Lafayette
Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette, (September 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834) was a French military officer and aristocrat who participated in both the American and French revolutions. He permanently renounced his title "Marquis" before the French National Assembly in June, 1790. Even though he was already adopted by George Washington, he was twice granted Honorary Citizenship of the United States. Lafayette served in the American Revolutionary War both as a general and as a diplomat, serving entirely without pay in both roles. Later, he was to prove a key figure in the early phases of the French Revolution, serving in the Estates General and the subsequent National Constituent Assembly. He was a leading figure among the Feuillants, who tried to turn France into a constitutional monarchy, and commander of the French National Guard.
Lafayette was born at the Château de Chavaniac, near Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, in the remote, mountainous Auvergne region of France, also known as the "Appalachia of France." He belonged to the cadet branch of the La Fayette family. His father was killed at the Battle of Minden in 1759 by a British cannon ball, and his mother and grandfather died in 1770. He was educated by his aunt and two priests, and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. At the age of 14, Lafayette chose to follow the career of his father and grandfather, entering the French army on April 9, 1771. At the age of 16 he married Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, daughter of Jean-Paul-François, 5th duc de Noailles. Known as "Adrienne" or "Noailles Lafayette," she was famous for her simplicity, extraordinary charity, and bravery.
At 19, he was a captain of dragoons when the British colonies in America proclaimed their independence. He later wrote in his memoirs, "my heart was enrolled in it." Charles-François, comte de Broglie, whom he consulted, tried to discourage him from getting involved in the conflict. Broglie eventually presented him to Johann Kalb, who was also seeking service in America. On December 7, 1776, Lafayette made an arrangement through Silas Deane, an American agent in Paris, to enter the American service as a major general. At this moment, the news arrived of grave disasters to the American cause. Lafayette's friends "officially" advised him to give up. Even the king had to "officially" forbid his leaving after British spies discovered his plan (and other clandestine aid to Americans). At the insistence of the British ambassador, orders were issued to seize the ship Lafayette was fitting out at Bordeaux and to have Lafayette arrested. He eluded capture disguised as a courier and sailed for America with 11 companions. Although pursued by two British ships, he landed safely on North Island near Georgetown, South Carolina, on June 13, 1777 after a voyage of nearly two months.
Lafayette offered his services to the American insurgents as an unpaid volunteer. He presented himself to the Continental Congress with Deane's authority to request a commission of the highest rank after the commander-in-chief.
Congress then passed a resolution, on July 31, 1777, "that his services be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family, and connections, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States." The next day, Lafayette met George Washington, who became his lifelong friend. As a member of Washington's inner circle, Lafayette also became very close friends with young Alexander Hamilton, Washington's chief aide-de-camp.
Lafayette's first battle was Brandywine on September 11, 1777, where he was wounded in the leg. Shortly afterwards, he secured the command of a division — the immediate result of a communication from Washington to Congress of November 1, 1777, in which he said: "The Marquis de Lafayette is extremely solicitous of having a command equal to his rank. I do not know in what light Congress will view the matter, but it appears to me, from a consideration of his illustrious and, important connections, the attachment which he has manifested for our cause, and the consequences which his return in disgust might produce, that it will be advisable to gratify his wishes, and the more so as several gentlemen from France who came over under some assurances have gone back disappointed in their expectations. His conduct with respect to them stands in a favourable point of view—having interested himself to remove their uneasiness and urged the impropriety of their making any unfavourable representations upon their arrival at home. Besides, he is sensible, discreet in his manners, has made great proficiency in our language, and from the disposition he discovered at the battle of Brandywine possesses a large share of bravery and military ardour."
In the first months of 1778, Lafayette commanded troops detailed for the projected expedition against Canada. After that plan was aborted, Lafayette participated in the campaign in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where he was commended for his retreat from Barren Hill (May 28, 1778), and fought at the Battle of Monmouth (June 28). He received from Congress a formal recognition of his services in the Rhode Island expedition (August 1778).
Meanwhile, the signing of a formal Treaty of Alliance between the United States and France on February 6, 1778, prompted by Great Britain to declare war against France. LaFayette asked leave to return to France to consult Louis XVI as to the further direction of his services.
Lafayette left for France on January 11, 1779, where he was made a colonel in the cavalry. After about six months, he returned to America. From April until October 1781, he was charged with the defense of Virginia, where he showed his zeal by borrowing money on his own account to provide his soldiers with necessaries. Washington commended him for doing all that was possible with the forces at his disposal. In the siege of Yorktown, the last battle of the war, Lafayette bore an honorable if not a distinguished part.
At the end of 1781, Lafayette returned to France, where he was welcomed as a hero and promoted to the rank of maréchal de camp (brigadier general) in the French army. Lafayette then helped prepare for a combined French and Spanish expedition against the British West India Islands, of which he was appointed chief-of-staff. The armistice signed on January 20, 1783, between the countries put a stop to the expedition.
Lafayette again appeared prominently in public life in 1787, when he took his seat in the Assembly of Notables. He demanded, and he alone signed the demand, that the king convoke the Estates-General, thus becoming a leader in the French Revolution. In 1788, he was deprived of his active command. In 1789, Lafayette was elected to the Estates-General, and took a prominent part in its proceedings. He was chosen vice-president of the National Assembly, and on July 11, 1789 proposed a declaration of rights, modeled on Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in 1776.
On July 15, the second day of the new regime, Lafayette was chosen, by acclamation, colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris. He also proposed the combination of the colours of Paris, red and blue, and the royal white, into the famous tricolour cockade and flag of modern France. For the succeeding three years, until the end of the constitutional limited-monarchy in 1792, he played a significant role in the course of the Revolution. He rescued Marie Antoinette from the hands of the populace in October 1789, as well as many others who had been condemned to death. He briefly resigned his commission, but was soon induced to resume it.
In the Constituent Assembly he pleaded for religious tolerance, popular representation, the establishment of trial by jury, the gradual emancipation of slaves, freedom of the press, the abolition of arbitrary imprisonment and of titles of nobility, and the suppression of privileged orders. He drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which was adopted by the Assembly. In February 1790, he refused the supreme command of the National Guard of the kingdom.
Lafayette and other constitutional limited-monarchists who supported the Revolution in its early years founded the "Society of 1789", which afterwards became the Feuillants Club, taking a position between Royalist supporters of absolute monarchy and groups such as the Jacobins and Cordeliers. Lafayette took a prominent part in the celebration of July 14, 1790, the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. After suppressing a riot in April 1791 he again resigned his commission, and was again compelled to retain it. Louis XVI's deceptive flight to Varennes undermined the position of the constitutional limited-monarchists, especially Lafayette himself who, as Commander of the National Guard, had had the responsibility to keep the King secure. Shortly after, on July 17, 1791, a large crowd gathered at the Champ de Mars to sign a petition calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. Earlier the crowd beheaded two vagrants found sleeping under the Nation's Altar that the mob mistook for spies, the crowd then fired twice on the National Guard and pelted them with a hail of rocks, after martial law was ordered by Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the Mayor of Paris, when the crowd was ordered to disperse, and when they did not, Lafayette ordered the National Guard to open fire and arrest the assassins in the crowd. About 50 people were killed in what became known as the "Massacre of the Champ de Mars", which decisively marked the end of the alliance between constitutional limited-monarchists and Jacobins which were now controlled by radicals like Jean-Paul Marat and Georges Danton. On the occasion of the proclamation of the constitution (September 18, 1791), Lafayette tried to retire into private life. This did not prevent his friends from proposing him for the mayoralty of Paris in opposition to Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve.
In December 1791, Lafayette was placed in command of three armies formed on the eastern frontier to attack Austria. He was nevertheless opposed to the further advance of the Jacobin party, intending eventually to use his army for the restoration of a Constitutional, limited monarchy out of respect for the authentic Christian nature of Louis XVI. During this time printed attacks against Lafayette, especially from Jean-Paul Marat were at a crescendo. On August 19, 1792, the Assembly declared him a traitor and Georges_Danton took control of the National Guard. Lafayette took refuge in the neutral territory of Liège, where he was taken and held as a prisoner of state for five years, first in Prussia and afterwards in Austrian prisons, in spite of intercession by the United States. Napoleon, encouraged by the Directory (which was pro-Lafayette at that time), stipulated in the preconditions of the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) that La Fayette be released. However, Napoleon, who was increasingly seizing more power, would not allow him to return to France. After his wife's pleading, Napoleon allowed Lafayette to return in 1799. In 1802 he voted against the life consulate of Napoleon, and in 1804, against the imperial title.
He lived in retirement during the First Empire, but returned to public affairs under the First Restoration and took some part in the political events of the Hundred Days. From 1818 to 1824, he was deputy for Sarthe, speaking and voting always on the Liberal side, and even becoming a carbonaro.
His last, invitational and triumphal visit to all 24 of the then United States of America (plus 2 territories-future states) was between July 1824 and September 1825. He arrived from France at Staten Island, N.Y.C. on August 15 1824. Later in the trip, he received his honorary United States citizenship while attending the inaugural banquet of the University of Virginia, at Jefferson's invitation. He was voted, by the U.S. Congress, the sum of $200,000 and a township of land. In 1824, he was the guest of honor at the first commencement ceremony of the George Washington University.
From 1825 to his death, he sat in the Chamber of Deputies for Meaux. During the Revolution of 1830, he again took command of the National Guard and pursued the same line of conduct as in the first revolution. In 1834, he made his last speech, on behalf of Polish political refugees, many of whom he hid in the attic of his modest country home, Chateau La Grange (40 miles from Paris, near Rozy-en-Brie) that originally belonged to his wife's family. He was known to his country neighbors for his extraordinary charity during times of famine and disease. He died in Paris on May 20, 1834 and was buried in the Cimetière de Picpus. He never remarried, and remained very devoted to his wife who died in December 1807 from lead poisoning that she contracted during her suffering in prisons in France and the Austrian Empire.
Washington & Lafayette at Mount Vernon
Washington, Lafayette, & Rochambeau
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