[1] The name is said by Cicero to be derived from _laena_, the
sacerdotal cloak carried by Marcus Popillius (consul 359) when he
went to the forum to quell a popular rising.
LAER (or LAAR), PIETER VAN (1613-c. 1675), Dutch painter, was born at
Laaren in Holland. The influence of a long stay in Rome begun at an
early age is seen in his landscape and backgrounds, but in his subjects
he remained true to the Dutch tradition, choosing generally lively
scenes from peasant life, as markets, feasts, bowling scenes, farriers'
shops, robbers, hunting scenes and peasants with cattle. From this
taste, or from his personal deformity, he was nicknamed Bamboccio by the
Italians. On his return to Holland about 1639, he lived chiefly at
Amsterdam and Haarlem, in which latter city he died in 1674 or 1675. His
pictures are marked by skilful composition and good drawing; he was
especially careful in perspective. His colouring, according to Crowe, is
"generally of a warm, brownish tone, sometimes very clear, but oftener
heavy, and his execution broad and spirited." Certain etched plates are
also attributed to him.
LAESTRYGONES, a mythical race of giants and cannibals. According to the
_Odyssey_ (x. 80) they dwelt in the farthest north, where the nights
were so short that the shepherd who was driving out his flock met
another driving it in. This feature of the tale contains some hint of
the long nightless summer in the Arctic regions, which perhaps reached
the Greeks through the merchants who fetched amber from the Baltic
coasts. Odysseus in his wanderings arrived at the coast inhabited by the
Laestrygones, and escaped with only one ship, the rest being sunk by the
giants with masses of rock. Their chief city was Telepylus, founded by a
former king Lamus, their ruler at that time being Antiphates. This is a
purely fanciful name, but Lamus takes us into a religious world where we
can trace the origin of the legend, and observe the god of an older
religion becoming the subject of fairy tales (see LAMIA) in a later
period.
The later Greeks placed the country of the Laestrygones in Sicily, to
the south of Aetna, near Leontini; but Horace (_Odes_, iii. 16. 34)
and other Latin authors speak of them as living in southern Latium,
near Formiae, which was supposed to have been founded by Lamus.
LAETUS, JULIUS POMPONIUS [Giulio Pomponio Leto], (1425-1498), Italian
humanist, was born at Salerno. He studied at Rome under Laurentius
Valla, whom he succeeded (1457) as professor of eloquence in the
Gymnasium Romanum. About this time he founded an academy, the members of
which adopted Greek and Latin names, met on the Quirinal to discuss
classical questions and celebrated the birthday of Romulus. Its
constitution resembled that of an ancient priestly college, and Laetus
was styled pontifex maximus. The pope (Paul II.) viewed these
proceedings with suspicion, as savouring of paganism, heresy and
republicanism. In 1468 twenty of the academicians were arrested during
the carnival; Laetus, who had taken refuge in Venice, was sent back to
Rome, imprisoned and put to the torture, but refused to plead guilty to
the charges of infidelity and immorality. For want of evidence, he was
acquitted and allowed to resume his professorial duties; but it was
forbidden to utter the name of the academy even in jest. Sixtus IV.
permitted the resumption of its meetings, which continued to be held
till the sack of Rome (1527) by Constable Bourbon during the papacy of
Clement VII. Laetus continued to teach in Rome until his death on the
9th of June 1498. As a teacher, Laetus, who has been called the first
head of a philological school, was extraordinarily successful; in his
own words, like Socrates and Christ, he expected to live on in the
person of his pupils, amongst whom were many of the most famous scholars
of the period. His works, written in pure and simple Latin, were
published in a collected form (_Opera Pomponii Laeti varia_, 1521). They
contain treatises on the Roman magistrates, priests and lawyers, and a
compendium of Roman history from the death of the younger Gordian to
the time of Justin III. Laetus also wrote commentaries on classical
authors, and promoted the publication of the editio princeps of Virgil
at Rome in 1469.
See _The Life of Leto_ by Sabellicus (Strassburg, 1510); G. Voigt,
_Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Alterthums_, ii.; F. Gregorovius,
_Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, vii. (1894), p. 576, for an
account of the academy; Sandys, _History of Classical Scholarship_
(1908), ii. 92.
LAEVIUS (? c. 80 B.C.), a Latin poet of whom practically nothing is
known. The earliest reference to him is perhaps in Suetonius (_De
grammaticis_, 3), though it is not certain that the Laevius Milissus
there referred to is the same person. Definite references do not occur
before the 2nd century (Fronto, _Ep. ad M. Caes._ i. 3; Aulus Gellius,
_Noct. Att._ ii. 24, xii. 10, xix. 9; Apuleius, _De magia_, 30;
Porphyrion, _Ad Horat. carm._ iii. 1, 2). Some sixty miscellaneous lines
are preserved (see Bährens, _Fragm. poët. rom._ pp. 287-293), from which
it is difficult to see how ancient critics could have regarded him as
the master of Ovid or Catullus. Gellius and Ausonius state that he
composed an _Erotopaegnia_, and in other sources he is credited with
_Adonis_, _Alcestis_, _Centauri_, _Helena_, _Ino_, _Protesilaudamia_,
_Sirenocirca_, _Phoenix_, which may, however, be only the parts of the
_Erotopaegnia_. They were not serious poems, but light and often
licentious skits on the heroic myths.
See O. Ribbeck, _Geschichte der römischen Dichtung_, i.; H. de la
Ville de Mirmont, _Étude biographique et littéraire sur le poète
Laevius_ (Paris, 1900), with critical ed. of the fragments, and
remarks on vocabulary and syntax; A. Weichert, _Poëtarum latinorum
reliquiae_ (Leipzig, 1830); M. Schanz, _Geschichte der römischen
Litteratur_ (2nd ed.), pt. i. p. 163; W. Teuffel, _Hist. of Roman
Literature_ (Eng. tr.), § 150, 4; a convenient summary in F. Plessis,
_La Poésie latine_ (1909), pp. 139-142.
LAEVULINIC ACID ([beta]-acetopropionic acid), C5H8O3 or
CH3CO·CH2·CH2·CO2H, a ketonic acid prepared from laevulose, inulin,
starch, &c., by boiling them with dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric
acids. It may be synthesized by condensing sodium acetoacetate with
monochloracetic ester, the acetosuccinic ester produced being then
hydrolysed with dilute hydrochloric acid (M. Conrad, _Ann._, 1877, 188,
p. 222).
CH3·CO·CH·Na CH3·CO·CH·CH2·CO2R
| --> | -->CH3COCH2·CH2·CO2OH.
CO2R CO2R
It may also be prepared by heating the anhydride of
[gamma]-methyloxy-glutaric acid with concentrated sulphuric acid, and by
oxidation of methyl heptenone and of geraniol. It crystallizes in
plates, which melt at 32.5-33° C. and boil at 148-149° (15 mm.) (A.
Michael, _Jour. prak. Chem._, 1891 [2], 44, p. 114). It is readily
soluble in alcohol, ether and water. The acid, when distilled slowly, is
decomposed and yields [alpha]- and [beta]-angelica lactones. When heated
with hydriodic acid and phosphorus, it yields n-valeric acid; and with
iodine and caustic soda solution it gives iodoform, even in the cold.
With hydroxylamine it yields an oxime, which by the action of
concentrated sulphuric acid rearranges itself to N-methylsuccinimide
[CH2·CO]2N·CH3.
LA FARGE, JOHN (1835-1910), American artist, was born in New York, on
the 31st of March 1835, of French parentage. He received instruction in
drawing from his grandfather, Binsse de St Victor, a painter of
miniatures; studied law and architecture; entered the atelier of Thomas
Couture in Paris, where he remained a short time, giving especial
attention to the study and copying of old masters at the Louvre; and
began by making illustrations to the poets (1859). An intimacy with the
artist William M. Hunt had a strong influence on him, the two working
together at Newport, Rhode Island. La Farge painted landscape, still
life and figure alike in the early sixties. But from 1866 on he was for
some time incapacitated for work, and when he regained strength he did
some decorative work for Trinity church, Boston, in 1876, and turned his
attention to stained glass, becoming president of the Society of Mural
Painters. Some of his important commissions include windows for St
Thomas's church (1877), St Peter's church, the Paulist church, the Brick
church (1882), the churches of the Incarnation (1885) and the Ascension
(1887), New York; Trinity church, Buffalo, and the "Battle Window" in
Memorial Hall at Harvard; ceilings and windows for the house of
Cornelius Vanderbilt, windows for the houses of W. H. Vanderbilt and D.
O. Mills, and panels for the house of Whitelaw Reid, New York; panels
for the Congressional Library, Washington; Bowdoin College, the Capitol
at St Paul, Minn., besides designs for many stained glass windows. He
was also a prolific painter in oil and water colour, the latter seen
notably in some water-colour sketches, the result of a voyage in the
South Seas, shown in 1895. His influence on American art was powerfully
exhibited in such men as Augustus St Gaudens, Wilton Lockwood, Francis
Lathrop and John Humphreys Johnston. He became president of the Society
of American Artists, a member of the National Academy of Design in 1869;
an officer of the Legion of Honour of France; and received many medals
and decorations. He published _Considerations on Painting_ (New York,
1895), _Hokusai: A Talk about Hokusai_ (New York, 1897), and _An
Artist's Letters from Japan_ (New York, 1897).
See Cecilia Waern, _John La Farge, Artist and Writer_ (London, 1896,
No. 26 of _The Portfolio_).
LA FARINA, GIUSEPPE (1815-1863), Italian author and politician, was born
at Messina. On account of the part he took in the insurrection of 1837
he had to leave Sicily, but returning in 1839 he conducted various
newspapers of liberal tendencies, until his efforts were completely
interdicted, when he removed to Florence. In 1840 he had published
_Messina ed i suoi monumenti_, and after his removal to Florence he
brought out _La Germania coi suoi monumenti_ (1842), _L' Italia coi suoi
monumenti_ (1842), _La Svizzera storica ed artistica_ (1842-1843), La
China, 4 vols. (1843-1847), and _Storia d' Italia_, 7 vols. (1846-1854).
In 1847 he established at Florence a democratic journal, _L' Alba_, in
the interests of Italian freedom and unity, but on the outbreak of the
revolution in Sicily in 1848 he returned thither and was elected deputy
and member of the committee of war. In August of that year he was
appointed minister of public instruction and later of war and marine.
After vigorously conducting a campaign against the Bourbon troops, he
was forced into exile, and repaired to France in 1849. In 1850 he
published his _Storia documentata della Rivoluzione Siciliana del
1848-1849_, and in 1851-1852 his _Storia d' Italia dal 1815 al 1848_, in
6 vols. He returned to Italy in 1854 and settled at Turin, and in 1856
he founded the _Piccolo Corriere d' Italia_, an organ which had great
influence in propagating the political sentiments of the Società
Nazionale Italiana, of which he ultimately was chosen president. With
Daniele Manin (q.v.), one of the founders of that society, he advocated
the unity of Italy under Victor Emmanuel even before Cavour, with whom
at one time he had daily interviews, and organized the emigration of
volunteers from all parts of Italy into the Piedmontese army. He also
negotiated an interview between Cavour and Garibaldi, with the result
that the latter was appointed commander of the Cacciatori delle Alpi in
the war of 1859. Later he supported Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily,
where he himself went soon after the occupation of Palermo, but he
failed to bring about the immediate annexation of the island to Piedmont
as Cavour wished. In 1860 he was chosen a member of the first Italian
parliament and was subsequently made councillor of state. He died on the
5th of September 1863.
See A. Franchi, _Epistolario di Giuseppe La Farina_ (2 vols., 1869)
and L. Carpi, _Il Risorgimento Italiano_, vol. i. (Milan, 1884).
LA FAYETTE, GILBERT MOTIER DE (1380-1462), marshal of France, was
brought up at the court of Louis II., 3rd duke of Bourbon. He served
under Marshal Boucicaut in Italy, and on his return to France after the
evacuation of Genoa in 1409 became seneschal of the Bourbonnais. In the
English wars he was with John I., 4th duke of Bourbon, at the capture of
Soubise in 1413, and of Compiègne in 1415. The duke then made him
lieutenant-general in Languedoc and Guienne. He failed to defend Caen
and Falaise in the interest of the dauphin (afterwards Charles VII.)
against Henry V. in 1417 and 1418, but in the latter year he held Lyons
for some time against Jean sans Peur, duke of Burgundy. A series of
successes over the English and Burgundians on the Loire was rewarded in
1420 with the government of Dauphiny and the office of marshal of
France. La Fayette commanded the Franco-Scottish troops at the battle of
Baugé (1422), though he did not, as has been sometimes stated, slay
Thomas, duke of Clarence, with his own hand. In 1424 he was taken
prisoner by the English at Verneuil, but was released shortly
afterwards, and fought with Joan of Arc at Orleans and Patay in 1429.
The marshal had become a member of the grand council of Charles VII.,
and with the exception of a short disgrace about 1430, due to the
ill-will of Georges de la Trémouille, he retained the royal favour all
his life. He took an active part in the army reform initiated by Charles
VII., and the establishment of military posts for the suppression of
brigandage. His last campaign was against the English in Normandy in
1449. He died on the 23rd of February 1462. His line was continued by
Gilbert IV. de La Fayette, son of his second marriage with Jeanne de
Joyeuse.
LA FAYETTE, LOUISE DE (c. 1616-1665), was one of the fourteen children
of John, comte de La Fayette, and Marguerite de Bourbon-Busset. Louise
became maid of honour to Anne of Austria, and Richelieu sought to
attract the attention of Louis XIII. to her in the hope that she might
counterbalance the influence exercised over him by Marie de Hautefort.
The affair did not turn out as the minister wished. The king did indeed
make her the confidante of his affairs and of his resentment against the
cardinal, but she, far from repeating his confidences to the minister,
set herself to encourage the king in his resistance to Richelieu's
dominion. She refused, nevertheless, to become Louis's mistress, and
after taking leave of the king in Anne of Austria's presence retired to
the convent of the Filles de Sainte-Marie in 1637. Here she was
repeatedly visited by Louis, with whom she maintained a correspondence.
Richelieu intercepted the letters, and by omissions and falsifications
succeeded in destroying their mutual confidence. The cessation of their
intercourse was regretted by the queen, who had been reconciled with her
husband through the influence of Louise. At the time of her death in
January 1665 Mlle de La Fayette was superior of a convent of her order
which she had founded at Chaillot.
See _Mémoires de Madame de Motteville_; Victor Cousin, _Madame de
Hautefort_ (Paris, 1868); L'Abbé Sorin, _Louise-Angèle de La Fayette_
(Paris, 1893).
LA FAYETTE, MARIE JOSEPH PAUL YVES ROCH GILBERT DU MOTIER. MARQUIS DE
(1757-1834), was born at the château of Chavaniac in Auvergne, France,
on the 6th of September 1757. His father[1] was killed at Minden in
1759, and his mother and his grandfather died in 1770, and thus at the
age of thirteen he was left an orphan with a princely fortune. He
married at sixteen Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles (d. 1807),
daughter of the duc d'Ayen and granddaughter of the duc de Noailles,
then one of the most influential families in the kingdom. La Fayette
chose to follow the career of his father, and entered the Guards.
La Fayette was nineteen and a captain of dragoons when the English
colonies in America proclaimed their independence. "At the first news of
this quarrel," he afterwards wrote in his memoirs, "my heart was
enrolled in it." The count de Broglie, whom he consulted, discouraged
his zeal for the cause of liberty. Finding his purpose unchangeable,
however, he presented the young enthusiast to Johann Kalb, who was also
seeking service in America, and through Silas Deane, American agent in
Paris, an arrangement was concluded, on the 7th of December 1776, by
which La Fayette was to enter the American service as major-general. At
this moment the news arrived of grave disasters to the American arms. La
Fayette's friends again advised him to abandon his purpose. Even the
American envoys, Franklin and Arthur Lee, who had superseded Deane,
withheld further encouragement and the king himself forbade his leaving.
At the instance of the British ambassador at Versailles orders were
issued to seize the ship La Fayette was fitting out at Bordeaux, and La
Fayette himself was arrested. But the ship was sent from Bordeaux to a
neighbouring port in Spain, La Fayette escaped from custody in disguise,
and before a second _lettre de cachet_ could reach him he was afloat
with eleven chosen companions. Though two British cruisers had been sent
in pursuit of him, he landed safely near Georgetown, S.C., after a
tedious voyage of nearly two months, and hastened to Philadelphia, then
the seat of government of the colonies.
When this lad of nineteen, with the command of only what little English
he had been able to pick up on his voyage, presented himself to Congress
with Deane's authority to demand a commission of the highest rank after
the commander-in-chief, his reception was a little chilly. Deane's
contracts were so numerous, and for officers of such high rank, that it
was impossible for Congress to ratify them without injustice to
Americans who had become entitled by their service to promotion. La
Fayette appreciated the situation as soon as it was explained to him,
and immediately expressed his desire to serve in the American army upon
two conditions--that he should receive no pay, and that he should act as
a volunteer. These terms were so different from those made by other
foreigners, they had been attended with such substantial sacrifices, and
they promised such important indirect advantages, that Congress passed a
resolution, on the 31st of July 1777, "that his services be accepted,
and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and
connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the
United States." Next day La Fayette met Washington, whose lifelong
friend he became. Congress intended his appointment as purely honorary,
and the question of giving him a command was left entirely to
Washington's discretion. His first battle was Brandywine (q.v.) on the
11th of September 1777, where he showed courage and activity and
received a wound. Shortly afterwards he secured what he most desired,
the command of a division--the immediate result of a communication from
Washington to Congress of November 1, 1777, in which he said:--
"The marquis de La Fayette is extremely solicitous of having a command
equal to his rank. I do not know in what light Congress will view the
matter, but it appears to me, from a consideration of his illustrious
and important connexions, the attachment which he has manifested for
our cause, and the consequences which his return in disgust might
produce, that it will be advisable to gratify his wishes, and the more
so as several gentlemen from France who came over under some
assurances have gone back disappointed in their expectations. His
conduct with respect to them stands in a favourable point of
view--having interested himself to remove their uneasiness and urged
the impropriety of their making any unfavourable representations upon
their arrival at home. Besides, he is sensible, discreet in his
manners, has made great proficiency in our language, and from the
disposition he discovered at the battle of Brandywine possesses a
large share of bravery and military ardour."
Of La Fayette's military career in the United States there is not much
to be said. Though the commander of a division, he never had many troops
in his charge, and whatever military talents he possessed were not of
the kind which appeared to conspicuous advantage on the theatre to which
his wealth and family influence rather than his soldierly gifts had
called him. In the first months of 1778 he commanded troops detailed for
the projected expedition against Canada. His retreat from Barren Hill
(May 28, 1778) was commended as masterly; and he fought at the battle of
Monmouth (June 28,) and received from Congress a formal recognition of
his services in the Rhode Island expedition (August 1778).
The treaties of commerce and defensive alliance, signed by the
insurgents and France on the 6th of February 1778, were promptly
followed by a declaration of war by England against the latter, and La
Fayette asked leave to revisit France and to consult his king as to the
further direction of his services. This leave was readily granted; it
was not difficult for Washington to replace the major-general, but it
was impossible to find another equally competent, influential and
devoted champion of the American cause near the court of Louis XVI. In
fact, he went on a mission rather than a visit. He embarked on the 11th
of January 1779, was received with enthusiasm, and was made a colonel in
the French cavalry. On the 4th of March following Franklin wrote to the
president of Congress: "The marquis de La Fayette ... is infinitely
esteemed and beloved here, and I am persuaded will do everything in his
power to merit a continuance of the same affection from America." He won
the confidence of Vergennes.
La Fayette was absent from America about six months, and his return was
the occasion of a complimentary resolution of Congress. From April until
October 1781 he was charged with the defence of Virginia, in which
Washington gave him the credit of doing all that was possible with the
forces at his disposal; and he showed his zeal by borrowing money on his
own account to provide his soldiers with necessaries. The battle of
Yorktown, in which La Fayette bore an honourable if not a distinguished
part, was the last of the war, and terminated his military career in the
United States. He immediately obtained leave to return to France, where
it was supposed he might be useful in negotiations for a general peace.
He was also occupied in the preparations for a combined French and
Spanish expedition against some of the British West India Islands, of
which he had been appointed chief of staff, and a formidable fleet
assembled at Cadiz, but the armistice signed on the 20th of January 1783
between the belligerents put a stop to the expedition. He had been
promoted (1781) to the rank of _maréchal de camp_ (major-general) in the
French army, and he received every token of regard from his sovereign
and his countrymen. He visited the United States again in 1784, and
remained some five months as the guest of the nation.
La Fayette did not appear again prominently in public life until 1787,
though he did good service to the French Protestants, and became
actively interested in plans to abolish slavery. In 1787 he took his
seat in the Assembly of Notables. He demanded, and he alone signed the
demand, that the king convoke the states-general, thus becoming a leader
in the French Revolution. He showed Liberal tendencies both in that
assembly and after its dispersal, and in 1788 was deprived, in
consequence, of his active command. In 1789 La Fayette was elected to
the states-general, and took a prominent part in its proceedings. He was
chosen vice-president of the National Assembly, and on the 11th of July
1789 presented a declaration of rights, modelled on Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence in 1776. On the 15th of July, the second day
of the new régime, La Fayette was chosen by acclamation colonel-general
of the new National Guard of Paris. He also proposed the combination of
the colours of Paris, red and blue, and the royal white, into the famous
tricolour cockade of modern France (July 17). For the succeeding three
years, until the end of the constitutional monarchy in 1792, his history
is largely the history of France. His life was beset with very great
responsibility and perils, for he was ever the minister of humanity and
order among a frenzied people who had come to regard order and humanity
as phases of treason. He rescued the queen from the hands of the
populace on the 5th and 6th of October 1789, saved many humbler victims
who had been condemned to death, and he risked his life in many
unsuccessful attempts to rescue others. Before this, disgusted with
enormities which he was powerless to prevent, he had resigned his
commission; but so impossible was it to replace him that he was induced
to resume it. In the Constituent Assembly he pleaded for the abolition
of arbitrary imprisonment, for religious tolerance, for popular
representation, for the establishment of trial by jury, for the gradual
emancipation of slaves, for the freedom of the press, for the abolition
of titles of nobility, and the suppression of privileged orders. In
February 1790 he refused the supreme command of the National Guard of
the kingdom. In May he founded the "Society of 1789" which afterwards
became the Feuillants Club. He took a prominent part in the celebration
of July 14, 1790, the first anniversary of the destruction of the
Bastille. After suppressing an _émeute_ in April 1791 he again resigned
his commission, and was again compelled to retain it. He was the friend
of liberty as well as of order, and when Louis XVI. fled to Varennes he
issued orders to stop him. Shortly afterwards he was made
lieutenant-general in the army. He commanded the troops in the
suppression of another _émeute_, on the occasion of the proclamation of
the constitution (September 18, 1791), after which, feeling that his
task was done, he retired into private life. This did not prevent his
friends from proposing him for the mayoralty of Paris in opposition to
Pétion.
When, in December 1791, three armies were formed on the western frontier
to attack Austria, La Fayette was placed in command of one of them. But
events moved faster than La Fayette's moderate and humane republicanism,
and seeing that the lives of the king and queen were each day more and
more in danger, he definitely opposed himself to the further advance of
the Jacobin party, intending eventually to use his army for the
restoration of a limited monarchy. On the 19th of August 1792 the
Assembly declared him a traitor. He was compelled to take refuge in the
neutral territory of Liége, whence as one of the prime movers in the
Revolution he was taken and held as a prisoner of state for five years,
first in Prussian and afterwards in Austrian prisons, in spite of the
intercession of America and the pleadings of his wife. Napoleon,
however, though he had a low opinion of his capacities, stipulated in
the treaty of Campo Formio (1797) for La Fayette's release. He was not
allowed to return to France by the Directory. He returned in 1799; in
1802 voted against the life consulate of Napoleon; and in 1804 he voted
against the imperial title. He lived in retirement during the First
Empire, but returned to public affairs under the First Restoration and
took some part in the political events of the Hundred Days. From 1818 to
1824 he was deputy for the Sarthe, speaking and voting always on the
Liberal side, and even becoming a _carbonaro_. He then revisited America
(July 1824-September 1825) where he was overwhelmed with popular
applause and voted the sum of $200,000 and a township of land. From 1825
to his death he sat in the Chamber of Deputies for Meaux. During the
revolution of 1830 he again took command of the National Guard and
pursued the same line of conduct, with equal want of success, as in the
first revolution. In 1834 he made his last speech--on behalf of Polish
political refugees. He died at Paris on the 20th of May 1834. In 1876 in
the city of New York a monument was erected to him, and in 1883 another
was erected at Puy.
Few men have owed more of their success and usefulness to their family
rank than La Fayette, and still fewer have abused it less. He never
achieved distinction in the field, and his political career proved him
to be incapable of ruling a great national movement; but he had strong
convictions which always impelled him to study the interests of
humanity, and a pertinacity in maintaining them, which, in all the
strange vicissitudes of his eventful life, secured him a very unusual
measure of public respect. No citizen of a foreign country has ever had
so many and such warm admirers in America, nor does any statesman in
France appear to have ever possessed uninterruptedly for so many years
so large a measure of popular influence and respect. He had what
Jefferson called a "canine appetite" for popularity and fame, but in him
the appetite only seemed to make him more anxious to merit the fame
which he enjoyed. He was brave to rashness; and he never shrank from
danger or responsibility if he saw the way open to spare life or
suffering, to protect the defenceless, to sustain the law and preserve
order.
His son, GEORGES WASHINGTON MOTIER DE LA FAYETTE (1779-1849), entered
the army and was aide-de-camp to General Grouchy through the Austrian,
Prussian and Polish (1805-07) campaigns. Napoleon's distrust of his
father rendering promotion improbable, Georges de La Fayette retired
into private life in 1807 until the Restoration, when he entered the
Chamber of Representatives and voted consistently on the Liberal side.
He was away from Paris during the revolution of July 1830, but he took
an active part in the "campaign of the banquets," which led up to that
of 1848. He died in December of the next year. His son, OSCAR THOMAS
GILBERT MOTIER DE LA FAYETTE (1815-1881), was educated at the École
Polytechnique, and served as an artillery officer in Algeria. He entered
the Chamber of Representatives in 1846 and voted, like his father, with
the extreme Left. After the revolution of 1848 he received a post in the
provisional government, and as a member of the Constituent Assembly he
became secretary of the war committee. After the dissolution of the
Legislative Assembly in 1851, he retired from public life, but emerged
on the establishment of the third republic, becoming a life senator in
1875. His brother EDMOND MOTIER DE LA FAYETTE (1818-1890) shared his
political opinions. He was one of the secretaries of the Constituent
Assembly, and a member of the senate from 1876 to 1888.
See _Mémoires historiques et pièces authentiques sur M. de La Fayette
pour servir à l'histoire des révolutions_ (Paris, An II., 1793-1794);
B. Sarrans, _La Fayette et la Révolution de 1830, histoire des choses
et des hommes de Juillet_ (Paris, 1834); _Mémoires, correspondances et
manuscrits de La Fayette_, published by his family (6 vols., Paris,
1837-1838); Regnault Warin, _Mémoires pour servir à la vie du général
La Fayette_ (Paris, 1824); A. Bardoux, _La jeunesse de La Fayette_
(Paris, 1892); _Les Dernières années de La Fayette_ (Paris, 1893); E.
Charavaray, _Le Général La Fayette_ (Paris, 1895); A. Levasseur, _La
Fayette en Amérique_ 1824 (Paris, 1829); J. Cloquet, _Souvenirs de la
vie privée du général La Fayette_ (Paris, 1836); Max Büdinger, _La
Fayette in Oesterreich_ (Vienna, 1898); and M. M. Crawford, _The Wife
of Lafayette_ (1908); Bayard Tuckerman, _Life of Lafayette_ (New York,
1889); Charlemagne Tower, _The Marquis de La Fayette in the American
Revolution_ (Philadelphia, 1895).