Part 6

"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.