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.