Books: Memoirs of General Lafayette
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Lafayette >> Memoirs of General Lafayette
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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.
Bollman proceeded to Olmutz, and thence to Vienna, where he was so
fortunate as to meet with young Huger; and they cordially united in the
humane and chivalrous project of rescuing the generous Lafayette, They both
repaired immediately to Olmutz, and there became acquainted with two other
gentlemen, who favoured their benevolent scheme. But the difficulty of
effecting it can be easily imagined. A physician of Olmutz was engaged to
make known the plan to Lafayette, when he visited him in prison, then in
reality, or apparently in a debilitated state of health. He had, in fact,
been attacked with fever at Magdeburg, which at one time was feared would
terminate his valuable life, and from the effects of which he had not fully
recovered. By him a note was communicated to Lafayette, which he answered
with his blood. In a short time, the physician prevailed on the governor of
the city to permit his prisoner to take an airing, occasionally, in a
coach, attended by a guard. It was concerted, that in one of his short
excursions with the governor, he should leave the carriage under some
pretence, when he was to be joined by Bollman and Huger, and immediately
conducted under cover of a dark night, to the confines of Silesia, beyond
the territory of the Emperor of Austria. He alighted from the carriage,
near a small wood, and his generous friends, who were ready to protect him,
immediately attempted to convey him away on horseback; but the guard, which
accompanied the carriage, suspecting some design, pushed forward into the
wood, and attempted to seize the noble prisoner, and his brave friends. A
desperate struggle ensued, in which the Marquis was wounded; but they
succeeded in escaping from the guard. Huger was seen and followed by some
of the peasantry; and after a long pursuit was overtaken and secured. The
governor and his guard returned to Olmutz; alarm guns were immediately
fired, and the whole population for several miles was soon engaged in
search of Lafayette and Bollman. They were taken in the course of the
evening, at the distance of about ten miles from Olmutz, and conveyed back
to the prison, where a most rigorous confinement awaited them. Lafayette
was put in irons, and suffered the most excruciating torture. He was in a
feeble state, overcome by fatigue, and suffering greatly from the bruises
and wounds received in his late attempt to escape. "His anxieties, his
anguish (and despair we may almost say,) at finding himself again in the
power of his unrelenting jailor, so affected his nerves, that his fever
returned with increased and alarming violence. In this state he was allowed
nothing but a little damp and mouldy straw; irons were put round his feet,
and round his waist was a chain, fastened to the wall, which barely
permitted him to turn from one side to the other. No light was admitted
into his cell; and he was refused even the smallest allowance of linen.
"The winter of 1794-95 was very severe, but his inhuman jailors did not
relax from the rigour of prescribed and systematic oppression. It seemed,
indeed as if their object was to put an end to their victim's existence by
this ingenious device of incessant cruelty. Worn down by disease and the
rigour of the season, his hair fell from his head, and he was emaciated to
the last degree. To these physical distresses were soon super added those
mental anxieties, which perhaps, were still more difficult to endure. The
only information he could obtain respecting the fate of his wife and
children, for whom he felt the greatest solicitude, was, that they were
confided in the prisons of Paris: and in reply to his enquiries concerning
his most generous friends, Bollman and Huger, he was informed by his
unfeeling tormentors that they were soon to perish by the hands of the
hangman."
Bollman and Huger were kept in close confinement in the prison at Olmutz,
for some time, for having attempted to rescue Lafayette from his cruel
imprisonment. The keepers of the prison were unfeeling men; and instead of
slowing any favour to their prisoners, who ought to have received their
admiration, subjected them to unnecessary severity. They were subjected to
strict examination, after a long confinement, and the sentence of their
judges was in favour of their liberation, on paying a large amount to
government. By the aid of some generous friends, they were furnished with
the requisite sums, and discharged from the prison. But Lafayette was still
detained in prison, and in the same suffering and shameful condition as
before mentioned. It was several months before his irons and chains were
removed; which was effected through the very benevolent individuals, who
had secretly favoured his recent attempt to escape; but who, happily both
for him and themselves, were not suspected of any agency in the plot: these
were an opulent Jewish merchant, and the chief surgeon to the prisoners.
They prevailed also with the civil authority to grant permission to the
Marquis to walk an hour each day, in front of the prison, though in custody
of a strong guard of soldiers, and no one was allowed to speak to him.
Unutterably painful and distressing must have been the situation of Madame
Lafayette ever after the fatal day, when her beloved and affectionate
husband felt it his duty to depart from France, and leave her and their
three children unprotected, and subject to the insults and severities of an
enraged and lawless mob. She and her two daughters, then about fifteen and
twelve, were cast into prison in Paris. The family estates were
confiscated, and most of his particular friends fell by the stroke of the
guillotine. In this agonizing condition, she maintained the most wonderful
fortitude and patience; without uncommon firmness and sincere trust in
providence, she must have sunk under such deep and complicated distress.
While she was in prison, she was often found in a retired spot, engaged in
holy and humble supplication to heaven. When she was released from the
prison, after about twenty months of degrading confinement, her
constitution was greatly enfeebled, and her friends and physician advised
her to seek repose at some retired place in the country. But she refused,
and feeble and emaciated as she was, she resolved to proceed immediately to
Olmutz, and to bury herself in prison with her husband, unless she could
possibly procure his liberation. With this purpose in view, she went first
to Vienna, to endeavour to concilitate the favor and influence of the
Emperor. Through the friendly interposition of two noble females,
acquainted at court, she was admitted to an audience with the Emperor.
He received her graciously, and professed a desire that her request might
be fulfilled; but gave no positive orders for the liberation of Lafayette
because his _political_ engagements with other courts prevented it. He,
however, consented that she might visit her husband. She accordingly
repaired to Olmutz, to minister, as an angel of light, to his comfort,
though not clothed with power to give him that liberty, which they ardently
hoped. She and her daughters shared with him the confinement of a dreary
prison, for nearly two years. It was not until 1797, that they were set at
liberty: and this was immediately owing to the influence of General
Bonaparte, on his victories over the Austrians in that year. Lafayette
expressed his gratitude for this generous interference; but he made no
sacrifice of principle, and was never his admirer or supporter.
While confined in the prison of Olmutz, with her husband, Madame Lafayette,
whose health was much impaired by her sorrows and suffering, requested
leave to visit Vienna for a week. She was informed her request would be
granted on condition, that her daughters should be kept in a separate
apartment from their father, and that she herself would never again enter
the prison. She declined the offer, with indignation. Her letter on the
subject, concludes thus-"Whatever may be the state of my own health and the
inconvenience attending the stay of my daughters in this place we will most
gratefully take advantage of the goodness his imperial majesty has
expressed towards us, by the _permission to share in the miseries of this
captivity_."
When the Emperor of Austria agreed to his liberation, he proposed certain
conditions, to which Lafayette refused his assent. One was that he should
immediately leave Europe and embark to America. "This", said the
noble-minded Marquis, "has often been my desire and intention: but as
my consent to this proposition, at the present moment, would be an
acknowledgment of his right to impose such a condition, I cannot comply
with the demand."--The other was, that as the principles which Lafayette
professed were supposed to be incompatible with the safety of the Austrian
government, the Emperor could not consent that he should again enter his
territory without a special permission. To this Lafayette replied, "that
there already existed antecedent obligations, of which he could not divest
himself; partly towards America, but chiefly towards France; and that he
could not engage to do any thing, which should interfere with the rights of
his country to his personal services. With these exceptions, he assured the
Emperor's ambassador, that it was his firm resolution not to set foot again
on any part of his Majesty's dominions."
When he was set free from the long and severe incarceration at Olmutz,
Lafayette proceeded to the neutral city of Hamburg, with his family; where
he received the kindest and most respectful attentions from some American
gentlemen, then in that place, and also from many of the distinguished
citizens, who cherished the highest regard for his character, and his
meritorious services in the cause of liberty. It was at this time, that his
son, George Washington Lafayette, joined the family, on his return from the
United States, where he had just then passed several years. After a short
residence in Hamburg, Lafayette accepted the invitation of an Hanoverian
nobleman, and passed some time at his elegant chateau in Holstein, where
his eldest daughter was married to Latour Maubourg, a brother of one of the
Marquis' staff officers, who retired with him from France, August 1792; and
had shared with him the severities of the prison of Magdeburg and Olmutz.
He then resided some time in the family of a French emigrant, living in
that vicinity, and who was a distant relative of Madame Lafayette. In this
situation he studied the agriculture of Holstein; and gave particular
attention to the raising of merino sheep, an object in which he was also
engaged after his return to La Grange, his country seat near Paris.
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