
Washington becomes lieutenant colonel of Virginia Militia
April: Washington leads small force into French territory
May 28: Washington defeats French at Jumonvill
e Glen
July 3: Washington surrenders at Fort Necessity; Seven Years’ War (French and Indian War) begins
1755
July 9: Battle of the Monongahela
August: Washington appointed commander in chief of Virginia
1757
September 6: Lafayette born
1758
Forbes-Bouquet Expedition against Ft. Duquesne (Pittsburgh)
December: Washington resigns his commission
1759
January 6: Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis
August 1: Lafayette’s father killed at Battle of Minden, Prussia; Lafayette inherits feudal holdings and title of marquis
September 13: Battle on the Plains of Abraham; deaths of Montcalm and Wolfe
September 17: Fall of Quebec
1760
April 5: Lafayette’s sister born; dies three months later
1763
February 10: Treaty of Paris ends Seven Years’ War
1770
April 3: Lafayette’s mother dies
May: Lafayette inherits a great fortune from his grandfather
May: In Virginia House of Burgesses, Washington joins the radicals adopting a nonimportation agreement
1771
April 9: Lafayette becomes a sous-lieutenant in the King’s Musketeers
1773
April 7: Lafayette becomes a lieutenant in the Noailles Dragoons
1774
April 11: Lafayette marries Adrienne de Noailles
May 19: Lafayette becomes a captain in the Noailles Dragoons
August 5: Washington appointed a delegate to the First Continental Congress
1775
April 19: Lexington and Concord
Summer: Lafayette stationed at Metz, comes under the influence of de Broglie, hears Duke of Gloucester’s views on the rebellion in America
June 15: Washington becomes commander in chief of Continental forces; commissioned June 17
June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill
July 3: Washington takes command at Boston
December 15: Lafayette’s daughter Henriette born
December 16: Lafayette joins the Freemasons
1776
Early: American campaign against Quebec fails
March 17: British evacuate Boston
Spring-Fall: New York campaign, Washington retreats to White Plains
June 11: Lafayette placed on reserve status
July 4: Declaration of Independence
November 16: British capture Fort Washington
December 7: Lafayette signs contract to serve in the Continental Army
December 26: Washington’s victory at Trenton
1777
January 6–May 28: Washington establishes winter quarters at Morristown
February: Lafayette buys ship, visits London
February 3: Washington’s victory at Princeton
April 20: Lafayette sails for America
June 13: Lafayette lands in South Carolina
July 1: Lafayette’s daughter Anastasie born
July 27: Lafayette reaches Philadelphia, reports to Congress
July 31: Congress appoints Lafayette a “volunteer” major general
August 5: Washington and Lafayette meet, City Tavern
September 11: Battle of Brandywine; Lafayette wounded
October 3: Lafayette’s daughter Henriette dies in Paris
October 4: Battle of Germantown
October 17: Burgoyne surrenders to Gates at Saratoga
November 25: Lafayette commands in skirmish at Gloucester
December 1: Congress appoints Lafayette to a line command
December 13: Congress appoints Conway as inspector-general; “Conway Cabal” begins
December 19: Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge
December 30–31: Bond between Washington and Lafayette sealed
1778
January 23: Congress selects Lafayette to lead the “irruption” into Canada
February 6: Treaties of commerce and of alliance between France and the United States signed in Paris
February 19: Lafayette assumes command at Albany
February 23: Steuben arrives at Valley Forge
March 31: Lafayette leaves Albany for Valley Forge
May 4: Congress ratifies the treaties with France
May 18: Washington gives Lafayette command of a detachment
May 20: Lafayette’s retreat from Barren Hill
June 18: Continental Army leaves Valley Forge
June 28: Battle of Monmouth Court House
July 4–August 12: Lee court-martial
July 11: D’Estaing arrives off New York
July 22: Washington sends Lafayette to Rhode Island
August 8–9: British evacuate works on northern end of Rhode Island
August 11–14: Storm scatters and damages British and French fleets; Howe withdraws to New York
August 21: D’Estaing sails for Boston; uproar begins in Sullivan’s command
August 30–31: Lafayette joins evacuation from Rhode Island
September 14: Congress appoints Franklin minister plenipotentiary to France
October 5: Lafayette challenges Carlisle to a duel
October 13: Lafayette asks Congress for leave to return to France
December 23: British take Savannah
1779
January 11: Lafayette sails for France from Boston
February 6: Lafayette lands at Brest
February 12: Lafayette reaches Versailles; confers with ministers
February 12–19: Lafayette in “internal exile”
March 3: Lafayette becomes lieutenant commander of the King’s Dragoons
March 14–31: Lafayette-Jones expedition argued and authorized
April 12: French-Spanish alliance confirmed in the Aranjuez Convention
May 22: Lafayette-Jones expedition abandoned; Lafayette commands King’s Regiment of Dragoons
June 13: Lafayette appointed aide maréchal général des logis for French-Spanish campaign against England
June 16: Spain declares grievances against Britain, begins siege of Gibraltar
July 16: Wayne takes Stony Point
October 9: British defeat American and French forces at Savannah
November: Expedition against England abandoned
December 1: Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Morristown
December 24: George-Washington Lafayette born
December 26: Clinton sails from New York for Charleston
1780
January 8–16: British fleet captures Spanish convoy and blockading squadron
January–February: Lafayette presses French ministry to send expeditionary force to America