Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Lieutenant General & National Guard Commander-in-Chief Lafayette in 1792 at ~35yrs. by Joseph Désiré Court, at musée de Versailles

Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Lafayette (initially the Marquis de Lafayette until June 1790) (September 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834) was a French military officer and former aristocrat who participated in both the American and French revolutions. He permanently renounced the title "Marquis" before the French National Assembly in June, 1790.). Even though he was already adopted by George Washington, he was twice granted Honorary Citizenship of the United States, first in 1824 (along with his descendants in perpetuity), and again, posthumously in 2002; one of only six specific persons so honored.

Lafayette served in the American Revolutionary War both as a general and as a diplomat, serving entirely without pay in both roles. Later, he was to prove a key figure in the early phases of the French Revolution, serving in the Estates General and the subsequent National Constituent Assembly. He was a leading figure among the Feuillants, who tried to turn France into a constitutional monarchy, and commander of the French National Guard. Accused by Jean-Paul Marat of responsibility for the "Massacre of the Champ de Mars" (before which, Lafayette was nearly assasinated), he subsequently was forced out of a leading role in the Revolution by the Jacobin laeadership. On August 19, 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.

Name and family

The name "La Fayette" is derived from an estate in Aix that belonged to the Motier family in the 13th century. The original Gilbert Lafayette, Marshall of France, (from whom Lafayette draws his motto, "CUR NON?", (Latin for "WHY NOT?") fought, successfully, at the Battle of Baugé (also called Battle of Beauge) and nine years later for Joan of Arc. Lafayette's full name is seldom used in the United States, where he is usually known as "General Lafayette" or simply "Lafayette" (his preferences and as written on his birth certificate), but sometimes is called "the Marquis de Lafayette" (mistakenly or maliciously, if used in post 1790 references since he permanently renounced the nobility title on June 19, 1790) After 1790 and especially after the Bourbon Restoration, Lafayette's enemies viciously taunted him in the press by continually referring to him as "Marquis" and thereby using this propaganda to give Lafayette's supporters the false impression that he gave up on his life-long belief that "ALL men are created equal". Note that Lafayette may be written as one word or as two; one word is more typical in American usage and Lafayette's preference and as it appears on his grave stone, while the two-word form is preferred in contemporary British and French usage. Many places in the United States are named Lafayette, Fayette, or Fayetteville in his honor.

He was the father of Georges Washington Motier Lafayette (1779–1849) (whose godfather was Lafayette's close friend George Washington) and grandfather of Oscar Thomas Gilbert Motier Lafayette (1815–1881).

Early life

Lafayette was born at the Château de Chavaniac, near Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, in the remote, mountainous Auvergne region of France, also known as the "Appalachia of France." He belonged to the cadet branch of the La Fayette family. His father was killed at the Battle of Minden in 1759 by a British cannon ball, and his mother and grandfather died in 1770. He was educated by his aunt and two priests (the second was the Abbe Fayon, Cure de Saint-Roch de Chavaniac), and at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. At the age of 14, Lafayette chose to follow the career of his father and grandfather, entering the French army on April 9, 1771. At the age of 16 he married Marie-Adrienne-Françoise de Noailles, daughter of Jean-Paul-François, 5th duc de Noailles. Known as "Adrienne" or "Noailles Lafayette," she was famous for her simplicity, extraordinary charity, and bravery.

Departure from France

At 19, he was a captain of dragoons when the British colonies in America proclaimed their independence. He later wrote in his memoirs, "my heart was enrolled in it." Charles-François, comte de Broglie, whom he consulted, tried to discourage him from getting involved in the conflict. Broglie eventually presented him to Johann Kalb, who was also seeking service in America. On December 7, 1776, Lafayette made an arrangement through Silas Deane, an American agent in Paris, to enter the American service as a major general. At this moment, the news arrived of grave disasters to the American cause. Lafayette's friends "officially" advised him to give up. Even the king had to "officially" forbid his leaving after British spies discovered his plan (and other clandestine aid to Americans). At the insistence of the British ambassador, orders were issued to seize the ship Lafayette was fitting out at Bordeaux and to have Lafayette arrested. He eluded capture disguised as a courier and sailed for America with 11 companions. Although pursued by two British ships, he landed safely on North Island near Georgetown, South Carolina, on June 13, 1777 after a voyage of nearly two months.

American Revolution

Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge

Lafayette and Washington at Mt. Vernon, 1784

Lafayette offered his services to the American insurgents as an unpaid volunteer. He presented himself to the Continental Congress with Deane's authority to request a commission of the highest rank after the commander-in-chief.

Congress then passed a resolution, on July 31, 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." The next day, Lafayette met George Washington, who became his lifelong friend. As a member of Washington's inner circle, Lafayette also became very close friends with young Alexander Hamilton, Washington's chief aide-de-camp.

Lafayette's first battle was Brandywine on September 11, 1777, where he was wounded in the leg. Shortly afterwards, he secured the command of a division — the immediate result of a communication from Washington to Congress of November 1, 1777, in which he said: "The Marquis de Lafayette is extremely solicitous of having a command equal to his rank. I do not know in what light Congress will view the matter, but it appears to me, from a consideration of his illustrious and, important connections, the attachment which he has manifested for our cause, and the consequences which his return in disgust might produce, that it will be advisable to gratify his wishes, and the more so as several gentlemen from France who came over under some assurances have gone back disappointed in their expectations. His conduct with respect to them stands in a favourable point of view—having interested himself to remove their uneasiness and urged the impropriety of their making any unfavourable representations upon their arrival at home. Besides, he is sensible, discreet in his manners, has made great proficiency in our language, and from the disposition he discovered at the battle of Brandywine possesses a large share of bravery and military ardour."

Monument to Lafayette erected in Paris by the schoolchildren of the USA

In the first months of 1778, Lafayette commanded troops detailed for the projected expedition against Canada. After that plan was aborted, Lafayette participated in the campaign in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where he was commended for his retreat from Barren Hill (May 28, 1778), and fought at the Battle of Monmouth (June 28). He received from Congress a formal recognition of his services in the Rhode Island expedition (August 1778).

Meanwhile, the signing of a formal Treaty of Alliance between the United States and France on February 6, 1778, prompted by Great Britain to declare war against France. LaFayette asked leave to return to France to consult Louis XVI as to the further direction of his services.

Lafayette left for France on January 11, 1779, where he was made a colonel in the cavalry. After about six months, he returned to America. From April until October 1781, he was charged with the defense of Virginia, where he showed his zeal by borrowing money on his own account to provide his soldiers with necessaries. Washington commended him for doing all that was possible with the forces at his disposal. In the siege of Yorktown, Lafayette bore an honorable if not a distinguished part.

Portrait of General Lafayette (1757-1834), about 1825, probably by Matthew Harris Jouett (1788-1827) after Ary Sheffer, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the U.S. National Portrait Gallery, gift of the John Hay Whitney Collection.

At the end of 1781, Lafayette returned to France, where he was welcomed as a hero and promoted to the rank of maréchal de camp (brigadier general) in the French army. Lafayette 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 January 20, 1783, between the countries put a stop to the expedition.

Views on slavery

Though Lafayette formerly owned slaves, he freed them and was actively interested in the abolitionist cause. Although there were no slaves in France, upon his return he worked to free slaves in the Carribean where the slave trade was booming. He urged Washington to free his slaves as an example to others. Lafayette purchased an estate in French Guiana and settled his own slaves there, and he offered a place for Washington's slaves, writing "I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America if I could have conceived thereby that I was founding a land of slavery." Nevertheless, Washington did not free his own slaves in his lifetime.

French Revolution

Lafayette did not appear again prominently in public life until 1787, when he took his seat in the Assembly of Notables. He demanded, and he alone signed the demand, that the king convoke the Estates-General, thus becoming a leader in the French Revolution. In 1788, he was deprived of his active command. In 1789, Lafayette was elected to the Estates-General, and took a prominent part in its proceedings. He was chosen vice-president of the National Assembly, and on July 11, 1789 proposed a declaration of rights, modeled on Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence in 1776.

On July 15, the second day of the new regime, Lafayette was chosen, by acclamation, colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris. He also proposed the combination of the colours of Paris, red and blue, and the royal white, into the famous tricolour cockade and flag of modern France (July 17). For the succeeding three years, until the end of the constitutional limited-monarchy in 1792, he played a significant role in the course of the Revolution. He rescued Marie Antoinette from the hands of the populace in October 1789, as well as many others who had been condemned to death. He briefly resigned his commission, but was soon induced to resume it.

After being fired upon twice by a mob then pelted by a hail of rocks, under Mayor Bailly's desist and martial law orders, Lafayette orders his soldiers to fire on members of the Cordeliers, July 17, 1791

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. He drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen which was adopted by the Assembly. In February 1790, he refused the supreme command of the National Guard of the kingdom.

Lafayette and other constitutional limited-monarchists who supported the Revolution in its early years founded the "Society of 1789", which afterwards became the Feuillants Club, taking a position between Royalist supporters of absolute monarchy and liberalist groups such as the Jacobins and Cordeliers. Lafayette took a prominent part in the celebration of July 14, 1790, the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. After suppressing a riot in April 1791 he again resigned his commission, and was again compelled to retain it. Louis XVI's deceptive flight to Varennes undermined the position of the constitutional limited-monarchists, especially Lafayette himself who, as Commander of the National Guard, had had the responsibility to keep the King secure. Shortly after, on July 17, 1791, a large crowd gathered at the Champ de Mars to sign a petition calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. Earlier the crowd beheaded two vagrants found sleeping under the Nation's Altar that the mob mistook for spies, the crowd then fired twice on the National Guard and pelted them with a hail of rocks, after martial law was ordered by Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the Mayor of Paris, when the crowd was ordered to disperse, and when they did not, Lafayette 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 limited-monarchists and Jacobins which were now controlled by radicals like Jean-Paul Marat and Georges Danton. On the occasion of the proclamation of the constitution (September 18, 1791), Lafayette tried to retire into private life. This did not prevent his friends from proposing him for the mayoralty of Paris in opposition to Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve.

Memorial plaque of LaFayette in Olomouc (Czech Republic), where he was held as a prisoner.

In December 1791, Lafayette was placed in command of three armies formed on the eastern frontier to attack Austria. He was nevertheless opposed to the further advance of the Jacobin party, intending eventually to use his army for the restoration of a Constitutional, limited monarchy out of respect for the authentic Christian nature of Louis XVI. During this time printed attacks against Lafayette, especially from Jean-Paul Marat were at a crescendo. On August 19, 1792, the Assembly declared him a traitor and Georges_Danton took control of the National Guard. Lafayette took refuge in the neutral territory of Liège, where he was taken and held as a prisoner of state for five years, first in Prussia and afterwards in Austrian prisons (1794–1797 in Olmutz, now Olomouc, in spite of intercession by the United States. During this time the Anglophile Holy Roman Emperor Francis II ruled. Francis II was opposite in political outlook from former Emperor Joseph II who was pro-American and pro-Lafayette but died too early in 1790 and is known as "The Poor Man's Emperor", and an anti-feudal, reformist like his brother-in-law Louis XVI. Very large subsidies were paid by the British Empire to Austria during this time. Several letters from Lafayette's wife state that the reason for Lafayette's prolonged imprisonment was the machinations of Pitt the Younger. Napoleon, however, was forced by the Directory (which was pro-Lafayette at that time), and stipulated in the preconditions of the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) that La Fayette be released. He was not allowed to return to France by Napoleon who increasingly seized more power. Lafayette, after his wife's pleading to Napoleon, returned in 1799; in 1802 he voted against the life consulate of Napoleon, and in 1804, against the imperial title.

Later years

He lived 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, and even becoming a carbonaro.

His last, invitational and triumphal visit to all 24 of the then United States of America (plus 2 territories-future states) was between July 1824 and September 1825. He arrived from France at Staten Island, N.Y.C. on August 15 1824. Later in the trip, he received his 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. On the recommendation of some friends, LaFayette chose a parcel of land that today makes up the northeast part of Tallahassee, Florida. Among other cities, he visited Fayetteville, North Carolina, the first city to have been named in his honor and St. Louis, Missouri where Lafayette Square Park was subsequently named in his honor. The 2nd Battalion, 11th New York Artillery, was one of many militia commands who turned out in welcome. This unit decided to adopt the title "National Guard", in honor of Lafayette's celebrated Garde Nationale de Paris. The Battalion, later the 7th Regiment, was prominent in the line of march on the occasion of Lafayette's final passage through New York en route before returning home to France on the frigate U.S.S Brandywine that had 24 officers on board, as tributes, each representing his own home state, to which, all 24 of the United States were represented. Wherever he went he was honored by special ceremonies organized by American Masonic Lodges. Tradition has it that, with General Washington's sponsorship, Lafayette had been raised as a Master Mason in 1777 or 1778 shortly after his arrival in America. However, as Washington's letters show, by the end of the war, since some of the worst traitors like Benedict Arnold were masons, focus turned to the proven loyal in his Society of the Cincinnati, of which one of the biggest Chapters was in France.

In 1824, he was the guest of honor at the first commencement ceremony of the George Washington University.

From 1825 to his death, he sat in the Chamber of Deputies for Meaux. 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, Chateau La Grange (40 miles from Paris, near Rozy-en-Brie) that originally belonged to his wife's family. He was known to his country neighbors 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. He never remarried, and remained very devoted to his wife who died in December 1807 from lead poisoning that she contracted during her suffering in prisons in France and the Austrian Empire.

Legacy

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Bronze statue of General Lafayette by Daniel Chester French at Lafayette College.

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A handbill from Lafayette's funeral.

A U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating Lafayette.

Although he spent a total of less than 5 years in America (in 1776-79, 1780-81, 1784, and 1824-25), he was more admired there than perhaps any other foreign visitor in American history. In 1876, a monument was erected to him in New York City, and in 1883 another was erected at Le Puy.

The typically Anglophile opinion in the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) said of Lafayette, "Few men have owed more of their success and usefulness to their family rank than La Fayette, and still fewer have abused it less. He never achieved distinction in the field, and his political career proved him to be incapable of ruling a great national movement; but he had strong convictions which always impelled him to study the interests of humanity, and a pertinacity in maintaining them, which, in all the strange vicissitudes of his eventful life, secured him a very unusual measure of public respect. No citizen of a foreign country has ever had so many and such warm admirers in America, nor does any statesman in France appear to have ever possessed uninterruptedly for so many years such a large measure of popular influence and respect. He had what Jefferson called a 'canine appetite' for popularity and fame, but in him the appetite only seemed to make him more anxious to merit the fame which he enjoyed. He was brave to rashness; and he never shrank from danger or responsibility if he saw the way open to spare life or suffering, to protect the dead, to sustain the law and preserve order."

Many U.S. towns and cities are named in his honor (Lafayette, Fayette, Fayetteville). Lafayette College was chartered in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1826. Three U.S. naval vessels have been named after him, the most recent being the nuclear Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine USS Lafayette (SSBN-616) which served until 1991. Congress granted him honorary citizenship twice, first in 1824 for himself and his descendants ([1], [2], [3], [4]), and then on August 6, 2002.

During World War II, the American flag was draped on his grave, even though it was in Nazi-occupied territory. Portraits of Washington and Lafayette hang to this day in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. In France, a reconstruction of the frigate Hermione, in which Lafayette returned to America in 1779, has been located in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, since 1997.

In 1958, former U.S. Representative Hamilton Fish III, a World War I veteran, founded the Order of Lafayette. Membership in the Order is based on service in France or French territories in either World War I or World War II, or descent from a veteran of those wars.

Lafayette in the media

• In 1961, La Fayette, a French-Italian movie about La Fayette's early years, was released in Europe, starring French television actor Michel Le Royer in the title role. It boasted numerous guest-stars, including Orson Welles as Benjamin Franklin, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio De Sica.
• In The Bastard, a 1978 TV movie adaptation of the first book of John Jakes' The Kent Family Chronicles, Lafayette is played by actor Ike Eisenmann.
• In the 1989 two-part movie La Révolution française, the part of La Fayette was played by Sam Neill.
• In the 1997 PBS mini-series Liberty! The American Revolution, the voice of La Fayette was provided by Sebastian Roché.
• British stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard has a bit in his 1999 performance Dress to Kill in which he refers to "the debt of honor to General La Fayette".
• In PBS's 2002–2003 animated TV series Liberty's Kids, the (former) Marquis de Lafayette was played by Ben Beck.
• While not identified by name, a portrait of Lafayette appeared in the July 17, 2006 episode of the NBC reality series Treasure Hunters and a reproduction of his death mask contained one of the seven "artifacts" needed to find the treasure. He was identified in the following episode and teams visited the Paul Wayland Bartlett Lafayette statue in Paris.
• In Orson Scott Card's novel Red Prophet, an alternative universe contains its own Gilbert de La Fayette.
• In The Young Rebels, an American television series (1970–1971) based on the fictionalized adventures of a young group of rebel patriots, French actor Philippe Forquet portrayed General Lafayette.

See also

• Pineton de Chambrun family

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Public Law 107-209(TXT)(PDF), conferring honorary citizenship of the United States posthumously on the (formerly)Marquis de La Fayette.
• La Fayette in Georgia (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
• Association of the Order of La Fayette, a Franco-American friendship association.
• Order of Lafayette, an American hereditary order that promotes commemoration of Americans who fought in France and Franco-American friendship.
• Color photo of Lafayette grave, 1917
• Works by Gilbert du Motier, (formerly)Marquis de La Fayette at Project Gutenberg
• American Friends Of LaFayette
• (formerly)Marquis De LaFayette Appleton's Biography edited by Stanley L. Klos
• French Founding Father at the New-York Historical Society
• The Cornell University Library Lafayette Collection, a collection of more than 11,000 original manuscripts, documents and letters, and associated books, images and artifacts.