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BIOGRAPHY

OF

GILBERT MOTIER LA FAYETTE,
Major General in the American Continental Ariny.

CHAPTER I.

Introductory remarks-La Fayette's birth and education-his prospects at the commencement of the revolutionary struggle—he embarks in it, and arrives in the United States.

THE illustrious individual, whose life and character form the subject of the following pages, has claims on America which have always been felt and acknowledged; but his presence among us has produced sentiments of gratitude and veneration that are universal; which animate every breast and warm every heart. Whilst this spontaneous developement of feeling, the free-will offering of a great and powerful people, cannot fail of being gratifying to him on whom it is bestowed, it is highly honourable to our national character. But there are other considerations, connected with this subject, which deserve more attention; we allude to its moral and political influence.

Will it hereafter be claimed "that republics are ungrateful?" that a free people are capricious and unjust? Let the spontaneous homage of ten millions of free-born Americans, offered to LA FAYETTE, the early and steadfast friend of their country, for ever put at rest so base a calumny. Where can be found so sublime and impressive a scene as that which the United States now presents? It is in vain that we look to history for an example; the annals of the world afford none; it is an event that stands alone. The triumphs of the greatest and best generals of Rome, were decreed by the senate; and, if they were to be regarded as the voluntary act of the people, they could only be considered as splendid national pageants, wherein gratitude to the individual to whom they were granted, for services rendered, or honour conferred on his country, had little or no part; and, although professedly designed in honour of an individual, the feelings manifested were national pride and exultation at the success and conquests of the arms

of the republic. If the Roman triumph had been a tribute of gratitude, it could not have been bestowed on such men as Sylla and Marius, who distracted their country with civil wars, and drenched the streets with the noblest blood of Rome.

In modern times, and in that country which gave birth to the man who is the subject of this work, the world has witnessed a display of national feeling equally unexampled and sublime; it will be perceived that we allude to the return of the exile of Elba, and the re-establishment of the imperial throne. But the return of Bonaparte to France, and the visit of La Fayette to the United States, are entirely dissimilar, and equally unparalleled. Like the Israelites in Egypt, the French people were groaning under oppression, which was in some measure considered of foreign origin, as it had been established by foreign bayonets. Napoleon, therefore, was regarded as a deliverer, and it is to this fact that the enthusiasm of the people is to be attributed. Feeling humbled at the degradation of the nation, and exasperated at the insolence of power and the arrogance and rapacity of the old nobility, who had returned, the people flew to their late emperor, as a deliverer, and received him with open arms and the warmest enthusiasm.

The reception of La Fayette, in the United States, was entirely different; the manifestation of feeling was of a different character, and proceeded from different sources. He was not received as a conqueror, nor bailed as a deliverer; neither is this demonstration of feeling, a sudden impulse of joy or passion, for any recent service or achievement conferring benefit or honour on our country; but it is a sentiment of gratitude, deeply implanted in the breast, and revived by his presence, for the most distinguished philanthropy and disinterested services, performed nearly half a century ago, and which contributed to establish the independence and liberties of our country. Ye monarchs and lordlings of the earth, who regard mankind in the light you do the servants of your household, as the mere instruments of your ambition and gratifications, abandon, for a moment, your schemes of ameliorating the condition of your people, by restricting their rights and privileges and checking the exuberance of liberty, and turning your attention to America, witness the reward of a man who is the enemy of tyrants and oppression, and whose life and blood have been devoted to the cause of liberty and the rights of mankind. Behold, though it "blast your eye-balls." the unbought and unbribed homage of a free and great peo ple, offered to their benefactor, the friend of America, the

friend of liberty. What a sublime spectacle, to witness an entire nation, after the lapse of half a century, opening their hearts, in gratitude and honour of a hero and patriot, who had assisted to break the chains which enslaved their country, and to establish its freedom! How unlike the empty pageant of coronations and royal festivals, where a constrained homage is offered by slaves to their masters; who, whilst receiving honour from the lips, must be sensible that the heart is often ready to break forth in curses. Can the moral and political

effect of this event be lost? Will it not have an influence in Europe on all enlightened and noble minds, with whom the respect of mankind and the veneration of posterity, are the richest reward and the only honourable object of human ambition?

As America has been the theatre of the earliest and most successful exertions of La Fayette in the cause of liberty; and as it is here that the fruits of his toils, sacrifices and blood, have ripened to maturity, and promise to be as lasting as his renown; as it is here that his memory will be cherished and revered to the latest posterity, it seems to belong to America to perpetuate his fame, and to preserve a record of his deeds and virtues. This is a part of the debt of gratitude we owe him. His life, like that of our own Washington, should be put into the hands of our youth universally, that the name of the adopted son of the "Father of his Country," the friend of America and humanity, the hero, patriot, and philanthropist, should be as familiar, in this, his adopted country, with all succeeding generations, as it is with the present; so that the respect and veneration felt for it may be as lasting as his fame, as extensive as his renown.

The ancient province of Auvergne, now the department de la Haute Loire, gave birth to GILBERT MOTIER, Marquis DE LA FAYETTE. He was born on the 6th of September, 1757, at the Chateau de Chavagnac, situated about two leagues distance from Brioude, in the aforesaid department. Marshal De La Fayette, one of the ancestors of the general, sustained a great military reputation, and Madame De La Fayette, a relation of his, is advantageously known in the literature of France. His father fell in the battle of Rossbach, on the 5th of Nov. 1757, surviving the birth of his son but two months.

At the tender age of seven years, young Motier was sent to the College of Louis Le Grand, at Paris, where he received the rudiments of his ed cation. How long he remained here is uncertain; but at the early period of fifteen, he was en

rolled among the Mousquetaires du Roi, and before this time he had been made one of the pages of the Queen of France. From the patronage of the queen, he soon rose to the rank of a commissioned officer, a favour seldom conferred, except on the sons of the most distinguished of the nobility. Young Fayette was in every respect a precocious youth, and in 1774, when but seventeen years of age, he was married to the Countess Anastasie de Noailles, daughter of the duke of that name: considerations of family interest, as well as mutual affection, concurred in producing this union; which, whilst it made him happy in the possession of an amiable and accomplished lady, less ennobled from her birth than the goodness of her heart and the endowments of her mind, largely augmented his fortune, which before was sufficiently ample. He was now in the possession of an estate affording an annual income of more than 150,000 francs, a princely fortune, at that time, when money was worth much more than it is at present.

Such was the situation of La Fayette when the contest between Great Britain and her American colonies began to attract the attention of the world; whilst yet in a state of minority, possessing rank, wealth, the favour of the queen, surrounded by all the pleasures of a luxurious capital and voluptuous court, so seducing to youth, and happy in the enjoyment of domestic felicity, The fairest prospects, also, of preferment and fame, were open to him; so that whether ambition or pleasure was the governing motive, he was equally surrounded by the strongest attractions conducing to confine him to his home and his country.

A distant people are struggling for their rights; the hand of oppression bears heavily on them; their voice has crossed the Atlantic, and reached the shores of France; the philanthropists and friends of liberty feel a deep interest in the cause of the sufferers, and their most lively sympathies are excited. Young La Fayette, whilst surrounded with all the allurements and fascinations of pleasure, was most strongly affected with this noble sympathy; his benevolent heart and ardent mind would not permit him to remain merely a well-wisher to the cause of independence and liberty in America, but prompted him to offer his services and his fortune to this glorious cause. He felt that the cause of the Americans was just, that it was the cause of liberty and humanity. He did not, however, act from the impulse of the heart; but examined the subject, and made himself master of the controversy between the colonies and their parent country, which satisfied him of the justice of

the cause of the colonies, and confirmed him in the determi nation to embark in it, as a volunteer. Accordingly he presented himself before the American Commissioners, at Paris, and acquainted them with his intention of taking a part in the contest, if his services should be deemed of any importance. The sagacity of Dr. Franklin seldom erred, and discovering the indications of valour and greatness in this youthful patriot, his offer was readily accepted. This was in 1776, and not long after the disastrous intelligence reached Europe of the defeat of the Americans on Long Island, their evacuation of New-York, the dispersion of the American troops, and the flight of the small remains of the continental army through New-Jersey, pursued by a large British force, which completely annihilated the little credit the Americans had acquired in Europe. It was supposed, even by their friends, that the cause of the colonists was destroyed in the bud; the flame of liberty, which had burst forth with such splendour, was believed to be extinguished by the first blast of power, like the taper's blaze. Opinions which are suddenly formed, and upon. superficial knowledge, are as suddenly changed or given up, and from very slight circumstances. At this period a dark cloud hung over the destinies of America, and perhaps of the human race, as it is uncertain to what extent the latter are identified with the former, so far as they depend on civil liberty. As the efforts and power of the Americans were apparently crushed, many of the most enlightened and patriotic friends of liberty in Europe, began to think that they had attached more importance to the contest than it deserved; that the movements which had taken place were rather to be attributed to the zeal of the leaders and the sudden exasperated feelings of the people, than to a deep sense of injustice, or any definite ideas of their political rights, or settled determination to maintain them.

So unfavourable and extensive was the influence of this disastrous intelligence, that the American Commissioners at Paris, had not sufficient credit to procure a vessel to facilitate the enterprise of La Fayette; and under such circumstances, they believed that justice and honour required them to dissuade him from his undertaking for the present. But their efforts were unavailing; so ardently had the feelings of the youthful patriot, become enlisted in the cause of America, that they were not to be stifled by the reverses which it had experienced. "I have done nothing," said he to the American Commissioners, "hitherto, but admire your cause; but now

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