February 14: Congress authorizes $80,000 to treat with the Barbary States
February 24: Congress appoints Adams minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain
March 7: Congress accepts Franklin’s resignation as minister to France
March 10: Jefferson appointed to replace Franklin
March 30: Lafayette asked to secure munitions for Virginia
May: Lafayette champions cause of Protestants in France
May 7: French government, prodded by Lafayette, agrees to buy American whale oil
June: Spanish chargé arrives in the United States
June 1: King George III receives Adams as American minister to his court
June 7: Lafayette begins purchase of estate in Cayenne to emancipate slaves
August: Lafayette urges French government to suppress Farm’s tobacco monopoly
August–October: Lafayette tours German states, attends military exercises
November–December: Lafayette persuades Castries to purchase naval stores from the United States
November 17: Calonne tells Lafayette the government has reduced duties on American fish oils
1786
All year: Lafayette works for French trade concessions for United States
1787
February 22–May 25: Lafayette a member of the Assembly of Notables
May 24: Lafayette calls for toleration of Protestants and for reform of criminal law
Summer: Washington presides over Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
1788
Lafayette joins New York Manumission Society
November 6–December 12: Lafayette attends Second Assembly of Notables
1789
March 26: Lafayette elected deputy to the Estates General from Auvergne
April 30: Washington becomes president of the United States
June 27: Lafayette joins with Third Estate, which constitutes itself as National Assembly
July 11: Lafayette presents draft Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
July 13: Lafayette elected vice president of the National Assembly
July 14: Fall of the Bastille
July 15: Lafayette becomes commandant of the National Guard of Paris
October 5–6: The “October Days”; king and royal family escorted to Paris
1790
June 19: Lafayette supports decree abolishing titles of nobility
July 14: Festival of the Federation
1791
June 21: Flight of the king to Varennes
July 17: National Guard under Lafayette’s command fires on crowd at Champde-Mars
October 8: Lafayette resigns as commandant of the National Guard of Paris
1792
Early January: Lafayette takes command of the Army of the Center at Metz
May–August: Lafayette commands the Army of the Left
August 10: Arrest of king and royal family
August 19: Lafayette impeached by Convention; emigrates and is captured
September 18, 1792–September 19, 1797: Lafayette imprisoned at Wesel, Magdeburg, Neisse, and Olmütz
1794
November 19: Jay Treaty concluded in London
1795
August 31: George-Washington Lafayette and Félix Frestel arrive in Boston
October 24: Adrienne and her daughters join Lafayette in prison at Olmütz
1796
April: Washington welcomes George-Washington Lafayette and his tutor into his home in Philadelphia; later takes them to Mount Vernon
May 15: Washington writes to the Emperor
September 17: Washington gives his Farewell Address to the newspapers
1797
“Quasi War” breaks out between France and the United States
March 4: Washington leaves the presidency, retires again to Mount Vernon
September 19: Lafayette and family released from prison
October 12: George-Washington Lafayette and tutor leave Mount Vernon
October 18: XYZ Affair begins
November: Lafayette moves to Lemkühlen, Holstein
1798
Washington appointed commander in chief of “Provisional Army”
December 25: Washington writes last letter to Lafayette
1799
January: Lafayette moves to Vianen, Holland
May 9: Lafayette writes last letter to Washington
June: Washington signs his will, freeing his slaves
November 9–10: Establishment of Consulate
December 14: Washington dies at Mount Vernon
1800
January: Lafayette moves to La Grange
February 8: Official French funeral for Washington; Lafayette excluded
March 1: Napoleon removes Lafayette from list of émigrés
September 30: France and the United States agree to new treaty
October 1–3: Napoleon’s treaty celebration at Mortefontaine
1802
Summer: Napoloeon elected Consul for Life; Lafayette opposes
1803
Spring: Congress grants western lands to Lafayette; Monroe arrives in France
April 30: Louisiana Purchase concluded
1804
May: Napoleon crowned emperor
Fall: Jefferson offers Lafayette governorship of Louisiana Territory; Napoleon awards Lafayette the Legion of Honor and appoints him as a Peer of the Realm; Lafayette declines both
1807
December 24: Adrienne dies; buried in Picpus Cemetery, Paris
1815
Napoleon returns; Lafayette begins first of several terms in Chamber of Deputies
June 18: Battle of Waterloo
June 22: Lafayette arranges Napoleon’s abdication, negotiates with Allies
1823
Lafayette loses seat in Chamber
1824
August 16: Lafayette arrives in New York
1825
September 9: Lafayette sails for France
1830
July 28–30: “Three Glorious Days of the Revolution”
August 16–December 26: Lafayette commands National Guard of the Realm
1834
May 20: Lafayette dies in Paris; buried beside Adrienne in Picpus Cemetery
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Note: Newspaper and newsletter articles are cited in the chapter notes only; the same is true of articles included in books listed in the bibliography.
Archival and Museum Collections
Libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, and other institutions consulted during research for this book are cited in the Acknowledgments.
The Papers of George Washington are housed mostly at the University of Virginia, with another substantial collection at the Library of Congress. The University of Virginia is nearing completion of a publication, in scores of volumes, of every surviving word that Washington wrote, with remarkable indexing and Internet access. His writings pertinent to this volume, however, are available in the earlier efforts of Sparks, Fitzpatrick, and Jackson and Twohig, cited below.
Lafayette’s surviving papers are somewhat more scattered. The world’s major collection, over 30,000 items, is housed at the Kroch Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University, in the Arthur H. and Mary Marden Dean Lafayette Collection, acquired in the 1960s from the previous guardians in France. Another significant collection is the store of manuscripts, publications, artifacts, illustrations, and memorabilia in the Special Collections and College Archives of the Lafayette College Library, Easton, Pennsylvania. The Library of Congress has a microfilm copy of the La Grange Collection of Lafayette family documents, the originals of which remain in France. The Lilly Library of Indiana University at Bloomington houses the Walter Gardner Collections of manuscripts, copies, publications, and illustrations related to Lafayette, while the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago holds the papers of Lafayette expert Louis Gottschalk. Additional troves of Lafayette material
include the Gilder Lihrman Collection at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, and a substantial Marquis de Lafayette Microfilm Collection in the Special Collections Department of the Cleveland State University Library, while others (mostly duplicated in the repositories) are scattered in several collections and in the autograph market. Many letters and documents pertinent to this book have been published in the various collections by Idzerda, Chinard, Duer, and Gottschalk, cited below.
Published Original Sources
Boyd, Julian P., and others, editors. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 30 volumes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950–2003.
Boynton, Edward C., compiler and editor. General Orders of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Army of the Revolution, Issued at Newburgh on the Hudson, 1782–1783. 1901. Reprinted Harrison, New York: Harbor Hill, 1973.
Brandon, Edgar Ewing, compiler and editor. A Pilgrimage of Liberty: A Contemporary Account of the Triumphal Tour of General Lafayette Through the Southern and Western States in 1825, as Reported by the Local Newspapers. Athens, Ohio: Lawhead Press, 1944.
Butterfield, C.W. Washington-Irvine Correspondence: The Official Letters Which Passed Between Washington and Brig.-Gen. William Irvine and Between Irvine and Others Concerning Military Affairs in the West from 1781 to 1787. Madison, Wisconsin: David Atwood, 1882.
Chastellux, le Marquis de. Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782. 2 volumes. London, 1787. Translated by Howard C. Rice Jr. 2 volumes. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963.
Chinard, Gilbert, editor and translator. George Washington as the French Knew Him: A Collection of Texts. New York: Greenwood, 1940.
———, editor. The Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1929.
———, editor. When Lafayette Came to America: An Account from the Dubois Martin Papers in the Maryland Historical Society. Easton, Pennsylvania: The American Friends of Lafayette, 1948.
Cloquet, Jules. Souvenirs sur la vie privée du Général Lafayette. Paris: A. et W. Galignani, 1836. Also published as Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette. London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1835.
Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard B. Morris, editors. The Spirit of “Seventy-Six”: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants. 2 volumes. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958.
Denny, Ebenezer. Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, an Officer in the Revolutionary and Indian Wars. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1859.
Duer, William A., editor. Memoirs, Correspondence, and Manuscripts of General Lafayette. New York: Saunders, 1837.
Fitzpatrick, John C., editor. The Last Will and Testament of George Washington and Schedule of His Property. Mount Vernon, Virginia: Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1939.
———, editor. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799. 39 volumes. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931–1944.
Fowler, David J. Guide to the Sol Feinstone Collection of the David Library of the American Revolution. Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania: The David Library of the American Revolution, 1944.
Gottschalk, Louis R., editor. The Letters of Lafayette to Washington, 1777–1799. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1944. Revised edition, 1976.
Hutchinson, William T., and others, editors. The Papers of James Madison. 17 volumes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, and Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1962–1991.
Idzerda, Stanley J., and others, editors. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790. 5 volumes. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977–1983.
Jackson, Donald, and Dorothy Twohig, editors. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 volumes. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976.
Jefferson, Thomas. Autobiography of Thos. Jefferson. New York: Putnam Capricorn, 1959.
Knopf, Richard C., editor. Anthony Wayne, A Name in Arms; Soldier, Diplomat, Defender of Expansion Westward of a Nation: The Wayne-Knox-Pickering Correspondence. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1960.
Labaree, Leonard W., and others, editors. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. 35 volumes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959–1999.
Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de. Mémoires, correspondance et manuscrits du Général Lafayette, publiés par sa famille. Compiled by George-Washington-Louis-Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette. 6 volumes. Paris: Fournier, 1837–1838. 6 volumes in 2. Brussels: Hauman, Cattoir, 1837. Republished as Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette, Published by His Family. Partly translated and edited by William A. Duer. 3 volumes. London: Conduit Street, 1837. Volume one reprinted New York: Sanders, 1837.
Lasteyrie, Mme. de (Marie-Antoinette-Virginie Lafayette). Vie de Madame de Lafayette par Mme. de Lasteyrie, sa fille, précédée d’une notice sur sa mère Mme. la Duchesse d’Ayen, 1737–1807. Paris: Léon Techener Fils, 1868.
Lauber, Almon W., editor. Orderly Books of the Fourth New York Regiment, 1778–1780; The Second New York Regiment, 1780–1783, by Samuel Tallmadge and Others, with Diaries of Samuel Tallmadge, 1780–1782, and John Barr, 1779–1782. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1932.
Lodge, Henry Cabot, editor. The Works of Alexander Hamilton. 9 volumes. New York: Putnam, 1885–1886.
Maltby, Isaac. The Elements of War. Boston: Thomas B. Waite, 1811.
Martin, Joseph Plumb. A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier: Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. The Memoir Previously Published as Private Yankee Doodle (1830). New York: Signet, 2001.
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Monroe, James. Autobiography of James Monroe. Edited by Stuart Gerry Brown. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1959.
Morris, Gouverneur. A Diary of the French Revolution. Edited by Beatrix Cary Davenport. 2 volumes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939.
Morris, Richard B., editor. Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation. New York: Dial, 1957.
———, editor. The Basic Ideas of Alexander Hamilton. New York: Pocket Books, 1957.
Morse, Horace Henry, editor. Lafayette Letters in the Bostonian Society. Boston: Bostonian Society Publications, 1924.
Ogden, Henry A., compiler. Uniform of the Army of the United States, Illustrated, from 1774 to 1889. Washington: Quartermaster General’s Office, 1889.
Padover, Saul K., editor. The Washington Papers. Norwalk, Connecticut: Easton, 1955. Pickering, Timothy. An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia. Salem, Massachusetts: Samuel and Ebenezer Hall, 1775. Second edition, Salem: S. Hall, 1776.
Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1779.
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Sparks, Jared, editor. Correspondence of the American Revolution: Being Letters of Earnest Men to George Washington, from the Time of His Taking Command of the Army to the End of His Presidency. 4 volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1853.
———, editor. The Writings of George Washington. 12 volumes. Boston: Tappan and Dennet, 1834–1837.
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