“I am persuaded”: Washington to Lafayette, July 22, 1780, LAAR, 3:106.
“added in my own name”: Lafayette to Washington, July 31, 1780, LAAR, 3:117.
“it is very clearly settled”: Lafayette to Rochambeau and Ternay, August 9, 1780, LAAR, 3:473.
“He proposes Extravagant things”: Rochambeau to Luzerne, August 14, 1780, LAAR, 3:477.
“inclined to believe”: Luzerne to Rochambeau, August 24, 1780, as excerpted and translated in LAAR, 3:142.
“You know me well enough”: Rochambeau to Lafayette, August 27, 1780, LAAR, 3:484–85.
“to act against the corps”: Instructions from George Washington, February 20, 1781, LAAR, 3:334–36.
“four or five to one”: Lafayette to Luzerne, May 22, 1781, LAAR, 3:459.
“we’ll be in a condition”: Lafayette to the Vicomte de Noailles, May 22, 1781, LAAR, 3:462.
CHAPTER 8: HONOR
Paris was abuzz: The festivities in honor of the dauphin are described in detail by Ann H. Sievers, Linda Muehlig, and Nancy Rich, Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art, exhibit catalog (New York: Hudson Hills Press; Northampton, MA: Smith College Museum of Art, 2001), 105–11, which discusses the elaborate preparatory drawings for prints of the events by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune.
Marie Antoinette bestowed: Ségur, Mémoires, 242, and Louis-François Métra, Correspondance secrète, politique et littéraire (London: 1787), 2:607.
Marie Antoinette’s grace: A published dispatch dated January 24, 1782, describes the event as “une circonstance qui peint bien l’âme sensible & délicate de notre Reine.” Métra, Correspondance secrète, 2:607.
“large and joyous group of fishwives”: Ibid.
“his conduct throughout the past campaign”: November 23, 1781, Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 1135, 34 vols. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 21:135, reproduced in LAAR, 3:440–41.
no one on either side: In reading Lafayette’s commercial efforts as being parallel to, though not prompted by, desires outlined by both French and American representatives, I concur with Gottschalk’s assessment in Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 34–52.
“Collecting the Opinions of Every American Merchant”: Lafayette to Washington, November 11, 1783, LAAR, 5:164.
“Observations on Commerce”: as translated in LAAR, 5:168–75. The document was twelve octavo pages per Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 44.
“free ports”: Calonne to Lafayette, Versailles, January 9, 1784, as translated and entered into the May 3, 1784, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 26:334–35.
from timber to whale oil: Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 222–37.
“I Have a Great Value”: Lafayette to Livingston, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:89.
“to Have a Resolve”: Lafayette’s request was answered some two months later, when the American legislature resolved, “That Congress … have a high sense of the new proofs he has exhibited of his zeal in the cause of the said states, and of his constant attachment to their interests and welfare.” April 10, 1783, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 24:234.
“Be so kind only as”: Lafayette to McHenry, Paris, December 26, 1783, LAAR, 5:185.
Honor, which had long: See Chaussinand-Nogaret, French Nobility, 34.
“I sometimes contemplate the situation”: Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, February 28, 1780, Adams Family Correspondence, 3:288.
“the love of fame”: Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 72, in Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers, Project Gutenberg, December 12, 2011, www.gutenberg.org/files/18/18.txt. On the Founding Fathers’ understanding of fame as an important force that compelled men to great deeds, see Peter McNamara, ed., The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor, and the American Founding (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999).
“nature strews approbation”: “Réputation,” Dictionnaire, 14:161.
“Because that Entrusting Temper”: LAAR, 5:184–85.
“that Your plenipotentiarie’s letters”: Lafayette to McHenry, Paris, December 26, 1783, LAAR, 5:185.
“The Marquis’s business”: November 23, 1782, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961) 3:71.
“the same Friend to Us here”: John Adams to James Warren, February 28, 1780, Papers of John Adams, 8:376.
Adams was struggling: My understanding of Adams’s vexed relationships with Franklin and Vergennes are indebted to David McCullough, John Adams, and Schiff, A Great Improvisation.
“so agreeable to my inclinations”: Adams to Lafayette, February 20, 1782, Papers of John Adams, 12:248.
“the Instruction of Congress”: John Adams to James Warren, April 16, 1783, LAAR, 5:122.
“Seeds of Mischief”: John Adams to James Warren, April 16, 1783, LAAR, 5:122.
“ardent to distinguish himself”: John Adams to James Warren, April 16, 1783, LAAR, 5:123.
“during the Treaty at Paris”: May 9, 1782, Journal of the Peace Negotiations, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, ed. Francis Wharton, 6 vols. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1889), 5:553.
“the expectation of peace is a joke”: Ibid., 5:576.
“Would Highly flatter”: Lafayette to Robert R. Livingston, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:89.
“I Would take it as a Most flattering Circumstance”: Lafayette to Washington, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:92.
“the bearer of the Ratification”: Washington to Robert R. Livingston, March 29, 1783, New-York Historical Society, Robert R. Livingston Papers, MS 388, box 6.
“the honor of the nation”: Livingston to Washington, April 9, 1783, New-York Historical Society, Robert R. Livingston Papers, MS 388, box 6.
“there is no Man upon Earth”: Washington to Livingston, April 16, 1783, New-York Historical Society, Robert R. Livingston Papers, MS 388, box 6.
“will not I apprehend”: Washington to Lafayette, October 12, 1783, LAAR, 5:155.
“that it is inconsistent”: March 16, 1784, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 26:144.
Society of the Cincinnati: On the history of the society, see: Markus Hünemörder, The Society of the Cincinnati: Conspiracy and Distrust in Early America (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), and Minor Myers, Liberty Without Anarchy: A History of the Society of the Cincinnati (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983).
“to inculcate to the latest age”: “The Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati as Altered and Amended at Their First General Meeting,” in Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati, 1784–1884 (Philadelphia: Review Printing House, 1887), 13.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus: Wendy C. Wick, George Washington: An American Icon, exhibit catalog (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Service, 1982), 133–35. The most thorough discussion of Washington’s image as a modern-day Cincinnatus is Garry Wills, Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984).
“a bald eagle of gold”: Proceedings of the General Society, 14.
welcomed fifteen: Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de la république des lettres en France, 89.
Duval and Francastel: Baron Ludovic de Contenson, La Société des Cincinnati de France et la Guerre d’Amérique, 1778–1783 (1934; repr. Paris: Picard, 2007), 32–33.
Lafayette voluntarily shouldered: Lafayette to Washington, March 9, 1784, LAAR, 5:209.
Adams condemned the group: Adams to Lafayette, March 28, 1784, LAAR, 5:211–12.
“I have been informed”: Adams to Matthew Ridley, January 25, 1784, Papers of John Adams, 15:49. I was directed to the existence of this letter, the original of which is in the Massachusetts Historical Society, by LAAR, 5:203, note 1.
“against the confederation”: Jefferson
to Washington, April 16, 1784, Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
“that the people may look to them”: Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, May 10, 1785, Adams Family Correspondence, 6:139.
“most of the Americans”: Lafayette to Washington, March 9, 1784, LAAR, 5:209.
“as to your going to America”: Adams to Lafayette, March 28, 1784, LAAR, 5:212.
“A friendly letter I wrote You”: Lafayette to Adams, April 9, 1784, LAAR, 5:213.
“Altho’ I have not Been Honoured”: Lafayette to Adams, June 2, 1784, LAAR, 5:222.
“received in Season”: Adams to Lafayette, June 11, 1784, LAAR, 5:223.
CHAPTER 9: 1784
thousands of escaped slaves: On African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, see Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (New York: Vintage, 2009).
the city had hosted a sprawling: My descriptions of New York in the immediate aftermath of the war are based largely on Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 277–87, and I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909, 6 vols. (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–28), 1:365–473.
equestrian statue of King George III: Arthur S. Marks, “The Statue of King George III in New York and the Iconology of Regicide,” American Art Journal 13, no. 3 (Summer 1981): 61–82.
The landing of the ship: J. Bennett Nolan, Lafayette in America Day by Day (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1934), 217.
Approaching Philadelphia: As described by Frederick Eugene Francis, Baron de Beelen-Bertholff, who was in the United States as a trade representative of Emperor Joseph II, in a letter of August 12, 1784. Excerpted in Hubert van Houtte, “Documents: American Commercial Conditions, and Negotiations with Austria, 1783–1786,” American Historical Review 16, no. 3 (April 1911): 569.
“wherever [Lafayette] passes”: James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, September 7, 1784, The Writings of James Madison, Comprising His Public Papers and His Private Correspondence, Including His Numerous Letters and Documents Now for the First Time Printed, ed. Gaillard Hunt, 9 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900), 2:2.
“admitted and received”: Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784–1831, 19 vols. (New York: City of New York, 1917), 1:73–74, quote on this page.
For the next five months: For the itinerary of Lafayette’s 1784 visit to the United States, see Nolan, Lafayette in America, 217–39.
Republic of Letters: My understanding of this topic is deeply indebted to Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994).
“the search for knowledge”: Goodman, Republic of Letters, 33.
“the cultivation of useful knowledge”: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge (Philadelphia: Robert Aitken, 1786), xi.
“all specimens of natural Productions”: Ibid., ix.
“the importance or singularity”: Ibid., iv.
“Geography, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy”: Ibid., ix–x.
admitted on January 19, 1781: J. Bennett Nolan, “Lafayette and the American Philosophical Society,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 73, no. 2 (1934): 120, and Nolan, Lafayette in America, 218.
A well-known figure: On Chastellux’s biography, see Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782, ed. and trans. Howard C. Rice, Jr., 2 vols. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1903), 1:1–41.
“thought to be a mistake”: Chastellux, Travels in North America, 1:178.
“Salon de la Correspondance”: I discuss the organization in depth in Laura Auricchio, “Pahin de la Blancherie’s Commercial Cabinet of Curiosity (1779–1787),” Eighteenth-Century Studies 36, no. 1 (2002): 47–61.
“books, paintings, mechanical devices”: Nouvelles de la république des lettres et des arts ([November?] 1777): 4. In La Blancherie’s rooms, one would have found, jumbled together in no particular order, paintings, drawings, and sculptures, as well as scientific wonders ranging from “a pair of waterproof leather shoes” (May 1, 1782), to “three blocks of rock crystal” excavated in Switzerland, “each containing views and perspectives of the Alps” (January 22, 1783), to “a living hen” that regularly laid eggs through two different orifices (June 26, 1782).
The American Philosophical Society: My understanding of the APS in this era is based in large part on: Early Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, Compiled by One of the Secretaries, from the Manuscript Minutes of Its Meetings from 1744 to 1838 (Philadelphia: McCalla and Stavely, 1884).
“a serpent in a horse’s eye”: The examples given here are selected from Early Proceedings, 116–21.
According to Barthélemy: Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, Description des expériences de la machine aérostatique de MM. de Montgolfier et celles auxquelles cette découverte a donné lieu (Paris: Cuchet, 1783), 36.
“the grandest, most illustrious”: Faujas de Saint-Fond, Description, 40.
“enclosing an authentic narrative”: Nolan, “Lafayette and the American Philosophical Society,” 120. Although Nolan gives the date of Lafayette’s letter as December 10, 1784, the context indicates that it must have been 1783.
“duplicated by one of the secretaries”: The duplication of Lafayette’s materials was reported at the meeting of April 16, 1784; Early Proceedings, 125.
attention-seeking ploy: Robert Darnton, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 23–24. The following paragraphs are indebted to Darnton, although all primary sources have been consulted directly.
“made the greatest discovery”: Lafayette to Washington, May 14, 1784, Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, 6:807.
“Sciences and letters are frighted”: Lafayette to Franklin, May 20, 1784, LAAR, 5:222.
newspapers from Massachusetts: See, for example, “Account of the Report of the Committee, Appointed by Order of the French King, to Inquire into Animal Magnetism,” Massachusetts Spy (May 19, 1785): 2.
One American author: “Boston, Nov. 29,” American Herald (November 29, 1784): 2.
“private citizen”: Washington to Lafayette, from Mount Vernon, February 1, 1784, PGWC, 1:87.
Baltimore stagecoach route: Oliver W. Holmes, “Stagecoach Days in the District of Columbia,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 50 (1948/1950): 1–42.
“the retreat of General Washington”: Lafayette to Adrienne, August 20, 1784, LOC, reel 31, folder 354. The following discussion of Lafayette’s cabinet is based on this version of the letter.
“barometer”: Barometers were quite fashionable among elite men in Paris, and were written about in the newspapers of the day. See, for instance, “Physique,” Journal de Paris (May 7, 1785), 127:515–55, a front-page article by La Lande announcing the second edition of a sought-after 1772 book by Jean-André De Luc on thermometers and barometers.
An enormous 1859 painting: On the painting in relation to Rossiter’s campaign to salvage Mount Vernon, see Thomas P. Rossiter, A Description of the Picture of the Home of Washington After the War. Painted by T. P. Rossiter and L. R. Mignot. With Historical Sketches of the Personages Introduced (New York: Appleton, 1859). Thomas P. Rossiter, “Mount Vernon, Past and Present. What Shall Be Its Destiny?” Crayon 5, no. 9 (September 1858): 243–53.
more than two hundred slaves: My understanding of the role of slaves at Mount Vernon is indebted to sources including: Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 147–67, and Kenneth Morgan, “George Washington and the Problem of Slavery,” Journal of American Studies 34, no. 2 (August 2000): 279–301.
“it Has Ever Been My”: Lafayette to Adams, March 8, 1784, LAAR, 5:202. Adams firmly rejected Lafayette’s advice, insisting that he saw “no motive of
Reason or Prudence, for making a Mystery of our Sentiments upon this Subject in Europe or America, or for reserving them for America. It is a publick Thing about which every Man has a right to think for himself and express his Thoughts.”Adams to Lafayette, March 28, 1784, LAAR, 5:212.
“a plan … Which Might Become”: Lafayette to Washington, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:91–92.
“striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart”: Washington to Lafayette, April 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:121.
“prudent, calm, and intrepid conduct”: LOC, folder 222.
“proofs of its love for the rights of all of humanity”: Ibid.
“his or her hand and sealed”: “Act XXI. An Act to Authorize the Manumission of Slaves,” May 1782, ed. William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619, 13 vols. (Richmond: Samuel Pleasants, 1809–23), 11:39–40. On reactions to the 1782 act, see George William Van Cleve, “Founding a Slaveholders’ Union, 1770–1797,” in Contesting Slavery: The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation, ed. John Craig Hammond and Matthew Mason (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011), 123. On the postwar backlash against emancipation in Virginia, see also Michael A. McDonnell, “Class War? Class Struggles During the American Revolution in Virginia,” William and Mary Quarterly 63, no. 2, 3rd ser. (April 2006): 305–44, esp. 341.
pro-slavery petitions: See Fredrika Teute Schmidt and Barbara Ripel Wilhelm, “Early Proslavery Petitions in Virginia,” William and Mary Quarterly 30, no. 1, 3rd ser. (January 1973): 133–46, esp. 138. I was directed to this valuable article by a classic text, originally published in 1973: David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 167–68.
“done Essential Service”: Recommendation for James, November 21, 1784, LAAR, 5:277–78.
His archives include: See Melvin Dow, ed., Lafayette and Slavery, from His Letters to Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp (Easton, PA: American Friends of Lafayette, 1950), 29–31; Condorcet to Lafayette, February 24, 1785, LAAR, 5:299–300; and Franklin to Lafayette, May 27, 1788, LOC, LaGrange, 221.
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