Chapter III: Part 3

On the attempt of the King, soon after, to depart from France, who had become disgusted with the conduct of the revolutionists, and was in fear of his personal safety, Lafayette was charged with being privy to the plan, and subjected himself to the popular displeasure on this suspicion. That he promoted the plan, was never proved, and is not probable. That he had intimations of it, is possible; but that he gave strict orders to the officers about the king's palace to guard against such an event is most certain. He discharged his duty as a public agent; and it is not improbable he might have supposed the king in immediate danger, and that by a temporary absence from the capital, the ferment would subside, and he might return in safety. No one, for a moment, believed that he wished, with the emigrants and other enemies of the revolution, to have Louis surrender himself to the hostile powers of the coalition, for the purpose of bringing a foreign army to enslave France. He was, indeed, anxious for the safety of his Prince; but he would never have compromitted the liberties of his country, even for such an object.

From this period, the Jacobin clubs became more popular, and had the chief direction of all political affairs. In their desire to lesson the authority of the King, and to secure power, they hesitated at no measures, however unjust; and the new constitution, even which they had sworn to support, was grossly violated in the prosecution of their selfish views. The influence of Lafayette was rapidly undermined by these artful demagogues. He was sincerely attached to the constitution; and was desirous of maintaining inviolate; the power of the monarch which it guaranteed. He was the friend to law, and opposed all his influence to riots and excesses. He became an object of dread to the Jacobins, and they resolved to destroy him. But for a long time, the majority of the National Assembly supported him. In attempting to suppress a dangerous riot, by which many of the citizens were alarmed and threatened, when he commanded the military in 1791, he was shot at by one of the mob. The man was taken, and he forgave him--But the National Assembly decreed the death of the culprit, who had attempted the life of "the hero of the day." And the municipality of Paris, also had a gold medal struck off, in honor of Lafayette, and presented him with a bust of Washington in approbation of his conduct.

He was repeatedly denounced by individuals of the violent party, before they succeeded in rendering him obnoxious to popular displeasure. And this was finally effected, through misrepresentations and false reports.

Letter of Lafayette, Feb. 1791, to M. de Bonille, one of the court, but not then at Paris.

"Paris is divided by factions, and the kingdom oppressed by anarchy. The violent aristocrats dream of a counter revolution--the clergy concur with them. The impartial monarchists are looking for a part to play, without the means of doing it. Among the friends of the revolution, you have many honest men, some lose themselves in speculations--and some Jacobins, whose leaders spread trouble everywhere. As to the ministers, they are merged in the revolution; and have no rule, but to yield to the popular voice. The Queen is resigned to the revolution,--hoping that opinions will soon change. The King wishes the happiness of the people, and the general tranquility, to begin his own. As to myself, I am attacked by all the party leaders, who consider me an obstacle not to be overcome or intimidated. Add to this, the hatred of the aristocrats and of the Orleans party; of the Lameths, with whom I was formerly connected; of Mirabeau, who says I despise him; the money distributed, the libels, the dissatisfaction I give those whom I prevent from pillaging Paris-and you will have the sum of all which is going on against me. But except a few ardent heads who are mislead, the well meaning, from the highest to the lowest, are for me.

"I stand well with the National Assembly, except a few disreputable Jacobins. I have little connexion with the court, for I can derive no use from it to my country; and yet I am aware advantage is taken of my neglect to intrigue. Some friends are at work with me, upon a plan of conduct, by which the revolution will be consolidated, the good basis of the constitution established, and public order restored. The chief talents of the assembly, Mirabeau himself, cannot but support this plan. Here then are courts established, and juries are decreed; this is the moment to let our voice be heard with force, propriety and utility.

"You have accepted the coalition which my heart and my patriotism have offered you. You lately said to one of my friends, "If Lafayette and I understand each other well, we shall establish a constitution."

"My first wish is to finish the revolution speedily and well, to secure the constitution on solid foundations, to employ for that purpose, all I possess of national confidense and personal means; and then to be nothing more in France, than an active citizen. Adieu,

"LAFAYETTE."

But after he was persecuted by the Petions and Robespieres of the day, because of his moderation, loyalty and attachment to the constitution, he was held in high esteem by the friends of rational freedom, and still enjoyed the confidence both of Louis and of the National Assembly. Toward the close of the year 1791, by request of the King, he was appointed to command the army of the centre, to oppose the foreign troops then invading France. When he accepted the appointment, he assured the National Assembly of his "determination to support the constitution." The President replied, "the French nation, who have sworn to conquer and to live free, will always, with confidence, present to their foes and to tyrants, the constitution and Lafayette."

As commander in chief of that department of the French army entreated to him, he was assiduous to maintain proper discipline and order; a matter of great difficulty, as a revolutionary spirit pervaded all ranks, and the soldiers were disposed to insubordination, especially under a leader not belonging to the popular party. He had several engagements with the enemy, in which he was successful. But his operations and those of the other generals, who commanded in other departments of the northern armies of France, were greatly impeded by the injudicious and variable plans of the assembly, then torn by factions, and disgraced by low intrigues. The evil spirit extended to the military; and each faction had its partizans among the soldiers. Lafayette saw and lamented this disastrous state of things; and he dared to oppose his single efforts to avert the impending ruin. It was at this time, that he wrote his celebrated letter to the National Assembly, of June 16, 1792, in which he exposed the violence and the cabals of the Jacobins, and conjured the moderates to cling to the constitution, as the only means of safety. This letter is so important, in developing the views and sentiments of Lafayette, and in detecting the causes of the excesses, which eventually disgraced the French revolution of that period, that it will be proper to record it in this connexion. He wrote to the King at the same time, expressing great anxiety for his safety, and declaring his wish to maintain the constitution.

Lafayette's letter to the Legislative body.

"_At the entrenched camp of Maubeuge_, 16_th June_, 1792.

"GENTLEMEN,

"At the moment, perhaps too long deferred, in which I am about to call your attention to the highest public interests, and to point out among our dangers, the _conduct of a ministry_, whom I have for a long time censured in my correspondence, I learn that, unmasked in consequence of its own divisions, it has fallen a sacrifice to its own intrigues. [This was the Brissotin ministry.] It is not enough however, that _this branch_ of the government has been delivered from its disastrous influence. The public welfare is in peril--The fate of France depends principally on its representatives--The nation expects from them its security. But in giving them a _constitution_, France has prescribed to them the _only_ means by which she can be saved.

"Persuaded, gentlemen, that as the rights of man are the law of every constituent assembly, a constitution ought to be the law of the legislators, which that constitution shall have established. It is to you that I ought to denounce the too powerful efforts which are making, to induce you to depart from that course which you have promised to pursue.

"_Nothing shall deter me from the exercise of this right of a free man, to fulfill this duty of a citizen_; neither the momentary errors of opinion; for what are opinions when they depart from principles: nor my respect for the _representatives_ of the people; for I respect still more the _people_, whose sovereign will it is to have a constitution: nor the benevolence and kindness which you have constantly evinced for myself; for I would _preserve_ that as I _obtained_ it, by an inflexible love of liberty.

"Your situation is difficult--France is menaced from without, and agitated within. Whilst foreign powers announce the intolerable (inadmissible) project of attacking our national sovereignty, and avow it as a principle! at the same time the enemies of France, its interior enemies, intoxicated with fanaticism and pride, entertain chimerical hopes, and annoy us with their insolent malevolence. You ought, gentlemen, to repress them; and you will have the power so to do, _only when_ you shall become _constitutional_ and _just_. You wish it, _no doubt_; but cast your eyes upon all that passes within your own body and around you. Can you dissemble even to yourselves, that a _faction_, (and to avoid all vague denunciations) the _jacobin faction_, have caused all these disorders? It _is that which I boldly accuse_--organized like a separate empire in the metropolis, and in its affiliated societies, blindly directed by some ambitious leaders, this sect forms a _corporation entirely distinct_ in the midst of the French people, whose powers it usurps, by tyrannizing over its representatives and constituted authorities.

"It is in that body, in its public meaning, the _love_ of the laws is denounced as aristocracy, and their _breach_ as patriotism. _There_ the assassins of Dessilles receive their triumphs, the crimes of Jourdan find panegyrists. There, the recital of the massacre which has stained the city of Metz, has also been received with _infernal_ acclamations! Have they become sacred because the emperor Leopold has pronounced their name? And because it is our highest duty to combat the _foreigners_, who mingle in our domestic quarrels, are we at liberty to refrain from _delivering_ our country from domestic tyranny?

"Of what importance is it, as to the fulfillment of this duty, that strangers have their projects; and their connivance and concert with our internal foes? It is I, who denounce to you this sect [the jacobins]; I, who, without speaking of my past life, _can reply_ to those who suspect my motives--"Approach, in this moment of awful crisis, when the character of each man must be known, and see which of us, more inflexible in his principles, more obstinate in his resistance, will more courageously overcome, those obstacles, and those dangers, which traitors to their country conceal, and which true citizens know how to appreciate, and to brave for her."

"And how could I delay longer to fulfill this duty, whilst every successive day weakens still more the constituted authorities, substitutes the spirit of party for the will of the people; whilst the audacity of the agitators, [the disorganizers] imposes silence on peaceable citizens, throws into retirement useful men, and whilst _devotion_ to the _sect_ or _party_ stands in the place of _public_ and _private_ virtues, which, in a free country, ought to be the austere [severe, or strict] and only means of attaining to public office.

"It is, after having opposed to all the obstacles, and to all the snares, which were laid for me, the courageous and persevering patriotism of an army, sacrificed perhaps to conspiracies against its commander, (Lafayette was the commander) that I now oppose to this faction the _correspondence_ of a _ministry, worthy_ representative of its _club_--a correspondence, the calculations of which are false, its promises vain and illusory--its information deceitful or frivolous--its advice perfidious or contradictory--correspondence, in which _after_ pressing me to advance without precaution--to attack _without means_--they finally began to tell me that _resistance_ was _impossible_, when I indignantly repelled the cowardly and base assertion. What a remarkable conformity of language, gentlemen, between the factions whom the _aristocracy_ avow, and those who _usurp_ the _name_ of _patriots_! They both wish to overthrow our laws, rejoice in our disorders, array themselves against the constituted authorities, detest the national guards (the militia)--preach insubordination to the army--sow, at one moment, distrust, at another, discouragement.

"As to myself, gentlemen, _who embraced the American cause at the moment when its ambassadors declared to me that it was perilous or desperate_--who from that moment have devoted my life to a persevering defence of liberty and of the sovereignty of the people--who, on the 14th of July, 1789 after the taking of the Bastille, in presenting to my country a declaration of rights dared to say "that in order that a nation should be free, it is only necessary that it should _will_ so to be." I come, this day, full of confidence in the justice of our cause--of contempt, for the cowards who desert it, and of indignation against the traitors who would sully or stain it with crimes; I am ready to declare that the French nation, if it is not the vilest in the universe, can and ought to resist the conspiracy of kings who have coalesced against it!

"It is not in the midst of my brave army that timid counsels should be permitted.--Patriotism, discipline, patience, mutual confidence, all the military and civil virtues I find here. Here the principles of liberty and equality are cherished, the laws respected, property held sacred. Here calumnies and factions are unknown. And when I reflect that France has many millions who can become _such_ soldiers, I ask myself, to what a degree of _debasement_ must such an immense people be reduced, stronger in its natural resources than in its artificial defences, opposing to a monstrous and discordant confederation, simple and united counsels and combinations, that the cowardly, degrading idea of sacrificing its soverignty, of permitting any discussion as to its liberties, of committing to negotiation its rights, could be considered among the _possibilities_ of a rapidly advancing futurity!

"But, in order that we, soldiers of liberty, should combat for her with efficacy, or _die_ for her with any _fruit_ or advantage, it is necessary that the number of the defenders of the country should be promptly made in some degree proportionate to that of our opponents; that the supplies of all descriptions should be increased so as to facilitate our movements; that the comfort and conveniences of the troops, their clothes and arms, their pay, the accommodations for the sick, should no longer be subject to fatal delays, or to a miserable and misplaced economy, which defeats its very end.

"It is _above all, necessary_ that the citizens rallied round their constitution, should be assured that the rights which that constitution guarantees shall be respected with a _religious_ fidelity; which will of itself cause more despair to our enemies than any other measure.

"Do not repel this desire--this ardent wish. It is that of all the sincere friends of your legitimate authority; assured that no _unjust_ consequence or effect can flow from a _pure_ principle--that no tyrannical measure can save a cause, which owes its _force_, aye, and its glory, to the sacred principles of liberty and equality. Let criminal jurisprudence resume its _constitutional_ power. Let civil equality--let religious freedom enjoy the application of their true principles. In fine, let the reign of the _clubs_ be _annihilated_ by you; let them give place to the laws--_their_ usurpations to the firm and independent exercise of the powers of the constituted authorities--their disorganizing maxims to the true principles of liberty--their delirious fury to the calm and constant courage of a nation which knows its rights, and is ready to defend them--in fine, their sectarian combinations to the true interests of the country, of the nation, which in a moment of danger ought to unite _all_, except those, to whom its subjection and ruin are the objects of atrocious pleasure and infamous speculation.

"LAFAYETTE."

"_Camp of Maubeuge, June_, 16, 1792.

"SIRE--I have the honor to send your Majesty the copy of a letter to the National Assembly, in which you will find expressed the sentiments which have animated me all my life. The King knows with what ardour and perseverance I have at all times been devoted to the cause of liberty and to the principles of humanity, equality and justice. He knows, that I have always been the adversary of _faction_, the enemy of licentiousness, and that no power which I thought illegal has ever been acknowledged by me. He is acquainted with my devotion to his constitutional authority, and with my attachment to his person. Such, Sire, were the grounds of my letter to the National Assembly; such shall be those of my conduct to the nation and your Majesty, amidst the storms raised around to by hostile or by factious combinations.

"It does not belong to me, Sire, to give greater importance to my opinions and actions, than what is due to the individual conduct of a simple citizen. But the expression of my thoughts was always a right, and on this occasion becomes a duty; and though I should have performed it sooner, if, instead of being in a camp, I had remained in that retirement from which I was forced by the dangers of my country: yet I do not think that any public employment or private consideration exempts me from exercising this duty of a citizen, this right of a freeman.

"Persist, Sire, supported by the authority delegated to you by the national will, in the noble resolution of defending constitutional principles against all their enemies. Let this resolution, maintained by all the actions of your private life, as well as by a firm and complete exercise of the royal power; become the pledge of the harmony, which, particularly, at this critical juncture, cannot fail to be established between the _elected_ representatives of the people and their _hereditary_ representative. It is in this resolution, Sire, that glory and safety will be found for the country and for yourself. With this you will find the friends of liberty, all _good_ Frenchmen ranged around your throne, to defend it against the plots of rebels and the enterprizes of the factious; and I, Sire, who in their honorable hatred have found the reward of my persevering opposition; I will always deserve it, by my zeal in the cause to which my whole life has been devoted, and by my fidelity to the oath I have taken to the nation, to the law and to the King. Such, Sire, are the unalterable sentiments I present to your Majesty, with my respect.

"LAFAYETTE"

Letter of Lafayette on leaving Paris to join his army, after having appeared at the bar of the National Assembly, and protested against their proceedings, the last of June.

"Gentlemen--In returning to the post where brave soldiers are ready to die for the constitution, but ought not and will not lavish their blood except for that, I go with great and deep regret in not being able to inform the army, that the National Assembly have yet deigned to come to any determination on my petition. [Alluding to the request in his letter to the assembly a short time before, to suppress the Jacobin clubs.] The voice of all the good citizens of the kingdom, which some factious clamours strive to stifle, daily call to the elected representatives of the people, that while there exists near them a sect who fetter all the authorities, and menace their independence; and who, after provoking war, are endeavoring, by changing the nature of our cause, to make it impossible to defend it; that while there is cause to blush at the impunity of an act of treason against the nation, which has raised just and great alarms in the minds of all the French, and universal indignation; our liberty, laws and honor are in danger. Truths like these, free and generous souls are not afraid of speaking. Hostile to the factious of every kind, indignant at cowards that can sink so low as to look for foreign interposition, and impressed with the principle, which I glory in being the first to declare to France, _that all illegal power is oppression, against which resistance becomes a duty_, we are anxious to make known our fears to the legislative body. We hope that the prudence of the representatives of the people will relieve our minds of them. As for me, gentlemen, who will never alter my principles, sentiments or language, I thought that the National Assembly, considering the urgency and danger of circumstances, would permit me to add my regrets and wishes to my profound respect."

Noble and generous sentiments, worthy of the disciple of our great Washington--'worthy of the philanthropic hero and firm friend of civil liberty'--worthy of the adopted citizen of free and independent America! Such were the opinions and sentiments of Washington and his friends, in 1794, when our republic was assailed by foreign emissaries, and convulsed by secret associations at home, who through ignorance or design were advocates for measures which would have thrown our country into a state of anarchy and misrule.

There was still a small majority in the National Assembly who were the friends of constitutional liberty, and advocates of Lafayette. But the Jacobins were every day increasing; and they felt confident of the popular favor. Enraged at his bold and independent conduct, and suspecting, perhaps that he was a secret supporter of all the wishes of the King, they denounced Lafayette as a traitor and an enemy to the republic. In this state of extreme ferment, while he was openly threatened and every attempt was making to render him odious to the populace, he had the courage (some might say, the rashness) to proceed to Paris, and present himself to the bar of the National Assembly. Few men, in such a situation, would have thus hazarded their lives; but he was strong in conscious rectitude. He appeared before his enemies with dignity and firmness. "He entreated the assembly to come forward and save the country from ruin, by dissolving the factious clubs and inflicting exemplary punishment on the authors of the late disgraceful riots." His friends were numerous in the Assembly, and probably the greater number condemned the violent transactions, against which he raised his voice in the legislative hall of the nation. The national guards in Paris, also, manifested their attachment to Lafayette. They assembled before the hotel in which he lodged; and planting a tree of liberty before the door, which they decorated with ensigns and ribbons, they greeted him with enthusiastic applause. But he was destined to suffer a reverse of fortune, and to be the subject of the most unjust and cruel persecution. The violent party prevailed: Lafayette and constitutional liberty, were proscribed; and the spirit of anarchy and misrule dictated the violent proceedings which deluged France in blood.

Lafayette, finding all his attempts to restore order and to maintain the constitution in vain, speedily returned to the army on the frontiers. This must have been a moment of great anxiety and suspense. Some suppose that, attached as most of the military were to him and supported by his friends of the moderate party, if he had marched his troops to Paris he might have defended the King from indignity, and restored the reign of law. But this is doubtful. The probability is, that with his love of justice and his correct principles, he could not persuade himself "that the end would justify the means;" and that he chose rather to submit to a cruel destiny, than to violate the constitution he had sworn to support, by resorting to physical force for the accomplishment of honorable purposes, and to be the occasion even indirectly of increasing the misery, in which his unhappy country was involved. He was, indeed, accused by his enemies of a design to march to Paris with his troops and to force the assembly into a compliance with his views. But this was a most unfounded calumny. When the minister for the home department wrote to him on the subject, in the name of the Assembly he replied--"If I were questioned respecting my principles, I should say, that as a constant proclaimer and defender of the rights of man, and the sovereignty of the people, I have every where and always resisted authorities which liberty disavowed and which the national will had not delegated; and that I have every where and always obeyed those, of which a free constitution had fixed the forms and the limits. But I am questioned respecting a fact--Did I propose to Marshal Luckner to march to Paris with our armies? To which I answer in four words--_It is not true_."

Under the pretence that General Lafayette was meditating some plan hostile to the cause of liberty, or designed to aid the King in another attempt to escape from France, three commissioners were sent to counteract his movements. But he was notified of their appointment, and ordered their arrest before they reached his army. He knew they were deputed by a faction, and hoped the assembly would return to more moderate and just views. He addressed the following letter to the troops under his command. "It is no longer time to conceal from you what is going forward. The constitution you swore to maintain is no more; a troop of factious men besieged the palace of the Tuilleries; the national and Swiss guards made a brave resistance, but they were obliged to surrender, and were inhumanly murdered. The King, Queen and all the royal family escaped to the National Assembly; the factious ran thither, holding a sword in one hand and fire in the other, and forced the legislative body to supersede the King, which was done for the sake of saving his life. Citizens, you are no longer represented; the National Assembly are in a state of slavery; Petion reigns; the savage Danton and his satellites are masters. Thus it is for you to determine whether you will support the hereditary representative of the throne, or submit to the disgrace of having a Petion for your king."

The appeal was in vain. Though a momentary respond was given by the soldiers to the sentiments of their magnanimous commander, the baleful influence of faction had corrupted many of them; and finding himself robbed of the confidence of the army, as well as of the assembly, and thus deprived of all hope of being useful to his country, he quitted France, with an intention of retiring to America, where he had just reason to expect a grateful reception.

Thus terminated the revolutionary career of Lafayette; through the whole of which he appears to the impartial observer to have acted an honorable and disinterested part. If he committed faults, they were those of opinion or judgment; in sincerity and in zealous devotion to the liberty of his country, he was exceeded by none. He may justly be considered "an illustrious confessor of regulated liberty." His great object was to reform existing abuses, to lay the foundation of constitutional freedom: and with all his zeal for the recognition and the support of the rights of man, he was desirous of preserving a just measure of authority in the crowns and maintaining a sacred regard to law and justice. That he failed in his wishes of introducing into France a more mild and popular government, is matter of regret with the friends of civil liberty in America. But he cannot justly be censured by them for the failure of his object, or for the excesses which attended the revolution. The violent proceedings of the jacobins, which excited so much horror among the friends of regulated liberty in other countries, were opposed by him personally with singular firmness and constancy. He distinguished, with great accuracy, between the will of the people and the clamours of a faction; and between the deliberate acts of the legislature sanctioned by the constitution, and the hasty sentence or orders of a party, adopted without the usual forms of law, so necessary to the order and welfare of society.

Lafayette was arrested by an Austrian General, and delivered over to the King of Prussia, who ordered him to be confined in a prison at Wesel and at Magdeburg. Here he suffered some time, when he was removed to the fortress of Olmutz. In this place he was kept under the most rigorous confinement--enduring the privations and severity fit only to be inflicted on the greatest criminals.

After a close confinement of several weeks in the common prison at Wesel, he was removed to Magdeburg, and thence to Olmutz. At Magdeburg he was confined for a year, in a dark and solitary dungeon; during which he was offered his liberty, on condition of his joining with the enemies of France. He spurned the proposal with indignation; and preferred imprisonment and indignity, to treachery or hostility to his own country. When first taken into custody, he was treated with insult by the people of some places through which he was conducted; but afterwards, a deep interest was manifested in his behalf, and the warmest sympathy was expressed for his unfortunate condition.

The following is an extract from a letter of Lafayette in 1793, while confined at Magdeburg.

"Since my captivity, but one political paper has reached me, and that is yours for February. I appreciate, with deep sensibility, the justice you render my sentiments, and the approbation you bestow upon my conduct. Your commendations are greatly beyond my deserts; but your kind exaggerations contain, at this moment, something so generous, I cannot withhold from you my thanks, that you have enabled me to hear the voice of liberty honoring my tomb. My situation is peculiarly strange. I have sacrificed my republican partialities to the state and wishes of the nation: I obeyed the sovereign power where I found it vested, in the constitution. My popularity was as great as I could desire; for the legislative body defended me better on the 8th of August, than it defended itself on the 10th. But I became obnoxious to the _Jacobins_, because I reprobated their aristocracy, which aimed at usurping all legitimate authority.

"From Constantinople to Lisbon, from Kamschatka to Amsterdam, every bastille is ready to receive me. The Huron and Iroquois forests are peopled with my friends; the despots and the courts of Europe, they are the only savages I fear. I am aware that the laws of England would protect me, though the court of St. James is opposed to me: but I cannot seek protection in a country at war with my own. _America_, the country of my heart, would welcome me with joy. Yet my fears for the future destiny of France, induce me to give the preference to Switzerland, at least for the present."

After this, he was confined about four years in the prison of Olmutz, when Henry Bollman, a young German physician, and Francis Huger, an American, (son of Colonel Huger, of South Carolina, who had first received Lafayette when he arrived in the United States, in 1777,) made great personal sacrifices, and exposed themselves to imminent dangers to effect his escape. General Washington also, then President of the United States, repeatedly solicited his release, on the ground of his being an American citizen, as he really was by a legal adoption. But his requests were vain. It was not consistent with the policy of the "Legitimates" of Europe, to show any favor to such a friend of liberty as Lafayette, or to listen to the honorable application of the chief magistrate of the American republic.

We have already seen frequent proofs of the peculiar regard which Washington cherished for Lafayette. He did not forget him when immured in the prison at Olmutz. Such was the state of political affairs in Europe, such the suspicions both of the jacobins in France, and the advocates for monarchy in the surrounding nations, that a formal and public request for the release of Lafayette, would have been of no avail. It would probably have added to the severity of his treatment by his implacable enemies. The American ministers residing at foreign courts were instructed, however, to suggest on proper occasions, the wishes of the President of the United States, for his enlargement. A confidential person was sent to Berlin to solicit his discharge. But Lafayette had been placed in the custody of the Austrian cabinet, before the messenger arrived. The American envoy at the court of St. James, exerted himself in favour of the heroic friend of Washington, but without effect. As the last resource, the President wrote directly to the Emperor of Germany on the subject. Justice both to Washington and Lafayette requires the recital of the letter.

"It will readily occur to your majesty, that occasions may sometimes exist, on which official considerations would constrain the chief of a nation to be silent and passive in relation even to objects which affect his sensibility, and claim his interposition as a man. Finding myself precisely in this situation at present, I take the liberty of writing this private letter to your majesty, being persuaded that my motives will also be my apology for it.

"In common with the people of this country, I retain a strong and cordial sense of the services rendered to them by the Marquis de Lafayette; and my friendship for him has been constant and sincere. It is natural, therefore, that I should sympathize with him and his family in their misfortunes; and endeavour to mitigate the calamities they experience, among which his present confinement is not the least distressing.

"I forbear to enlarge on this delicate subject. Permit me only to submit to your majesty's consideration, whether his long imprisonment and the confiscation of his estate, and the indigence and dispersion of his family, and the painful anxieties incident to all these circumstances, do not form an assemblage of sufferings which recommend him to the mediation of humanity? Allow me, Sir, on this occasion to be its organ; and to entreat that he may be permitted to come to this country, on such conditions as your majesty may think it expedient to prescribe.

"As it is a maxim with me not to ask what, under similar circumstances, I would not grant, your majesty will do me the justice to believe that this request appears to me, to correspond with those great principles of magnanimity and wisdom, which form the basis of sound policy and durable glory."--But his imperial majesty was either destitute of the _humanity_ and _magnanimity_, to which Washington appealed; or was prevented granting the request, through some promises to an "_holy alliance_," which even then existed among the princes of Europe.

Several members of the British Parliament made an effort, at this time, for the enlargement of Lafayette and his three friends from the dungeon of Olmutz. General Fitzpatrick moved for an address to his majesty, stating "that the detention of Lafayette and others by order of the King of Prussia and Emperor of Austria, was dishonorable to the cause of the allies, and praying him to interfere for their release." In support of his motion, he remarked, that although Lafayette was imprisoned by the allied powers on the continent, yet the government of Great Britain would be implicated in the cruel act, unless it should attempt his liberation, as it had now become a member of the coalition against the anarchical conduct of the French. He contended that justice and humanity required them to intercede in behalf of this oppressed and injured man. The generous Briton insisted, that Lafayette, though a friend to civil liberty, was a firm advocate for constitutional principles, and was in favor of the power of the King as in a limited monarchy: and made a powerful appeal to the generosity and honor of his countrymen, to unite in soliciting for the freedom of Lafayette. Colonel Tarlton, then a member of Parliament, who had been opposed to Lafayette in America, in the campaign of 1781, supported the motion of his military friend; and with great eloquence, urged the propriety and justice of his liberation. Mr. Fox also spoke in favor of an address to the King, for this humane purpose. But their arguments and their eloquence were vain. It did not consist with the existing policy of the British cabinet, to listen to the proposition. The motion was lost by a large majority.

Bollman proceeded to Olmutz, and thence to Vienna, where he was so fortunate as to meet with young Huger; and they cordially united in the humane and chivalrous project of rescuing the generous Lafayette, They both repaired immediately to Olmutz, and there became acquainted with two other gentlemen, who favoured their benevolent scheme. But the difficulty of effecting it can be easily imagined. A physician of Olmutz was engaged to make known the plan to Lafayette, when he visited him in prison, then in reality, or apparently in a debilitated state of health. He had, in fact, been attacked with fever at Magdeburg, which at one time was feared would terminate his valuable life, and from the effects of which he had not fully recovered. By him a note was communicated to Lafayette, which he answered with his blood. In a short time, the physician prevailed on the governor of the city to permit his prisoner to take an airing, occasionally, in a coach, attended by a guard. It was concerted, that in one of his short excursions with the governor, he should leave the carriage under some pretence, when he was to be joined by Bollman and Huger, and immediately conducted under cover of a dark night, to the confines of Silesia, beyond the territory of the Emperor of Austria. He alighted from the carriage, near a small wood, and his generous friends, who were ready to protect him, immediately attempted to convey him away on horseback; but the guard, which accompanied the carriage, suspecting some design, pushed forward into the wood, and attempted to seize the noble prisoner, and his brave friends. A desperate struggle ensued, in which the Marquis was wounded; but they succeeded in escaping from the guard. Huger was seen and followed by some of the peasantry; and after a long pursuit was overtaken and secured. The governor and his guard returned to Olmutz; alarm guns were immediately fired, and the whole population for several miles was soon engaged in search of Lafayette and Bollman. They were taken in the course of the evening, at the distance of about ten miles from Olmutz, and conveyed back to the prison, where a most rigorous confinement awaited them. Lafayette was put in irons, and suffered the most excruciating torture. He was in a feeble state, overcome by fatigue, and suffering greatly from the bruises and wounds received in his late attempt to escape. "His anxieties, his anguish (and despair we may almost say,) at finding himself again in the power of his unrelenting jailor, so affected his nerves, that his fever returned with increased and alarming violence. In this state he was allowed nothing but a little damp and mouldy straw; irons were put round his feet, and round his waist was a chain, fastened to the wall, which barely permitted him to turn from one side to the other. No light was admitted into his cell; and he was refused even the smallest allowance of linen.

"The winter of 1794-95 was very severe, but his inhuman jailors did not relax from the rigour of prescribed and systematic oppression. It seemed, indeed as if their object was to put an end to their victim's existence by this ingenious device of incessant cruelty. Worn down by disease and the rigour of the season, his hair fell from his head, and he was emaciated to the last degree. To these physical distresses were soon super added those mental anxieties, which perhaps, were still more difficult to endure. The only information he could obtain respecting the fate of his wife and children, for whom he felt the greatest solicitude, was, that they were confided in the prisons of Paris: and in reply to his enquiries concerning his most generous friends, Bollman and Huger, he was informed by his unfeeling tormentors that they were soon to perish by the hands of the hangman."

Bollman and Huger were kept in close confinement in the prison at Olmutz, for some time, for having attempted to rescue Lafayette from his cruel imprisonment. The keepers of the prison were unfeeling men; and instead of slowing any favour to their prisoners, who ought to have received their admiration, subjected them to unnecessary severity. They were subjected to strict examination, after a long confinement, and the sentence of their judges was in favour of their liberation, on paying a large amount to government. By the aid of some generous friends, they were furnished with the requisite sums, and discharged from the prison. But Lafayette was still detained in prison, and in the same suffering and shameful condition as before mentioned. It was several months before his irons and chains were removed; which was effected through the very benevolent individuals, who had secretly favoured his recent attempt to escape; but who, happily both for him and themselves, were not suspected of any agency in the plot: these were an opulent Jewish merchant, and the chief surgeon to the prisoners. They prevailed also with the civil authority to grant permission to the Marquis to walk an hour each day, in front of the prison, though in custody of a strong guard of soldiers, and no one was allowed to speak to him.

Unutterably painful and distressing must have been the situation of Madame Lafayette ever after the fatal day, when her beloved and affectionate husband felt it his duty to depart from France, and leave her and their three children unprotected, and subject to the insults and severities of an enraged and lawless mob. She and her two daughters, then about fifteen and twelve, were cast into prison in Paris. The family estates were confiscated, and most of his particular friends fell by the stroke of the guillotine. In this agonizing condition, she maintained the most wonderful fortitude and patience; without uncommon firmness and sincere trust in providence, she must have sunk under such deep and complicated distress. While she was in prison, she was often found in a retired spot, engaged in holy and humble supplication to heaven. When she was released from the prison, after about twenty months of degrading confinement, her constitution was greatly enfeebled, and her friends and physician advised her to seek repose at some retired place in the country. But she refused, and feeble and emaciated as she was, she resolved to proceed immediately to Olmutz, and to bury herself in prison with her husband, unless she could possibly procure his liberation. With this purpose in view, she went first to Vienna, to endeavour to concilitate the favor and influence of the Emperor. Through the friendly interposition of two noble females, acquainted at court, she was admitted to an audience with the Emperor.

He received her graciously, and professed a desire that her request might be fulfilled; but gave no positive orders for the liberation of Lafayette because his _political_ engagements with other courts prevented it. He, however, consented that she might visit her husband. She accordingly repaired to Olmutz, to minister, as an angel of light, to his comfort, though not clothed with power to give him that liberty, which they ardently hoped. She and her daughters shared with him the confinement of a dreary prison, for nearly two years. It was not until 1797, that they were set at liberty: and this was immediately owing to the influence of General Bonaparte, on his victories over the Austrians in that year. Lafayette expressed his gratitude for this generous interference; but he made no sacrifice of principle, and was never his admirer or supporter.

While confined in the prison of Olmutz, with her husband, Madame Lafayette, whose health was much impaired by her sorrows and suffering, requested leave to visit Vienna for a week. She was informed her request would be granted on condition, that her daughters should be kept in a separate apartment from their father, and that she herself would never again enter the prison. She declined the offer, with indignation. Her letter on the subject, concludes thus-"Whatever may be the state of my own health and the inconvenience attending the stay of my daughters in this place we will most gratefully take advantage of the goodness his imperial majesty has expressed towards us, by the _permission to share in the miseries of this captivity_."

When the Emperor of Austria agreed to his liberation, he proposed certain conditions, to which Lafayette refused his assent. One was that he should immediately leave Europe and embark to America. "This", said the noble-minded Marquis, "has often been my desire and intention: but as my consent to this proposition, at the present moment, would be an acknowledgment of his right to impose such a condition, I cannot comply with the demand."--The other was, that as the principles which Lafayette professed were supposed to be incompatible with the safety of the Austrian government, the Emperor could not consent that he should again enter his territory without a special permission. To this Lafayette replied, "that there already existed antecedent obligations, of which he could not divest himself; partly towards America, but chiefly towards France; and that he could not engage to do any thing, which should interfere with the rights of his country to his personal services. With these exceptions, he assured the Emperor's ambassador, that it was his firm resolution not to set foot again on any part of his Majesty's dominions."

When he was set free from the long and severe incarceration at Olmutz, Lafayette proceeded to the neutral city of Hamburg, with his family; where he received the kindest and most respectful attentions from some American gentlemen, then in that place, and also from many of the distinguished citizens, who cherished the highest regard for his character, and his meritorious services in the cause of liberty. It was at this time, that his son, George Washington Lafayette, joined the family, on his return from the United States, where he had just then passed several years. After a short residence in Hamburg, Lafayette accepted the invitation of an Hanoverian nobleman, and passed some time at his elegant chateau in Holstein, where his eldest daughter was married to Latour Maubourg, a brother of one of the Marquis' staff officers, who retired with him from France, August 1792; and had shared with him the severities of the prison of Magdeburg and Olmutz. He then resided some time in the family of a French emigrant, living in that vicinity, and who was a distant relative of Madame Lafayette. In this situation he studied the agriculture of Holstein; and gave particular attention to the raising of merino sheep, an object in which he was also engaged after his return to La Grange, his country seat near Paris.

In 1800 a new revolution took place in the French government. The Directors were found to be incompetent to the support of order; cabals and factions still existed, and confusion prevailed through the nation. General Bonaparte, who had led the armies to victory in several campaigns, was ambitious of the sole direction of public affairs. The executive power, by the new constitution, was to be placed in three Consuls, of whom Napoleon was elected chief. A Conservative Senate, so called, was to constitute a part of the Legislature and to be joined with the Consuls also in providing for the public welfare in cases of particular emergency. By the constitutionalists and those opposed to the violent factions, by which France had been long agitated and disgraced, this change was considered as auspicious to the cause of rational liberty. They hoped that a more stable government would be now formed, and that their country would enjoy a season of repose. Lafayette seized this favorable moment to return to France, after an absence of nearly eight years. His patriotic feelings had not abated, though he had suffered so long and so intensely from the hatred of those who directed the destinies of his country. His love of liberty was not weakened, though many of his countrymen, with its sacred name on their lips, had committed excesses almost without a parallel in the most despotic governments. The First Consul incited Lafayette to take a seat in the Conservative Senate; but he declined; by which he gave new proofs of his disinterested and sincere attachment to the constitutional liberty and the rights of the people. After several conversations with Bonaparte, he was satisfied of the ambitious views of this military adventurer. He perceived that the constitution was to serve as an apology for the exercise of unlimited power in the First Consul; and that representatives and senators were to be the humble ministers of his will. He saw that the constitution did not emanate from the will of the people; and was not calculated to secure and promote their welfare. Bonaparte also had discernment to learn, that Lafayette was too sincere a friend to civil liberty and to the interests of the people, to support his purposes, or to submit to his plans of personal aggrandizement.

We shall have a more just estimation of the noble sentiments with which Lafayette was animated, in declining the generous offers of the First Consul, when it is considered, that, in addition to his self-banishment to private life, he also refused an honorable salary of 7000 dollars, when the estates which remained in his possession yielded only 2000 dollars. He had a grant of land from the American Congress, in consideration of his important services in the revolution, estimated to be worth 100,000 dollars. Before the revolution, his income was 50,000 dollars: but the most valuable of his patrimonial property, as well as that which accrued to him in consequence of his marriage, had been seized by the lawless robbers of the revolution.

It was in conformity to the principles, which he had long professed and by which he was constantly guided, that he soon after opposed the election of Bonaparte as Consul for life. He would have consented, perhaps, to the claims of the aspiring Napoleon to be the First Magistrate of France, under a constitution, which expressly defined and restricted his power, and at the same time provided a sufficient guaranty of the liberties of the people.

On this occasion he wrote thus to the First Consul--"When a man, who is deeply impressed with a sense of the gratitude he owes you, and who is too ardent a lover of glory to be indifferent to yours, connects his suffrage with conditional restrictions, those restrictions not only secure him from suspicion, but prove amply, that no one will more gladly than himself behold in you the chief magistrate for life, of a free and independent republic.

"The eighteenth Brumaire saved France from destruction and I felt myself reassured and recalled by the liberal declarations to which you have connected the sanction of your honor. In your consular authority there was afterwards discerned that salutary dictatorial prerogative, which under the auspices of a genius like yours, accomplished such glorious purposes--yet less glorious, let me add, than the restoration of liberty would prove.

"It is not possible, general, that you, the first among that order of mankind, which surveys every age and every country, can desire that a revolution, marked by an unexampled series of stupendous victories and unheard of sufferings, shall give nothing to the world but a renovated system of arbitrary government. The people of this country have been acquainted with their rights too long, to forget them forever: but perhaps they may recover and enjoy them better now than during the period of revolutionary effervescence. And you, by the strength of your character and the influence of public confidence, by the superiority of your talents, your power, and your fortunes, in re-establishing the liberties of France, can allay all agitations, calm all anxieties and subdue all dangers.

"When I wish, then, to see the career of your glory crowned by the honors of perpetual magistracy, I but act in correspondence with my own private sentiments, and am influenced exclusively by patriotic considerations. But all my political and moral obligations, the principles which have governed every action of my life, call on me to pause before I bestow on you my suffrage, until I feel assured that your authority shall be erected on a basis worthy of the nation and yourself.

"I confidently trust, general, that you will recognize here, as you have done on all other occasions, a steady continuance of my political opinions, combined with the sincerest prayers for your welfare, and the deepest sense of all my obligations towards you."