Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette
Buried	Picpus Cemetery
Allegiance	United States of America France
Rank	File:Brigadier-general insignia.png Brigadier General Maréchal de camp
Battles / wars	American Revolutionary War Battle of Brandywine Battle of Gloucester Battle of Barren Hill Battle of Monmouth Battle of Rhode Island Siege of Yorktown
Other work	Politician Estates General (Auvergne) Member of the National Assembly

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de la Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834) was a French military officer and aristocrat who participated in the American revolution as a general and served in the Estates General and the subsequent National Constituent Assembly in the early phases of the French revolution. He was also a leading figure among the Feuillants and commander of the French National Guard.

In America, La Fayette is notable for serving in the Continental Army under George Washington, whom La Fayette considered a mentor and a friend. While serving in the Revolutionary War, he was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine and still organized a successful retreat. He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island, ameliorating French and American relationships after the French fleet departed. In the middle of the war, he returned to France to negotiate an augmented French commitment to the war. Upon his return, he is credited with blocking Cornwallis' troops at Yorktown while Washington and Rochambeau arrived. During the Siege of Yorktown, he led the right wing of the American flank, which took redoubt 10. He is also notably known for his great support for the emancipation of the slaves and his active role in the French Society of the Friends of the Blacks, which aimed to abolish the slave trade.

La Fayette was popular in his home country of France. When the Assembly of Notables was called in 1788 to discuss France's fiscal crisis, La Fayette proposed an Assembly of the French Estates-General. This marked the start of the French Revolution as the common people started to get involved into politics. For his proposal, La Fayette was elected to be the representative for the Estates-General. He contributed to the Declaration of the Rights of Man which was inspired by the United States Bill of Rights. La Fayette was also the first commander of the National Guard and was elected as the vice-president of the National Assembly. Accused by Jean-Paul Marat of responsibility for the Massacre of the Champ de Mars , he subsequently was forced out of a leading role in the Revolution by Jacobin Terror anarchists. On 19 August 1792, the Jacobin party seized control of Paris and the National Assembly, ordering Lafayette's arrest. He fled France and was arrested by the Austrian army in Rochefort, Belgium. Thereafter, he spent five years in various Austrian and Prussian prisons. He was released in 1797; however, Napoleon Bonaparte would not allow his return to France for several years. He continued to be active in French and European politics until his death in 1834.

Early life

Young Marquis de La Fayette

Ancestry

The Marquis de La Fayette (née Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, marquis de la Fayette) was born in Chavagnac, France on 6 September 1757, at the Château de Chavaniac, near Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire. His full name is rarely used, instead he is referred to as the Marquis de la Fayette or in the United States as General Lafayette. He came from a line of soldiers like marshal of France Gilbert de La Fayette III who led Joan of Arc's army and legend tells an ancestor acquired the Crown of Thorns during the 6th Crusade. As a soldier, La Fayette's uncle, Jacques-Roch died fighting the Austrians, thus leaving the marquis title to La Fayette's father. From a long line of orphans, La Fayette also lost both of his parents at a young age. His father died on 1 August 1759 during the Seven Years War at the Battle of Minden in Germany, where he was shot by a British cannonball. His mother and grandfather died in 1770 bequeathing La Fayette with an income of 25,000 livres, augmented upon the death of an uncle, leaving the 13 year old La Fayette a yearly sum of 120,000 livres. La Fayette was raised by his paternal grandmother, Madame de Chavaniac, Madeleine de Motier and Charlotte Guèrin. His grandmother would tell him stories of his father's death, advising to dislike the English.

Education and Marriage

He was educated by his aunt and two priests, including the Abbe Fayon, Curé de Saint-Roch de Chavaniac. His learning focused on reading, mathematics and writing, with focus on the Roman Republic, including the works of Livy, Tacitus and Plutarch. In 1768, La Fayette's grandfather desired the young man to travel to the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris in order that he be introduced to society. At age 11, he entered the Collège du Plessis, a school for nobleman's children which emphasized Latin and the Greek and Roman civilizations. On 9 April, 1771, La Fayette was commissioned as a sous-lieutenant in the elite Mousqetaires. As a young, wealthy nobleman, the fifteen year-old La Fayette attracted numerous marriage proposals, however it was the Marie Adrienne Francoise de Noailles (2 November 1759 – 24 December 1807) whom he married. She was the daughter of Jean-Paul-François, 5th duc de Noailles, from one of the most prosperous families. The marriage was arranged, with the contract stipulating that neither would be aware of the agreement until after the completion of their educations'. Marie Adrienne's mother, the duchesse d'Ayen, organized for the two to meet "as if by accident". A success, the two shared an immediate mutual attraction. On March 14, 1774, the marriage contract was signed by Louis XV and the two married on April 11. with La Fayette's father in law giving the youth command of a company in the Noailles Dragoons and the rank of captain.

Departure from France

Joining the American war

In 1775, La Fayette partook in his unit's annual training event in Metz, where he would meet Charles-François, comte de Broglie, the Army of the East's commander and a senior superior. De Broglie invited the young La Fayette to join the Freemasons and the American Revolutionary War became a popular topic amongst the Lodge's members. When the Duke of Gloucester, King George III's brother and colonial policy critic, traveled through the region, he was invited to dinner with de Broglie and his men. La Fayette would write in his memoirs that at this dinner he "...first learned of that quarrel, my heart was enlisted and I thought only of joining the colors." La Fayette returned to Paris in the fall and participated in sociétés de penseé (French: thinking groups), where the topic of French involvement in the American Revolution was frequent. A common speaker to these groups was Abbe Guillaume Raynal who criticized the nobility, clergy and slavery. Although the monarchy banned him from speaking, he was able to espouse his views secretly in the Masonic Lodges of which La Fayette was a member. Through Raynal, La Fayette first heard of the "rights of man".

On 7 December, 1776, La Fayette made an arrangement through Silas Deane, an American agent in Paris, to enter the American service as a major general. La Fayette's father-in-law did not support his travelling to America, so he had him appointed to a post in Britain. This was brief, as La Fayette refused to toast King George. In 1777, the French government granted the American military 1 million livres in supplies, a product of Minister Charles Gravier's avocation for French involvement. De Broglie, met German Johann de Kalb, an American sympathizer, who explained the American situation. Following this meeting de Broglie approached Gravier, suggesting assistance to the American revolutionaries. De Broglie then presented La Fayette, who had recently been placed on the reserve list, to Johann Kalb.

Departure from France

Upon returning to Paris, La Fayette found that the Continental Congress did not have the money for his voyage, hence he himself paid for the cost the ship La Victoire. Even the king had to "officially" forbid his leaving after British spies discovered his plan. At the insistence of the British ambassador, orders were issued to seize the ship La Fayette was fitting out at Bordeaux and to have La Fayette arrested. He eluded capture disguised as a courier and traveled to Spain. In April 1777 he sailed for America with 11 companions, missing a farewell to his pregnant wife. The ship's captain carried $8,000 worth of cargo destined for the West Indies. La Fayette, fearful of arrest, bought the cargo in order that the ship not sail to the islands. Following pursuit by two British ships, he landed safely on North Island near Georgetown, South Carolina, on 25 April 1777, after a voyage of nearly two months.

American Revolution

Washington and La Fayette at Valley Forge

Upon arrival, La Fayette met with Major Benjamin Huger, with whom he stayed for two weeks before their departure to Philadelphia. La Fayette remarked in letters home of his experience, noting the "simplicity of manner...love of country and liberty, the delightful equality that reigns everywhere." After a 32 day journey, waited four days for the Continental Congress to declare, on 31 July 1777, "that his services be accepted and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connections, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States. Despite being a commissioned officer, he was still not assigned a unit. Due to this, La Fayette nearly returned home. However, Benjamin Franklin penned a letter to George Washington requesting that he accept La Fayette as his aide-de-camp, in order that this action may influence France to commit more aid to the American war.

Washington accepted and soon after, La Fayette met him at Moland Headquarters August 10, 1777. In reply to a comment from Washington that he was embarrassed to show a French officer the state of their camp and troops, La Fayette responded, "I am here to learn, not to teach." Thus, he became a member of Washington's staff, although confusion existed regarding his status. The Congress regarded his commission as honorary, while he considered himself a full-fledged commander who would be given control of a division when Washington deemed him prepared. To address this, Washington told La Fayette that a division would not be possible as he was of foreign birth, however Washington said that he would be happy to hold him in confidence as "friend and father". Both men would regard this as their "great conversation".

Brandywine and Albany

La Fayette wounded at the battle of Brandywine

La Fayette's first battle was the loss at Brandywine on 11 September 1777. After the British outflanked the Americans, Washington acquiesced to a request by La Fayette to join General John Sullivan. Upon his arrival, La Fayette went with the Third Pennylvania Bridge, under Brigadier Thomas Conway and attempted to rally the unit to face the attack. In face of the British and Hessian superiority, La Fayette was shot in the leg. During the American retreat, before being treated for his wound, La Fayette created a control point allowing a more orderly retreat. Following the battle, he was cited by George Washington for "bravery and military ardour" and was recommended for the command of a division in a letter to the congress on November 1.

After two months of repair, La Fayette was well enough to return to the field and assisted General Nathanael Greene in reconnaissance of British positions in New Jersey. With 300 soldiers he defeated a numerically superior Hessian force in Gloucester on 25 November, 1777. He returned to Valley Forge for the winter, where he was asked by the War Board, headed by General Horatio Gates, to travel to Albany, New York where he would lead troops preparing for an invasion of Canada. Gates was capitalizing on his success in the Battle of Saratoga in order to remove Washington from command and this plan included separating him from La Fayette. La Fayette awaited the coming approval from Washington before departing for Albany, where he found the men insufficient to mount a Canadian invasion. La Fayette wrote Washington of the situation and made plans to return to Valley Forge. Before his departure, he was able to recruit the Oneida tribe, who referred to La Fayette as Kayewla which means fearsome horsemen, to the American side.

La Fayette returned to Valley Forge and Gates' plan to assume control of the Army was halted. Meanwhile, in March 1778, treaties signed by America and France were made public and France formally recognized American independence.

Barren Hill, Monmouth and Rhode Island

In reply to the French entrance into the war, the British withdrew from Philadelphia and General Howe sent 5,000 soldiers to attack La Fayette, hoping to capture him for his political value. On 20 May 1778, La Fayette was warned of the impending attack and in an attempt to feign numerical superiority, he ordered that a few men appear from the woods, on an outcropping known as Battle of Barren Hill (present day Lafayette Hill) periodically to fire upon the British. La Fayette was then able to cross Matson's Ford with the remainder of his force. As the British evacuated their force north, the Continental Army attacked at the Monmouth Courthouse with La Fayette present.

The French fleet arrived in America on 9 July 1778, under Admiral d'Estaing, with whom General Washington planned to attack Newport, Rhode Island. La Fayette and General Nathanael Greene were sent with a 3,000 man force to partcipate in the attack. La Fayette aimed to control a joint Franco-American force in the attack, but was rebuffed. On August 9, the American force attacked the British without consulting D'Estaing. Afterwards when the Americans asked the Admiral to leave his fleet in Narragansett Bay, he demurred and attacked the British under Lord Howe. D'Estaing's successfully saw the removal of the British fleet, but at the expense of his ships weathering a battering storm.

D'Estaing moved his damaged ships north to Boston for repairs. As a result, Bostonians rioted against the French fleet, considering his departure from Newport a desertion. John Hancock and La Fayette were dispatched to calm the situation, which they did successfully. La Fayette then returned to Newport to prepare for retreat, which was needed due to D'Estaing's exit. For these events, La Fayette was cited by the Continental Congress for "gallantry, skill and prudence", however he realized that the D'Estaing affair would reflect poorly on the Franco-American alliance in France. Therefore, he asked and was given permission to return to France.

Return to France

In February 1779, La Fayette returned to Paris. La Fayette had acted against the King's wishes when leaving the country and was thus placed under house arrest for two weeks. Nevertheless, his return was triumphant. He was presented by Benjamin Franklin's grandson with a 4,800 livre gold-encrusted sword commissioned by the Continental Congress and the King requested to see him. The King reacted well to the returned soldier and placed him back in the dragoons after La Fayette proposed various schemes of attacking the British. La Fayette utilized his new position to lobby for added French aid to the America. While working in conjunction with Franklin he was able to negotiate 6,000 soldiers who were to be commanded by General Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau.

On December 24, 1779, La Fayette received news that Adrienne had bore him a son, whom he would name George-Washington La Fayette. After his son's birth, the young general spent the remainder of his time in France pushing for additional commitments. He also ordered new uniforms for the soldiers and prepared arrangements for the fleet's departure. Before returning to America, La Fayette and the French force had their status objectified: they would be operating under American forces, which would allow Washington control over the military operation. On March 6, 1780, La Fayette left a saddened Adrienne. Five days later, he departed for the Americas aboard the Hermione.

Virginia and Yorktown

A map of key sites in the Battle of Yorktown

Returning to the war zone, La Fayette defended Richmond, Virginia, from Benedict Arnold. After days of skirmishing, Arnold and Charles Cornwallis crossed paths and effected a juncture of their units. In June, Cornwallis received orders from London to proceed to the Chesapeake Bay and oversee the construction of a port, leaving La Fayette and inland Virginia. As the British column traveled in July, La Fayette boldly followed behind him, a show of force that encouraged new recruits. By August, Cornwallis established the British at Yorktown, and La Fayette took up position on Malvern Hill, which trapped the British when the French Fleet arrived.

On September 14, 1781, Washington approached La Fayette's camp, and the two happily met one another. La Fayette had held the British at Yorktown as the supplies and troops arrived for the American and French forces. On the 28th, the men neared Yorktown and began preparations for the siege. With the French fleet blockading the British, the combined forces began to attack. La Fayette's detail was the right end of the American wing whose 400 men took redoubt 10, in hand to hand combat. After a failed British counterattack, Cornwallis surrendered on October 17, 1781, under a combined volley.

After the Revolution

La Fayette returned to France on 18 January, 1781, where he was welcomed as a hero and witnessed the birth of his daughter whom he named Virginie upon Thomas Jefferson's recommendation. He was promoted by to maréchal de camp, despite this skipping numerous ranks. La Fayette then helped prepare for a combined French and Spanish expedition against the British West India Islands, of which he was appointed chief-of-staff. The armistice signed on 20 January 1783, between the countries put a stop to the expedition.

La Fayette and Washington at Mt. Vernon, 1784

At Washingtons invitation, in 1784, La Fayette went to Mount Vernon and visited with Washington multiple times. They both exchanged gifts before La Fayette sailed from New York back to France in December. It would be the last time they would see each other.

Change in view on slavery

La Fayette's first encounter with slaves was on the coast of South Carolina in June 1777. He first considered them as property but then changed his mind during the American revolution. La Fayette became strongly opposed to slavery mainly due to the influence of his friend, John Laurens. He had the idea of offering the slaves their freedom in exchange for their assistance in the ongoing war. La Fayette greatly supported this idea due to his encounter with the slave James Armistead, who volunteered as a spy in the British army during the Revolutionary War. La Fayette's first action in realizing his ideas was a letter to George Washington on February 5, 1783, which included a paragraph requesting the emancipation of the slaves. The letter influenced George Washington and in his will he requested that his slaves be freed. In 1786, La Fayette started freeing slaves on his land along Oyapok River in the French colony of Cayenne. He freed 70 slaves and forbid the sale of slaves on his Land. When he returned to France he took an active role in the French Society of the Friends of the Blacks, which aimed to abolish the slave trade.

French Revolution

Assembly of Notables and Estates-General

Main article: French Revolution

Declaration of the Rights of Man, written with the help of La Fayette and Thomas Jefferson

In France, La Fayette spent his initial days organizing trade agreements between the United States and France, with the assistance of Thomas Jefferson. These agreements included commitments on tobacco and whale oil, aimed at reducing the debt owed France by the nascent America. La Fayette would also return to the new nation and travel to 11 states, to provide the Congress with news of trade negotiations. This trip included a visit to Washington's farm on Mount Vernon, where Martha Washington gave him smoked hams for his wife; an honorary degree from Harvard; a meeting with the Oneida Indians; a portrait of Washington from the city of Boston; and a bust from the state of Virginia.

In February 1788, the King called the Assembly of Notables for the first time since 1626. The purpose was to discuss France's fiscal crisis. During the meeting, La Fayette proposed an Assembly of the French Estates-General, which would be a representation of the three different classes in society: the Clergy, the Nobility and the Commons. In 1789, La Fayette was elected to the Estates-General. In preparation, La Fayette worked with Thomas Jefferson on a document called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which was similar to the Bill of Rights, noting the inalienable rights of "liberty, property, safety and resistance to opression."

When the Estates General convened on 5 May, 1789, La Fayette was a member of the Second Estate, that of the Nobles. When King Louis XVI was confronted with difficulties of the Estates General, he closed the meeting room of the Third Estate, which rather than forcing a halt to their assembly, led them to meet in the Tennis Court. This new group would call themselves the National Assembly and claim that they were the governing body in France. On 11 July, 1789, he presented the document he had brought with him, his Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens. The next day, in response to the dismissal of Finance Minister Jacques Necker, Camille Desmoulins organized a mob to arms. In response, the Assembly authorized a National Guard, appointing La Fayette as commander and elected him vice-president of the Assembly. The following day, on 14 July 1789, the Bastille was stormed.

National Guard

La Fayette orders his soldiers to fire on members of the Cordeliers

After hearing the news about the Bastille, La Fayette raced into Paris as a mob attacked a priest. La Fayette walked onto the balcony of city hall, which overlooked the mob and held his son aloft saying, "I have the honor to introduce my son." The mob's attention diverted, the priest was brought to safety. La Fayette proposed plans to have a demanding schedule for the soldiers of the National Guard to the Commune of Paris. During this meeting, he brought a red, white and blue cockade with him. These colors would become the basis for the French flag.

In the Constituent Assembly he pleaded for religious tolerance, popular representation, the establishment of trial by jury, the gradual emancipation of slaves, freedom of the press, the abolition of arbitrary imprisonment and of titles of nobility and the suppression of privileged orders. They also debated a veto measure, which would have allowed the King to bar any law passed by the Assembly. The agreement appeared reasonable until Louis XVI declined to ratify the Declaration of Rights. In response, a mob moved to Versailles to meet the royal family. La Fayette awoke the King and replaced his guards with National Guardsmen who were later shot by the mob. La Fayette then took the queen onto the balcony to confront the crowd, after which the King and Queen entered captivity.

La Fayette took a prominent part in the Fête de la Fédération of 14 July 1790, the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. After suppressing a riot in April 1791 he resigned his commission and was compelled to retain it. On 20 June 1791, an unsuccessful plot enfolded nearly allowing the King to escape. La Fayette, the leader of the National Guard, was responsible for their custody. Although he made moves for their arrest he was blamed publicly by Danton for the mishap and called a "traitor" to the people by Maximilien Robespierre. This portrayed La Fayette as a royalist, despite his attempts to represent the people as Vice-President of the Assembly.

On 17 July, La Fayette was fired upon by the crowd after Danton read the proposed Constitution, after a crowd beheaded two vagrants, at the Champ de Mars. The guardsmen retaliated by firing into the crowd. Martial law was ordered by Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the Mayor of Paris and the crowd was ordered to disperse. When they did not, La Fayette ordered the National Guard to open fire and arrest the assassins in the crowd. About 50 people were killed in what became known as the Massacre of the Champ de Mars, which decisively marked the end of the alliance between constitutional monarchists and radicals like Jean-Paul Marat and Georges Danton. The situation appeared to cool after the King signed the new Constitution on 13 September, and La Fayette was presented with a sword.

Conflict and imprisonment

Main article: Reign of Terror

In December 1791, La Fayette was placed in command of three armies formed on the eastern frontier to attack Austria. In his absence, Paris became chaotic as Jacobins engaged in riots, slaughtered the King's Swiss Guard and suspended the monarchy. La Fayette decreed that their behavior was "Unconstitutional", and the Jacobins replied that La Fayette was involved in an attempt to assist Prussia and Austria in a war against France. He returned to Paris and the Assembly on June 28 and asked for the Jacobins to be outlawed. This was not permitted, and Lafayette moved to the Tuileries palace in order to have the Guard protect the royal family. The Queen refused his aid, and La Fayette returned to Metz. Marat and the Committee of Surveillance constructed a guillotine at the Place du Carrousel, and throughout September approximately 1,400 people were executed. After La Fayette refused the offered French Presidency in return for giving up the King and the Constitution, the Jacobins asked him to relinquish command and return to Paris. La Fayette knew this meant his beheading, so he sought asylum in the United States. This did not happen, and on 19 August, while with a group of faithful supporters en route to Holland, he was arrested by the Austrians and imprisoned at Wesel, Prussia.

On 10 September 1792, soldiers led by Jacobins arrived at Adrienne's home, where she was arrested and later released. Their son Georges, who was hiding from fear of execution, was sent to the United States. Presently, many wives of Jacobin's enemies were divorcing their husbands, Adrienne did not do this. Instead, she sold her property and appealed to the Americans for assistance. For political reasons, the young nation could not officially assist the family, although they retroactively paid La Fayette $24,424 for his military service and Washington personally sent financial aid. As chaos grew in France, Adrienne was arrested by the Jacobins. The intention was for her to be tried and executed in Paris. However, James Monroe was sent to intervene, which he did successfully after repeated visits to the Directory. On 22 January 1795, Adrienne was released.

Adrienne then organized the family's finances and appealed to the United States for American passports. Georges' request was granted and he traveled to America. James Monroe secured passports for Adrienne from Hartford, Connecticut, which had granted the entire La Fayette family citizenship. She continued to Vienna and at an audience with Emperor Francis II she was granted permission to live with La Fayette in captivity. Adrienne lived in his cell with him and finally, in September 1797, after five years imprisonment, Napoleon released the family. This was at the request of the Directory and as a result of the Treaty of Campo Formio drafted in 1797. He was not allowed to return to France until 1799, after Napoleon's coup when Adrienne achieved permission for his return. On return, La Fayette, averse to serving in Napoleon's army, resigned his commission.

Later years

Portrait of General La Fayette (by Matthew Harris)

La Fayette felt that he would not be needed in Napoleon's government, thus he left Paris. In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor after a plebiscite in which La Fayette did not participate. For the next several years, he remained relatively quiet, although he spoke publicly on Bastille Day events. After the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson asked if he would be interested in filling the governor's seat, which La Fayette declined for a number of reasons, including personal problems and the need for liberty in France. During a trip to Auvergne, Adrienne became ill. Due to her malady, worsened by the scurvy she fell sick with in prison, she was unable to hide her anemia. By 1807, she was delirious, but by Christmas Eve this subsided and she was able to gather the famimly around her bed and proclaim to La Fayette: "Je suis toute a vous" (french: I am all yours). She died, apparently from lead poisoning complications, the next day, 25 December 1807.

In 1815, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the district where his farm was, Seine-et-Marne. From office he pursued the abdication of Napoleon. In the following years, La Fayette would subscribe to liberal causes, and become involved in various attempts to overthrow the government.

Invitations and honors

His last visit to the United States occured from August, 1824 until September, 1825 at the invitation of President James Monroe in order to celebrate the centenary of the nation. During his visit, he would visit all of the American states and cover over 6,000 miles (9,656 km). Lafayette arrived from France at Staten Island, N.Y., on August 15, 1824 to an artillery salute, a parade from West Point and general adulation. The towns and cities he visited, including Fayetteville, North Carolina, the first city named in his honor, gave him enthusiastic welcomes. On October 17, 1824, La Fayette visited Mount Vernon and George Washington's tomb. In late August 1825, he returned to Mount Vernon.This unit decided to adopt the title National Guard, in honor of La Fayette's celebrated Garde Nationale de Paris. The Battalion, later the 7th Regiment, was prominent in the line of march on the occasion of La Fayette's final passage through New York en route before returning home to France on the frigate USS Brandywine. Later in the trip, he received an honorary United States citizenship while attending the inaugural banquet of the University of Virginia, at Jefferson's invitation. He was voted, by the U.S. Congress, the sum of $200,000 and a township of land.

During the Revolution of 1830, he again took command of the National Guard and pursued the same line of conduct as in the first revolution. In 1834, he made his last speech on behalf of Polish political refugees, many of whom he hid in the attic of his modest country home at Château La Grange. He was known to his country neighbors there for his extraordinary charity during times of famine and disease. He died in Paris on May 20, 1834, and was buried in the Cimetière de Picpus, under soil brought back from Bunker Hill during his 1824 visit.

La Fayette lived at 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 Sarthe, speaking and voting always on the Liberal side, even sympathizing with the Carbonari.

Legacy

A U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating La Fayette.

Monument to La Fayette in Paris

Although he spent a total of less than five years in America (in 1777-79, 1780-81, 1784 and 1824-25), he received, perhaps, more commemoration and admiration there than any other foreign visitor in American history.

La Fayette was commemorated with a monument in New York City (built in 1917) and by a reconstruction of the frigate Hermione, in which La Fayette returned to America on, located in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France. He is also displayed (in portraits of Washington and La Fayette) in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Order of Lafayette was established by U.S. Representative Hamilton Fish III, a World War I veteran, as an American hereditary order that promotes commemoration of Americans who fought in France and Franco-American friendship.

La Fayette has twice been granted honorary citizenship by Congress.

For his honor and Legacy many cities in the United states bear the name Lafayette or its derivatives. In 1824, the United States government named in his honor Lafayette Park, immediately north of the White House in Washington, D.C. In 1826, Lafayette College was chartered in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Works cited

• William Howard Adams (1997). The Paris years of Thomas Jefferson. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300082616.
• David A Clary (2007). Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution. New York, New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978055338345. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
• Maurice de La Fuye (1956). The Apostle of Liberty: A Life of Lafayette. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, Inc. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• James R. Gaines (2007). For Liberty and Glory: Washington, La Fayette, and Their Revolutions. W.W. Norton & Co. pp. p. 33. ISBN 9780393061383. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• Noel B. Gerson (1976). Statue in Search of a Pedestal: a Biography of the Marquis de La Fayette. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. ISBN 9780396073413.
• Joseph T. Glatthaar, James Kirby Martin (2007). Forgotten Allies, The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution. Macmillan. ISBN 9780809046003.
• Sabra Holbrook (1977). Lafayette, Man in the Middle. Atheneum. ISBN 0689305850.
• Henri La Fayette Villaume Ducoudray Holstein. Memoirs of Gilbert Motier La Fayette. Charles Wiley. pp. pp. 303. Retrieved 2008-08-11. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
• Sylvia Neely (2008). A Concise History of the French Revolution. Rowman & Littlefiel. ISBN 0742534111.
• "Marquis de Lafayette" (HTML). NNDB. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
• "In Love with a Word". Time Magazine. Time. August 6, 1956. Retrieved 2008-08-11. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |coauthors= (help)

External links

• Works by Gilbert du Motier, (formerly)Marquis de Lafayette at Project Gutenberg
• French Founding Father at the New-York Historical Society
• The Cornell University Library Lafayette Collection