Part 29 (1/2)
We have already noticed the flight of Lafayette from France before the fury of Jacobin fanaticism, and his incarceration in an Austrian dungeon, while his family were left to be the sport of fortune. In that dungeon the marquis was confined almost three years, in a cell three paces broad and five and a half long, containing no other ornament than two French verses which rhymed with the words ”to suffer and to die.”
And yet his great soul went out to his suffering fellow-man as free as the air of heaven; and with a toothpick (for he was deprived of pen and ink) he wrote to a princess, who sympathized with him, on a sc.r.a.p of paper which came to him almost miraculously, and with soot and water, these n.o.ble words: ”I know not what disposition has been made of my plantation at Cayenne, but I hope Madame Lafayette will take care that the negroes who cultivate it shall preserve their liberty.” He had set them all free.
The marchioness, as soon as she was allowed the privilege, hastened to Olmutz with her daughters to share the dungeon with the husband and father; while their son, whom they had named in honor of their ill.u.s.trious friend, came to the United States with his tutor, M.
Frestel, consigned to the fatherly care of Was.h.i.+ngton. Young Lafayette was then about seventeen years of age.
The two exiles arrived at Boston at the close of the summer of 1795, and they immediately sent information of the fact to the president, who was just on the point of leaving Philadelphia for Mount Vernon. Was.h.i.+ngton's first impulse was to take the young man to his bosom and cherish him as a son; but, as we have observed, grave reasons of state denied him that pleasure. After brief reflection, he sent the letters of the exiles, to Senator Cabot, of Boston, saying:--
”To express all the sensibility which has been excited in my breast by the receipt of young Lafayette's letter, from the recollection of his father's merits, services and sufferings, from my friends.h.i.+p for him, and from my wishes to become a friend and father to his son, is unnecessary.”[87] Let me in a few words declare that I will be his friend; but the manner of becoming so, considering the obnoxious light in which his father is viewed by the French government, and my own situation as the executive of the United States, requires more time to consider, in all its relations, than I can bestow on it at present, the letters not having been in my hands more than an hour, and I myself on the point of setting out for Virginia to fetch my family back, whom I left there about the first of August.
”The mode, which at the first view strikes me as the most eligible to answer his purposes and to save appearances, is, first, to administer all the consolation to the young gentleman that he can derive from the most unequivocal a.s.surances of my standing in the place of, and becoming to him, a father, friend, protector, and supporter. But, secondly, for prudential motives, as they relate to myself, his mother and friends whom he has left behind, and to my official character, it would be best not to make these sentiments public; and of course it would be ineligible that he should come to the seat of the general government, where all the foreign characters (particularly those of his own nation) are residents, until it is seen what opinions will be excited by his arrival; especially, too, as I shall be necessarily absent five or six weeks from it, on business in several places. Thirdly, considering how important it is to avoid idleness and dissipation, to improve his mind, and to give him all the advantages which education can bestow, my opinion and my advice to him are, if he is qualified for admission, that he should enter as a student in the university in Cambridge, although it should be for a short time only; the expense of which, as also for every other means for his support, I will pay.... Let me pray you, my dear sir, to impress upon young Lafayette's mind, and indeed upon that of his tutor, that the reasons why I do not urge him to come to me have been frankly related, and that their prudence must appreciate them with caution.
My friends.h.i.+p for his father, so far from being diminished, has increased in the ratio of his misfortunes; and my inclination to serve the son will be evidenced by my conduct.”
General Knox, then in Boston, took much interest in the young Lafayette. In a letter to Was.h.i.+ngton, on the twenty-first of September, he said, ”He goes by the name of Motier [a family name of his father], concealing his real name, lest some injury should arise to his mother, or to a young Mr. Russell of this town, now in France, who a.s.sisted in his escape.” Knox spoke of the exile as ”a lovely young man, of excellent morals and conduct.”
Mr. Cabot readily undertook the duty solicited by Was.h.i.+ngton. He found Lafayette and his tutor in much perplexity. The attempt at concealment was futile. ”Already M. Motier is known to too many persons,” wrote Mr.
Cabot, ”and a public festival announced by the French consul for Monday next, at which all their citizens in this vicinity are expected to attend, occasions serious embarra.s.sments; to which is added, that some circ.u.mstances of delicacy relative to the family in which they are placed, make an immediate removal proper.” He further informed him that they were about to depart for New York, where they expected to be accommodated in the country-house of a French gentleman, their friend, where they would remain in retirement, until they should receive further directions from Was.h.i.+ngton. Mr. Cabot gave them letters to Colonel Wadsworth and Colonel Hamilton, and they departed.
In November, soon after his return to Philadelphia, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote an affectionate letter to young Lafayette, in which, after telling him the causes which rendered it necessary for them both to be circ.u.mspect, and desiring him to repair with his tutor to Colonel Hamilton, in the city of New York, who would see that they were well provided for, he said:--
”How long the causes which have withheld you from me may continue, I am not able at this moment to decide; but be a.s.sured of my wishes to embrace you, so soon as they shall have ceased, and that, whenever the period arrives, I shall do it with fervency. In the meantime, let me begin with fatherly advice to you to apply closely to your studies, that the season of your youth may be improved to the utmost, that you may be found the deserving son of a meritorious father.” To M. Frestel, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote at the same time, after directing him to read his letter to his pupil: ”To the above I shall just add, that, as the preceptor and friend of M. de Lafayette, I pray you to count upon my attentions and friends.h.i.+p, and learn that it is my expectation that you will accompany him in whatever situation he may be placed; and moreover that you will let me know, at all times, what he has occasion for.”
The Congress at length took official notice of the presence of the son of Lafayette; and on the eighteenth of March, 1796, the house of representatives pa.s.sed the following resolution and order:--
”Information having been given to this house that a son of General Lafayette is now within the United States; _Resolved_, that a committee be appointed to inquire into the truth of the said information, and report thereon; and what measures it would be proper to take if the same be true, to evince the grateful sense entertained by the country for the services of his father.
”Ordered, that Mr. Livingston, Mr. Sherburne, and Mr. Murray, be appointed a committee pursuant to the said resolution.”
As chairman of the committee, Mr. Livingston wrote to young Lafayette as follows:--
”SIR: Actuated by motives of grat.i.tude to your father, and eager to seize every opportunity of showing their sense of his important services, the house of representatives have pa.s.sed the resolution which I have the pleasure to communicate. The committee being directed to inquire into the fact of your arrival within the United States, permit me to advise your immediate appearance at this place, that the legislature of America may no longer be in doubt, whether the son of Lafayette is under their protection, and within the reach of their grat.i.tude.
”I presume to give this advice as an individual personally attached to your father, and very solicitous to be useful to any person in whose happiness he is interested. If I should have that good fortune on this occasion, it will afford me the greatest satisfaction.”
This letter, and the resolutions of the house of representatives, young Lafayette forwarded to President Was.h.i.+ngton, and asked his advice as to the course he should pursue. Was.h.i.+ngton advised him to come to Philadelphia at the opening of the next session of Congress, occupy a room in his house, but to avoid society as much as possible. He complied, and remained in Philadelphia until the following spring, when Was.h.i.+ngton, on becoming a private citizen, embraced the son of his friend as if he had been his own child, and bore him to his home on the Potomac. There he remained until early in October, when the joyful news of the release of his father from confinement, and his restoration to his country and friends, caused him to leave for the seaboard to depart for France. He and M. Frestel sailed from New York on the twenty-sixth of October, 1797.
As young Lafayette was about to leave Mount Vernon, Was.h.i.+ngton placed a letter in his hands for his father, in which he said:--
”From the delicate and responsible situation in which I stood as a public officer, but more especially from a misconception of the manner in which your son had left France, till explained to me in a personal interview with himself, he did not come immediately into my family on his arrival in America, though he was a.s.sured, in the first moments of it, of my protection and support. His conduct, since he first set his feet on American ground, has been exemplary in every point of view, such as has gained him the esteem, affection, and confidence of all who have had the pleasure of his acquaintance. His filial affection and duty, and his ardent desire to embrace his parents and sisters in the first moments of their release, would not allow him to wait the authentic account of this much-desired event; but, at the same time that I suggested the propriety of this, I could not withhold my a.s.sent to the gratification of his wishes to fly to the arms of those whom he holds most dear, persuaded as he is, from the information he has received, that he shall find you all in Paris.
”M. Frestel has been a true Mentor to George. No parent could have been more attentive to a favorite son; and he richly merits all that can be said of his virtues, of his good sense, and of his prudence. Both your son and he carry with them the vows and regrets of this family and all who know them. And you may be a.s.sured that yourself never stood higher in the affections of the people of this country than at the present moment.”[88]
FOOTNOTES:
[86] Randall's Life of Jefferson, ii, 268.
[87] The late Richard Rush relates an interesting incident, ill.u.s.trative of the feelings of Was.h.i.+ngton on account of the misfortunes of his n.o.ble friend. Mr. Bradford, the attorney-general, who lived directly opposite the residence of Was.h.i.+ngton, was spending an evening with the president, when the conversation reverted to Lafayette. Was.h.i.+ngton spoke with great seriousness, contrasted the marquis's. .h.i.therto splendid career with that of his present forlorn and suffering condition; and at length became so deeply affected that his eyes filled with tears, and his whole great soul was stirred to its very depths. ”Magnanimous tears they were,” says Mr. Rush, ”fit for the first of heroes to shed--virtuous, honorable, sanctified!” Mr. Bradford, who deeply sympathized with the feelings of Was.h.i.+ngton, was much affected at the spectacle, and, retiring to his own house, wrote some simple and touching verses, called the ”Lament of Was.h.i.+ngton.” They were an impromptu effusion from his heart.