The Boys Life of Lafayette 33

The Boys Life of Lafayette 33

While Webster's eloquence worked its spell, and pride and joy and pain

even to the point of tears swept over the thousands of upturned faces

as cloud shadows sweep across a meadow, Lafayette must have remembered

another scene, a still greater assembly, even more tense with feeling,

in which he had been a central figure: that fête of the Federation on

the Champs de Mars. Surely no other man in history has been allowed to

feel himself so intimately a part of two nations in their moments of

patriotic exaltation.

 

 

[Pg 269]XXVIII

 

LEAVE-TAKINGS

 

 

Though the celebration at Bunker Hill was the crowning moment of

Lafayette's stay in America, he remained three months longer, sailing

home in September, 1825. The last weeks were spent in and near

Washington. Here he had fitted so perfectly into the scheme of life

that his comings and goings had ceased to cause remark, except as a

pleasant detail of the daily routine. Perhaps this is the subtlest

compliment Americans paid him. One of the mottoes in a hall decorated

in his honor had read, "_Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa

famille?_" "Where can a man feel more at home than in the bosom of his

family?"--and this attitude of Washingtonians toward him showed how

completely he had been adopted as one of themselves.

 

He had made himself one in thought and spirit with the most

aggressively American of them all. A witty speech of his proves this.

A bill had been introduced in Congress to present him with two hundred

thousand dollars in money and "twenty-four thousand acres of fertile

land in Florida" to right a wrong unintentionally done him years

[Pg 270]before. He had been entitled at the time of our Revolution to

the pay of an officer of his rank and to a grant of public land to be

located wherever he chose. He refused to accept either until after the

Revolution in France had swept away his fortune. Then his agent in the

United States chose for him a tract of land near New Orleans which

Jefferson thought would be of great value. Congress was not informed

and granted this same land to the city. Lafayette had a prior claim,

but flatly refused to contest the matter, saying he could have no

quarrel with the American people. Everybody wanted the bill concerning

this reparation in the way of money and Florida land to pass, and it

was certain to go through, but there were twenty-six members of the

House and Senate who, for one reason and another, felt constrained

to vote against it. Some voted consistently and persistently against

unusual appropriations of any kind; some argued that it was an insult

to translate Lafayette's services into terms of cold cash. The struggle

between private friendship and public duty was so hard that some of

them came to make a personal explanation. "My dear friends!" he cried,

grasping their hands, "I assure you it would have been different had

I been a member of Congress. There would not have been twenty-six

objectors--there would have been twenty-seven! " During this American

visit he renewed old ties with, or made the acquaintance of, nine

men who had been

or were to become Presidents of the United States:

John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,

[Pg 271]William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and

Franklin Pierce. Perhaps there were others. He broke the rules of the

Puritan Sabbath by driving out to dine on that day with the venerable

John Adams at his home near Boston; but there was only one white horse

to draw his carriage instead of the customary four, and not a hurrah

broke the orderly quiet. Had it been a week-day the crowds would have

shouted themselves hoarse. Jefferson, ill and feeble, welcomed him

on the lawn at Monticello, the estate so dear to him which had been

ravaged by the British about the time Lafayette began his part in

driving Cornwallis to Yorktown.

 

As was quite fitting, Lafayette was the guest of President John Quincy

Adams at the White House during the last days of his stay. One incident

must be told, because it is so very American and so amusing from

the foreign point of view. He expressed a desire to make a visit of

farewell to his old friend James Monroe, who had been President the

year before. He was now living on his estate of Oak Hill, thirty-seven

miles away. President Adams offered to accompany him, and on an August

day they set out by carriage after an early dinner. Mr. Adams, both

Lafayettes, and a friend rode in the presidential carriage. Colonel

Lavasseur and the son of the President followed in a "tilbury," a

kind of uncovered gig fashionable then on both sides of the Atlantic.

Servants and luggage brought up the rear.

 

Lafayette had been passed free over thousands of miles of toll-road

[Pg 272]since he landed in the United States, but when they reached the

bridge across the Potomac the little procession halted and Mr. Adams

paid toll like an ordinary mortal. Scarcely had his carriage started

again when a plaintive, "Mr. President! Mr. President!" brought it to

a standstill. The gatekeeper came running up with a coin in his hand.

"Mr. President," he panted, "you've done made a mistake. I reckon yo'

thought this was two bits, but it's only a levy. You owe me another

twelve and a half cents." The President listened, gravely examined

the coin, counted the noses of men and horses, and agreed that he was

at fault. He was just reaching down into the presidential pocket when

he was arrested by a new exclamation. The gatekeeper had recognized

Lafayette and was thoroughly crestfallen. "I reckon the joke's on me,"

he said, apologetically. "All the toll-roads has orders to pass the

general free, so I owe you something instid of you owin' me money. I

reckon I ought to pass you-all as the general's bodyguard." But to

this Adams demurred. He was not anybody's bodyguard. He was President

of the United States, and, though it was true that toll-roads passed

the guest of the nation free, General Lafayette was riding that day in

his private capacity, as a friend of Mr. Adams. There was no reason

at all why the company should be cheated out of any of its toll. The

gatekeeper considered this and acknowledged the superiority of Yankee

logic. "That sounds fair," he admitted. "I reckon you-all do owe me

twelve and a half cents." In the tilbury young Adams grinned and

[Pg 273]Colonel Lavasseur chuckled his appreciation. "The one time

General Lafayette does not pass free over your roads," he said, "is

when he rides with the ruler of the country. In any other land he could

not pay, for that very reason."

 

When the day of farewell came Washington streets were filled with men

and women come out to see the last of the nation's guest. Stores and

public buildings were closed and surrounding regions poured their

crowds into the city. Everybody was sad. The cavalry escort which for a

year had gathered at unholy hours to speed Lafayette on his way or to

meet him on his return, whenever he could be persuaded to take it into

his confidence, met for the last time on such pleasant duty, taking its

station near the White House, where as many citizens as possible had

congregated. The hour set for departure was early afternoon. Officials

had begun to gather before eleven o'clock. At noon the President

appeared and took his place with them in a circle of chairs in the

large vestibule, whose outside doors had been opened wide to permit all

who could see to witness the public leave-taking.

 

After a brief interval of silence an inner door opened and Lafayette

came forward with the President's son and the marshal of the District.

Mr. Adams rose and made a short address. Lafayette attempted to reply,

but was overcome with feeling, and it was several moments before he

regained control of his voice. At the end of his little speech he

cried, "God bless you!" and opened his arms wide with a gesture that

included everybody. Then the crowd pressed forward and surrounded him

[Pg 274]until he retired to Mrs. Adams's sitting-room for the real

farewell with the President's household. After that Mr. Adams and he

appeared upon the portico. Lafayette stepped into a waiting carriage.

Flags dipped, cannon boomed, and the procession took up its march to

the wharf where a little steamer waited to carry the travelers down the

Potomac to the new government frigate Brandywine, on which they were

to sail. At the river's edge he reviewed the militia of the District

of Columbia, standing with some relatives of Washington's during

this final ceremony. It is said that a cheer that was like a cry of

bereavement rose from the crowd and mingled with the last boom of the

military salute as the boat swung out into the stream.

 

The sun had dropped below the horizon when they neared Mount Vernon.

The company was at dinner, everybody, even George Lafayette, working

hard to overcome the sadness that threatened to engulf the company.

The marshal came and bent over Lafayette, who pushed back his plate

and bowed his head upon his breast. Then he rose and hurried to the

deck for a parting look, at the home of his friend most of the company

following him. The eyes of both father and son sought out the stately

house set on a hill, which held so many associations for both of them.

The younger man had found the beautiful place less well cared for than

during the lifetime of its owner. Lafayette had returned to it only to

visit a tomb.

 

The trees near the mansion were already beginning to blur in the short

[Pg 275]September twilight. Silently, with his head a little bent and a

little turned to the right, as was his habit, he watched it as the boat

slipped by. The afterglow behind the house had deepened to molten gold

when a bend in the river blotted it from his sight. He turned like a

man coming out of a dream and hurried to his cabin without a word.

 

"Only then," says Lavasseur, "did he fully realize the sacrifice made

to France in leaving America."

 

 

[Pg 276]XXIX

 

PRESIDENT--OR KING-MAKER?

 

 

The ocean was no kinder than usual to Lafayette on his homeward voyage

and the reception he met in Havre lacked enthusiasm. Louis XVIII, who

was king when he went away, had died during his absence and another

brother of the ill-fated Louis XVI had mounted the throne, with the

title of Charles X. He was no other than the Comte d'Artois who had

presided over Lafayette's section in the Assembly of Notables and

had been blind to his presence when the two reached the same inn at

the same moment in Austria. His ministers were no more friendly to

liberals of Lafayette's way of thinking than those of his brothers had

been; but the liberals of France showed a distinct desire to notice

the home-coming of Lafayette. Police could and did disperse young men

on horseback who gathered under his windows at the inn in Rouen for a

serenade; but there were other ways of paying respect. One took the

form of a contest of poets "to celebrate a voyage which history will

place among the great events of the century." There were eighty-three

[Pg 277]contestants, and Béranger, who had already paid his tribute,

acted as a