Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was
born at Chavagnac, in the province of Auvergne, France, on the 6th of
September, 1757. He was educated at the military college of Duplessis,
in Paris; graduating at sixteen, although offered a high position in
the royal household, he preferred the career of a warrior, and at
nineteen had risen to the rank of captain of dragoons. During the
summer of 1776 his interest in the American colonies in their struggle
for independence became so great that he determined to espouse their
cause. Discouraged by all except his noble young wife, who sympathized
with the oppressed colonists as warmly as he did, Lafayette persevered;
and when the news of the disastrous termination of the campaign of
1776 reached France, he generously determined to offer not only his
services, but also his wealth. Prohibited by the king from leaving
Europe, he reached Spain in disguise, and with Baron de Kalb and ten
other officers embarked for America. After a perilous voyage, they
landed on the Carolina coast. Proceeding at once to Philadelphia, he
offered his services as a volunteer and without remuneration. When his
credentials had been examined, and his rank, wealth, and undaunted
perseverance became known, he was appointed major-general July 31,
1777. His valor, coolness in the presence of danger, and military
ability were shown on more than one occasion; but when our alliance
with France involved that country in war, he applied to Congress for
permission to return to France, for although he had incurred the
displeasure of the king by coming to America, he was still that king’s
soldier, and in the hour of need he felt he owed his first duty to
his native land. Congress granted him the desired leave of absence,
instructed its president to write him a letter of thanks for coming to
America and for his valuable services, and directed our minister at
Versailles to present him a sword, suitably engraved, as a token of the
esteem and gratitude of the United States. His return to France was
hailed with joy by the people, though the court for a time refused to
notice him. Presently, however, he was given a command in the king’s
own regiment of dragoons. A year later, March, 1780, he returned to the
United States, and re-entering the army, was actively engaged until
the close of the war. After the fall of Yorktown, he again asked leave
of absence to visit his family. Arrived in France, he was at once made
major-general in the French army, his commission to date from the
surrender of Cornwallis.
In 1784, Lafayette paid a short visit to this country, being received
everywhere with marks of love and respect. In 1785, he returned to
Paris to find the finances of his country hopelessly involved, and
the people ripe for revolution. Throughout his subsequent life he
remained true to those high principles of honor, patriotism, and love
of humanity, that had led him so warmly to espouse the cause of liberty
and justice. Kept for years a prisoner in the most loathsome dungeons,
his property confiscated, his wife doomed to the guillotine and only
saved by the death of Robespierre, his son an exile but finding shelter
in the home of Washington, he was at length restored to liberty by the
power of Napoleon. In 1824, he was invited by Congress to revisit the
United States. Though most of his friends and companions-in-arms had
passed away, and a new generation had grown up, the whole nation united
to welcome and do him homage. He died in 1834, leaving behind him the
record of one who amid every temptation and allurement had remained the
stanch, unwavering advocate of constitutional liberty.