Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette Part 15

Footnote:

1. This letter, as well as all those that follow to that of the 11th of January, 1779, with the exception of the letter to Lord Carlisle, was written originally in English.

RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS.

Resolved:--The president is charged with writing to the Marquis de Lafayette; that congress conceives that the sacrifice he made of his personal feelings, when, for the interest of the United States, he repaired to Boston, at the moment when the opportunity of acquiring glory on the field of battle could present itself; his military zeal in returning to Rhode Island, when the greatest part of the army had quitted it, and his measures to secure a retreat, have a right to this present expression of the approbation of congress.

September 9th, 1778.

MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE TO PRESIDENT LAURENS.

Camp, 23rd September, 1778.

Sir,--I have just received your favour of the 13th instant, acquainting me with the honour congress have been pleased to confer on me by their most gracious resolve. Whatever pride such an approbation may justly give me, I am not less affected by the feelings of gratefulness, and the satisfaction of thinking my endeavours were ever looked on as useful to a cause, in which my heart is so deeply interested. Be so good, Sir, as to present to congress my plain and hearty thanks, with a frank a.s.surance of a candid attachment, the only one worth being offered to the representatives of a free people. The moment I heard of America, I loved her; the moment I knew she was fighting for freedom, I burnt with a desire of bleeding for her; and the moment I shall be able to serve her at any time, or in any part of the world, will be the happiest one of my life. I never so much wished for occasions of deserving those obliging sentiments with which I am honoured by these states and their representatives, and that flattering confidence they have been pleased to put in me, has filled my heart with the warmest acknowledgments and eternal affection.

I am, &c.,

LAFAYETTE.

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

(ORIGINAL.)

Warren, 24th September, 1778.

MY DEAR GENERAL,--I am to acknowledge the reception of your late favour.

Your excellency's sentiments were already known to me, and my heart had antic.i.p.ated your answer. I, however, confess it gave me a new pleasure when I received it. My love for you is such, my dear general, that I should enjoy it better, if possible, in a private sentimental light than in a political one. Nothing makes me happier than to see a conformity of sentiments between you and me, upon any matter whatsoever; and the opinion of your heart is so precious to me, that I will ever expect it to fix mine. I don't know how to make out a fine expression of my sentiments, my most respected friend; but you know, I hope, my heart, and I beg you will read in it.

Agreeably to your advices and my own feelings, I made every effort that I could for preventing any bad measures being taken on either side; which conduct I also closely kept in the late affair of Boston concerning M. de St. Sauveur. I wished to have been of some use on both occasions, and I hope we have pretty well succeeded. The Count d'Estaing is entirely ours; so, at least, I apprehend by his confidential letters to me; and it affords me great pleasure. I have found by him an occasion of writing to France; and you will better conceive than I may describe, how I have acted on the occasion. I thought the best way of speaking of those internal affairs was not to speak of them, or at least very indifferently, so as to give any such report which might arrive as groundless and insignificant. I daresay my scheme will have the desired effect, and nothing will be thought of it in France. I thought it would be well to let the admiral know that you do not lay any blame upon him, and that you entertained the sentiments any honest Frenchman might wish upon this matter.

Agreeably to a very useful article of a letter to General Sullivan, I have removed my station from Bristol, and am in a safer place, behind Warren, The few spies I have been able to procure upon the island seem rather to think of an evacuation than of any enterprise; but, you know, New York is the fountain-head. I long much, my dear general, to be again with you; our separation has been long enough, and I am here as inactive as anywhere else. My wish, and that you will easily conceive, had been to co-operate with the French fleet; I don't know now what they will do.

The admiral has written to me upon many plans, and does not seem well fixed on any scheme: he burns with the desire of striking a blow, and is not yet determined how to accomplish it. He wrote me that he wanted to see me, but I cannot leave my post, lest something might happen: it has already cost dear enough to me. However, if you give me leave, I'll ask this of General Sullivan, and will do what I think best for both countries.

I have heard of a _pistolade_ between two gentlemen, which lasted very long without much effect; it looks like our too much spoken of _cannonade_ at Newport, while _the siege_ was continued. I have not yet been able to find out what your excellency desires me to inquire into, on account of the French queen:~[1] but the people of the navy are too remote from Versailles to have any knowledge of it, and the Count d'Estaing himself has not any intimacy with her. I'll get that intelligence from a better source, and _more agreeable to your feelings on the matter_, in order that you may do what you think fit to be done if the report is true.

I beg, my dear general, when you write to your lady, that you would present my respects to her; and I beg also the liberty to make here a thousand compliments to your family. With the highest respect and most tender friendship, I have the honour to be, dear general.

Footnote:

1. Several ladies had lately come out from New York, who reported that a vessel had been captured and brought to that city, in which was contained a present from the Queen of France to Mrs. Washington, as "an elegant testimonial of her approbation of the general's conduct," and that it had been sold at auction for the benefit of the captors. This intelligence was so confidently affirmed from such a respectable source, that General Washington had requested the Marquis de Lafayette to make inquiry as to the truth of it through the medium of Madame de Lafayette.--_Writings of Washington_, vol. vi p. 74.

FROM GENERAL WASHINGTON TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE.

(ORIGINAL.)

Fredericksburg, 25th September, 1778.

MY DEAR MARQUIS,--The sentiments of affection and attachment, which breathe so conspicuously in all your letters to me, are at once pleasing and honourable, and afford me abundant cause to rejoice at the happiness of my acquaintance with you. Your love of liberty, the just sense you entertain of this valuable blessing, and your n.o.ble and disinterested exertions in the cause of it, added to the innate goodness of your heart, conspire to render you dear to me; and I think myself happy in being linked with you in bonds of the strictest friendship.

The ardent zeal which you have displayed during the whole course of the campaign to the eastward, and your endeavours to cherish harmony among the officers of the allied powers, and to dispel those unfavourable impressions which had begun to take place in the minds of the unthinking, from misfortunes, which the utmost stretch of human foresight could not avert, deserved, and now receives, my particular and warmest thanks. I am sorry for Monsieur Touzard's loss of an arm in the action on Rhode Island; and offer my thanks to him, through you, for his gallant behaviour on that day.

Could I have conceived that my picture had been an object of your wishes, or in the smallest degree worthy of your attention, I should, while M. Peale was in the camp at Valley Forge, have got him to take the best portrait of me he could, and presented it to you; but I really had not so good an opinion of my own worth, as to suppose that such a compliment would not have been considered as a greater instance of my vanity, than means of your gratification; and therefore, when you requested me to sit to Monsieur Lanfang, I thought it was only to obtain the outlines and a few shades of my features, to have some prints struck from.

If you have entertained thoughts, my dear marquis, of paying a visit to your court, to your lady, and to your friends this winter, but waver on account of an expedition into Canada, friendship induces me to tell you, that I do not conceive that the prospect of such an operation is so favourable at this time, as to cause you to change your views. Many circ.u.mstances and events must conspire to render an enterprise of this kind practicable and advisable. The enemy, in the first place, must either withdraw wholly, or in part, from their present posts, to leave us at liberty to detach largely from this army. In the next place, if considerable reinforcements should be thrown into that country, a winter's expedition would become impracticable, on account of the difficulties which would attend the march of a large body of men, with the necessary apparatus, provisions, forage, and stores, at that inclement season. In a word, the chances are so much against the undertaking, that they ought not to induce you to lay aside your other purpose, in the prosecution of which you shall have every aid, and carry with you every honourable testimony of my regard and entire approbation of your conduct, that you can wish. But it is a compliment, which is due, so am I persuaded you would not wish to dispense with the form of signifying your desires to congress on the subject of your voyage and absence.

I come now, in a more especial manner, to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging favour of the 21st, by Major Dubois, and to thank you for the important intelligence therein contained.

I do most cordially congratulate you on the glorious defeat of the British squadron under Admiral Keppel, an event which reflects the highest honour on the good conduct and bravery of Monsieur d'Orrilliers and the officers of the fleet under his command; at the same time that it is to be considered, I hope, as the happy presage, of a fortunate and glorious war to his most Christian Majesty. A confirmation of the account I shall impatiently wait and devoutly wish for. If the Spaniards, under this favourable beginning, would unite their fleet to that of France, together they would soon humble the pride of haughty Britain, and no long suffer her to reign sovereign of the seas, and claim the privilege of giving laws to the main.

You have my free consent to make the Count d'Estaing a visit, and may signify my entire approbation of it to General Sullivan, who, I am glad to find, has moved you out of a _cul de sac_. It was my advice to him long ago, to have no detachments in that situation, let particular places be ever so much unguarded and exposed from the want of troops.

Immediately upon my removal from White Plains to this ground, the enemy threw a body of troops into the Jerseys; but for what purpose, unless to make a grand forage, I have not been able yet to learn. They advanced some troops at the same time from their lines at Kingsbridge towards our old encampment at the plains, stripping the inhabitants not only of their provisions and forage, but even the clothes on their backs, and without discrimination.

The information, my dear marquis, which I begged the favour of you to obtain, was not, I am persuaded, to be had through the channel of the officers of the French fleet, but by application to your fair lady, to whom I should be happy in an opportunity of paying my homage in Virginia, when the war is ended, if she could be prevailed upon to quit, for a few months, the gaieties and splendour of a court, for the rural amus.e.m.e.nts of a humble cottage.

I shall not fail to inform Mrs. Washington of your polite attention to her. The gentlemen of my family are sensible of the honour you do them by your kind inquiries, and join with me in a tender of best regards; and none can offer them with more sincerity and affection than I do.

With every sentiment you can wish, I am, my dear marquis, &c.

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.~[1]

(ORIGINAL.)

Camp, near Warren, 24th September, 1778.

MY DEAR GENERAL,--I am going to consult your excellency upon a point in which I not only want your leave and opinion, as the commander-in-chief, but also your candid advice, as the man whom I have the happiness to call my friend. In an address from the British commissaries to congress, the first after _Johnstone_ was excluded, they speak in the most disrespectful terms of my nation and country. The whole is undersigned by them, and more particularly by the president, Lord Carlisle. I am the first French officer, in rank, of the American army; I am not unknown to the British, and if somebody must take notice of such expressions, that advantage does, I believe, belong to me. Don't you think, my dear general, that I should do well to write a letter ont he subject to Lord Carlisle, wherein I should notice his expressions conveyed in an unfriendly manner? I have mentioned something of this design to the Count d'Estaing, but wish entirely to fix my opinion by yours, which I instantly beg, as soon as you may find it convenient.

As everyting is perfectly quiet, and General Sullivan is persuaded that I may, with all safety, go to Boston, I am going to undertake a short journey towards that place. The admiral has several times expressed a desire of conversing with me; he has also thrown out some wishes that something might be done towards securing Boston, but it seems he always refers to a conversation for further explanation. My stay will be short, as I don't like towns in time of war, when I may be about a camp. If your excellency answers me immediately, I may soon receive your letter.

I want much to see you, my dear general, and consult you about many points, part of them are respecting myself. If you approve of my writing to Lord Carlisle, it would be a reason for coming near you for a short time, in case the gentleman is displeased with my mission.

With the most perfect respect, confidence, and affection, I have the honour to be, &c.

Footnote:

1. In the preceding session, the English parliament had pa.s.sed bills called conciliatory, and in the month of June, conciliatory commissioners had presented themselves to negotiate an arrangement.

These were, Lord Carlisle, Governor George Johnstone, and William Eden.