UC-NRLF 
 
 LIES 
 


 
E UL O G Y 
 
 ON 
 
 L.AFAYETTE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN FANEUIL HALL, 
 
 AT THE REQUEST OF THE YOUNG MEN OF BOSTON, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 6, 1834, 
 
 BY EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 NATHAN HALE ; AND ALLEN & TICKNOR. 
 
 1834. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, 
 
 By NATHAN HALE, 
 in the Clerk ^ Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 JOSEPH H. LOW, PR1NTEK. 
 
BOSTON, SEPT. 6, 
 
 HON. EDWARD EVERETT : 
 
 SIR, The subscribers are directed by the Young Men s Committee 
 of Arrangements for rendering Honors to the Memory of LAFAYETTE, 
 to present you the thanks of the Committee and their constituents, for the 
 eloquent Eulogy you have this day pronounced, in their behalf, on the 
 virtues of the truly great man whose decease they have commemorated, 
 and to request you to furnish them a copy for the Press. 
 
 Permit us, Sir, to offer you individually, the assurance of our high 
 respect, and in the name of the Young Men of Boston, to subscribe our 
 selves your obedient servants, 
 
 L. M. WALTER, 
 E. G. AUSTIN, 
 BENJAMIN F. HALLETT, 
 JOHN CODMAN, 
 ISAAC McLELLAN, JR. 
 
 M138679 
 
NOTE. In preparing the following Eulogy for the press, some topics? 
 have been introduced and others treated more at length, which, on the 
 delivery, were either wholly omitted or briefly alluded to. To avoid the 
 necessity of frequent marginal references, 1 would observe, that the account 
 of Lafayette s first visit to America is chiefly taken from a very interesting 
 article, on that subject, communicated by Mr. Sparks to the Boston Daily 
 Advertiser of 26th June 1834, from his edition of Washington s Works, 
 now in the press. Among the other authorities which 1 have consulted, 
 are the well known work of Sarrans, the Memoirs of Lafayette and the 
 Constitutional Assembly by Regnault-Warin, Montgaillard s History of 
 France from the close of the reign of Louis XVI. to the year 1825, and 
 Mr. Ticknor s beautiful Sketch of the Life of Lafayette, originally publish 
 ed in the North American Review. But I owe a more particular acknowl 
 edgment to Mr. Sparks, who .not only furnished me with the sheets of 
 those parts of the unpublished volumes of Washington s Works, which 
 throw light on the military services of Lafayette in the war of the Ameri 
 can Revolution, but placed in my hands a great mass of original papers of 
 the highest interest and value, relating to the career of Lafayette, and 
 furnished to Mr. Sparks by the General himself, from his own collections 
 and the public offices at Paris. These papers contain the Correspondence 
 of Lafayette with Washington, from the year 1778 to his death ; his Cor 
 respondence and Notes of his conferences with the Count de Vergennes 
 and other French ministers ; his Correspondence with his family and 
 friends from America and from his prisons in Germany ; Notes and Com 
 mentaries on the most important incidents of his life; his Correspondence 
 with the Governor of Virginia and officers of the Army, especially during 
 the campaign of 1781, and miscellaneous papers bearing on the main sub 
 ject. They form altogether ample materials for a History of the Life and 
 Services of Lafayette ; a work which no one is so well qualified as Mr. 
 Sparks to execute, and which it is greatly to be wished he might be induc 
 ed to undertake. 
 
EULOGY. 
 
 WHEN I look round upon this vast audience, 
 when I reflect upon the deep interest manifested by 
 so many intelligent persons in the occasion, which 
 has called us together, when I consider the variety, 
 the importance, and singularity of the events, which 
 must pass in review before us, and the extraordinary 
 character of the man whom we commemorate, his 
 connection with Europe and America, in the most 
 critical periods of their history, his intercourse in 
 both hemispheres with the master spirits of the age, 
 his auspicious, long protracted, and glorious career, 
 alternating with fearful rapidity from one extreme of 
 fortune to the other, and when I feel that I am ex 
 pected, by the great multitude I have the honor to 
 address, the flower of this metropolis, to say 
 something not inappropriate to such an occasion nor 
 wholly beneath the theme, I am oppressed with the 
 weight of the duty I am to perform. I know not 
 how, in the brief space allotted to me, to take up 
 
 
and dispose of a subject so vast and comprehensive. 
 I feel it to be an arduous, I had almost said a pre 
 sumptuous effort, to attempt to dismiss, in a few 
 sentences, the interest of a mighty career of useful 
 ness, the riches of a long life, and the glory of a 
 great and a pure name. I would even now, were it 
 possible, retire from the undertaking ; and leave to 
 your own hearts, borne upwards with the swelling 
 strains of yonder choir, whose pious and plaintive 
 melody is just dying on the ear, to muse, in ex 
 pressive silence, the praise of him we celebrate. But 
 since this may not be, since the duty devolved upon 
 me must, however feebly, be discharged, let me, 
 like the illustrious subject of our contemplation, 
 gather strength from the magnitude of the task. Let 
 me calmly trace him through those lofty and perilous 
 paths of duty, which he trod with serenity, while 
 empires were toppling round him ; and, trampling 
 under foot the arts of the rhetorician, as he tramp 
 led under foot all the bribes of vanity, avarice, and 
 ambition, and all the delights of life, let me, in the 
 plainness of history and the boldness of truth, not 
 wholly uncongenial to the character of the man I 
 would reproduce to your admiration and love, dis 
 charge as I may, the great duty, which your favor has 
 assigned to me. 
 
 There is, at every great era of the history of the 
 world, a Leading Principle, which gives direction to 
 the fortunes of nations and the characters of distin 
 guished men. This principle, in our own time, is 
 that of the action and reaction upon each other of 
 
Europe and America, for the advancement of free 
 institutions and the promotion of rational liberty. 
 Since the discovery of America, this principle has 
 been in operation, but naturally and necessarily with 
 vastly increased energy, since the growth of an in 
 telligent population, this side the water. For the 
 formation of a man of truly great character, it is ne 
 cessary that he should be endowed with qualities to 
 win respect and love ; that he should be placed in 
 circumstances, favorable to a powerful action on soci 
 ety ; and then, that with a pure affection, a strong, 
 disinterested, glowing zeal, a holy ambition of phi 
 lanthropy, he should devote himself to the governing 
 principle of the age. Such a combination, humanly 
 speaking, produces the nearest approach to perfection 
 which the sphere of man admits. Of such characters 
 the American Revolution was more than commonly 
 fertile, for it was the very crisis of that action and 
 reaction, which is the vocation of the age. Such a 
 character was Washington ; such was Lafayette. 
 
 LAFAYETTE was born at Chavaniac, in the ancient 
 province of Auvergne, in France, on the sixth day of 
 September 1757, seventy-seven years ago this day. 
 His family was one of the most ancient in the country, 
 and of the highest rank in the French nobility. As 
 far back as the fifteenth century one of his ancestors, 
 a marshal of France, was distinguished for his mili 
 tary achievements ; his uncle fell in the wars of Italy 
 in the middle of the last century ; and his father lost 
 his life in the seven years war, at the battle of Min- 
 
den. His mother died soon after, and he was thus 
 left an orphan, at an early age, the heir of an im 
 mense estate, and exposed to all the dangers inci 
 dent to youth, rank, and fortune, in the gayest and 
 most luxurious city on earth, at the period of its 
 greatest corruption. He escaped unhurt. Having 
 completed the usual academical course, at the College 
 of Duplessis in Paris, he married, at the age of six 
 teen, the daughter of the Duke d Ayen, of the family 
 of Noailles, somewhat younger than himself; and 
 at all times the noble encourager of his virtues, the 
 heroic partner of his sufferings, the worthy sharer 
 of his great name and of his honorable grave. 
 
 The family to which he thus became allied was 
 then, and for fifty years had been, in the highest 
 favor at the French court. Himself the youthful heir 
 of one of the oldest and^ richest houses in France, 
 the path of advancement was open before 7 him. He 
 was offered a brilliant place in the royal household. 
 At an age and in a situation most likely to be caught 
 by the attraction, he declined the proffered distinc 
 tion, impatient of the attendance at court which it re 
 quired. He felt, from his earliest years, that he was 
 not born to loiter in an ante-chamber. The senti 
 ment of liberty was already awakened in his bosom. 
 Having, while yet at college, been required, as an 
 exercise in composition, to describe the well trained 
 charger, obedient even to the shadow of the whip ; he 
 represented the noble animal, on the contrary, as rear 
 ing at the sight of it, and throwing his rider. With 
 this feeling, the profession of arms was, of course. 
 
the most congenial to him ; and was, in fact, with 
 the exception of that of courtier, the only one open 
 to a young French nobleman, before the Revolu 
 tion. 
 
 In the summer of 1776, and just after the Ameri 
 can Declaration of Independence, Lafayette was sta 
 tioned at Metz, a garrisoned town on the road from 
 Paris to the German frontier, with the regiment to 
 which he was attached, as a captain of dragoons, not 
 then nineteen years of age. The Duke of Glou 
 cester, the brother of the King of England, happened 
 to be on a visit to Metz, and a dinner was given to 
 him, by the commandant of the garrison. Lafayette 
 was invited, with other officers, to the entertainment. 
 Despatches had just been received by the Duke from 
 England, relating to American affairs, the resistance 
 of the colonists, and the strong measures adopted by 
 the ministers to crush the rebellion. Among the 
 details stated by the Duke of Gloucester was the ex 
 traordinary fact, that these remote, scattered, and 
 unprotected settlers of the wilderness had solemnly 
 declared themselves an Independent People. That 
 word decided the fortunes of the enthusiastic listener; 
 and not more distinctly was the great Declaration a 
 charter of political liberty to the rising states, than it 
 was a commission to their youthful champion to de 
 vote his life to the sacred cause. 
 
 The details which he heard were new to him. 
 The American contest was known to him before, but 
 as a rebellion, a tumultuary affair in a remote trans 
 atlantic colony. He now, with a promptness of per- 
 
10 
 
 ception, which even at this distance of time, strikes 
 us as little less than miraculous, addressed a multi 
 tude of enquiries to the Duke of Gloucester on the 
 subject of the contest. His imagination was kindled 
 at the idea of a civilized people struggling for politi 
 cal liberty. His heart was warmed with the possi 
 bility of drawing his sword in a good cause. Before 
 he left the table, his course was mentally resolved 
 on ; and the brother of the King of England, (un 
 consciously no doubt), had the singular fortune to 
 enlist, from the French court and the French army, 
 this gallant and fortunate champion in the then un 
 promising cause of the Colonial Congress. 
 
 He immediately repaired to Paris, to make further 
 enquiries and arrangements, toward the execution of 
 his great plan. He confided it to two young friends, 
 officers like himself, the Count Segur and Viscount 
 de Noailles, and proposed to them to join him. They 
 shared his enthusiasm and determined to accompa 
 ny him, but on consulting their families, they were 
 refused permission. But they faithfully kept Lafay 
 ette s secret. Happily, shall I say, he was an or 
 phan, independent of control, and master of his own 
 fortune, amounting to near forty thousand dollars per 
 annum. 
 
 He next opened his heart to the Count de Broglie, 
 a marshal in the French army. To the experienced 
 warrior, accustomed to the regular campaigns of Eu 
 ropean service, the project seemed rash and quixotic, 
 and one that he could not countenance. Lafayette 
 begged the Count at least not to betray him ; as he 
 
11 
 
 was resolved, (notwithstanding his disapproval of the 
 project,) to go to America. This the Count promis 
 ed, adding, however, 1 saw your uncle fall in Italy, 
 and I witnessed your father s death, at the battle of 
 Minden, and I will not be accessary to the ruin of 
 the only remaining branch of the family. He then 
 used all the powers of argument which his age and 
 experience suggested to him, to dissuade Lafayette 
 from the enterprise, but in vain. Finding his deter 
 mination unalterable, he made him acquainted with 
 the Baron de Kalb, who, the Count knew, was 
 about to embark for America ; an officer of experi 
 ence and merit, who, as is well known, fell at the 
 battle of Camden. 
 
 The Baron de Kalb introduced Lafayette to Silas 
 Deane, then agent of the United States in France, 
 who explained to him the state of affairs in America, 
 and encouraged him in his project. Dearie was but 
 imperfectly acquainted with the French language, 
 and of manners somewhat repulsive. A less enthu 
 siastic temper than that of Lafayette might Lave 
 been somewhat chilled, by the style of his intercourse. 
 He had as yet not been acknowledged, in any public 
 capacity ; and was beset by the spies of the British 
 ambassador. For these reasons, it was judged expedi 
 ent, that the visit of Lafayette should not be repeat 
 ed, and their further negotiations were conducted 
 through the intervention of Mr. Carmichael, an 
 American gentleman, at that time in Paris. The 
 arrangement was at length concluded, in virtue of 
 which Deane took upon himself, without authority, 
 
but by a happy exercise of discretion, to engage 
 Lafayette to enter the American service, with the 
 rank of Major General. A vessel was about to be 
 despatched with arms and other supplies for the 
 American army, and in this vessel it was settled that 
 he should take passage. 
 
 At this juncture, the news reached France of the 
 evacuation of New- York, the loss of Fort Washing- 
 ton, the calamitous retreat through New-Jersey, and 
 the other disasters of the campaign of 1776, The 
 friends of America in France were in despair. The 
 tidings, bad in themselves, were greatly exaggerated 
 in the British gazettes. The plan of sending an 
 armed vessel with munitions, was abandoned* The 
 cause, always doubtful, was now pronounced desper 
 ate ; and Lafayette was urged by all who were privv to 
 his project, to give up an enterprise so wild and hope 
 less. Even our commissioners (for Deane had been 
 joined by Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee,) told him 
 they could not in conscience urge him to proceed. 
 His answer was, My zeal and love of liberty have 
 perhaps hitherto been the prevailing motive with me, 
 but now I see a chance of usefulness which I had 
 not anticipated. These supplies I know are greatly 
 wanted by Congress. I have money ; I will purchase 
 a vessel to convey them to America, and in this ves 
 sel my companions and myself will take passage. 
 
 Yes, Fellow-citizens, that I may repeat an excla 
 mation, uttered ten years ago by him wh& has now 
 the honor to address you, in the presence of an 
 immense multitude, who welcomed the Nation s 
 
13 
 
 Guest to the academic shades of Harvard, and by 
 them received with acclamations of approval and tears 
 of gratitude ; when he was told by our commission 
 er^ < that they did not possess the means nor the 
 credit of procuring a single vessel in all the ports of 
 France, then, exclaimed the gallant and generous 
 youth, * 1 will provide my own ; and it is a literal 
 fact, that when our beloved country was too poor to 
 offer him so much as a passage to her shores, he left, 
 in his tender youth, the bosom of home, of happiness, 
 of wealth, and of rank, to plunge in the dust and 
 blood of our inauspicious struggle. 
 
 In pursuance of the generous purpose thus con 
 ceived, the secretary of the Count de Broglie was 
 employed by Lafayette, to purchase and fit out a ves 
 sel at Bordeaux ; and while these preparations were 
 in train, with a view of averting suspicion from his 
 movements, and passing the tedious interval of delay, 
 he made a visit with a relative, to his kinsman, the 
 Marquis de Noailles, then the French ambassador in 
 London. During their stay in Great Britain, they 
 were treated with kindness by the King and persons 
 of rank ; but having, after a lapse of three weeks, 
 learned that his vessel was ready at Bordeaux, Lafay 
 ette suddenly returned to France. This visit was of 
 service to the youthful adventurer, in furnishing him 
 an opportunity to improve himself in the English lan 
 guage ; but beyond this, a nice sense of honor forbade 
 him from making use of the opportunity, which it 
 afforded, for obtaining military information, that 
 could be of utility to the American army. So far 
 
14 
 
 did he carry this scruple, that he declined visiting the 
 naval establishment at Portsmouth. 
 
 On his return to France, he did not even visit 
 Paris ; but after three days passed at Passy, the 
 residence of Dr. Franklin, he hastened to Bordeaux. 
 Arrived at this place, he found that his vessel was 
 not yet ready; and had the still greater mortification 
 to learn, that the spies of the British ambassador had 
 penetrated his designs, and made them known to the 
 family of Lafayette, and to the King, from whom an 
 order for his arrest was daily expected. Unprepared 
 as his ship was, he instantly sailed in her to Passage, 
 the nearest port in Spain, where he proposed to wait 
 for the vessel s papers. Scarcely had he arrived in 
 that harbor, when he was encountered by two offi 
 cers, with letters from his family, and from the min 
 isters, and a royal order directing him to join his 
 father-in-law at Marseilles. The letters from the 
 ministers, reprimanded him for violating his oath of 
 allegiance, and failing in his duty to his King. Lafay 
 ette, in some of his letters to his friends about court, 
 replied to this remark, that the ministers might chide 
 him with failing in his duty to the King when they 
 learned to discharge theirs to the people. His fami 
 ly censured him for his desertion of his domestic 
 duties ; but his heroic wife, instead of joining in the 
 reproach, shared his enthusiasm and encouraged his 
 enterprise. He was obliged to return with the 
 officers to Bordeaux, and report himself to the com 
 mandant. While there, and engaged in communica 
 ting with his family and the Court, in explanation 
 
15 
 
 and defence of his conduct, he learned from a friend 
 at Paris, that a positive prohibition of his departure 
 might be expected from the King. No farther time 
 was to be lost, and no middle course pursued. He 
 feigned a willingness to yield to the wishes of his 
 family, and started as for Marseilles, with one of the 
 officers who was to accompany him to America. 
 Scarcely had they left the city of Bordeaux, when he 
 assumed the dress of a courier, mounted a horse, and 
 rode forward to procure relays. They soon quitted 
 the road to Marseilles, and struck into that which 
 le*ads to Spain. On reaching Bayonne, they were 
 detained two or three hours. While the companion 
 of Lafayette was employed in some important com 
 mission in the city, he himself lay on the straw in 
 the stable. At St. Jean de Luz, he was recognized 
 by the daughter of the person who kept the post 
 house ; she had observed him a few days before, 
 as he passed from Spain to Bordeaux. Perceiving 
 that he was discovered, and not daring to speak to 
 her, he made her a signal to keep silence. She com 
 plied with the intimation ; and when, shortly after he 
 had passed on, his pursuers came up, she gave them an 
 answer, which baffled their penetration, and enabled 
 Lafayette to escape into Spain. He was instantly 
 on board his ship and at sea, with eleven officers in 
 his train. 
 
 It would take me beyond the limits of the occasion, 
 to repeat the various casualties and exposures of his 
 passage, which lasted sixty days. His vessel had 
 cleared out for the West Indies, but Lafayette directed 
 
16 
 
 the Captain to steer for the United States, which, es 
 pecially as he had a large pecuniary adventure of his 
 own on board, he declined doing. By threats to 
 remove him from his command and promises to 
 indemnify him for the loss of his property, should they 
 be captured, Lafayette prevailed upon the Captain to 
 steer his course for the American coast, where at 
 last they happily arrived, having narrowly escaped two 
 British vessels of war, which were cruising in that 
 quarter. They made the coast near Georgetown, 
 South Carolina. It was late in the day before they 
 could approach so near land as to leave the vessel. 
 Anxious to tread the American soil, Lafayette, with 
 some of his fellow officers, entered the ship s boat and 
 was rowed at nightfall to shore. A distant light 
 guided them in their landing and advance into the 
 country. Arriving near the house from which the 
 light proceeded, an alarm was given by the watch 
 dogs, and they were mistaken by those within for a 
 marauding party, from the enemy s vessels hovering 
 on the coast. The Baron de Kalb, however, had a 
 good knowledge of the English language, acquired 
 on a previous visit to America, and was soon able to 
 make known who they were and what was their er 
 rand. On this they were of course readily admitted 
 and cordially welcomed. The house, in which they 
 found themselves, was that of Major Huger, a citi 
 zen of worth, hospitality, and patriotism, by whom 
 every good office was performed to the adventurous 
 strangers. He provided the next day the means of 
 conveying Lafayette and his companions to Charles- 
 
17 
 
 ton, where they were received with enthusiasm by the 
 magistrates and the people. 
 
 As soon as possible, they proceeded by land to 
 Philadelphia. On his arrival there, with the eager 
 ness of a youth anxious to be employed upon his 
 errand, he sent his letters to our townsman, Mr. Lov- 
 ell, chairman of the committee of foreign relations. 
 He called the next day at the hall of Congress, and 
 asked to see this gentleman. Mr. Lovell came out 
 to him, stated that so many foreigners offered them 
 selves for employment, in the American army, that 
 Congress was greatly embarrassed to find them com 
 mands, that the finances of the country required 
 the most rigid economy ; and that he feared, in the 
 present case, there was little hope of success. La 
 fayette perceived that the worthy chairman had 
 made up his report, without looking at the papers; 
 he explained to him that his application, if granted, 
 would lay no burden upon the finances of Congress, 
 and addressed a letter to the President, in which he 
 expressed a wish to enter the American army, on the 
 condition of serving without pay or emolument, and 
 on the footing of a volunteer. These conditions re 
 moved the chief obstacles alluded to, in reference to 
 the appointment of foreign officers ; the letters 
 brought by Lafayette made known to Congress his 
 high connections and his large means of usefulness, 
 and without an hour s delay he received from them a 
 commission of Major General in the American army, 
 a month before he was twenty years of age. 
 
 A month before he is twenty years of age, he is 
 
 c 
 
 
 
18 
 
 thought worthy by that august body, the Revolutiona 
 ry Congress, to be placed in the highest rank of those, 
 to whom the conduct of their arms was entrusted in 
 this hour of their extremest peril. What a com 
 mencement of life ! None of the golden hours of 
 youth wasted on its worthless but tempting vanities ; 
 none of those precious opportunities are lost for 
 him, which, once lost, neither gold, nor tears, nor 
 blood can buy back, and which for the mass of men, 
 are lost, irretrievably and forever ! None of the 
 joyous days of youthful vigor exhausted even in the 
 praiseworthy but cheerless vigils, with which, in the 
 present artificial state of society, it is too often the 
 lot of advancing merit to work its way toilsomely up 
 the steeps of usefulness and fame ! It pleased a gra 
 cious Providence, in disposing the strange and various 
 agency, by which the American Independence was 
 to be established, to place in the company of its 
 defenders, a youthful champion, from the highest 
 circle of the gayest court of Europe. By the side of 
 Washington from his broad plantations, of Greene 
 from his forge, of Stark from his almost pathless 
 forests and granite hills, of Putnam from his hum 
 ble farm, there is a place, at the war council of the 
 Revolution, for a young nobleman from France. 
 He is raised at once above the feverish appetite for 
 advancement, the pest of affairs, for he is born to 
 the highest station society can bestow. He comes 
 from the bosom of the domestic endearments, with 
 which he has surrounded himself, before any of the 
 accursed poisons of pleasure have been poured into 
 
 
19 
 
 his heart ; and youth as he is, he brings the chaste and 
 manly virtues of the husband and the father to the 
 virtuous cause, which he has embraced. The posses 
 sor of an immense estate, he is beyond the reach of 
 mercenary motives ; and is enabled even to confer 
 favors on the Congress whose confidence he receives. 
 
 But though his enterprise is one, which requires 
 for its very conception a rare enthusiasm ; although, 
 considering his position at home, he must be all but 
 a madman to persevere in such an adventure ; yet 
 the nature of the cause to which he consecrates him 
 self, and of the duties which he undertakes to per 
 form, implies a gravity of character, and sound judg 
 ment belonging to mature years and long experience ; 
 and that gravity and good judgment, young and in 
 experienced as he is, he possesses in an eminent de 
 gree. To succeed in the undertaking, he seems to 
 need qualities of character not merely different from 
 those, which alone could prompt him to embark in 
 it ; but he must have the opposite and contradictory 
 qualities. He must be cool, prudent, and consider 
 ate, at the very moment that he enters a career, from 
 which every cool, prudent, and considerate man 
 would have dissuaded him ; and arduous as it is, 
 he enters it without preparation or training. 
 
 But let. him enter it, the noble and fortunate 
 youth ; let him enter it, without preparation or train 
 ing ! Great as the work is, and completely as he is 
 to succeed in it, it is itself but a work of preparation. 
 This is not yet the province of duty assigned him. 
 He comes without training, for this is the school, in 
 
 
20 
 
 which he is to be trained. He comes unprepared, 
 because he comes to a great Preparation of Liberty. 
 Destined, when, with full success and spotless honor, 
 he shall have gone through the American Revolution, 
 to take the lead in a mighty work of political reform in 
 his native land, he comes, in his youth, to the great 
 monitorial school of Freedom ; to imbibe its holy 
 doctrines from an authentic source, before his heart 
 is hardened and his mind perverted ; to catch its pure 
 spirit, living and uncorrupted, from the lips of a 
 pure Master. 
 
 Before that master he is yet to appear. The 
 youthful adventurer has a test of character at hand 
 more severe, than any to w r hich he has yet been sub 
 jected. He has stood from his youth before princes 
 and kings, and felt that his clay was as good as 
 theirs. But he has yet to stand before that face, 
 where, more than ever yet in the face of mere man, 
 the awful majesty of virtue abode in visible persona 
 tion : the serene but melancholy countenance, which 
 no smile of light-hearted gladness illuminated, from 
 the commencement to the close of his country s 
 struggle. Washington was at head-quarters when 
 Lafayette reached Philadelphia, but he was daily 
 expected in the city. The introduction of the youth 
 ful stranger to the man, on whom his career depend 
 ed, was therefore delayed a few days. It took place 
 in a manner peculiarly marked with the circumspec 
 tion of Washington, at a dinner party, where Lafay 
 ette was one among several guests of consideration, 
 Washington was not uninformed of the circumstan- 
 
 
21 
 
 ces connected with his arrival in the country. He 
 knew what benefits it promised the cause, if his 
 character and talents were adapted to the course 
 he had so boldly struck out ; and he knew also 
 how much it was to be feared, that the very qual 
 ities, which had prompted him to embark in it, 
 would make him a useless and even a dangerous 
 auxiliary. We may well suppose, that the piercing 
 eye of the father of his country was not idle during 
 the repast. But that searching glance, before which 
 pretence or fraud never stood undetected, was com 
 pletely satisfied. When they were about to separate, 
 Washington took Lafayette aside, spoke to him 
 with kindness, paid a just tribute to the noble 
 spirit which he had shown, and the sacrifices he had 
 made in the American cause ; invited him to make 
 the head-quarters of the army his home, and to re 
 gard himself, at all times, as one of the family of the 
 Commander-in-chief. 
 
 Such was the reception given to Lafayette, by the 
 most sagacious and observant of men ; and the per 
 sonal acquaintance, thus commenced, ripened into 
 an intimacy, a confidence, and an affection without 
 bounds, and never for one moment interrupted. If 
 there lived a man whom Washington loved, it was 
 Lafayette. The proofs of this are not wanted by 
 those who have read the history of the Revolution, 
 but the private correspondence of these two great 
 men, hitherto unpublished, discloses the full extent 
 of the mutual regard and affection which united 
 them. It not only shews that Washington entertain- 
 
22 
 
 ed the highest opinion of the military talent, the per 
 sonal probity, and the general prudence and energy 
 of Lafayette, but that he regarded him with the 
 tenderness of a father ; and found in the affection, 
 which Lafayette bore to him in return, one of the 
 greatest comforts and blessings of his own life. 
 Whenever the correspondence of Washington and 
 Lafayette shall be published, the publication will 
 do, what perhaps nothing else can, raise them both 
 in the esteem and admiration of mankind. 
 
 It was on the 31st of July, 1777, that Lafayette 
 received, by a resolution of Congress, his commis 
 sion as a Major General in the American Army. 
 Not having at first a separate command, he attached 
 himself to the army of the Commander-in-chief, as a 
 volunteer. On the llth of the following September, 
 he was present at the unfortunate battle of Brandy- 
 wine. He there plunged, with a rashness, par 
 donable in a very youthful commander, into the 
 hottest of the battle, exposed himself to all its dan 
 gers, and exhibited a conspicuous example of coolness 
 and courage. When the troops began to retreat in 
 disorder, he threw himself from his horse, entered the 
 ranks, and endeavored to rally them. While thus 
 employed, he was shot by a musket ball through the 
 leg. The wound was not perceived by himself, till 
 he was told by his aid, that the blood was running 
 from his boot. He fell in with a surgeon, who plac 
 ed a slight bandage on his limb, with which he rode 
 to Chester. Regardless of his situation, he thought 
 only of rallying the troops, who were retreating in 
 
23 
 
 disorder through the village ; and it was not till 
 this duty was performed, that the wound was dressed. 
 It was two months before it was sufficiently healed 
 to enable him to rejoin the army. This was the first 
 battle in which he was ever engaged, and such was 
 his entrance into the active service of America. 
 
 It would obviously be impossible to do more than 
 glance at the military services of Lafayette during 
 the Revolutionary War, but it seems to belong to a 
 proper treatment of the subject that they should not 
 be wholly omitted. 
 
 In the winter of 1778, he was designated to the 
 command of an expedition into Canada, a project 
 formed, without consulting Washington, by the mem 
 bers of Congress and the cabal in the army opposed 
 to the Commander-in-chief. Lafayette was placed 
 at the head of it, partly, no doubt, with a view of de 
 taching him from the support and thereby impairing 
 the influence of Washington. But his veneration for 
 Washington, his good feeling, his sound military judg 
 ment, and above all his correct perception of the 
 character of the great man aimed at, enabled him to 
 escape the snare. On repairing to Albany, he found 
 no preparations made to carry the expedition into ef 
 fect. He perceived its impracticability, and it was 
 abandoned. His retreat at Barren-hill, from a very 
 critical and dangerous situation, into which he was 
 thrown by the abandonment of their post on the part 
 of a detachment of militia stationed to protect his po 
 sition, received the highest commendations of Wash 
 ington. On General Lee s declining the command of 
 
24 
 
 the advance of the army at Monmouth, it was given 
 to Lafayette. Lee, perceiving the importance of the 
 command, and the unfavorable appearance which his 
 waiver of it mie;ht wear, prevailed with great difficulty 
 on Lafayette, the day before the battle, to allow him 
 to assume it. The conduct of Lafayette on that im 
 portant day was marked with bravery and skill. On 
 the very day that the British effected their entrance 
 into New- York, the French fleet, under the Count 
 d Estaing, appeared in the American waters. Rhode- 
 Island having been fixed upon, as the theatre of 
 operations, Lafayette was detached with two brig 
 ades, to join the army under General Sullivan. 
 During all the perilous incidents of this critical and 
 unsuccessful campaign, the most important services 
 were rendered by Lafayette. He exerted the hap 
 piest influence in restoring harmony between the 
 officers and soldiers of the French and American ar 
 mies, which had been seriously interrupted, in conse 
 quence of the unfortunate issue of the expedition. 
 This was of infinite importance to the cause, as a 
 permanent disgust on the part of the French troops, 
 in this the first expedition sent out in virtue of the al 
 liance, might have effectually damped the further ef 
 forts of France. His services on the occasion were 
 acknowledged by express resolutions of Congress. 
 
 France being now in a state of declared hostility 
 against England, and Lafayette being still an officer 
 in the French army, he deemed it his duty, at the 
 close of the campaign, to return to his native country, 
 and place himself at the disposal of his government. 
 
25 
 
 He united with this object that of exerting his influ 
 ence in favor of America, by his personal conferences 
 with the French ministry. He accordingly applied 
 to Congress for a furlough, which on the particular 
 recommendation of General Washington was granted. 
 This permission was accompanied by resolutions ex 
 pressing, in flattering terms, the sense, which was 
 entertained by Congress, of the importance of his 
 services, and by a letter recommending him to the 
 good offices of the American minister in France. At 
 the same time also, Congress ordered that a sword 
 should be presented to him, adorned with emblematic 
 devices, appropriate to its object. 
 
 Lafayette embarked for France at Boston in Jan 
 uary 1779, on board an American frigate. Just 
 before arriving on the coasts of France, he happily 
 discovered and assisted in subduing a mutiny on the 
 part of some British prisoners of war, whom he had 
 been induced to admit as a portion of the crew of the 
 frigate, from his aversion to impressment, which 
 must otherwise have been resorted to, in order to 
 make up the ship s complement of men. He was now 
 twenty-two years of age, and returned after two years 
 of absence, marked with honorable scars, and sig 
 nalized by the thanks of Congress, the admiration of 
 America, and the friendship of Washington. He was 
 received with enthusiasm by the people, and even at 
 court. As he had left the country in disobedience 
 to a royal mandate, etiquette demanded that he 
 should for a few days be required to keep his house, 
 and to see no persons but the members of his family. 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 This, however, embraced within its circle nearly ev 
 ery person of distinction about the court. His name 
 had already been introduced into several dramatic 
 performances, and hailed with acclamations in the the 
 atres ; and a beautiful apostrophe to him in one of 
 these performances, was copied by the Queen, and 
 long preserved in her hand writing, by her confi 
 dential attendant Madame Campan. On a journey 
 to one of his estates, in the south of France, the 
 whole population came out to meet him, and the 
 fetes of the city of Orleans, in honor of his return, 
 were prolonged for a week. 
 
 The entire benefit of the enthusiasm, of which he 
 was thus the object, was turned by Lafayette to the 
 advantage of America. He was the confidential ad 
 viser of Dr. Franklin ; he was in unbroken corres 
 pondence with Washington, and he was sure to be 
 approached by every American arriving in France, 
 and by every European repairing to America. A 
 Major General in her armies, he was clothed with an 
 official right to interfere in her cause ; and his country 
 being now at war with England, no reasons of state 
 interposed to check his activity. He was as a French 
 officer attached to the staff of the Marshal Vaux, at 
 that time Commander-in-chief of the French army. 
 In this capacity, having direct access to the court, 
 the personal and warmly devoted friend of the Count 
 de Vergennes, and the popular favorite, he did for 
 America what no other man could have done, and 
 rendered services to the cause not yet sufficiently ap 
 preciated, and worthy a moment s reflection. 
 
27 
 
 The alliance with France, was the great turning 
 point in the fortunes of the Revolution. I do not, 
 of course, say that, without it, our independence could 
 not have been established. Had this failed, other 
 means would, no doubt, in some wholly different 
 train of affairs, have been disclosed. I would not 
 say of any thing, not even of the character of Wash 
 ington, that, without it, the country could not have 
 been carried through the war. But in looking back 
 upon the history of the times, I cannot now perceive 
 that in the series of events by which the Independence 
 of the United States was achieved, the alliance with 
 France could have been dispensed with. Her recog 
 nition of our Independence inspirited our own coun 
 cils, and disheartened England. The loans of money 
 and military supplies derived from France, were a 
 vital resource, for which I know not what substitute 
 could have been found ; and finally, the co-operation 
 of her fleets and armies, involving, as it did eventually 
 that of the Spanish forces, brought down upon the 
 British ministry a burden which they could not bear, 
 and compelled them to abandon the struggle. 
 
 At the same time, the greatest difficulties opposed 
 themselves to the practical developement of the 
 benefits of the treaty of alliance. In the first place, 
 it required of an old European monarchy to counte 
 nance a colonial revolt. France had colonies. Spain, 
 the kindred sovereignty, had a colonial world in 
 America, where the formidable and all but successful 
 revolt of Tupac-Amaru was already in secret prepa 
 ration. It was the last moment, which France or 
 
28 
 
 Spain would have voluntarily chosen, to sanction an 
 example of transatlantic independence. The finances 
 of France were any thing but prosperous, and she 
 had to support, unaided, the expense of the fleets 
 and armies which she sent to our assistance. Great 
 difficulties, it was supposed, would attend the co 
 operation of a French army with American forces on 
 land. Congress was jealous of the introduction of a 
 foreign soldiery into the interior of the country, and 
 Washington himself gave but a reluctant consent to 
 the measure. Considerable discontent had arisen in 
 connection with Count d Estaing s movements in 
 Rhode Island, which, had it not been allayed by 
 the prudent and effectual mediation of Lafayette, 
 would, as has been already stated, probably have pre 
 vented a French army from being sent over to the 
 United States. Such were the feelings, on both 
 sides of the ocean, when Lafayette went back to 
 France in 1779 ; and during the whole of that year, 
 he exerted himself unceasingly, in his correspondence 
 and conferences with the French ministry, to induce 
 them to send out an army. The difficulties to be 
 overcome were all but insurmountable, acting, as he 
 was, not only without the instructions, but against the 
 sense of Congress, and scarcely sanctioned by Wash 
 ington. He, however, knew that success would at 
 tend the measure. He had that interior conviction, 
 which no argument or authority can subdue, that the 
 proposed expedition was practicable and expedient, 
 and he succeeded in imparting his enthusiasm to the 
 ministers. He knew that the anticipated difficulties 
 
29 
 
 could be overcome. He had proved, in his own ex 
 perience, that co-operation was practicable. Milita 
 ry subordination made it impossible to put him, a 
 young man of twenty-two, holding in the King s 
 army only the commission of a subaltern, in the 
 command of a large force ; but he relied, with a 
 just confidence, on the services, which his standing 
 in America and his possession of the confidence of 
 Washington would enable him to render. He ac 
 cordingly pursued the object, with an ardor, an in 
 dustry, and an adroitness, which nothing could sur 
 pass. When his correspondence with the French 
 ministers, particularly the Count de Vergennes, shall 
 be published, it will appear that it was mainly the 
 personal efforts and personal influence of Lafayette, 
 idol of the French people as he had made himself, 
 which caused the army of Rochambeau to be sent 
 to America. It was pleasantly remarked by the old 
 Count de Maurepas, who, at the age of seventy-nine, 
 still stood at the head of the French ministry, that 
 i it was fortunate for the king, that Lafayette did 
 not take it into his head to strip Versailles of its 
 furniture, to send to his dear Americans; as his 
 Majesty would have been unable to refuse it. In 
 addition to his efforts to obtain the army of Rocham 
 beau, Lafayette was actively employed, during the 
 year 1779, in conjunction with our ministers, in 
 procuring a large pecuniary subsidy for the United 
 States. 
 
 Having thus contributed to the accomplishment of 
 these great objects, he returned to America in the 
 
30 
 
 Spring of 1780. He landed at Boston, where, 
 though nothing was as jet known of the all import 
 ant services he had rendered to us, he was received 
 with every mark of attachment and admiration. He 
 immediately repaired to the head-quarters of the 
 army ; but soon left them to arrange with Count 
 Rochambeau the interview between him and the 
 Commander-in-chief, in which the future operations 
 of the campaign were concerted, at which also he 
 was present. He was at West Point, at the period 
 of the ever memorable scene of the treachery of Ar 
 nold. The following winter, he marched at the head 
 of his division to Portsmouth in Virginia, to co-ope 
 rate in an attack on the British forces, by the com 
 bined French and American troops. This plan failed, 
 in consequence of the reverses experienced by the 
 French squadron, under Destouches. On his march 
 backward to the North, Lafayette received a courier 
 from Washington, informing him of the concentra 
 tion of the troops under Lord Cornwallis, Phillips, 
 and Arnold, in Virginia, and directing him to watch 
 their movements, and prevent this great state, whose 
 fortunes involved that of the whole Southern country, 
 from falling into their hands. This order found him 
 at the head of the Elk, in Maryland. He instantly 
 put in train the requisite measures of preparation. 
 His scanty force was in a state of perfect destitution. 
 In all his army, there was not a pair of shoes fit for 
 service. But the love and confidence, which the 
 country bore him, supplied the place of credit; and 
 he was able, in his own name, to raise a loan in 
 
31 
 
 Baltimore, sufficient to supply the most urgent wants 
 of his little command. Thus furnished, he hastened 
 into Virginia, and during the whole summer of 1781, 
 he conducted the campaign with a vigor, discretion, 
 and success, which saved the State of Virginia, and 
 proved himself to be endowed with the highest qual 
 ities of generalship. While Lord Cornwallis, to 
 whom he was opposed, a person not less eminent 
 for talent and experience, than for rank and political 
 influence, was boasting, in derision of his youthful 
 adversary, that the boy should not escape him, the 
 boy was preparing a pit, into which his lordship 
 plunged, with all his forces. 
 
 My limits do not allow me to sketch to you the 
 history of this great campaign, nor even of its final 
 glorious consummation, the closing scene of the war. 
 But I may, with propriety, pause to say, that it evinc 
 ed, on the part of our venerable Washington, now at 
 length favored with an opportunity of acting with am 
 ple means on a broad scale, a power of combina 
 tion and a reach of mind, with a promptitude and 
 vigor of execution which, exhibited at the head of 
 mighty armies, gave to Napoleon his reputation, as 
 the greatest captain of the age. I cannot but think, 
 that in the manoeuvres, by which Lord Cornwallis 
 was detained in Virginia ; by which Sir Henry 
 Clinton was persuaded, in New- York, that a siege 
 of that city was the great object of Washington, by 
 which the French forces were brought up from Rhode 
 Island ; the armies of Washington and Rocham- 
 beau moved, by a forced march across the country, 
 
32 
 
 to Yorktown, at the moment that the French squad 
 ron from Newport, under the Count de Barras, and 
 the great fleet under the Count de Grasse, effected 
 their junction in the Chesapeake, there is displayed 
 as much generalship, as in any series of movements 
 in the wars of the last thirty years. The operations 
 of Lafayette in Virginia, in the preceding summer, 
 were the basis of them all ; as his untiring efforts in 
 France, the preceding season, had mainly occasioned 
 the despatch of the army of Count Rochambeau, with 
 out which, the great exploit at Yorktown, could not 
 have been achieved. 
 
 And who that has a sense for all that is beautiful in 
 military display, grand and eventful in political com 
 binations, and auspicious to the cause of liberty, 
 but must linger a moment on the plain of Yorktown. 
 Before you, stretches the broad expanse of York riv 
 er, an arm of Chesapeake bay. Beyond it, to the 
 north, the British General has left a force at Glou 
 cester point, for his support, should he be compelled 
 to retreat across the river; and there the Duke de 
 Lauzun, with his legion, united with the Virginia 
 militia, effectually encloses the British force within 
 their lines. The intervening expanse of water is cov 
 ered with the British vessels of war. But it is 
 around the lines of Yorktown, that the interest of the 
 scene is concentrated. Above the town are stationed 
 the French, below the Americans. The royal regi 
 ments of Deux Fonts, of Touraine and Saintonge, on 
 the one side, and the troops ol Pennsylvania and Vir 
 ginia, of New-Jersey and New-England on the other. 
 
33 
 
 The Marquis de St. Simon commanded on the extreme 
 left, and General Lincoln on the extreme right. Be 
 fore the former, we behold the position of the two 
 Viornenils, and near the latter the post of Lafayette. 
 At the point of junction between the two lines, the 
 head-quarters of Count Rochambeau and those of 
 Washington are placed, in harmony of council and of 
 action, side by side. Two redoubts are to be carried. 
 To excite the generous emulation of the combined 
 forces, one is committed to the French and the other 
 to the Americans. Lafayette, with Hamilton at his 
 side, commands the latter, and both redoubts are car 
 ried at the point of the bayonet. Cornwallis attempts, 
 but without success, to escape. He is reduced, after 
 a seige of thirteen days, to enter into capitulation ; 
 and the last British army of the Revolutionary war 
 surrenders to the united forces of America and 
 France. 
 
 At the close of the campaign, to the successful 
 issue of which he had so essentially contributed, 
 Lafayette again asked the permission of Congress to 
 return to France. Well might they permit him, for he 
 went to rouse France and Spain, with all their fleets, 
 armies, and treasures, to strike a last and an over 
 whelming blow. A committee of Congress, of which 
 Charles Carroll was chairman and James Madison was 
 a member, reported a series of resolutions of the most 
 honorable character, which were adopted by that 
 body. They directed all the ministers of the United 
 States, in Europe, to confer and correspond with La 
 fayette, they invited him to correspond with Congress, 
 
34 
 
 and they recommended him, in the most affectionate 
 terms, to the especial favor of his sovereign. 
 
 He returned to his native country, with these new 
 laurels and new titles to admiration, and France rose 
 up as one man to receive him. His welcome, before 
 enthusiastic, was now rapturous ; it was prompted 
 before by admiration of a chivalrous adventure, but 
 the national pride and patriotic spirit of Frenchmen 
 were now aroused. The heavy reproach of the seven 
 years war was rolled away ; and the stains of Que 
 bec washed white at Yorktown. The government, 
 as well as the people of France, was elated at the 
 success of the campaign ; all doubts as to the possi 
 bility of a combined action were removed ; and to 
 Lafayette, as the prime mover of the enterprise, pro 
 portionate credit was justly given for his forecast 
 and sagacity. He could now ask for nothing that 
 was deemed extravagant ; or however extravagant, 
 he could ask for nothing which could be refused. 
 The enthusiasm caught from France to Spain. The 
 Castilian coldness was melted ; and although the 
 mountains of Peru were bristling with the bayonets 
 of the last of the Incas, King Charles II L could not 
 resist the temptation of humbling Great Britain, and 
 resolved at last that Spain and the Indies should go, 
 with all their resources, for the Congress. A mighty 
 plan of campaign was resolved on. An expedition, 
 such as Europe has rarely witnessed, was projected. 
 The old Armada seemed almost to rise from the 
 depths of the ocean, in mightily augmented array, to 
 avenge the ancient disasters of Spain. 
 
35 
 
 The preparations commenced at Cadiz. Count 
 d Estaing as generalissimo, with sixty vessels of the 
 line and smaller ships in proportion, with twenty- four 
 thousand troops, was to make a descent on Jamaica, 
 and thence strike at New- York. Lafayette was the 
 first at the rendezvous : he had already proceeded with 
 eight thousand men from Brest to Cadiz. He was 
 placed at the head of the staff of the combined armies, 
 and after New- York had fallen, was to have moved 
 with his division into Canada. But these magnifi 
 cent and formidable preparations effected their object, 
 at a cheaper cost than that of rivers of blood. The 
 British government learned wisdom, before it was too 
 late ; and the peace was concluded. It was the 
 wish of Lafayette to bear in person the joyous ti 
 dings to America. Just as he was about stepping on 
 board a frigate, for that purpose, he returned to Mad 
 rid, to render an important service to our minister 
 there. But his despatches were sent by the frigate, 
 and conveyed to Congress the first intelligence of the 
 peace. 
 
 In the course of the following year, he yielded to 
 the invitation of Washington and his other friends, and 
 revisited America. He was received with acclamations 
 of joy and gratitude from one end of the country to 
 the other ; but no where with a more cordial wel 
 come than in this ancient metropolis. On the 19th 
 of October 1784, in the hall in which we are now 
 assembled to pay the last tribute to his memory, sur 
 rounded by his fellow soldiers, by the authorities of 
 the commonwealth, the magistracy of the town, and 
 
36 
 
 the grateful and admiring citizens of Boston, he cel 
 ebrated the third anniversary of the capture of Corn- 
 wallis, in which he had himself so efficiently co-oper 
 ated. Fifty years have passed away. The pillars of 
 this venerable hall, then twined with garlands, are 
 hung with mourning. The cypress has taken the 
 place of the rose bud. The songs of patriotic rejoic 
 ing are hushed ; and the funeral anthem is heard in 
 their stead ; but the memory of the beloved champi 
 on, the friend of America and of freedom, shall 
 bloom in eternal remembrance.* 
 
 The year after his return to France, Lafayette 
 made a tour in Germany. He was received through 
 out that country, with the attention due to his rank 
 and the eclat of his services in America. At Vienna, 
 he met the Duke of York, at the table of the Em 
 peror Joseph, and employed the opportunities, which 
 such an interview afforded him, to inculcate the 
 policy of a liberal course, on the part of the powers of 
 Europe, and particularly Great Britain, toward the 
 rising states of America. He was received with dis 
 tinction by Frederick the Great, and accompanied 
 him on a tour of inspection and review of his armies. 
 On this occasion, he became acquainted with the 
 flying artillery, which Frederic had just organized, 
 and formed the purpose of introducing it into the 
 service of France, on the first opportunity ; an in- 
 
 * The incidents of Lafayette s visit to America in 1784 are succinctly re 
 lated in the Letters of an American Farmer. The narrative is highly in 
 teresting, and but for the more recent and still more extraordinary event? 
 of 1824, would well merit a more detailed reference. 
 
37 
 
 tention which he carried into effect, when, at the 
 commencement of the French Revolution, he was 
 placi d at the head of an army. 
 
 On his return to Paris, he united with M. de Mal- 
 sherbes, in endeavoring to ameliorate the political 
 condition of the Protestants. In concert with the 
 minister of the Marine, the Marshal de Castries, he 
 expended a large sum, from his private fortune, in an 
 experiment towards the education and eventual em 
 ancipation of slaves. To this end he purchased a 
 plantation in Cayenne, intending to give freedom to 
 the laborers, as soon as they should be in a condition 
 to enjoy it without abuse. In the progress of the 
 Revolution, this plantation, with the other estates of 
 Lafayette, was confiscated, and the slaves sold back 
 to perpetual bondage, by the faction which was 
 drenching France in blood, under the motto of liberty 
 and equality. 
 
 On the breaking out of the troubles in Holland in 
 1787, the patriotic party made overtures to Lafayette 
 to place himself at the head of a popular government 
 in that quarter ; but the progress of the Revolution 
 was arrested by the invasion of Prussia, and the policy 
 of England and France. Besides this, greater events 
 were preparing at home. 
 
 As far as the United States were concerned, during 
 all the period, which intervened from the peace of 
 1783 to the organization of the Federal government, 
 Lafayette performed in substance the functions of 
 their minister. He was engaged with indefatigable 
 industry and a zeal that knew no bounds, in pro- 
 
38 
 
 moting the interests of America at the Courts of 
 France and Spain. The published works of Mr. 
 Jefferson, which are before the country, and the 
 Diplomatic Correspondence of our ministers abroad, 
 during this period, abundantly show that not one of 
 the accredited ministers of the United States abroad, 
 able and faithful as they were, was more assiduously 
 devoted to the service of the country and the promo 
 tion of its political and commercial interests, than 
 Lafayette. New and most convincing proofs of this 
 have recently come before the public.* 
 
 At length the mighty crisis came on. The French 
 Revolution draws near; that stupendous event of 
 which it is impossible to be silent ; next to impossi 
 ble to speak. Louis XV. once said to a courtier, 
 this French monarchy is fourteen hundred years old : 
 it cannot last long. Such was the terrific sentiment, 
 which, even in the bosom of his base pleasures, stole 
 into the conscience of the modern Sardanapalus. 
 But in that mysterious and bewildering chain of con 
 nection, which binds together the fortunes of states 
 and of men, the last convulsive effort of this worn 
 out and decrepit monarchy, in which the spasmodic 
 remains of her strength were exhausted and her 
 crazy finances plunged into irretrievable confusion, 
 was the American alliance. This corrupt and feeble 
 despotism, trembling on the verge of an abyss toward 
 which time and events were urging it, is made to 
 
 * In the two collections published under the authority of Congress, the 
 Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution ; and its Continuation to the 
 Peace of 1789. 
 
39 
 
 hold out a strong and helping hand, to assist the ris 
 ing republic into the family of nations. The gene 
 rous spirits whom she sent to lead her armies to the 
 triumphs of republicanism in America, came back to 
 demand, for their own country, and to assert on their 
 own soil, those political privileges for which they had 
 been contending in America. The process of argu 
 ment was short. If this plan of government admin 
 istered by responsible agents, is good for America, it 
 is good for France. If our brethren in the United 
 States will not submit to power assumed by those 
 not accountable for its abuse, why should we ? If 
 we have done wisely and well in going to shed our 
 blood, for this constitutional liberty beyond the At 
 lantic, let us be ready to shed it in the same great 
 cause for our fathers, for our friends, for our 
 selves, in our native land. Is it possible to find, 
 I will not say a sound and sufficient answer to this 
 argument, but an answer, which would be thought 
 sound and sufficient by the majority of ardent tem 
 pers and inquisitive minds ? 
 
 The atrocious, the unexampled, the ungodly abus 
 es of the reign of terror have made the very name of 
 the French Revolution hateful to mankind. The 
 blood chills, the flesh creeps, the hair stands on end, 
 at the recital of its horrors ; and no slight degree of 
 the odium they occasion is unavoidably reflected on 
 all, who had an agency in bringing it on. The sub 
 sequent events in Europe have also involved the 
 French Revolution in a deep political unpopularity. 
 It is unpopular in Great Britain, in the rest of Eu- 
 
40 
 
 rope, in America, in France itself; and not a little 
 of this unpopularity falls on every one whose name is 
 prominently connected with it. All this is prejudice, 
 natural prejudice, if you please, but still prejudice. 
 The French Revolution was the work of sheer neces 
 sity. It began in the act of the court, casting about, 
 in despair, for the means of facing the frightful dila 
 pidation of the finances. Louis XV. w r as right, the 
 monarchy could not go on. The Revolution was as 
 inevitable as fate. 
 
 I go farther. Penetrated as I am to heart-sickness 
 when I peruse the tale of its atrocities, I do not scru 
 ple to declare, that the French Revolution, as it ex 
 isted in the councils of Lafayette and associates, and 
 while it obeyed their impulse, and so long as it was 
 controlled by them, was, notwithstanding the melan 
 choly excesses which stained even its early stages, 
 a work of righteous reform ; that justice, humanity, 
 and religion demanded it. I maintain this with some 
 reluctance, because it is a matter, in respect to which 
 all are not of one mind, and I would not willingly 
 say any thing, on this occasion, which could awaken 
 a single discordant feeling. But I speak from a 
 sense of duty ; and standing as I do over the grave of 
 Lafayette, I may not, if my feeble voice can prevent 
 it, allow the fame of one of the purest men, that ever 
 lived, to be sacrificed to a prejudice; to be overwhelm 
 ed with the odium of abuses, which he did not 
 foresee, which, if he had foreseen, he could not have 
 averted, and with which, he had himself no personal 
 connection, but as their victim. It is for this reason, 
 
41 
 
 I maintain, that the French Revolution, as conceived 
 by Lafayette, was a work of righteous reform. Read 
 the history of France, from the revocation of the edict 
 of Nantes downward. Reflect upon the scandalous 
 influence, which dictated that inhuman decree to the 
 dotage of Louis XIV., a decree which cost France as 
 much blood as flowed under the guillotine. Trace 
 the shameful annals of the regency, and the annals 
 not less shameful, of Louis XV. Consider the over 
 grown wealth and dissoluteness of the clergy and the 
 arrogance and corruption of the nobility, possessing 
 together a vast proportion of the property, and bear 
 ing no part of the burdens of the state. Recollect 
 the abuses of the law, high judicial places venal in 
 the market, warrants of arrest issued, to the num 
 ber of one hundred and fifty thousand in the single 
 reign of Louis XV., oftentimes in blank, to court fa 
 vorites, to be filled up with what names, for what 
 prisons, for what times they pleased. Add to this 
 the oppression of the peasantry by iniquitous taxes, 
 that have become proverbial in the history of misgov- 
 ernment, and the outlawry of one twenty-fourth part 
 of the population as protestants ; who were forbid 
 den to leave the kingdom, subject to be shot if they 
 crossed the frontier, but deprived of the protection of 
 the government at home, their contracts annulled, 
 their children declared illegitimate, and their minis 
 ters, who might venture, in dark forests and dreary 
 caverns, to conduct their prohibited devotions, 
 doomed to the scaffold. As late as 1745, two pro- 
 testant ministers were executed in France, for per- 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 forming their sacred functions. Could men bear 
 these things in a country like France, a reading, 
 enquiring country, with the upshot of the American 
 Revolution before their eyes, and at the close of 
 the eighteenth century ? Can any man who has 
 Anglo-Saxon blood in his veins, hesitate for an an 
 swer ? Did not England shake off less abuses than 
 these, a century and a half before ? Had not a paltry 
 unconstitutional tax, neither in amount nor in principle 
 to be named with the taille or the gabelle, just put the 
 continent of America in a flame ; and was it possi 
 ble that the young officers of the French army should 
 come back to their native land, from the war of po 
 litical emancipation waged on this continent, and 
 sit down contented, under the old abuses, at home ? 
 It was not possible. The Revolution was as inevit 
 able as fate, and the only question was, by whose 
 agency it should be brought on. 
 
 The first step in the French Revolution was, as is 
 well known, the assembly of Notables, February 22d, 
 1787. Its last convocation had been in 1626, under 
 the Cardinal Richelieu. It was now convoked by 
 the minister Calonne, the controller general of the 
 finances, from the utter impossibility, without some 
 unusual resources, of providing for the deficit in the 
 finances, which had, for the preceding year, amount 
 ed to 181,000,000 livres, and was estimated at the 
 annual average of 140,000,000. This assembly con 
 sisted of one hundred and thirty-seven persons, of 
 whom scarcely ten were in any sense the representa 
 tives of the people. Lafayette was of course a dis- 
 
43 
 
 tiriguished member, then just completing his thirtieth 
 year. In an assembly called by direction of the 
 King, and consisting almost exclusively of the high 
 aristocracy, he stepped forth, at once, the Champion 
 of the People. It was the intention of the govern 
 ment to confine the action of the assembly to the 
 discussion of the state of the finances, and the contri 
 vance of means to repair their disorder. It was not 
 so that Lafayette understood his commission. He 
 rose to denounce the abuses of the government. The 
 Count d Artois, since Charles X., the brother of the 
 King, attempted to call him to order, as acting on a 
 subject not before the assembly. We are summon 
 ed, said Lafayette, to make the truth known to his 
 Majesty. I must discharge my duty. He accord 
 ingly, after an animated harangue on the abuses of 
 the government, proposed the abolition of private 
 arrests and of the state prisons, in which any one 
 might be confined, on the warrant of the minister ; 
 the restoration of protestants to the equal privi 
 leges of citizenship, and the convocation of the 
 States General, or representatives of the people. 
 What, said the Count d Artois, * do you demand 
 the States General ? * Yes, replied Lafayette, and 
 something better than that. 
 
 The assembly of Notables was convoked a second 
 time in 1788, and Lafayette was again found in his 
 place, pleading for the representation of the people. 
 As a member of the provincial assemblies of Au- 
 vergne and Britanny, he also took the lead in all the 
 measures of reform, that were proposed by those 
 patriotic bodies. 
 
44 
 
 But palliatives were vain ; it became impossible to 
 resist the impulse of public opinion, and the States 
 General were convened. This body assembled at 
 Versailles on the third of May 1789. According to 
 Mr. Jefferson, writing from personal observation on 
 the spot, its initiatory movements were concerted by 
 Lafayette and a small circle of friends, at the hotel 
 of Mr. Jefferson himself, who calls Lafayette at this 
 momentous period of its progress, the Atlas of the Re 
 volution.* He proposed and carried through the as 
 sembly, of which he was vice president, a declaration 
 of rights, analogous to those contained in the American 
 constitutions. He repeated the demand, which he had 
 made in the assembly of the Notables, for the sup 
 pression of lettres de cachet, and the admission of pro- 
 testants to all the privileges of citizens. For the three 
 years that he sustained the command of the National 
 Guard, he kept the peace of the capital, rent as it was 
 by the intrigues of the parties, the fury of a debased 
 populace, and the agitations set on foot by foreign 
 powers ; and so long as he remained at the head of 
 the Revolution, with much to condemn and more to 
 lament, and which no one resisted more strenuously 
 than Lafayette, it was a work of just reform, after 
 ages of frightful corruption and abuse. 
 
 Before the National Guard was organized, but 
 while he rilled the place of Commander of the city 
 guard of Paris, he was the great bulwark of the pub 
 lic peace, at the critical period of the destruction of 
 the Bastile. From his position at the head of the 
 
 * Jefferson s Correspondence. Vol. I. pp. 75 r 84, 
 
45 
 
 embodied militia of the capital and its environs, La 
 fayette was clothed in substance with the concentra 
 ted powers of the state. These, it is unnecessary to 
 say, were exercised by him for the preservation of 
 order and the repression of violence. Hundreds of 
 those, threatened, at this unsettled period, as victims 
 of popular violence, were saved by his intervention. 
 But when at length he found himself unable to rescue 
 the unfortunate Foulon and Berthier from the hands of 
 the infuriated populace, he refused to retain a power, 
 which he could not make effective, and resigned his 
 post. The earnest entreaties of the friends of order, 
 assuring him that they deemed the public peace to 
 be safe in no hands but his, persuaded him to resume 
 it ; but not till the electoral districts of Paris had 
 confirmed the appointment, and promised to support 
 him in the discharge of his duty. 
 
 It was a short period after this event, that Lafay 
 ette proposed the organization of the National Guard 
 of France. The ancient colors of the city of Paris 
 were blue and red. To indicate the union, which 
 he wished to promote between a king governing by 
 a constitution and a people protected by laws, he 
 proposed to add, the white, the royal color of 
 France ; and to form of the three the new ensign of 
 the nation. I bring you, gentlemen, said he, * a 
 badge, which will go round the world ; an institu 
 tion at once civil and military ; which will change 
 the system of European tactics, and reduce the ab 
 solute governments to the alternative of being con 
 quered, if they do not imitate it, and overturned if 
 
46 
 
 they do. The example of Paris was followed in 
 the provinces, and the National Guard, three millions 
 seven hundred thousand strong, was organized 
 throughout France, with Lafayette at its head. 
 
 These are occurrences, which arrest the attention, 
 as the eye runs down the crowded page of the chron 
 icles of the time. But we are too apt to pass over 
 unnoticed, the humbler efforts, by which Lafayette 
 endeavored, from the first moment of the Revolution, 
 to make it produce the fruits of practical reform in the 
 institutions of the country. Under his influence, and 
 against strong opposition, a deputation was sent by 
 the city of Paris to the national assembly, demanding 
 an immediate reform in criminal jurisprudence, the 
 publicity of trials, the confrontation of witnesses, 
 the privilege of counsel for the accused, and free 
 intercourse between the prisoner and his family. 
 These privileges were enjoyed by the accused, in 
 the only three state trials which took place while 
 Lafayette retained his popularity ; and the credit of 
 having obtained them was justly ascribed to him, by 
 the counsel of one of the individuals by whom they 
 were enjoyed. 
 
 On the 5th of October 1789, occurred the only 
 incident in the life of Lafayette, upon which calum 
 ny has ventured to rely, as having affixed a blot upon 
 his fair fame. Even Sir Walter Scott, in relating 
 the history of this occurrence, has afforded some 
 countenance to the imputations against Lafayette. 
 I trust, therefore, I shall not seem to descend too 
 much into particulars, if I briefly repeat the incidents 
 of that night of terror. 
 
47 
 
 Paris, during the whole of this memorable season, 
 was in a state of the greatest excitement. All the 
 elements of confusion were in the highest action. A 
 great political revolution in progress, the King 
 feeble and irresolute, but already subdued by the 
 magnitude of the events, his family and court divid 
 ed, corrupt, and laboring, by intrigue and treachery, 
 to arrest the progress of the Revolution, the Duke 
 of Orleans lavishing immense sums to sow dissension 
 and urge the Revolution to a point, at which, as he 
 hoped, it would transfer the crown from the head of 
 his unhappy kinsman to his own ; the fiercest con 
 flicts among the different orders of the state, and a 
 wild consciousness of power in the mass of the peo 
 ple, late awakened for the recovery of long lost 
 rights and the revenge of centuries of oppression ; 
 these were some of the elements of disorder. The 
 match was laid to the train, at a festival at the palace 
 at Versailles, at which the national cockade was tram 
 pled under foot by the body guard, in presence of the 
 Queen and her infant son, and the Revolution denoun 
 ced in terms of menace and contumely. The news 
 spread to Paris, already convulsed by the intrigues 
 of the Duke of Orleans, and exasperated by a want of 
 bread. The hungry populace were told, that the 
 famine which they suffered was intentionally produc 
 ed by the King and his ministry, for the purpose of 
 starving them back to slavery. Riots broke out at 
 an early hour on the 5th of October, around the City 
 Hall. For eight hours Lafayette exerted himself, 
 and not without success, to restrain the frantic 
 
48 
 
 crowds, which constantly reassembled, as soon as 
 dispersed, with cries, to Versailles for bread. 
 Hearing at length, that from other points of the cap 
 ital infuriated mobs were moving toward Versailles, 
 with muskets and cannons, he asked the orders of 
 the municipality to hasten himself, with a detachment 
 of the National Guard, to the defence of the royal 
 family. On his arrival at Versailles, he administered 
 to the troops the oath of fidelity to the nation, the 
 law, and the King. He entered the court of the 
 palace, accompanied only by two commissioners of 
 the city. It was filled with Swiss guards, and the 
 terrified inmates of the palace ; and as he advanced, 
 the gloomy silence was broken by the exclamation 
 of some person present, Here comes Cromwell. 
 4 Cromwell, replied Lafayette, would not have come 
 here alone. Admitted to the presence of the King, 
 whom he treated with the deference due to his rank, 
 Lafayette asked that the posts in and about the pal 
 ace might be confided to him. This request was re 
 fused, as contrary to etiquette. In consequence, the 
 palace itself, the interior court, and the approach by 
 the garden remained, as usual, protected only by 
 the body guard and the Swiss. At two o clock in 
 the morning, Lafayette made the round of the posts 
 under his command, and asked another interview 
 with the King ; but was told that he was asleep. 
 After five o clock in the morning, while all was 
 quiet, exhausted by nearly twenty-four hours of un- 
 remitted and anxious labor, he repaired to his quarters 
 in the immediate vicinity of the palace, to receive 
 
49 
 
 the reports of his aids, to prepare despatches for 
 Paris, and to take food and repose. Scarcely had 
 he reached his quarters for these purposes, when an 
 officer ran to apprize him, that a band of ruffians, con 
 cealed in the shrubbery of the garden, had burst into 
 the palace and forced their way over two of the body 
 guards, to the chamber of the Queen ; who was 
 barely enabled, by the brave resistance of the 
 guards at her door, to escape with her life. 
 
 Lafayette rushed to the scene of action, with the 
 detachment of his force nearest at hand, and took 
 the proper steps to arrest the progress of the disorder. 
 The royal family were protected, and several of 
 the body guards rescued from the mob. Happening 
 to be left alone, at one moment, in the midst of the 
 lawless crowd, an individual among them raised a 
 cry for the head of Lafayette. The imminent dan 
 ger in which he stood was averted by the coolness, 
 with which he ordered the madman to be seized by 
 his fellows around him. The King deemed it ne 
 cessary to yield to the clamors of the populace, and 
 return with them to Paris. Lafayette was alarmed 
 at the symptoms of disaffection toward the Queen, 
 which still prevailed in the throng. At once to make 
 trial of the popular feeling and to extend to her the 
 protection of his unbounded popularity, he had the 
 courage to propose to her, to appear with him alone 
 on the balcony of the castle, with her son the dau 
 phin on her arm. Leading her forward towards the 
 people, it was his purpose to make an appeal to 
 them, on her behalf. The confused acclamations of 
 
50 
 
 the vast throng prevented his being heard ; and una 
 ble, in any other manner, to convey to the immense 
 and agitated assemblage, in motion beneath them, 
 the sentiments which he wished to inspire in their 
 bosoms, toward the defenceless person of the Queen, 
 and the innocent child whom she held in her arms, 
 he stooped and kissed her hand. A cry of i long live 
 the Queen, long live Lafayette, responded to the 
 action. Returning to the royal cabinet, he was em 
 braced by its inmates as the saviour of the King and 
 his family, and till the last hour of their unfortunate 
 existence, the King and the Queen never failed to do 
 him the justice to acknowledge, that on this terrific 
 day he had saved their lives. 
 
 From the commencement of the Revolution, La 
 fayette refused all pecuniary compensation and every 
 unusual appointment or trust. Not a dignity known 
 to the ancient monarchy, or suggested by the disor 
 der of the times, but was tendered to him, and refus 
 ed. More than once, it was proposed to create him 
 Field Marshal, Grand Constable, Lieutenant-General 
 of the kingdom. The titles of Dictator, and Com 
 mander-in-chief of the armies of France, were succes 
 sively proposed to him, but in vain. Knowing that the 
 representatives of the great federation of the National 
 Guards, who repaired to Paris in 1790, designed to in 
 vest him with the formal command of this immense 
 military force, he hastened the passage of a decree of 
 the assembly, forbidding any person to exercise the 
 command of more than one district. And having, at 
 the close of a review, been conducted to the national 
 
51 
 
 assembly, by an immense and enthusiastic throng, 
 he took that occasion to mount the tribune and an 
 nounce the intention of returning to private life, as 
 soon as the preparation of the Constitution should 
 be completed. 
 
 When the feudal system was established in Eu 
 rope, and its entire population, in the several coun 
 tries into which it was divided, was organized on 
 a military principle, the various posts of command 
 were dignified with appropriate names. All the 
 great lords were barons, and according to their posi 
 tion at the head of armies, in the immediate train of 
 the King, or on the frontier, they were dukes, 
 counts, and marquises. These were titles, signifi 
 cant when first given, and in themselves harmless, 
 when considered apart from the hereditary transmis 
 sion of estates and rank, which in process of time 
 went with them. But having long since ceased to 
 possess their original significance, with the first 
 steps of the Revolution, their frivolity was too ap 
 parent to be endured. There was a sort of theatri 
 cal insipidity in these curious gradations of unmean 
 ing titles among men, who, in difficult times, were 
 met together on serious business ; and among the 
 early measures of the assembly was the decree pro 
 nouncing their abolition. Lafayette, whose patent 
 of nobility had at least the merit of four centuries of 
 antiquity, was among the first to support the propo 
 sition, and lay down his title of Marquis, never again 
 to be resumed. In the lapse of a few years, the 
 member of assembly, who proposed the abolition, be- 
 
52 
 
 came a count under Bonaparte, and those who were 
 the most zealous to procure its adoption lived to see 
 themselves blazing in the decorations of the imperial 
 court. But neither under Napoleon nor the restora 
 tion, did it enter into the head of Lafayette to be 
 guilty of this weakness, and the only title which he 
 wore till his death, was that which he first derived 
 from his commission in the American army. 
 
 On the recurrence of the anniversary of the de 
 struction of the Bastile, on the 14th July 1790, the 
 labors of the assembly in the formation of the Con 
 stitution were so far advanced, that it was deemed 
 expedient, by a grand act of popular ratification, to 
 give the sanction of France to the principles on 
 which it was founded. The place assigned for the 
 ceremony is the Champ de Mars, and the act itself 
 is regarded as a grand act of federation, by which the 
 entire population of France, through the medium of 
 an immense representation, engage themselves to 
 each other by solemn oaths and imposing rites, to 
 preserve the Constitution, the Monarchy, and the 
 Law. In front of the military school at Paris, and 
 near the river Seine, a vast plain is marked out for 
 the imposing pageant. Innumerable laborers are 
 employed and still greater multitudes of volunteers 
 co-operate with them, in preparing a vast embank 
 ment disposed on terraces, and covered with turf. 
 The entire population of the capital and its environs, 
 from the highest to the lowest condition of life, of 
 both sexes and of every profession, is engaged from 
 day to day and from week to week, in carrying on 
 
53 
 
 the excavation. The academies and schools, the 
 official bodies of every description, the trades and 
 the professions, and every class and division of the 
 people, repair from morning to night to take a part 
 in the work, cheered by the instruments of a hundred 
 full orchestras, and animated with every sport and 
 game, in which an excited and cheerful populace 
 gives vent to its delight. It was the perfect saturna 
 lia of liberty ; the meridian of the Revolution, when 
 its great and unquestioned benefits seemed establish 
 ed on a secure basis, with as little violence and 
 bloodshed, as could be reasonably expected in the 
 tumultuous action of a needy, exasperated, and tri 
 umphant populace. The work at length is complet 
 ed, the terraces are raised, and three hundred 
 thousand spectators are seated in the vast amphi 
 theatre. A gallery is elevated in front of the mili 
 tary school, and in its centre a pavilion above the 
 throne. In the rear of the pavilion is prepared a 
 stage, on which the Queen, the Dauphin and the 
 royal family are seated. The deputed members of 
 the federation, eleven thousand for the army and 
 navy, and eighteen thousand for the National Guard 
 of France, are arranged in front, within a circle, 
 formed by eighty-three lances planted in the earth, 
 adorned with the standards of the eighty-three de 
 partments. In the midst of the Champ de Mars, the 
 centre of all eyes, with nothing above it but the 
 canopy of heaven, arose a magnificent altar, the 
 loftiest ever raised on earth. Two hundred priests 
 in white surplices, with the tri-color as a girdle, are 
 
54 
 
 disposed on the steps of the altar ; on whose spa 
 cious summit mass is performed by the bishop of 
 Autun. On the conclusion of the religious ceremo 
 ny, the members of the federation and the deputies 
 of the assembly advance to the altar, and take the 
 oath of fidelity to the Nation, the Constitution, and 
 the King. The King himself assumes the name and 
 rank of chief of the federation, and bestows the title 
 of its Major-General on Lafayette. The King took 
 the oath on his throne, but Lafayette, as the first 
 citizen of France, advancing to the altar, at the 
 head of thirty thousand deputies, and in the name 
 of the mighty mass of the National Guard, amidst 
 the plaudits of near half a million of his fellow- 
 citizens, in the presence of all that was most illus 
 trious and excellent in the kingdom, whose organized 
 military power he represented as their chief, took 
 the oath of fidelity to the Nation, the Constitution, 
 and the King. Of all the oaths that day taken, 
 by the master spirits of the time, his was, perhaps, 
 the only one kept inviolate. It sealed his fidelity 
 to the doubtful fortunes of the monarch, and in the 
 onward march of the Revolution, destined to wade 
 through seas of blood, it raised an inseparable bar 
 rier between Lafayette and the remorseless innova 
 tors, who soon appeared on the scene. It decided 
 his own fortunes, and in no inconsiderable degree 
 the fortunes of the Revolution. 
 
 The beauty of this great festival was impaired by 
 a drenching rain, and the general joy, with which it 
 was celebrated, was a last gleam of sunshine, through 
 
55 
 
 the gathering clouds of the Revolution. The flight 
 of the King, which occurred the following summer, 
 placed Lafayette in an embarrassing position. He 
 was determined to maintain the sanctity of his oath 
 of fidelity to this unfortunate prince. The King had 
 given his word of honor to Lafayette, that he would 
 not attempt to leave the capital ; and Lafayette had 
 in consequence pledged his own honor, his head 
 even, to the assembly, that no attempt to carry off 
 the King should succeed. Nevertheless, on the night 
 of the 21st of June, the King and royal family suc 
 ceeded in making their escape from Paris, and La 
 fayette was denounced the same day, by Danton, at 
 the club of Jacobins, as being either a traitor, who 
 had allowed the King to escape ; or as incompetent 
 to his trust, in not knowing how to prevent it. With 
 the moral courage, which carried him safe through 
 so many fearful days of peril, Lafayette presented 
 himself, calm and fearless, before the incensed multi 
 tude, and made his good faith to the public apparent. 
 But the difficulties of his position daily increased. 
 He was alternately compelled to strain his popularity 
 to the utmost, in repressing the violence of the pop 
 ulace, and controlling the intrigues of the partizans 
 of the ancient order of things. Weary of this situa 
 tion, he deemed the definitive adoption of the Con 
 stitution a justifiable occasion for laying down his 
 ungracious command, and, on the 8th of October 
 1791, took his leave of the National Guard, in a 
 letter, which would have done no discredit, for its 
 patriotic spirit and enlightened counsels, to the 
 
56 
 
 great American exemplar, whom he had adopted as 
 the object of his respectful imitation. 
 
 Hitherto the powers of Europe had looked with 
 astonishment and apparent inactivity, upon the por 
 tentous events, that were crowding upon each other 
 in France ; and France herself, rent with factions, 
 and distracted with the embarrassments incident to 
 such mighty changes, had scarcely turned her atten 
 tion to the foreign relations of the country. In this 
 manner five years, from the meeting of the assembly 
 of Notables, passed away, during which there was 
 unconsciously forming and organizing itself at home 
 and abroad, the principle of those mighty wars which 
 were to signalize the next thirty years. From the 
 commencement of 1792, the questions which arose 
 between the French and Austrian governments, rel 
 ative to the territorial jurisdiction of the empire on 
 the border of France, ripened towards a rupture ; 
 and strange as it may now appear, an open declara 
 tion of hostilities was the desire of all the numerous 
 parties, interests, and governments, concerned in the 
 issue. The King of France, the Queen and the par- 
 tizans of the old regime generally, at home ; the 
 Emperor, and the other sovereigns of Europe, the 
 emigrant princes and nobles, and their friends, desir 
 ed a war, as the means of pouring down upon the 
 popular party of France, the combined military pow 
 ers of the ancient governments. On the other hand, 
 the leaders of all the factions in France desired not 
 less ardently a declaration of war, as the means of 
 strengthening their power by the organization and 
 
57 
 
 control of standing armies, and gratifying the ambi 
 tious, the avaricious, the needy, and the adventurous 
 in their ranks, with promotion and plunder. The 
 zealots burned with the vision of revolutionizing 
 Europe. The honest constitutional party alone de 
 precated the measure ; but even they were bound 
 by their oaths to take arms against the preposterous 
 ultimatum of the Austrian cabinet, which required 
 France to renounce the constitution of 1791, a con 
 stitution which the King and people had alike sworn 
 to defend. And thus all parties strangely rushed 
 into a war, destined in turn, to subvert, crush, and 
 revolutionize, with indiscriminate fury, every inter 
 est, party, and government drawn into its vortex. 
 
 The formal declaration of war was made by Louis 
 XVI., on the 20th of March 1792. Three armies 
 were raised to guard the frontier of the Netherlands, 
 and placed under the command of Luckner, an an 
 cient chieftain of the seven years war, Lafayette, 
 and Rochambeau. The united force was fifty thous 
 and men. The plan of operations was decided by 
 the King in council at Paris, in conference with the 
 three generals, who immediately took the field. 
 The political intrigues of the capital were not slow 
 in reaching the camp. The Jacobins at Paris, not 
 yet the majority, but rapidly becoming so, had long 
 marked out Lafayette as their victim. Orders were 
 sent by the minister of war designedly to embarrass 
 and disgust him ; and he soon found, that it was ne 
 cessary for him openly to denounce the Jacobins to the 
 legislative assembly and the nation, as the enemies 
 
 H 
 
58 
 
 of the country. He accordingly, on the 16th of June, 
 addressed a letter to the Assembly, in which he 
 proclaimed this faction to be the enemy of the consti 
 tution and the people; and called on all the friends 
 of liberty to unite for its suppression. The voice of 
 reason for a moment prevailed ; a majority of the 
 Assembly received with approbation the letter of 
 Lafayette, and seventy-five of the departments of 
 France, in their local assemblies, gave their formal 
 sanction to its sentiments. Braving the enemy in 
 his strong hold, he followed up his letter, by hasten 
 ing to Paris, appearing at the bar of the Assembly, 
 and demanding the punishment of the wretches, who 
 had forced the Tuilleries, and menaced and insulted 
 the King, the preceding week. Anxious for the 
 safety of the King s person, he proposed to him 
 to retire to Compiegne, under the protection of his 
 army, and there await the issue of the efforts for the 
 suppression of the Jacobins. Incredihle as it may 
 appear, these proposals were rejected, from an unwil 
 lingness, on the part of the Queen, to owe her life a 
 second time to Lafayette, and in consequence of 
 the advice secretly conveyed to the court, by the 
 Duke of Brunswick, then concentrating his army on 
 the frontiers ; who recommended to the King to 
 remain in tranquillity at the Tuilleries, till the allied 
 forces should hasten to his relief. 
 
 Lafayette accordingly returned to his army, de 
 feated in the last efforts, which afforded a shadow of 
 hope, for the safety of the royal family or the preser 
 vation of the constitution. On the 8th of August he 
 
59 
 
 was formally denounced in the Assembly, as an 
 enemy of his country, and a motion made for his 
 arrest and trial. After vehement debates, it was put 
 to vote, and resulted in his acquittal by a majority 
 of 407 to 224. But many of those who voted in his 
 favor were, on the following day, insulted by the 
 populace. Baffled in the attempt to destroy him, and 
 in him the last support of the constitutional monarchy, 
 and weary of the tardy march of their infernal policy, 
 the Jacobins at Paris resolved, without further delay, 
 to intimidate the majority of the Assembly and the 
 constitutional party throughout the country, and by 
 a frightful measure of violence and blood, establish 
 the reign of terror. Accordingly the horrid tragedy 
 of the 10th of August is enacted, the palace forced 
 by the army of assassins, its guards massacred, and 
 the King and the royal family driven to take refuge 
 in the Assembly, by which, after suffering every thing 
 that was distressing, humiliating, and cruel, he is 
 deposed, and ordered to be imprisoned in the temple. 
 The news of these events reached Lafayette at his 
 head-quarters in Sedan. He had sworn to support 
 the Constitution, and to be faithful to the King. 
 The assembly, the capital the people, the army 
 were struck with dismay ; the horrid scenes of Paris 
 were acted over in the departments, and the reign of 
 terror was established. Commissioners were sent 
 by the Assembly to the army to arrest the generals ; 
 it remained to Lafayette to anticipate them by an 
 attack on the enemy, which, if successful, would but 
 put new strength in the hands of Robespierre and his 
 
60 
 
 associates, to march on Paris, which in the present 
 state of feeling in the nation and in the army was to 
 deliver himself up to his executioners, or to save 
 himself by flight. Happily he adopted the latter 
 course, and having placed his army in the best con 
 dition possible, to receive no injury from his leaving 
 it, he passed with a few of his friends and aids, 
 across the frontier, intending to repair to Holland 
 or England, countries not as yet engaged in the war. 
 While in the territory of Liege, he fell into the hands 
 of an Austrian military force, and notwithstanding 
 the circumstances under which he had left his army 
 and France, was treated as a prisoner. Various 
 unworthy attempts were made to engage Lafayette 
 in the service of the armies marching against France, 
 and to draw from him information which would be of 
 use in the approaching campaign. Refusing to act the 
 treacherous part proposed to him, he was handed over 
 to the Prussian government, and dragged from for 
 tress to fortress, till he was thrown into the dungeons 
 of Magdeburg. The secrets of that horrid prison- 
 house have been laid open to the world. Lafayette 
 was there confined in a subterraneous vault, dark, 
 damp, and secured by four successive doors, load 
 ed with bolts and chains. But the arms of the 
 Duke of Brunswick are unsuccessful in France. On 
 the heights of Valmy the first of those victories of 
 revolutionary fame, which have astonished and ter 
 rified the world, is gained over the Prussian army. 
 Negotiations for peace are concluded, and the ex 
 change of prisoners is in progress. To evade the 
 
61 
 
 necessity of releasing Lafayette and his companions, 
 he is transferred by the King of Prussia to the Em 
 peror of Germany, and immured in the castle of 
 Olmiitz, in Moravia. On entering this prison, La 
 fayette and his fellow sufferers were told, that from 
 that time forward they would see nothing, but the 
 four walls within which they were enclosed ; that 
 no tidings would reach them of what was passing 
 without ; that not even their gaolers would pronounce 
 their names ; that when mentioned in the despatches 
 of the government, it would only be by their num 
 bers on the register ; that no intelligence would pass 
 from them to their families, nor from their families to 
 them ; and that, to prevent their seeking relief from 
 the slow agonies of this torture, they would be inter 
 dicted the use of knives or forks, and every other 
 instrument of self-destruction. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to state that the health of 
 Lafayette sunk, before long, under this barbarous 
 treatment. After a thrice repeated opinion on the 
 part of his physician, that he could not live unless 
 permitted to breathe a purer air than that of his dun 
 geon, and after answering the first application by the 
 remark, that he was not yet sick enough, the 
 court of Vienna, either touched with remorse, or 
 shaking before the outcry of public indignation, in 
 Europe and America, granted him permission to 
 take exercise abroad under an armed escort, but not 
 on condition that he would not attempt his escape, 
 as was falsely asserted by his calumniators. 
 
 This opportunity of taking the air abroad gave 
 
62 
 
 occasion for a bold and generous effort to effect his 
 liberation. His friends had, from the first moment 
 of his captivity, had this object at heart ; but after 
 his removal to Olmiitz, they remained for a long 
 time ignorant of the place of his captivity. The 
 Count Lally Tolendal, who, notwithstanding their 
 difference of opinion in politics, had ever preserved 
 his personal respect and attachment for Lafayette, 
 spared no pains to discover the place of his seclusion. 
 He employed for this purpose, a young Hanoverian 
 physician, Dr. Eric Bollmann, afterwards a natural 
 ized citizen of the United States, who had signalized 
 himself in effecting the escape ofM. de Narbonne 
 from Paris, after the dreadful 10th of August 1792.* 
 Dr. Bollmann immediately undertook a voyage of 
 enquiry into Germany, but could learn only that 
 Lafayette had been transferred from the Prussian, 
 to the Austrian dominions. On a second visit to 
 Germany, made in the same benevolent object, he 
 succeeded in ascertaining, that there were four state 
 prisoners confined, with extreme rigor, in separate 
 cells at Olmiitz, which he had no reason to doubt 
 were Lafayette and his companions. He immedi 
 ately devoted himself to the object of effecting his 
 liberation. He established himself for six months as 
 a physician at Vienna, to prevent the suspicions, 
 which might be awakened by an unprepared appear 
 ance in the Austrian dominions, in the immediate 
 neighborhood of Olmiitz. While engaged in con- 
 
 * Considerations surla Revolution Fransaise, par Mad. de Stael. Tome 
 I. p. 67. 
 
63 
 
 Certing his plans, Mr. Huger, of South Carolina, the 
 son of the gentleman under whose roof Lafayette 
 passed his first night in America, happened to arrive 
 at Vienna on his travels, and engaged with cordiality 
 in the generous enterprise of Dr. Bollrnann. 
 
 They repaired at length to Olmiitz. Dr. Boll- 
 mann had contrived to obtain letters at Vienna, 
 which obtained him the means, in his professional 
 character, of secretly communicating with Lafayette, 
 and agreeing upon a signal, by which he might be 
 recognized by the two friends, and ascertaining the 
 day when he would be permitted to take exercise 
 abroad. On that day they repaired, on their horses, 
 to a place under the ramparts of the city, on the road 
 by which Lafayette and his guards would pass. 
 The carriage soon arrives, containing Lafayette, an 
 officer and a soldier. The friends allow it to pass 
 them, that they may exchange the signal agreed up 
 on. This being done, they again pass forward in 
 advance of the carriage, toward a spot where Lafay 
 ette was accustomed to descend and walk. The 
 moment he set his foot on the ground, Lafayette, 
 unarmed as he was, fell upon his two guards. The 
 soldier, disarmed and terrified, instantly fled to the 
 city to report what had happened. The contest 
 with the officer was violent. Lafayette succeeded in 
 depriving him of his sword, but in the contest the offi 
 cer, with his teeth, tore the hand of Lafayette to 
 the bone. He also suffered a violent strain in his 
 back in consequence of his exertions. The two 
 friends came up at the moment of the struggle, and 
 
64 
 
 placing Lafayette on one of their horses, Mr. Huger 
 told him in English to go to Hqff. This was a post 
 town, about twenty miles from Olmiitz, where they 
 had prepared a travelling carriage. He mistook the 
 expression, as merely a direction to go off, and failed 
 consequently to take the proper road. 
 
 One of the horses of Messrs. Bollmann and Huger 
 was trained to carry two persons ; the other horse, 
 on which Lafayette was to be mounted, unfortunate 
 ly escaped in the confusion of the struggle. It be 
 came necessary therefore that he should mount the 
 horse destined for the two friends, and on their ur 
 gent solicitation, he rode forward alone, while they 
 remained behind to retake their horse. Some time 
 was lost in effecting this object, and when mounted 
 by Messrs. Bollmann and Huger he proved intracta 
 ble, and it was found impossible to make him 
 proceed. Mr. Huger generously insisted on Dr. 
 Bollmann s riding off alone, while he should make 
 his escape, as well as he could, on foot. Mr. Huger 
 was soon stopped by some peasants who had wit 
 nessed the scene, and handed over to the officers and 
 guards, who hastened in pursuit. Dr. Bollmann ar 
 rived with ease at Hoff, but there had the mortifica 
 tion to find that Lafayette was prevented by some 
 cause, at that time unknown, from joining him. He 
 passed the Prussian frontier, but was arrested in a 
 day or two, as an Austrian fugitive. 
 
 It was almost night when these events took place. 
 Lafayette was oppressed with pain and fatigue. Be 
 ing left alone, from the causes mentioned, he was 
 
65 
 
 not only at a loss what direction to take, but was in 
 a state of the most painful anxiety for the fate of his 
 generous liberators. He proceeded towards the fron 
 tier, on the road by which he had entered Moravia, 
 intending to secrete himself there ; and if Messrs. 
 Bollmann and Huger should be in prison, to give 
 himself up, on condition of their release. Not well 
 knowing the road, he requested a peasant to guide 
 him. His broken German, the blood with which he 
 was covered, and the condition of his clothing, suffi 
 ciently betrayed his character. The peasant left 
 him, pretending to go in search of a horse, on which 
 to accompany him, but in reality to give the alarm 
 at the next town, where he was arrested. The 
 following day he was brought back to Olmiitz.* 
 
 Bollmann and Huger were thrown into close dun 
 geons, and chained by the neck to the floor. Mr. 
 Huger asked permission to send an open letter to his 
 mother, containing the words I am alive, and noth 
 ing else, but he was refused. He was left in the 
 most distressing uncertainty as to the fate of Lafay 
 ette and his companion, and could form only the 
 darkest anticipations of his own. His food was 
 bread and water. His cell was dark ; and once in 
 six hours it was entered by the gaoler, to see that his 
 chain was sound. After six months confinement, 
 their case was adjudged, and owing to the kind in 
 terference of Count Metrowsky, a nobleman of liberal 
 character and great influence, who found in their 
 
 * A portion of these details are from an unpublished letter of Latour- 
 Maubourg, one of the companions of Lafayette in captivity, preserved 
 among the Washington papers. 
 
 I 
 
66 
 
 crime but a new title to respect, they were released 
 with a nominal punishment, and ordered to quit the 
 Austrian dominions. Scarcely were they at liberty, 
 when an order was issued for the re-investigation of 
 their case ; but they were already in safety beyond 
 the frontier. 
 
 The treatment of Lafayette, after his re-capture, 
 was doubly severe. On his first entrance into the 
 prison at Olmiitz, he had been plundered of his watch 
 and shoe-buckles, the only articles of value, which 
 the Prussians had left in his possession. But on his 
 return to his dungeon he was stripped of the few 
 comforts of life, which he had been before permitted 
 to enjoy. He was kept in a dark room, denied a 
 supply of decent clothing, and fed on bread and 
 water. He was constantly told, as he was the first 
 day of his capture by the Austrians, that he was 
 reserved for the scaffold. 
 
 But whatever anxiety he might feel on his own 
 account, was merged in his cruel solicitude for his 
 family. No tidings were permitted to reach him 
 from his wife and children, and the last intelligence 
 he had received from her was, that she was confined 
 in prison at Paris. There she had been thrown 
 during the reign of terror. Her grandmother, the 
 Dutchess de Noailles, her mother the Dutchess 
 d Ayen, and her sister the Countess de Noailles, had 
 perished in one day on the scaffold. She was her 
 self reserved for the like fate ; but the downfal of Ro 
 bespierre preserved her. During her imprisonment, 
 her great anxiety was for her son, George Washington 
 Lafayette, then just attaining the age, at which he 
 
67 
 
 was liable to be forced by the conscription into the 
 ranks of the army. The friendly assistance of two 
 of our fellow-citizens, whom I have the pleasure to 
 see before me, Mr. Joseph Russell and Col. Thomas 
 H. Perkins, was exerted in his behalf; and in conse 
 quence of their influence with JBoissy d Anglas, then 
 a member of the Committee of Safety, they succeeded 
 in obtaining permission for his departure. He was 
 conveyed by Mr. Russell to Havre, whence he took 
 passage to Boston, and after a month spent in this 
 city, was received into the family of General Wash 
 ington at Mount Vernon, where he remained till the 
 liberation of his father.* 
 
 Relieved from anxiety on account of her son, the 
 wife of Lafayette was resolved, with her daughters, 
 if possible, to share his captivity. Just escaped from 
 the dungeons of Robespierre, she hastened to plunge 
 into those of the German Emperor. This admirable 
 lady, who, in the morning of life, had sent her youth 
 ful hero from her side, to fight the battles of constitu 
 tional freedom, beneath the guidance of Washington, 
 now goes to immure herself with him in the gloomy 
 cells of Olmiitz. Born, brought up, accustomed to 
 all that was refined, luxurious and elegant, she goes 
 to shut herself up in the poisonous wards of his dun 
 geon, to partake his wretched fare ; to share his 
 daily repeated insults ; to breathe an atmosphere so 
 noxious and intolerable, that the gaolers, who bring 
 them their daily food, are compelled to cover their 
 faces, as they enter their cells. 
 
 * The letter of Lafayette to Colonel Perkins, written in acknowledg 
 ment of these services, immediately after his liberation, is before me. 
 
68 
 
 Landing at Altona on the 9th September 1795, 
 she proceeded with an American passport, under the 
 family name of her husband (Motier), to Vienna. 
 Having arrived in that city, she obtains through the 
 compassionate good offices of Count Rosemberg, an 
 interview with the Emperor. Francis II. is not a 
 cruel man. At the age of twenty-five, he has not 
 yet been hardened by long training in the school 
 of state policy. He is a husband and a father. 
 The heroic wife of Lafayette, with her daughters, is 
 admitted to his presence. She demands only to 
 share her husband s prison, but she implores the 
 Emperor to restore to liberty the father of her chil 
 dren. He was indeed, Sire, a general in the armies 
 of republican America ; but it was at a time when 
 the daughter of Maria Theresa was foremost in his 
 praise. He was indeed a leader of the French Rev 
 olution, but not in its excesses, not in its crimes ; 
 and it was owing to him alone, that on the dreadful 
 5th of October, Marie Antoinette and her son had 
 not been torn in pieces by the blood-thirsty populace 
 of Paris. He is not the prisoner of your justice, nor 
 your arms, but was thrown by misfortune into your 
 power, when he fled before the same monsters of 
 blood and crime, who brought the king and queen to 
 the scaffold. Three of my family have perished on 
 the same scaffold, my aged grand-parent, my mother, 
 and my sister. Will the Emperor of Germany close 
 the dark catalogue, and doom my husband to a dun 
 geon worse than death ? Restore him, Sire, not to 
 his army, to his power, to his influence, but to his 
 
69 
 
 shattered health, his ruined fortunes, to the affec 
 tions of his fellow-citizens in America, where he is 
 content to go and close his career, to his wife and 
 children. 
 
 The Emperor is a humane man. He hears, con 
 siders, reasons, hesitates ; tells her his hands are 
 tied, * by reasons of state, and permits her to shut 
 herself up, with her daughters, in the cells of Olmiitz ! 
 There her health soon fails ; she asks to be permitted 
 to pass a month at Vienna, to recruit it, and is an 
 swered, that she may leave the prison whenever she 
 pleases, but if she leaves it, it is never again to re 
 turn. On this condition, she rejects the indulgence 
 with disdain, and prepares herself to sink, under the 
 slow poison of an infected atmosphere, by her hus 
 band s side. But her brave heart, fit partner for a 
 hero s, bore her through the trial ; though the 
 hand of death was upon her. She prolonged a 
 feeble existence for ten years, after their release 
 from captivity, but never recovered the effects of this 
 merciless imprisonment. 
 
 The interposition of the friends of Lafayette in 
 Europe and America, to obtain his release, was 
 unsuccessful. On the floor of the House of Com 
 mons, General Fitzpatrick, on the 16th of December 
 1796, made a motion in his behalf. It was supported 
 by Colonel Tarleton, who had fought against Lafay- 
 
 * This remark of the Emperor was the subject of severe reflection in 
 the admirable speech, in which Mr. Fox endeavored to induce the British 
 ministry to interfere for the liberation of Lafayette ; for while the Emperor 
 had given this reason for not releasing him, the British minister pleaded 
 his inability to interfere with the internal concerns of the German Empire. 
 
70 
 
 ette in America, by Wilberforce, and Fox. The 
 speech of the latter is one of the most admirable 
 specimens of eloquence, ever heard in a deliberative 
 assembly. But justice remonstrated, humanity 
 pleaded in vain. General Washington, then Presi 
 dent of the United States, wrote a letter to the 
 Emperor of Germany. What would not the Em 
 peror afterwards have given, to have had the wis 
 dom to grant the liberty of Lafayette to the entreaty 
 of Washington ! An advocate was at hand, who 
 would not be refused. The Man of Destiny was 
 in the field. The Archduke Charles, was matched 
 against him, during the campaign of 1797. The 
 eagles of Bonaparte flew from victory to victory. 
 The Archduke displayed against him all the resources 
 of the old school. But the days of strategy were 
 over. Bonaparte stormed upon his front, threw his 
 army across deep rivers, and burst upon his rear, 
 and annihilated the astonished Archduke in the midst 
 of his manoeuvres. He fought ten pitched battles in 
 twenty days, drove the Austrians across the Julian 
 Alps, approached within eleven days march of Vienna, 
 and then granted the Emperor, just preparing for flight 
 into the recesses of Hungary, the treaty of Campio 
 Formio, having demanded in the preliminary confer 
 ences of Leoben, the release of Lafayette.* Napo 
 leon was often afterwards heard to say, that in all his 
 negotiations with foreign powers, he had never ex- 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott, by a somewhat singular inadvertence, states that 
 Lafayette was released 19th December 1795, in exchange for the daughter 
 of Louis XVI., afterwards Dutchess of Angouleme. Life of Napoleon, 
 Vol.1. Ch. 13. 
 
71 
 
 perienced so pertinacious a resistance, as that which 
 was made to this demand. The Austrian envoys, at 
 the French head-quarters, asserted that he was not 
 in confinement in the imperial territories. But 
 Bonaparte distrusted this assertion, and sent a formrer 
 aid-de-camp of Lafayette to Vienna, to communicate 
 directly with the Austrian minister on the subject. 
 He was finally released on the 23d September 1797. 
 But while his liberation was effected by the interfer 
 ence of the army of the Republic abroad, the confis 
 cation and sale of the residue of his property went 
 on at home. 
 
 Included in the general decree of outlawry, as an 
 emigrant, Lafayette did not go back to France, till 
 the directory was overturned. On the establishment 
 of the consular government, being restored to his 
 civil rights, though with the loss of nearly all his es 
 tates, he returned to his native country, and sought 
 the retirement of Lagrange. He was indebted to 
 Napoleon for release from captivity, probably for the 
 lives of himself and family. He could not but see 
 that all hope of restoring the constitution of 1791, to 
 which he had pledged his faith, was over, and he had 
 every reason of interest and gratitude, to compound 
 with the state of things as it existed. But he never 
 wavered for a moment. Bonaparte endeavored, in a 
 personal interview, to persuade him to enter the sen 
 ate, but in vain. When the question was submitted 
 to the people of France, whether Bonaparte should 
 be first consul for life, Lafayette gave his vote in the 
 negative, in a letter to Napoleon, which has been 
 
72 
 
 published. Of all the ancient nobility, who returned 
 to France, Lafayette and the young Count de 
 Vaudreuil were the only individuals, who refused the 
 favors, which Napoleon was eager to accord to them. 
 Of all to whom the cross of the legion of honor was 
 tendered, Lafayette alone had the courage to decline 
 it. Napoleon, either for want of true perception of 
 moral greatness, or because the detestable servility of 
 the mass of returning emigrants had taught him to 
 think, there was no such thing as honor or indepen 
 dence in man, exclaimed, when they told him that 
 Lafayette refused the decoration, What, will nothing 
 satisfy that man, but the chief command of the 
 National Guard of the empire? 5 Yes, much less 
 abundantly satisfied him ; the quiet possession of 
 the poor remnants of his estate, enjoyed without 
 sacrificing his principles. 
 
 From this life nothing could draw him. Mr. 
 Jefferson offered him the place of Governor of Lou 
 isiana, then just become a territory of the United 
 States ; but he was unwilling, by leaving France, to 
 take a step, that would look like a final abandonment 
 of the cause of constitutional liberty on the continent 
 of Europe. Napoleon ceased to importune him, and 
 he lived at Lagrange, retired and unmolested, the 
 only man, who had gone through the terrible revolu 
 tion, with a character free from every just impeach 
 ment. He entered it with a princely fortune ; in 
 the various high offices which he had filled he had 
 declined all compensation ; and he came out poor. 
 He entered it, in the meridian of early manhood, 
 
73 
 
 with a frame of iron. He came out of it, fifty years 
 of age, his strength impaired by the cruelties of his 
 long imprisonment. He had filled the most power 
 ful and responsible offices ; and others, still more pow 
 erful, the dictatorship itself, had been offered him ; 
 he was reduced to obscurity and private life. He 
 entered the Revolution, with a host of ardent col 
 leagues of the constitutional party. Of those who 
 escaped the guillotine, most had made peace with 
 Napoleon ; not a few of the Jacobins had taken his 
 splendid bribes ; the emigrating nobility came back 
 in crowds, and put on his livery ; fear, interest, 
 weariness, amazement, and apathy reigned in France 
 and in Europe ; kings, emperors, armies, nations, 
 bowed at his footstool ; and one man alone, a pri 
 vate man, who had tasted power and knew what 
 he sacrificed ; who had inhabited dungeons, and 
 knew what he risked ; who had done enough for 
 liberty, in both worlds, to satisfy the utmost requisi 
 tions of her friends, this man alone stood aloof in his 
 honor, his independence, and his poverty. And if 
 there is a man in this assembly, that would not rath 
 er have been Lafayette to refuse, than Napoleon to 
 bestow his wretched gewgaws ; that would not rath 
 er have been Lafayette in retirement, and obscurity, 
 and just not proscribed, than Napoleon with an em 
 peror to hold his stirrup ; if there is a man, who 
 would not have preferred the honest poverty of La- 
 grange to the bloody tinsel of St. Cloud ; that would 
 not rather have shared the peaceful fireside of the 
 friend of Washington, than have spurred his trium- 
 
74 
 
 phant courser over the crushed and blackened heaps 
 of slain, through the fire and carnage of Marengo 
 and Austerlitz, that man has not an American heart 
 in his bosom. That man is a slave, and fit to be the 
 father of slaves. He does not deserve to breathe the 
 pure air, to drink the cold springs, to tread the green 
 fields, and hear the sabbath bells of a free country. 
 He ought, with all his garters, ribbons, and stars 
 upon him, to be bolted down, with a golden chain, 
 to the blazing pavement of a palace court yard, that 
 when his lord and master goes out to the hunt of 
 beasts or of men, he may be there, the slave, to 
 crouch down, and let his majesty vault from his 
 shoulders to the saddle. 
 
 But the time at length arrived which was to call 
 Lafayette from his retirement, and place him again, 
 the veteran pilot, at the helm. The colossal 
 edifice of empire, which had been reared by Napo 
 leon, crumbled by its own weight. The pride, the 
 interests, the vanity, the patriotism, of the nations, 
 were too deeply insulted and wounded by his domi 
 nation. In the ancient world, or in the middle 
 ages, whose examples he too much studied, his 
 dynasty would have stood for centuries. He w r ould 
 have founded an empire, as durable as that of Cesar 
 or Mahomet, had he, like them, lived in an age, when 
 there was but one centre of civilization, and when 
 it was possible for one mighty focus of power, to 
 draw into itself all the intelligence and capacity of 
 the world. But the division of civilized man into 
 several co-existing national systems, all, in the 
 
75 
 
 main, equally enlightened and intelligent, each 
 having its own pride, its own patriotism, its own 
 public opinion, created an obstacle too powerful for 
 the genius of Napoleon ; too strong for his arm ; too 
 various, too widely complicated for his skill ; too 
 sturdy for his gold. Accordingly his mighty system 
 went to pieces. The armies of insulted and maddened 
 Europe poured down like an inundation on France. 
 It was then that Lafayette appeared again upon the 
 scene. His well known voice, never silent when 
 there was danger, and hope for the cause of liberty, 
 is heard, clear and strong, amidst the tumult of inva 
 ding armies and contending factions. When, after 
 the disaster of Waterloo, Napoleon came back in 
 desperation to Paris, and began to scatter dark hints 
 of dissolving the representative chamber, repeating 
 at Paris the catastrophe of Moscow, and thereby 
 endeavoring to rouse the people of France to one 
 universal and frantic crusade of resistance, Lafayette 
 was the first to denounce the wild suggestion. He 
 proposed a series of resolutions, announcing that the 
 independence of the nation was threatened, declaring 
 the chambers a permanent body, and denouncing the 
 instant penalties of high treason against all attempts 
 to dissolve it. The same evening he proposed, in 
 the secret assembly of the council of state, the abdi 
 cation of Napoleon. The subject was again pressed 
 the following day ; but the voluntary act of the 
 Emperor anticipated the decision. Thus, true to the 
 cause, to which his life was sacred, Lafayette was 
 found at the tribune, in the secret council, before the 
 
76 
 
 assembled populace, and as the deputed representa 
 tive of his distracted country in the camp of the in 
 vading enemy, every where, in short, except where 
 places of precedence were courted, and money 
 greedily clutched. Unhappily for France, all, who 
 were thrown in the troubled state of the times to the 
 head of affairs, were not of the same stamp. Men, 
 who in the horrible national convention had voted for 
 the death of Louis XVI., men, who had stimulated 
 and executed the worst measures of Napoleon, who 
 had shot the arrows of his police in the dark, and whet 
 ted the glittering sabre of his conquests ; and now 
 that he was in the dust, bravely trod upon his neck ; 
 these were the instruments, the confidants, the favor 
 ites of the allied powers, and of the monarch whom 
 they installed over reluctant France. There was 
 of course, no place for Lafayette among men like 
 these. He was not with them in the Revolution, 
 and could not be with them in the Restoration. He 
 was too old to make new acquaintances. There was 
 room in the cabinet and palace of Louis XVIII. for 
 men, that were stained with the best blood of France, 
 not excepting his brother s ; there was room for his 
 grace the Duke of Otranto, room for his highness 
 the Prince of Benevento ; but there was no room for 
 the man to whom it was more than once owing, that 
 his brother s blood and his own had not flowed to 
 gether in the streets of Paris. 
 
 But when, under the Restoration, the representa 
 tive system was established in France, there was a 
 place, a fitting place, for him, at the tribune ; a faith- 
 
77 
 
 ful representative of the People, a friend of liberty 
 regulated and protected by law, an enemy of usurpa 
 tion at home and abroad, not less than of the bloody 
 reactions to which it leads. From his first appear 
 ance in the chamber, to the last hour of his life, he 
 is found at his post, the able, the eloquent, the con 
 sistent champion of the principles, to which from his 
 youth he had been devoted. 
 
 His re-appearance on the scene, as the active ex 
 pounder and champion of Constitutional liberty, was 
 not unobserved by the people of the United States. 
 A generation had arisen, who had read the story 
 of his services, and heard their fathers speak with 
 affection of his person. They were anxious them 
 selves to behold the friend of their fathers ; and to 
 exhibit to him the spectacle of the prosperity he had 
 done so much to establish. A resolution passed the 
 two houses of Congress unanimously, requesting the 
 President to invite him to visit the United States. 
 In conveying this invitation, Mr. Monroe informed 
 Lafayette that the North Carolina ship of the line, 
 was ordered to bring him to America. With char 
 acteristic modesty, he declined the offer of a public 
 vessel, and with his son and secretary, took passage 
 on board one of the packet ships, between New 
 York and Havre. He arrived at New York on the 
 25th of August 1824, just forty years from the time 
 of his landing in the same city, on occasion of his 
 visit to the United States, after the close of the 
 Revolutionary war. 
 
 You need not, fellow-citizens, that I should repeat 
 
78 
 
 to you the incidents of that most extraordinary tri 
 umphal progress through the country. They are fresh 
 in your recollection ; and history may be searched 
 in vain for a parallel event. His arrival in the 
 United States seemed like the re-appearance of a 
 friendly genius, on the theatre of his youthful and be 
 neficent visitations. He came back to us from long 
 absence, from exile and from dungeons, almost like a 
 beloved parent rising from the dead. His arrival 
 called out the whole population of the country to 
 welcome him, but not in the stiff uniform of a parade, 
 or the court dress of a heartless ceremony. Society, 
 in all its shades and gradations, crowded cordially 
 around him, all penetrated with one spirit, the 
 spirit of admiration and love. The wealth and 
 luxury of the coast, the teeming abundance of the 
 west ; the elegance of the town, the cordiality of 
 the country ; the authorities Municipal, National, 
 and State ; the living relics of the Revolution, hon 
 ored in the honors paid to their companion in arms ; 
 the scientific and learned bodies, the children at 
 the schools, the associations of active life and of 
 charity ; the exiles of Spain, France and Switzerland ; 
 banished kings ; patriots of whom Europe was 
 not worthy; and even the African and Indian; 
 every thing in the country, that had life and sense, 
 took a part in this auspicious drama of real life. 
 
 Had the deputed representatives of these various 
 interests and conditions been assembled, at some 
 one grand ceremonial of reception, in honor of the 
 illustrious visitor, it would, even as the pageant of a 
 
79 
 
 day, have formed an august spectacle. It would 
 even then have outshone those illustrious triumphs 
 of Rome, where conquered nations and captive 
 princes followed in the train, which seemed with 
 reason almost to lift the frail mortal thus honored, 
 above the earth, over which he was borne. But 
 when we consider, that this glorious and purer tri 
 umph was co-extensive with the Union, that it 
 swept gracefully along, from city to city and from 
 state to state, one unbroken progress of rapturous 
 welcome ; banishing feuds, appeasing dissensions, 
 hushing all tumults but the acclamations of joy, 
 uniting in one great act of public salutation, the 
 conflicting parties of a free people, on the eve and 
 throughout the course of a strenuous contest, with 
 the aura epileptica of the canvass already rushing 
 over the body politic, that it was continued near a 
 twelvemonth, an annus mirabilis of rejoicing, aus 
 piciously commenced, successfully pursued, and hap 
 pily and gracefully accomplished, we perceive in it 
 a chapter in human affairs equally singular, delight 
 ful, instructive, and without example. 
 
 But let no one think it was a light and unreflect- 
 ive movement of popular caprice. There was 
 enough in the character and fortunes of the man, to 
 sustain and justify it. In addition to a rare endow 
 ment of personal qualities, sufficient for an ample 
 assignment of merit, to a dozen great men of the 
 common stamp, it was necessary toward the pro 
 duction of such an effect on the public mind, that 
 numberless high and singular associations should 
 
80 
 
 have linked his name, with all the great public 
 movements of half a century. It was necessary 
 that, in a venerable age, he should have come out of 
 a long succession of labors, trials, and disasters, of 
 which a much smaller portion is commonly sufficient 
 to break down the health and spirits, and send the 
 weary victim, discouraged and heart-sick, to an 
 early retreat. It was necessary that he should, in 
 the outset, taking age, and circumstances, and suc 
 cess into consideration, have done that for this far 
 distant land, which was never done for any country 
 in the world. Having performed an arduous, a 
 dangerous, an honorable and triumphant part in our 
 Revolution, itself an event of high and transcendent 
 character, it was necessary, that, pursuing at home 
 the path of immortal renown on which his feet had 
 laid hold in America, he should have engaged among 
 the foremost, in that stupendous Revolution, in his 
 own country, where he stood sad but unshaken, 
 amidst the madness of an empire ; faithful to liber 
 ty when all else were faithless ; true to her holy 
 cause, when the crimes and horrors committed in her 
 name made the brave fear and the good loathe it; 
 innocent and pure in that 4 open hell, ringing with 
 agony and blasphemy, smoking with suffering and 
 crime. It was necessary to the feeling, with 
 which Lafayotte was received in this country, that 
 the people should remember how he was received in 
 Prussia and Austria ; how, when barely escaping 
 from the edge of the Jacobin guillotine at Paris, he 
 was generously bolted down into the underground 
 
81 
 
 caverns of Magdeburg ; and shut up to languish for 
 years, with his wife and daughter, in a pestiferous 
 dungeon, by an emperor who had to thank him 
 alone, that his father s sister had not been torn limb 
 from limb, by the poissardes of Paris. It was ne 
 cessary to justify the enthusiasm, with which La 
 fayette was welcomed to republican America, that 
 when another catastrophe had placed the Man of 
 Fate on the throne of France, and almost of Europe, 
 Lafayette alone, not in a convulsive effort of fanati 
 cal hardihood, but in the calm consciousness of a 
 weight of character which would bear him out in the 
 step, should, deliberately and in writing, refuse to 
 sanction the power, before which the contemporary 
 generation quailed. When again the wheel of em 
 pire had turned, and this dreadful colossus was 
 about to be crushed beneath the weight of Europe, 
 (mustered against him more in desperation than self 
 assured power,) and in falling dragged down to earth 
 the honor and the strength of France, it was neces 
 sary, when the dust and smoke of the contest had 
 blown off, that the faithful. sentinel of liberty should 
 be seen again at his post, ready once more to stake 
 life and reputation in another of those critical junc 
 tures, when the stoutest hearts are apt to retire, and 
 leave the field to desperate men, the forlorn hope 
 of affairs, whom recklessness or necessity crowds up 
 to the breach. But to refute every imputation of 
 selfishness, of a wish to restore himself to the 
 graces of restored royalty, himself the only indi 
 vidual of continental Europe, within the reach of 
 
82 
 
 Napoleon s sceptre, that refused to sanction his title, 
 it was necessary that he should be coldly viewed 
 by the reappearing dynasty, and that he should be 
 seen and heard, not in the cabinet or the ante 
 chamber, swarming with men whom Napoleon had 
 spangled with stars, but at the tribune : the calm, 
 the rational, the ever consistent advocate of Liberty 
 and Order, a representative of the People, in con 
 stitutional France. It was there I first saw him. I 
 saw the Marshals of Napoleon, gorged with the 
 plunder of Europe and stained with its blood, borne 
 on their flashing chariot wheels through the streets 
 of Paris. I saw the ministers of Napoleon filling the 
 highest posts of trust and honor under Louis XVIII. ; 
 and I saw the friend of Washington, glorious in his 
 noble poverty, looking down from the dazzling height 
 of his consistency and his principles, on their paltry 
 ambition and its more paltry rewards. 
 
 But all this, much as it was, was not all that 
 combined to insure to Lafayette the respect, the 
 love, the passionate admiration of the people, to 
 whom he had consecrated the bloom of his youth; 
 for whom he had lavished his fortune and blood. 
 These were the essentials, but they were not all. In 
 order to give even to the common mind a topic of 
 pleasing and fanciful contrast, where the strongest 
 mind found enough to command respect and astonish 
 ment ; in order to make up a character, in which even 
 the ingredients of romance were mingled with the 
 loftiest and sternest virtues, it was necessary that, 
 the just and authentic titles to respect which we 
 
83 
 
 have considered, should be united in an individual, 
 who derived his descent from the ancient chivalry of 
 France ; that he should have been born within the 
 walls of a feudal castle ; that the patient volunteer 
 who laid his head contentedly on a wreath of snow, 
 beneath the tattered canvass of a tent at Valley 
 Forge, should have come fresh from the gorgeous 
 canopies of Versailles ; that he should abandon all 
 that a false ambition could covet, as well as attain 
 all that a pure ambition could prize ; and thus begin 
 life by trampling under foot that which Chatham ac 
 cepted, which Burke did not refuse, and for which 
 the mass of eminent men in Europe barter health, 
 comfort, and conscience. 
 
 Such was the man whom the Congress of the 
 United States invited to our shores, to gather in the 
 rich harvest of a people s love. Well might he do 
 it. He had sown it in weakness, should he not reap 
 it in power ? He had come to us, a poor and strug 
 gling colony, and risked his life and shed his blood in 
 our defence, was it not just, that he should come 
 again in his age, to witness the fruits of his labors, 
 to rejoice with the veteran companions of his service, 
 and to receive the benedictions of the children, as he 
 had received those of the fathers ? 
 
 But the delightful vision passes. He returns to 
 France to reappear in the chamber of deputies, the 
 still consistent champion of reform, both at home 
 and throughout Europe. His extraordinary recep 
 tion in the United States had given an added weight 
 to his counsels, which nothing could withstand. It 
 
84 
 
 raised him into a new moral power in the state : 
 an inofficial dictator of principle ; a representative of 
 the public opinion of the friends of liberty in the 
 whole world, a personation of the spirit of reform. 
 At the close of the sesssion of 1 829, on occasion of 
 a visit to the place of his birth, in the ancient prov 
 ince of Auvergne, his progress through the country 
 was the counterpart of his tour through the United 
 States. In the towns and villages on his way, he 
 was received in triumph. Arches arose over his 
 venerable head, the population gathered round him 
 at the festive board, and the language of the address 
 es made to him, and of his replies, was of startling 
 significance. It was a moment, you may remember, 
 in France, when the tide of reform seemed flowing 
 backwards. Some of the worst abuses of the an 
 cient regime were openly re-established. The min 
 istry was filled with some of the most obnoxious of 
 the emigrant nobility. The expedition to Algiers 
 gave no small eclat to the administration, feeble and 
 odious as it was ; and on a superficial view it seem 
 ed, that the entire fruit of the immense sacrifices, 
 which France had made for Constitutional Liberty, 
 was about to be wrested from her. Such, I own, 
 for a short time, was my own apprehension* But 
 the visit of Lafayette to the south of France convin 
 ced me, that there was no ground for despondence. 
 1 saw plainly, that either by way of awakening the 
 slumbering spirit of resistance, or because he saw 
 that it was awakened and demanded sympathy and 
 encouragement ; either to excite or guide the public 
 
85 
 
 mind, the sagacious veteran was on the alert ; and 
 that language, such as he was daily addressing to 
 the people, received in willing ears, was the 
 award of fate to the administration. In some re 
 marks, submitted to the public on the 1st of January 
 1830, I ventured to express myself, in the following 
 manner : 
 
 When we read, in the last papers from France, the 
 account of the present state of things in that kingdom; 
 when we notice the irresistible onset made upon the 
 ministry and the visible perturbation of its ranks, it 
 is impossible wholly to suppress the idea, that anoth 
 er great change is at hand. When we see the spon 
 taneous movement of the people toward the person 
 of Lafayette, the glowing zeal with which they have 
 turned an excursion of business into another trium 
 phant progress, strewing his way with honors, such as 
 loyal France never paid to her most cherished princes, 
 we cannot but think, that, in the language of the 
 venerable Spanish priest at New Orleans, he is still 
 reserved for great achievements. The feelings of men 
 inspire their actions ; public sentiment governs states ; 
 and revolutions are the out-breakings of mighty, 
 irrepressible passions. It is in vain to deny, that 
 these passions are up in France, and happy is it that 
 they have concentrated themselves upon a patriot, 
 whom prosperity has been as little able to corrupt, 
 as adversity to subdue. What was vague foreboding 
 on the first of January, was history by the last of July. 
 On that day, Charles X. and his family, who had 
 learned nothing and forgotten nothing in thirty years 
 
86 
 
 of banishment and exclusion, were on their way to 
 the frontier, and Lafayette was installed at the Ho 
 tel de Ville at the head of the National Guards, at 
 the head of a new Revolution. 
 
 At the head of a new Revolution ? Not so. He 
 lives, the fortunate man, to see the first Revolution, 
 emerging from years of abuse and seas of blood, 
 and approaching its peaceful consummation. A weak 
 and besotted prince, who had attempted, by one 
 monstrous act of executive usurpation, to repeal the 
 entire charter, and had thus produced a revolt, in 
 which six thousand lives were lost, is permitted un 
 molested, and in safety, to leave the city, where, 
 twenty-seven years before, his innocent brother had 
 been dragged to the scaffold. A dynasty is changed, 
 with the promptitude and order of an election. And 
 when the critical period comes on, for the trial of the 
 guilty ministers, the responsible advisers of the 
 measures, which had drenched Paris in blood, 
 Lafayette is able, by the influence of his venerable 
 authority and the exercise of his military command, 
 to prevent the effusion of blood, and save their for 
 feited lives. 
 
 In these, his successful efforts, to prevent the late 
 revolution from assuming a sanguinary character, I 
 own I cannot but think, that our revered Lafayette 
 did as much for the cause of liberty, as by all 
 his former efforts and sacrifices. There is nothing 
 more efficacious, in reconciling men to the continued 
 existence of corrupt forms of government, than the 
 fear, that when once the work of revolution is under- 
 
87 
 
 taken, blood of necessity begins to flow in torrents. 
 It was the reign of terror which reconciled men to 
 the reign of Napoleon, arid it is the dread of seeing 
 its scenes reacted in Austria, in Prussia, and in 
 Russia, which prevents the intelligence of those 
 countries from engaging in earnest, in the work of 
 radical reform. 
 
 In all the steps of the recent revolution in France, 
 so long as there was responsibility to be assumed 
 or danger to be braved, Lafayette was its leader. 
 It is plain, from documents before the world, that 
 he could have organized the government on the 
 republican model, and placed himself at its head. 
 Although, in refraining from this, it may be justly 
 said, that he abstained from a course, for which 
 his advanced age, his pledged disinterestedness, 
 and the consistency of his whole life unfitted 
 him ; it is not the less true, that in deciding for a 
 hereditary executive, with a legislature chosen by 
 the people, or, in his own language, a monarchy 
 surrounded by republican institutions, he acted up to 
 the principles, with which he commenced his politi 
 cal course. There is as much truth as point in 
 the remark ascribed to Charles X., on his way to the 
 sea coast, * that he and Lafayette were the only con 
 sistent men of the day. 
 
 Born for mighty constitutional movements, for the 
 support of great principles, to take the direction in 
 critical junctures of affairs, but absolutely insensible 
 to the love of power or money, or the passion for 
 place, Lafayette s functions were exhausted, as soon 
 
88 
 
 as the new government was organized. He re 
 created the National Guard, which he had called into 
 being in 1789, and in which lay the germ of the 
 victories of Napoleon, placed a constitutional crown, 
 without commotion or bloodshed, on the head of 
 the Duke of Orleans, and carried the government 
 through the crisis of the trial of the ministers. Having 
 performed these great services to the country, and 
 disdaining to enter into the petty politics, which suc 
 ceed a great movement, the scramble for office and 
 the rivalries of small men, he laid down his commis 
 sion as Commander-in-chief of the National Guards, 
 and confined himself to his duties, as a representative 
 of the people, and to the exercise of his moral influ 
 ence, as the acknowledged chief of the constitutional 
 party on the continent of Europe. 
 
 In the course of the last spring, our beloved bene 
 factor, in attending the funeral of a colleague in the 
 Chamber of deputies, from long exposure to the 
 dampness of the air and ground, contracted a cold, 
 which settled on his lungs ; and which, though 
 deemed slight at first, gradually assumed a serious 
 aspect. After a protracted struggle with the remains 
 of a once vigorous constitution, the disease became 
 alarming ; but not, as was supposed, critical, till the 
 1 9th of May. On that day, by a mark of public 
 sympathy never perhaps paid before to a private 
 citizen, the Chamber of deputies directed their Pres 
 ident to address a note to Mr. G. W. Lafayette, 
 enquiring after the health of his venerable parent. 
 At the time of this enquiry, the symptoms of the 
 
89 
 
 disease were less alarming, but an unfavorable 
 change soon took place ; and, on the following day, 
 the illustrious sufferer, the patriarch of Liberty, 
 died, in the 77th year of his age. He was buried, 
 by his own direction, not within the vaults of the 
 Pantheon, not among the great and illustrious, that 
 people the silent alleys of Pere la Chaise, but in a 
 rural cemetery near Paris, by the side of her, who 
 had shared his pure love of liberty, his triumphs, his 
 dungeon, and his undying renown. In a secluded 
 garden, in this humble retreat, beneath the shade of 
 a row of linden trees, between his wife and his 
 daughter, the friend of Washington and America, has 
 lain down to his last repose. 
 
 I attempt not, fellow-citizens, to sketch his char 
 acter. I have no space, no capacity, for the task. 1 
 have endeavored to run over, superficially of neces 
 sity, the incidents of his life ; his character is con 
 tained in the recital. 
 
 There have been those who have denied to Lafay 
 ette the name of a great man. What is greatness ? 
 Does goodness belong to greatness and make an 
 essential part of it ? Is there yet enough of virtue 
 left in the world, to echo the sentiment, that 
 
 T is phrase absurd, to call a villain great ? 
 
 If there is, who, 1 would ask, of all the prominent 
 names in history, has run through such a career, with 
 so little reproach, justly or unjustly, bestowed ? Are 
 military courage and conduct the measure of great 
 ness ? Lafayette was entrusted by Washington with 
 all kinds of service ; the laborious and complicated, 
 
 M 
 
90 
 
 which required skill and patience, the perilous that 
 demanded nerve ; and we see him keeping up a 
 pursuit, effecting a retreat, out-manoeuvring a wary 
 adversary with a superior force, harmonizing the 
 action of French regular troops and American militia, 
 commanding an assault at the point of the bayonet ; 
 and all with entire success and brilliant reputation. 
 Is the readiness to meet vast responsibility a proof of 
 greatness ? The memoirs of Mr. Jefferson show us, 
 as we have already seen, that there was a moment in 
 1789, when Lafayette took upon himself, as the 
 head of the military force, the entire responsibility 
 of laying down the basis of the Revolution. Is the 
 cool and brave administration of gigantic power, a 
 mark of greatness ? In all the whirlwind of the 
 Revolution, and when, as Commander-in-chief of the 
 National Guard, an organized force of three millions 
 of men, who, for any popular purpose, needed but a 
 word, a look, to put them in motion, and he their 
 idol, we behold him ever calm, collected, disinter 
 ested ; as free from affectation as selfishness, clothed 
 not less with humility than with power. Is the for 
 titude required to resist the multitude pressing on 
 ward their leader to glorious crime, a part of great 
 ness ? Behold him the fugitive and the victim, when 
 he might have been the chief of the Revolution. Is 
 the solitary and unaided opposition of a good citizen 
 to the pretensions of an absolute ruler, whose power 
 was as boundless as his ambition, an effort of great 
 ness ? Read the letter of Lafayette to Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, refusing to vote for him as Consul for life. 
 
91 
 
 Is the voluntary return, in advancing years, to the 
 direction of affairs, at a moment like that, when in 
 1815 the ponderous machinery of the French empire 
 was flying asunder, stunning, rending, crushing 
 thousands on every side, a mark of greatness ? 
 Contemplate Lafayette at the tribune, in Paris, when 
 allied Europe was thundering at its gates, and Na 
 poleon yet stood in his desperation and at bay. Are 
 dignity, propriety, cheerfulness, unerring discretion in 
 new and conspicuous stations of extraordinary deli 
 cacy, a sign of greatness ? Watch his progress in 
 this country, in 1824 and 1825, hear him say the 
 right word at the right time, in a series of interviews, 
 public and private, crowding on each other every 
 day, for a twelvemonth, throughout the Union, with 
 every description of persons, without ever wounding 
 for a moment the self-love of others, or forgetting 
 the dignity of his own position. Lastly, is it any 
 proof of greatness to be able, at the age of seventy- 
 three, to take the lead in a successful arid bloodless 
 revolution ; to change the dynasty, to organize, 
 exercise, and abdicate a military command of three 
 and a half millions of men ; to take up, to perform, 
 and lay down the most momentous, delicate, and per 
 ilous duties, without passion, without hurry, without 
 selfishness ? Is it great to disregard the bribes of 
 title, office, money ; to live, to labor, and suffer for 
 great public ends alone ; to adhere to principle 
 under all circumstances ; to stand before Europe 
 and America conspicuous for sixty years, in the most 
 responsible stations, the acknowledged admiration of 
 all good men ? 
 
92 
 
 But I think I understand the proposition, that Lafay 
 ette was not a great man. It comes from the same 
 school, which also denies greatness to Washington, 
 and which accords it to Alexander and Cesar, to 
 Napoleon and to his Conqueror. When I analize 
 the greatness of these distinguished men, as con 
 trasted with that of Lafayette and Washington, I 
 find either one idea omitted, which is essential to 
 true greatness, or one included as essential, which 
 belongs only to the lowest conception of greatness. 
 The moral, disinterested, and purely patriotic quali 
 ties are wholly wanting in the greatness of Cesar 
 and Napoleon ; and on the other hand, it is a certain 
 splendor of success, a brilliancy of result, which, 
 with the majority of mankind, marks them out as 
 the great men of our race. But not only are a high 
 morality and a true patriotism essential to greatness ; 
 but they must first be renounced, before a ruthless 
 career of selfish conquest can begin. I profess to 
 be no judge of military combinations; but, with the 
 best reflection I have been able to give the subject, 
 I perceive no reason to doubt, that, had Lafayette, 
 like Napoleon, been by principle, capable of hover 
 ing on the edges of ultra-revolutionism ; never halt 
 ing enough to be denounced ; never plunging too far 
 to retreat ; but with a cold and well-balanced 
 selfishness, sustaining himself at the head of affairs, 
 under each new phase of the Revolution, by the com 
 pliances sufficient to satisfy its demands, had his prin 
 ciples allowed him to play this game, he might have 
 anticipated the career of Napoleon. At three differ- 
 
93 
 
 ent periods, he had it in his power, without usurpa 
 tion, to take the government into his own hands. He 
 was invited, urged to do so. Had he done it, and 
 made use of the military means at his command, to 
 maintain and perpetuate his power, he would then, 
 at the sacrifice of all his just claims to the name of 
 great and good, have reached that which vulgar ad 
 miration alone worships, the greatness of high sta 
 tion and brilliant success. 
 
 But it was of the greatness of Lafayette, that he 
 looked down on greatness of the false kind. He 
 learned his lesson in the school of Washington, and 
 took his first practice, in victories over himself. Let 
 it be questioned, by the venal apologists of time- 
 honored abuses, let it be sneered at by national 
 prejudice and party detraction ; let it be denied by 
 the admirers of war and conquest ; by the idola 
 ters of success, but let it be gratefully acknowledged 
 by good men ; by Americans, by every man, who 
 has sense to distinguish character from events ; who 
 has a heart to beat in concert with the pure enthu 
 siasm of virtue. 
 
 But it is more than time, fellow-citizens, that I 
 commit this great and good man to your unprompted 
 contemplation. On his arrival among you, ten years 
 ago, when your civil fathers, your military, your 
 children, your whole population poured itself out, 
 as one throng, to salute him, when your cannons 
 proclaimed his advent with joyous salvos, and your 
 acclamations were responded from steeple to steeple, 
 by the voice of festal bells, with what delight did 
 
94 
 
 you not listen to his cordial and affectionate words ; 
 I beg of you all, beloved citizens of Boston, to 
 accept the respectful and warm thanks of a heart, 
 which has for nearly half a century been devoted to 
 your illustrious city ! That noble heart, to which, 
 if any object on earth was dear, that object was the 
 country of his early choice, of his adoption, and 
 his more than regal triumph, that noble heart will 
 beat no more for your welfare. Cold and motion 
 less, it is already mingling with the dust. While 
 he lived, you thronged with delight to his presence, 
 you gazed with admiration on his placid features 
 and venerable form, not wholly unshaken by the 
 rude storms of his career ; and now that he is de 
 parted, you have assembled in this cradle of the 
 liberties, for which, with your fathers, he risked 
 his life, to pay the last honors to his memory. 
 You have thrown open these consecrated portals to 
 admit the lengthened train which has come to dis 
 charge the last public offices of respect to his name. 
 You have hung these venerable arches, for the second 
 time since their erection, with the sable badges of 
 sorrow. You have thus associated the memory of 
 Lafayette in those distinguished honors, which but a 
 few years since you paid to your Adams and Jeffer 
 son ; and could your wishes and mine have prevail 
 ed, my lips would this day have been mute, and the 
 same illustrious voice, which gave utterance to your 
 filial emotions over their honored graves, would have 
 spoken also, for you, over him who shared their 
 earthly labors, enjoyed their friendship, and has 
 
95 
 
 now gone to share their last repose, and their im 
 perishable remembrance. 
 
 There is not, throughout the world, a friend of 
 liberty, who has not dropped his head, when he has 
 heard that Lafayette is no more. Poland, Italy, 
 Greece, Spain, Ireland, the South American repub 
 lics, every country where man is struggling to re 
 cover his birthright, has lost a benefactor, a patron 
 in Lafayette. But you, young men, at whose com 
 mand I speak, for you a bright and particular lode 
 star is henceforward fixed in the front of heaven. 
 What young man that reflects on the history of La 
 fayette, that sees him in the morning of his days 
 the associate of sages, the friend of Washington, 
 but will start with new vigor on the path of duty 
 and renown ? 
 
 And what was it, fellow-citizens, which gave to 
 our Lafayette his spotless fame ? The love of liber 
 ty. What has consecrated his memory in hearts of 
 good men ? The love of liberty. What nerved his 
 youthful arm with strength, and inspired him in the 
 morning of his days with sagacity and counsel ? The 
 living love of liberty. To what did he sacrifice 
 power, and rank and country and freedom itself? 
 To the horror of licentiousness ; to the sanctity of 
 plighted faith, to the love of liberty protected by 
 law. Thus the great principle of your Revolutiona 
 ry fathers, of your pilgrim sires, the great principle 
 of the age, was the rule of his life : The love of 
 liberty protected by law. 
 
96 
 
 You have now assembled within these renowned 
 walls, to perform the last duties of respect and love, 
 on the birth day of your benefactor, beneath that 
 roof which has resounded of old with the master 
 voices of American renown. The spirit of the de 
 parted is in high communion with the spirit of the 
 place ; the temple worthy of the new name, which 
 we now behold inscribed on its walls. Listen, 
 Americans, to the lesson, which seems borne to us 
 on the very air we breathe, while we perform these 
 dutiful rites. Ye winds, that wafted the pilgrims to 
 the land of promise, fan, in their children s hearts, 
 the love of freedom ; Blood, which our fathers shed, 
 cry from the ground ; Echoing arches of this re 
 nowned hall, whisper back the voices of other days ; 
 Glorious Washington, break the long silence of 
 that votive canvass; Speak, speak, marble lips, 
 teach us THE LOVE OF LIBERTY PROTECTED BY 
 LAW! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 [The Committee of Publication, conceiving it desirable to preserve some 
 record of the Commemoration, in a more permanent form than that of a 
 newspaper, have subjoined the following notice, from the Boston Daily Ad 
 vocate of September 8th.] 
 
 THE COMMEMORATION, on Saturday, the 6th of September, 
 was one of the most beautiful and effective public observances 
 ever witnessed in this city. The Young Men s Committee 
 were aware that the scene was too remote in time and place from 
 the death of Lafayette, to bring into the ceremony the exter 
 nal trappings of wo, as the prevailing order of the day. They 
 therefore studied to get up the ceremony in a strict, and even 
 severe taste, excluding ornament and mere pageant, and relying 
 for the effect of the arrangements upon their substantial and 
 appropriate simplicity and moral and martial associations. For 
 these reasons, the led horse, the urn, the funereal hearse and 
 coffin, which have attended the like commemorations in other 
 cities, were excluded, as being, in effect, the mere mockeries 
 of wo, wholly unsuited to the associations connected with the 
 glorious life and fully ripened death of the good Lafayette. 
 
 In a word, the occasion was intended to be made a commem 
 oration of the services and virtues of Lafayette, and not a day 
 of mourning, as at the death of one who had been removed 
 from a scene of usefulness, in the vigor of life and energy. The 
 ceremonies, and all the externals of the day, were in appropri 
 ate keeping with this primary object of the Committee; and if 
 they are entitled to approbation for having succeeded in render- 
 dering the observances worthy the occasion, and of the spirit 
 
 N 
 
98 
 
 in which they were selected to perform this service, by their 
 immediate constituents, the young men of Boston, their success 
 is to be attributed to their discrimination, in studying an intel 
 lectual and moral adaptedness, rather than mere pageant and 
 exhibition. 
 
 The day was delightful, and the entire population of the city 
 surrendered themselves to its hallowed influence. The most 
 respectful deportment distinguished the crowds of people, com 
 prising the best of our population, who were congregated at 
 every point, and filled the windows and doors throughout the 
 long route of the procession; nor was there known a single 
 instance of excess, personal conflict, or even rudeness that 
 occurred among the whole mass of population that were assem 
 bled together, and drawn into the streets by this occasion. 
 
 The procession began to form at the State House at ten 
 o clock; but with the most indefatigable exertions of the mar 
 shals and officers of the escort, the various bodies could not be 
 placed in line and set in motion, until half past eleven. They 
 then proceeded through Beacon, Tremont, Boylston, and Wash 
 ington streets, to Rev. Mr. Motte s meeting house, counter 
 marched, and came down Washington, through State street and 
 Merchant s Row, to Faneuil Hall. 
 
 The fine body of military formed the most prominent division 
 of the long procession. There were eight companies in full 
 dress, forming the Boston Regiment, under command of Colo 
 nel Smith, and four very neat and effective independent com 
 panies from the vicinity, viz: The Hingham Light Infantry 
 and Rifle companies, the Middlesex Guards, and a company 
 from Maiden. The presence of these neat and well disciplined 
 corps, was a great acquisition to the procession, and was 
 highly gratifying to the committee of arrangements and the 
 citizens generally. 
 
 The Military companies were all full, and together formed 
 a regiment of upwards of five hundred effective men, who 
 could not be approached in richness of equipments and exact 
 ness of discipline, by as large a body that could be mustered at 
 any other point in the Union. Nor should we forget to mention 
 
99 
 
 the spirited little corps of Juvenile Volunteers, formed in the 
 rear of the procession, and equipped and marshalled with the 
 precision of veterans. The military moved, right in front, with 
 their arms at a shoulder, flags unfurled and drums not muffled, 
 the officers with the hilts of their swords covered with crape, 
 and the standards tied with crape at the top. 
 
 The whole line of the procession extended nearly a mile, 
 comprising one thousand seven hundred persons by counting, 
 but more probably, at least two thousand. The Firemen, with 
 their badges, but without their apparatus, were the body next 
 prominent after the Military, comprising nearly five hundred of 
 the active young men of the city. Those who have been ac 
 customed to associate the Firemen only with their appropriate 
 dresses as such, had an opportunity on this occasion of seeing 
 what sort of a body of young men it is, to whom the citizens are 
 indebted for that security which renders the cry of fire a source 
 of no alarm in this city, except to the immediate occupants of 
 the place in flames. 
 
 The procession moved in the order designated in the papers. 
 First came the body of five hundred of the Military; then the 
 Committee of Arrangements ; the Lieutenant Governor, with 
 the aids of the Governor, (who was unable to be present) ; 
 Major General Macomb, the Commander-in-chief of the Unit 
 ed States forces, who was present with his suite ; United States 
 and State Senators, Representatives and Judges, among whom 
 we observed the Hon. Senators Ewing of Ohio, and Mangum 
 of North Carolina, Hon. Richard H. Wilde, representative 
 from Georgia, Ex-President Adams, Messrs. Silsbee, Gorham, 
 and Jackson, Members of Congress from this State, and Mr. 
 Choate, of Salem. There was also a large number of invited 
 strangers, including some of our own citizens, who bore an ap 
 propriate relation to the occasion. Among them were Colonel 
 Thomas H. Perkins, and Mr. Joseph Russell of this city, by 
 whose aid George Washington Lafayette was saved from pro 
 scription, and sent to this country during the French Revolu 
 tion, while his father was confined in the prison of Olmiitz ; an 
 act for which Lafayette personally thanked them, after his re- 
 
100 
 
 lease. Mr. Everett made a beautiful allusion to this affecting 
 incident, in his funeral oration, as he did also, to Mr. Webster, 
 who had been first invited by the young men to pronounce the 
 eulogy. 
 
 A few of the veterans of the Revolution and members of the 
 Cincinnati, made their venerable appearance in the procession. 
 The body of Naval and Military officers of the United States, 
 and of the State Militia, in full dress, was large, and made a fine 
 appearance. The Mayor, and city authorities very generally 
 turned out, and there was a numerous body of the clergy, and 
 several French residents and Polish exiles, distinguished by 
 the tri-colored cockade. The Massachusetts Horticultural 
 Society, the Charitable Mechanic Association, the Medical So 
 ciety, the Irish Charitable Association, the Young Men s Lite 
 rary Association, and several other Mechanic Associations 
 joined in the procession. Among them the Association of 
 Tailors bore a large and splendidly painted banner, and there 
 were a few other banners of the different Mechanic Societies, 
 Fire Engine Company No. 18, bore a pedestal supporting the 
 busts of Lafayette and Washington, under the French and 
 American flags. We were gratified to notice in the procession 
 a large body (more than a hundred) of the students of Harvard 
 College, arranged by classes. After the Freshman class, came 
 the corps of Young Volunteers, followed by a large number 
 of pupils of the public schools. This arrangement had a very 
 good effect. 
 
 When they arrived at the Hall, the Military formed a square, 
 in beautiful style, through which the procession entered, Major 
 General Macomb being received with the honors due to his 
 rank. This movement of the escort was a beautiful evolution, 
 and presented a spectacle that struck every one with admiration. 
 
 Faneuil Hall, when filled with the dense mass which occu 
 pied every inch of space within its spacious walls, presented a 
 spectacle of moral grandeur. The dressing of the Hall was very 
 appropriate and chaste. A heavy canopy was formed from the 
 roof by hangings of black cloth, suspended from the centre to 
 the capitals of the pillars and pilasters, which were also wound 
 
101 
 
 with black; a festoon of black cloth running round the walls with 
 hangings from the arches. The galleries were clothed in 
 black broadcloth, relieved on the sides alternately by rich 
 French and American flags, (for which the Committee were 
 indebted to Commodore Elliott of the Navy Yard) and in 
 front by the name of LAFAYETTE, in large silver letters, with a 
 gilt spread eagle over the centre. The labor of this part of 
 the arrangement devolved principally on Mr. R. G. Wait, of 
 the Committee. 
 
 The platform, at the head of the Hall on the lower floor, was 
 appropriated to the Boston Academy of Music, under the direc 
 tion of Mr. Lowell Mason. A large organ, provided for the 
 occasion, stood in the centre hung with crape, the top surmount 
 ed by a white urn, with flags on either side. Raised seats 
 extending across the area of the Hall, with a railing in front, 
 covered with black, formed the Orchestra, which contained 
 nearly an hundred voices and instruments. The Portraits of 
 Washington, Knox, &/c., were dressed in black. In front of the 
 organ, extending out into the Hall, was an elevated rostrum 
 for the Orator, covered with a carpet, red and black, and hung 
 with black drapery from the staging to the floor. On the rear 
 of this platform the Orator and two chaplains were seated. 
 At the right of the Orator, as he advanced in front to address 
 the audience from the open stage, was placed a large plain 
 column and pedestal, four feet high, supporting an excellent 
 bust of Lafayette, which was loaned by Mr. Greenwood, of the 
 New England Museum. 
 
 The effect of this bust, in giving an ideal presence to the 
 scene, throughout the whole address of the Orator, was thrilling, 
 especially at the close, when by a figure of speech, not less 
 bold than it was successful and overpowering, he apostrophised 
 first the canvass that bore the image of Washington, and then 
 the bust of Lafayette l speak, speak, marble lips. It was a 
 lesson of patriotism and love of virtue, impressed as it was by the 
 Orator, himself a young man, upon the young men of Boston, 
 that those who heard can never forget. 
 
 Extended either side from the rostrum to the galleries, were 
 
102 
 
 seats fronting the main body of the audience, occupied by 
 strangers, public officers, the Committee, &c. The whole 
 area of the Hall, enclosed by railings enveloped in black, was 
 occupied by seats without backs, as compact as they could be 
 placed. The aisles and the spaces under the galleries, as also 
 the area and the galleries, presented one dense mass of human 
 heads. The effect was very imposing, especially when the 
 whole audience rose in prayer, with as much solemnity and 
 order as would have been observed in a church. The centre 
 of the Hall presented a plane of upturned faces of men, which 
 was extended to the walls on either side, in a gradual elevation 
 under the galleries, the galleries, with a corresponding eleva 
 tion, being filled with ladies on each side, and the front occupied 
 by the Military in a solid column. At the head of the Hall 
 was the bust of Lafayette, as the most prominent object, the 
 crowded seats on the elevated platform, and the choristers, the 
 female portion of whom were dressed in uniform white, with 
 black belts and neck chains. 
 
 The services commenced with a Dirge from Handel, Weep, 
 Columbia weep, thy friend has fallen, &LC. which was followed 
 by a prayer, sublime in thought and language, from Rev. Mr. 
 Frothingham. A Requiem followed, written by Grenville 
 Mellen, and composed by Lowell Mason. Then followed the 
 Eulogy by Edward Everett, and a Hymn, written by Isaac 
 McLellan, Jr. one of the Committee, and composed by G. J. 
 Webb. The services were concluded by a benediction, from 
 the Rev. Mr. Adams. 
 
 Of the Oration it is difficult to speak. Say what we can, 
 those who heard it will think the commendation tame, and we 
 know not how to spread upon paper that delightful enthusiasm 
 with which all were carried away, imperceptibly but complete 
 ly, as the Orator began with an. unaffected modesty, that shrunk 
 from the task, and then carried his audience along gradually 
 through anecdote, narrative, illustration, history, philosophy, 
 and the fervor of patriotism, up to the most impassioned elo 
 quence; the whole chastened and adapted by a taste that left 
 not a single rough, inharmonious or unfinished point in this 
 
103 
 
 splendid and beautiful model of elocution. In no one effort do 
 we think this accomplished scholar and orator has ever been so 
 entirely successful as he was in his tribute to the virtues of the 
 good Lafayette, both in diction and in manner. The latter had 
 all the advantages of speaking from an open stage, with simply 
 a table in the rear, on which the Orator s notes were placed, but 
 to which he did not once recur throughout an address, that 
 enchained the multitude to their seats, as though they were a 
 part of them, for one hour and forty minutes. He might have 
 held them an hour longer, for Napoleon never more completely 
 commanded a large body of men by the force of military disci 
 pline, than did Mr. Everett by the resistless power of moral 
 suasion. When he described the sufferings of Lafayette in the 
 Austrian prisons, the devotion of his heroic wife, the meanness 
 of the Emperor, his refusal to enlarge Lafayette on the earnest 
 solicitation of Washington; and then took up the movements of 
 the man of destiny, Napoleon, who was already in the field, 
 sweeping the Austrian forces before him, and dictating to 
 Francis, in his capital, the terms of peace, at the head of which 
 stood the release of Lafayette! his audience were completely 
 carried away with the spirit the orator had poured into them, 
 and it was some moments before they could repress the ardor 
 of applause. Nor was it less when he contrasted Lafayette 
 with Napoleon, in all the simplicity of the former in his repub 
 lican retirement at Lagrange, and the glory of the latter at 
 Marengo and Austerlitz. 
 
 We cannot follow the Orator, and must leave those who 
 heard to cherish the recollection, and those who did not, to read 
 this splendid production. But those who read, cannot also be 
 inspired with the genius of the place, and the grace of the man 
 ner which gave to mere words a living and breathing spirit. 
 
104 
 
 REQUIEM. 
 
 BY GRENVILLE MELLEN. 
 
 BREATHE mournful music round ! 
 In cypress wreathe your melancholy lyres, 
 And, as ye sweep them, yield the quivering wires 
 
 To sorrow s gushing sound ! 
 
 Shadow your brows, and weep ! 
 A nation s voice peals from the booming sea, 
 Grief s far, faint requiem, o er the Great and Free, 
 
 Laid in his marble sleep ! 
 
 He s passed within the veil ; 
 And over him, in loud and long lament, 
 A world s wo breaks upon the firmament, 
 
 In farewell and in wail. 
 
 We hear an empire s tread ; 
 A land, mid shade of banner and of plume, 
 Pours, from one mighty heart, above the tomb, 
 
 Its tribute to the dead. 
 
 One pulse is echoing there ! 
 The far-voiced clarion and the trump are still, 
 And man s crush d spirit to the changeless will 
 
 Bows in rebuke and prayer ! 
 
 Gather about his pall, 
 And let the sacred memory of years 
 That he made glorious, call back your tears, 
 
 Or light them as they fall ! 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 BY ISAAC MC LELLAN, JR. 
 
 His race is run, his battle s o er, 
 He leads the armies forth no more, 
 The booming gun, the tolling bell, 
 Have paid to him the last farewell ! 
 
 He vanished like the glorious sun 
 When his appointed course is run : 
 Yet long a brilliant track of light 
 Marks where he melted from the sight. 
 
 His name, as passing years shall roll, 
 Shall brighter shine on glory s scroll; 
 Old age shall love to tell his fame, 
 And youth with reverence speak his name. 
 
 That name shall, like a beacon star, 
 From the dim past, cast light afar ; 
 And o er the future s rolling tide, 
 The star of LAFAYETTE shall guide. 
 

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