All Lafayette's company had been looking forward to their reception
by Congress as full recompense for sufferings by the way. Knowing
that they had come to offer help, and having already experienced the
hospitality of Charleston, they dreamed of a similar welcome increased
and made more effective by official authority. They hastened to present
their letters of introduction and their credentials; and it was a
great blow to find that they were met, not with enthusiasm, but with
coldness. Lafayette said their reception was "more like a dismissal."
We are indebted to the Chevalier du Buisson for an account of this
unexpected rebuff. "After having brushed ourselves up a little we went
to see the President of Congress, to whom we presented our letters
of recommendation and also our contracts. He sent us to Mr. Moose
[Morris?], a member of Congress, who made an appointment to meet us
on the following day at the door of Congress, and in the mean time
our papers were to be read and examined." Next day they were very
punctual, but were made to wait a long time before "Mr. Moose" appeared
[Pg 65]with a Mr. Lovell and told them all communication must be made
through him. Still standing in the street, Mr. Lovell talked with
them and finally walked away and left them, "after having treated us
in excellent French, like a set of adventurers.... This was our first
reception by Congress, and it would have been impossible for any one to
be more stupefied than we were. Would it have been possible for M. de
Lafayette, M. de Kalb, and M. de Mauroy with ten officers recommended
as we had been, and secretly approved, if not openly avowed by the
government of France, to expect such a reception as this?"
One can imagine the varying degrees of resentment and disgust with
which they watched Mr. Lovell disappear. If _La Victoire_ had been
there, ready provisioned for a voyage, very likely not one of them
would have remained an hour longer in America. But _La Victoire_ was
not at hand and Lafayette's sunny optimism was on the spot to serve
them well. "We determined," says Du Buisson, "to wait and to discover
the cause of this affront, if possible, before making any complaint."
They discovered that they had come at the worst possible time. A
number of foreign adventurers had hurried from the West Indies and
Europe and offered their services at the beginning of the war. Being
desperately in need of trained officers, Congress had given some of
them commissions, though their demands for rank and privilege were
beyond all reason. This, coupled with their bad behavior after entering
the army, had incensed officers of American birth, who threatened to
[Pg 66]resign if any more Europeans were taken into the army with rank
superior to their own. The protest had reached almost the proportions
of a strike. At that very moment a French artillery officer named De
Coudray was giving Congress no end of trouble, and indeed continued to
do so until, "by a happy accident," as Franklin cynically put it, he
was drowned in the Schuylkill River a few weeks later.
There was nothing to prove that Lafayette and his friends differed
from the rest. Like them they were foreigners with high-sounding
titles in front of their names and requests for major-generalships
tripping speedily after their offers of help. As for Silas Deane's
contracts--Deane had commissioned some of the very worst of these men.
Congress had reached the point where it proposed to end the trouble by
refusing to honor any more of his agreements. Mr. Lovell told Lafayette
and his companions smartly that French officers had a great fancy for
entering the American army uninvited, that America no longer needed
them, having plenty of experienced men of her own now; and walked away,
leaving them standing there in the street.
Lafayette, not being like the others, determined to make Congress aware
of the fact. He wrote a letter to that august body, stating why and
how he had come to America, and adding: "After the sacrifices that I
have made in this cause I have the right to ask two favors at your
hands. The one is to serve without pay, and the other that I be allowed
to serve first as a volunteer." Congress immediately sat up and took
[Pg 67]notice of the young man, the more readily because of two letters
which arrived from Paris showing that he was of importance in his own
country. The first was signed by Silas Deane and by Benjamin Franklin,
and read:
"The Marquis de Lafayette, a young nobleman of great family connection
here and great wealth, is gone to America on a ship of his own,
accompanied by some officers of distinction, in order to serve in our
armies. He is exceedingly beloved, and everybody's good wishes attend
him. We cannot but hope he may meet with such a reception as will make
the country and his expedition agreeable to him. Those who censure
it as imprudent in him do, nevertheless, applaud his spirit; and we
are satisfied that the civilities and respect that may be shown him
will be serviceable to our affairs here, as pleasing not only to his
powerful relations, and to the court, but to the whole French nation.
He leaves a beautiful young wife ... and for her sake particularly we
hope that his bravery and ardent desire to distinguish himself will be
a little restrained by the general's prudence, so as not to permit his
being hazarded much, but on some important occasion." The other was a
communication from the French government requesting the Congress of the
United States not to give employment to the Marquis de Lafayette. But
Congress took the hint contained in Franklin's letter and regarded this
for just what it was--a bit of official routine.
Mr. Lovell hastened to call upon Lafayette in company with another
gentleman who had better manners, and made an attempt at apology. This
[Pg 68]interview led to a more private talk in which he was offered
a commission of major-general without pay and without promise of a
command, to date from that time, and to have no connection whatever
with Silas Deane's former promises. To this Lafayette agreed.
Some of his friends did not fare so well, but even these felt that he
did everything in his power to further their interests. "If he had had
his way," says Du Buisson, "De Kalb would have been a major-general,
and we should all have had places." The situation was particularly
trying to De Kalb, who was so much older and had seen so much actual
military service. On board _La Victoire_ he had been only Lafayette's
guest, though the guest of honor and, next to the owner, the most
important person aboard. Under such conditions, good manners forced him
to play a subordinate part; and if it be true that he and De Broglie
were using Lafayette's generosity to further their own ends, that was
another reason for circumspect behavior. But after landing it must have
been galling to see this young captain of twenty made a major-general
"on demand," while his thirty-four years of experience were completely
ignored. On the day after Lafayette's appointment De Kalb wrote
Congress a letter in his turn, complaining bitterly and asking either
that he be made a major-general, "with the seniority I have a right to
expect," or that he and the other officers who had come with Lafayette
be refunded the money they had spent on the journey. He said he was
very glad Congress had granted Lafayette's wishes. "He is a worthy
[Pg 69]young man, and no one will outdo him in enthusiasm in your cause
of liberty and independence. My wish will always be that his success
as a major-general will equal his zeal and your expectation." But De
Kalb plainly had his doubts; and he did not hesitate to "confess,
sir, that this distinction between him and myself is painful and very
displeasing to me. We came on the same errand, with the same promises,
and as military men and for military purposes. I flatter myself that
if there was to be any preference, it would be due to me." He hinted
that he might sue Mr. Deane for damages, and he added: "I do not think
that either my name, my services, or my person are proper objects to
be trifled with or laughed at. I cannot tell you, sir, how deeply I
feel the injury done to me, or how ridiculous it seems to me to make
people leave their homes, families, and affairs, to cross the sea under
a thousand different dangers, to be received and to be looked at with
contempt by those from whom you were to expect but warm welcome."
Congress could have answered with perfect justice that it had not
"made" these gentlemen travel one foot toward America or brave a
single danger. But on the basis of Deane's contract it was clearly
in the wrong and it had no wish to insult France, though it could
not afford to anger the American generals. It therefore decided to
thank the French officers for their zeal in coming to America and to
pay their expenses home again. Most of them did return, some by way
of Boston, others from Southern ports. De Kalb meant to accompany
the latter group, but a fever detained him for several weeks in [Pg
70]Philadelphia; and just as he was leaving a messenger brought him
word that he had been made major-general through the influence of
several members of Congress who had made his personal acquaintance and
were more impressed by the man himself than by his petulant letter.
At first he was inclined to refuse, fearing the other French officers
might feel he had deserted them, but on reflection he accepted, and, as
every one knows, rendered great service to the United States.
Lafayette wrote Congress a letter of thanks in English--an excellent
letter, considering the short time he had been using the language,
but neither in wording nor in spelling exactly as a native would have
written it. In this letter he expressed the hope that he might be
allowed to "serve near the person of General Washington till such time
as he may think proper to intrust me with a division of the army."
General Washington's previous experience with the French had been
unfortunate. He had met them as enemies in the neighborhood of Fort
Duquesne before Lafayette was born. They had taken part in the defeat
of General Braddock, and during the present war their actions had not
been of a kind to endear them to him. Probably even after reading
Franklin's letter he did not look forward with the least pleasure to
meeting this young sprig of the French nobility. Still, Washington was
a just man and the first to admit that every man has the right to be
judged on his own merits.
It was at a dinner, one of the lucky dinners in Lafayette's career,
[Pg 71]that the two met for the first time. The company was a large
one, made up of the most distinguished men in Philadelphia; but from
the moment Washington entered the room Lafayette was sure he was the
greatest in the company. "The majesty of his countenance and his figure
made it impossible not to recognize him," while his manners seemed to
Lafayette as affable and kindly as they were dignified. Washington on
his part observed the slim young Frenchman throughout the evening, and
was also favorably impressed. Before the party broke up he drew him
aside for a short conversation and invited him to become a member of
his military family, saying with a smile that he could not offer the
luxuries of a court or even the conveniences to which Lafayette had
been accustomed, but that he was now an American soldier and would of
course accommodate himself to the privations of a republican camp.
Pleased and elated as a boy, Lafayette accepted, sent his horses
and luggage to camp, and took up his residence at Washington's
headquarters. "Thus simply," he wrote in his _Memoirs_, "came about
the union of two friends whose attachment and confidence were cemented
by the greatest of interests." In truth this sudden flowering of
friendship between the middle-aged Washington, who appeared so cool,
though in fact he had an ardent nature, and the enthusiastic Frenchman
twenty-five years his junior, is one of the pleasantest glimpses we
have into the kindly human heart of each. It took neither of them one
instant to recognize the worth of the other, and the mutual regard thus
established lasted as long as life itself.
[Pg 72]IX