NOTES

Note: All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.

ABBREVIATIONS

ANOM: Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France.

AP: Archives parlementaires.

Cornell: Arthur H. and Mary Marden Dean Lafayette Collection, $4611. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.

Encyclopédie: Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, eds. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une société de gens de lettres. 28 vols. Paris: Brunet, 1751–72.

Gottschalk: Louis Gottschalk Papers, Special Collections Resource Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

LAAR: Stanley J. Idzerda, et al., eds., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790. 5 vols. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977–83.

LOC: Marquis de Lafayette Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Mémoires: Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Mémoires, correspondance et manuscrits du Général Lafayette, publiés par sa famille. 6 vols. Paris: H. Fournier l’Aîné, 1837–38.

PGWC: The Papers of George Washington. Confederation Series. 6 vols. W. W. Abbot, et al., ed., Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1987–.

PGWP: The Papers of George Washington. Presidential Series. 17 vols. W. W. Abbot, et al., ed., Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1987–.

PGWR: The Papers of George Washington. Retirement Series. 4 vols. W. W. Abbot, et al., ed., Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1987–.

PGWRW: The Papers of George Washington. Revolutionary War Series. 22 vols. W. W. Abbot, et al., ed., Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1987–.

INTRODUCTION

Gilbert du Motier: The name Lafayette has been spelled in various ways, with the most frequent alternative being “La Fayette.” My selection of “Lafayette” is in keeping with the preferences of the two most distinguished Lafayette scholars, Louis Gottschalk andStanley J. Idzerda, and with common American usage. On this spelling, see Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935), 153–54. Lafayette’s first name, too, has variations: although he always referred to himself as Gilbert, he was baptized Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert. Henry Mosnier, Le château de Chavaniac-Lafayette, description—histoire—souvenirs (Le Puy: Marchessou Fils, 1883), 15.

Carved in 1790: Anne L. Poulet, et al., Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003), 260.

fashionable salons of Paris: Antoine Lilti, Le monde des salons: Sociabilité et mondanité à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Fayard, 2005), 382–84.

marten-fur cap: Stacy Schiff, A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (New York: Henry Holt, 2005), 38–39.

“there is more support”: André Morellet to William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, Sunday, May 4, 1777. Schiff, A Great Improvisation, 80.

“decidedly inclined”: Jules Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette (London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1835), 8.

open and frank expression: Even the royalist Comte d’Espinchal, who grew to despise Lafayette during the French Revolution, conceded that Lafayette had a “sweet and honest” appearance. Joseph Thomas Anne Espinchal, as quoted in Étienne Charavay, Le général La Fayette, 1757–1834 (Paris: Société de l’Histoire de la Révolution Française, 1898), 538.

“love of glory”: Mémoires, 1:6.

“a life without glory”: Lafayette to Adrienne, May 30, 1777, Mémoires, 1:85.

“Glory”: Lafayette to Washington, February 19, 1778, LAAR, 1:301.

“reputation”: Dictionnaire de l’Académie française (Paris: Brunet, 1762), 14:61.

hoped for glory: Christopher Leslie Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 437–42, argues that a quest for public recognition motivated some of the era’s notable abolitionists, including Lafayette. Liliane Willens, “Lafayette’s Quest for ‘Glory’ in the American Revolution,” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 205 (1982): 167–68, examines the role of reputation in Lafayette’s decision to sail for America.

Washington his adoptive father: See, for instance, Lafayette to Washington, April 16, 1785, in which Lafayette identifies himself as “your Bosom friend, your adoptive son.” PGWC, 2:505.

books on American history: An analysis of various private libraries confiscated during the French Revolution termed Lafayette’s library “l’illustration extrême” of collections featuring books on the American War of Independence. Agnès Marcetteau-Paul and Dominique Varry, “Les bibliothèques de quelques acteurs de la Révolution, de Louis XVI à Robespierre,” Mélanges de la Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne 9 (1989): 201.

“a favourite Servant”: Lafayette to Jeremiah Wadsworth, April 16, 1785, LAAR, 5:319.

“he has planted a tree”: Jared Sparks, Memoirs of the Life and Travels of John Ledyard, from His Journals and Correspondence (London: Henry Colburn, 1828), 214.

“the man has drawn few eulogies”: Patrice Guennifey, “Lafayette,” in A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, edited by François Furet and Mona Ozouf, translated by Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 224.

“true moderation consists”: Mémoires, 6:46. I was directed to this quote by Sylvia Neely, Lafayette and the Liberal Ideal, 1814–1824: Politics and Conspiracy in an Age of Reaction (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), 109. According to hisMémoires, Lafayette spoke these words as part of a discourse pronounced in the Chamber of Deputies on June 4, 1819, but Neely places the speech on June 3.

“I have been reproached”: April 19, 1815, Mémoires, 5:406. I was directed to this quote by Neely, Lafayette and the Liberal Ideal, 23.

CHAPTER 1: FAMILY PRIDE

Château de Chavaniac: See Hadelin Donnet, Chavaniac Lafayette: Le Manoir des deux mondes (Paris: Le Cherche midi, 1990); Mosnier, Le château de Chavaniac-Lafayette, 21–22.

“Clermont”: Arthur Young, Travels During the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789, Undertaken More Particularly with a View of Ascertaining the Cultivation, Wealth, Resources, and National Prosperity, of the Kingdom of France (London: 1792), 160–61.

Although the senior branch: Mémoires, 1:6. My understanding of Lafayette’s lineage is indebted to Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 6–11. (A note on Lafayette biographies: although myriad authors have told Lafayette’s story, I cite only those biographies that provided me with specific interpretations or pieces of information. All of the biographies I consulted do, however, appear in the bibliography.)

descended from the junior branch: The death of Lafayette’s uncle is described by Lafayette in “Autobiographie de La Fayette par lui-même” in Charavay, La Fayette, Appendix I, 532.

“left the province”: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 531–32.

newly titled marquis: Mémoires du duc de Luynes sur la cour de Louis XV (1735–1758), 17 vols. (Paris: 1860–65). I was directed to this source by Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 9, note 15.

“high birth, or so they say”: Mémoires du duc de Luynes, 1:102.

“broke his head”: Mémoires du duc de Luynes, 2:36.

widowed Marquise de Lafayette: On Lafayette’s family, see Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 7–12.

local legend: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 533.

Roch-Gilbert wed Marie-Julie de La Rivière: Mémoires du duc de Luynes, 13:277.

the convent where: A convent education was typical for noblewomen and did not signify a religious calling. On women’s education in the eighteenth century, see Martine Sonnet, L’éducation des filles au temps des Lumières (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1987).

1,000 livres a year: Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 11.

Rivière influence: Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 11, asserts that Roch-Gilbert owed his rank to his in-laws, noting that no Motier had ever reached that level.

wrote to Louis XV: Charavay, La Fayette, 554–55.

February 28, 1762: Table ou abrégé des cent trente-cinq volumes de la Gazette de France, depuis son commencement en 1631 jusqu’à la fin de l’année 1765 (Paris: Imprimerie de la Gazette de France, 1768), vol. 3, supplément 2.

“Although my mother”: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 533.

His grandmother: Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 5.

Beast of the Gévaudan: The beast continues to garner popular and scholarly interest, with numerous books, articles, movies, and Internet sites devoted to the subject. The definitive study is Jay M. Smith, Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).

“my heart Beat”: LAAR, 1:390.

“the length of a finger”: As translated in Smith, Monsters of the Gévaudan, 91.

“caused some damage”: Mémoires, 1:8.

“I recall nothing”: Ibid., 1:7.

“separated with the utmost chagrin”: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 534.

“three superb palaces”: Louis, Chevalier de Jaucourt, “Paris,” in Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, eds., Encyclopédie, 11:944.

Paris in the mid-1700s: Jaucourt, “Paris,” Encyclopédie, 11:944.

Shop windows: Paris had become the world’s foremost luxury emporium in the late 1600s, as discussed in Joan DeJean, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour (New York: Free Press, 2005).

“virtue alone”: As translated in Jay M. Smith, Nobility Reimagined: The Patriotic Nation in Eighteenth-Century France (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), 50.

France’s humiliation: Jay M. Smith, The Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Making of Absolute Monarchy in France, 1600–1789 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 224.

dérogeance: William H. Sewell, Jr., Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 21.

The school dated back: Jaucourt, “Paris,” Encyclopédie, 11:953.

“disciples”: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 535.

“I was not as well-supported”: Ibid.

“children sporting épées”: Ibid., 536.

“burning with the desire”: Ibid., 535.

troops of the Maison du Roi: Rafe Blaufarb, The French Army, 1750–1820: Careers, Talent, Merit (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), 29. Although the nineteenth-century French novelist Alexandre Dumas immortalized the musketeers in his swashbuckling yarns of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d’Artagnan, Dumas was harking back to the company’s earliest days, in the age of Louis XIII, when they were entrusted with protecting the king of France.

“to ride to Versailles”: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 535.

won the prize for Latin rhetoric: Ibid.

all standard reading: Chantal Grell, Le dix-huitième siècle et l’antiquité en France, 1660–1789 (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1995); vol. 1, table 1, lists the ancient texts read in the University of Paris colleges.

Books by these authors: A 1794 inventory of books from Lafayette’s Paris town house is maintained in the Archives Nationales, series F/17, box 1194, dossier 23. Documentation concerning books Lafayette purchased for, sold from, or maintained at La Grange in the early 1800s is housed in LOC, reel 9, folders 111b and 111b, bis.

“Rome was the first”: Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Tableau de Paris (1783 ; repr., Paris: Mercure de France, 1994), 1:148–51.

due to grief: “Autobiographie” in Charavay, La Fayette, 534.

wealthy orphan: The figures concerning Lafayette’s income are based on the financial records housed in LOC, reel 8, folders 100–102a.

skilled laborer: Peter Jones, “Material and Popular Culture: Introduction,” in The Enlightenment World, ed. Martin Fitzpatrick, et al. (New York: Routledge, 2004), 347.

“the literary celebrities”: Élisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, Souvenirs, ed. Claudine Herrmann, 2 vols. (Paris: Des Femmes, 1984), vol. 1:123.

“Madame l’Étiquette”: Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, Mémoires de Madame Campan, Première femme de chambre de Marie Antoinette, ed. Jean Chalon (Paris: Mercure de France, 1988), 53.

less sanguine: The dispute between the Duc and Duchesse d’Ayen is narrated in Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 26–30.

“one almost always recognized”: Louis-Philippe de Ségur, Mémoires; ou, Souvenirs et anecdotes (Brussels: 1825), 1:78.

Académie de Versailles: Mémoires, 1:6.

“the same qualities”: David A. Bell, The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007), 34. On the significance of physical grace at court see also Bernard Hours, Louis XV et sa cour: Le roi, l’étiquette et le courtisan (Vendôme: Presses Universitaires de France, 2002), 29–30.

CHAPTER 2: THE OUTSIDER

March 26, 1774: Étienne Taillemite, La Fayette (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 18.

denizens of Versailles: This description of a presentation at court is compiled from several accounts, especially the memoirs of Chateaubriand, one of France’s premier Romantic authors, who was presented to King Louis XVI in 1787. François-René de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d’outre-tombe (Paris: Penaud, 1849–50), 1:334–37.

powdered wig: On the significance of wigs for men’s fashion in eighteenth-century France, see Michael Kwass, “Big Hair: A Wig History of Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France,” American Historical Review 111, no. 3 (June 2006): 631–59.

“nobility of old extraction”: Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment, trans. William Doyle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 47.

“pale, cold and lifeless”: Charavay, La Fayette, 538.

“a cold and serious bearing”: Ségur, Mémoires, 1:122.

“by the gaucheness”: All quotations in this paragraph are from Mémoires, 1:7.

“concealed the most active spirit”: All quotations in this paragraph are from Ségur, Mémoires, 1:123

“to persuade me to fight”: Ibid., 1:107.

“to rouse him”: Ibid.

they amused themselves: The group’s nights out are described in the memoirs of Lafayette and Ségur and summarized in John K. Howat, “ ‘A Young Man Impatient to Distinguish Himself’: The Vicomte de Noailles as Portrayed by Gilbert Stuart,”Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin n.s., 29, no. 7 (March 1971): 327–28.

“bon air”: Adolphe Fourier de Bacourt, ed., Correspondance entre le Comte de Mirabeau et le Comte de La Marck, 2 vols. (Brussels: Meline, Cans, 1851), 1:47. Because Lafayette’s role in the French Revolution was so divisive, it is difficult to find a postrevolutionary memoir that offers an objective account of experiences with Lafayette. However, descriptions of Lafayette’s social awkwardness in the 1770s abound in memoirs of friends and foes alike, and are even discussed by Lafayette himself. Lafayette’s enemies might have particularly enjoyed recounting such tales, but they seem not to have fabricated them.

“to travel the world”: Mémoires, 1:7–8.

the opportunity arose: Ibid., 1:8.

insult his prospective employer: Cloquet, Souvenirs sur la vie privée du Général Lafayette, 105.

April 7, 1773: Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 32.

“Secret Ministry”: Didier Ozanam and Michel Antoine, eds.,Correspondance secrète du Comte de Broglie avec Louis XV (1756–1774), 2 vols. (Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1956–61).

Americans’ efforts: See Sudipta Das, De Broglie’s Armada: A Plan for the Invasion of England, 1765–1777 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009), 14.

eminently replaceable: On the suggestion that Broglie sought to supplant Washington, see Charles J. Stillé, “Comte de Broglie, the Proposed Stadtholder of America,” Pennyslvania Magazine of History and Biography 11, no. 4 (1887): 369–405.

“sparkling eyes”: This description of Broglie is based on Mémoires de l’abbé Georgel, 1:283, as quoted in Edgard Paul Boutaric, ed., Correspondance secrète inédite de Louis XV sur la politique étrangère avec le Comte de Broglie, Tercier, etc., 2 vols. (Paris: Plon, 1866), 1:65.

Freemasons: My understanding of French Freemasonry in this period is primarily indebted to Margaret C. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), and Margaret C. Jacob,The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans, 2nd rev. ed. (Lafayette, LA: Cornerstone Books, 2006).

“stability under a strong”: As the historian Margaret C. Jacob has written, the society “served as a social nexus that promoted … stability under a strong, but constitutional monarchy, social mobility under aristocratic patronage, Baconian experimentalism and … dedication to the cult of the new science.” Jacob, Radical Enlightenment, 80.

62 lodges: Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 205.

many Founding Fathers: On the crucial role of Freemasonry in the American Revolution, see Steven C. Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730–1840 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 109–33.

Prince William Henry: see J. H. Plumb, “The Impact of the American Revolution on Great Britain,” in The Impact of the American Revolution Abroad (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1976), 64–66.

“listened with ardent curiosity”: Sparks as cited in Mémoires, 1:9–10, note 1.

“he had conceived of the idea”: Mémoires, 1:7–8.

once responded to a schoolmaster’s: Ibid., 1:1.

“pernicious distinction”: Claude Louis, Comte de Saint Germain, Mémoires de M. le Comte de St. Germain (Amsterdam, 1779), 45–46.

out of active duty: Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 157–58.

“father of a wonderfully loving family”: Undated letter from Lafayette to Adrienne as quoted and translated in André Maurois, Adrienne: The Life of the Marquise de La Fayette, trans. Gerard Hopkins (London: Jonathan Cape, 1961), 54.

CHAPTER 3: Les Insurgents

On a dark December night: Members of the Committee of Congress for Secret Correspondence met with the French emissary three times in December 1775. This summary is based on: “Rapport de Bonvouloir au Comte de Guines, December 28, 1775”; Henri Doniol, Histoire de la participation de la France à l’établissement des États-Unis d’Amérique. Correspondance diplomatique et documents (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1888), 1:287–92.; and The Life of John Jay: With Selections from his Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers, ed. William Jay, 2 vols. (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833), 1:39–41.

to assess the likelihood: See Doniol, Histoire, 1:153–59.

mutual suspicions: Although most Frenchmen of the elite classes were only nominally Catholic (Frenchwomen were generally more so), France had a bloody history of religious intolerance, and in the 1770s, Protestants were still barred from practicing their religion openly.

Silas Deane arrived: “Narrative of Edward Bancroft,” August 14, 1777, The Deane Papers, 5 vols. (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1886–90), 1:179.

“engaged in the business”: Secret Committee of Congress to Silas Deane, March 3, 1776, The Deane Papers, 1:123.

Le Boston: Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture: inventaire raisonné des notions générales les plus indispensables à tous, par une société de savants et de gens de lettres, ed. William Duckett, 16 vols. (Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1852–60), 3:484.

ditty celebrating Washington: Louis Petit de Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets, March 17, 1777, vol. 10, pp. 68–70.

“continent”: A slang word for female genitalia, con is used in French as an all-purpose term of abuse and disapprobation.

Narragansett horses: Schiff, Great Improvisation, 9.

“some wise contemporaries of Plato”: Ségur, Mémoires, 1:117.

“opinions from every quarter”: Ibid., 1:165.

“republican maxims”: Ibid., 1:152–53.

“I have a levee”: Silas Deane to John Jay, December 2, 1776, quoted in LAAR, 1:13–14, note 14.

“Baron” Johann de Kalb: Johann de Kalb’s peasant origins were first discussed by Friedrich Kapp, The Life of John Kalb, Major-General in the Revolutionary Army (New York: Henry Holt, 1884), 1, 265–67. On his wife’s fortune, see this page.

“several young gentlemen”: Silas Deane to the Secret Committee of Congress, August 18, 1776, The Deane Papers, 1:213.

“I am well nigh harrassed”: Silas Deane to the Secret Committee of Congress, November 28, 1776, The Deane Papers, 1:375.

“Had I ten ships”: Silas Deane to John Jay, December 3, 1776, The Deane Papers, 1:397.

“we were afraid to visit”: LAAR, 1:390.

“the desire to right the wrongs”: Ségur, Mémoires, 1:117–18.

“circumstances … ”: LAAR, 1:390.

meeting regularly: Johann Kalb to Monsieur de Saint Paul, November 7, 1777, “Letter of Major-General Johann Kalb,” American Historical Review 15, no. 3 (April 1910): 562–67.

“more of my zeal”: LAAR, 1:391.

publicity, a valuable skill: See Jeremy D. Popkin and Bernadette Fort, eds., The “Mémoires Secrets” and the Culture of Publicity in Eighteenth-Century France (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1998), 7–8.

“high Birth, his Alliances”: Agreement with Silas Deane, December 7, 1776, LAAR, 1:17. As translated by Congress upon Lafayette’s arrival in Philadelphia.

“hitherto”: LAAR, 1:391.

La Victoire: On Lafayette’s purchase of the ship, see Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 87–88.

“the secrecy”: LAAR, 1:391.

de Kalb insisted: Kalb, “Letter of Major-General Johann Kalb,” 564.

thirteen of the fourteen men: This figure comes from a letter written by the fourteenth man. The letter was apparently intercepted by Stormont, who reported it to Lord Weymouth. LAAR, 1:44.

“too cruelly punished”: Lafayette to Adrienne, March 16, 1777, LAAR, 1:411.

“I have found a unique opportunity”: Lafayette to d’Ayen, March 9, 1777, LAAR, 1:410.

d’Ayen was outraged: The feints and rumors that marked Lafayette’s departure for America are narrated in Gottschalk, Lafayette Comes to America, 97–104.

“Relations seem to be much displeased”: Lord Stormont to Lord Weymouth, April 2, 1777, LAAR, 1:42.

CHAPTER 4: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

“had heard so much of the French officers”: Charles Biddle, Autobiography of Charles Biddle, Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 1745–1831 (Philadelphia: 1883), 148.

“quite ill”: LAAR, 1:417. All quotes in this paragraph are from the same page.

Vicomte de Mauroy: Charles Louis, Vicomte de Mauroy, “Mémoire du vicomte de Mauroy sur ses services en Amérique et sur la guerre de l’Indépendance,” A.N. K1364, as summarized in “Descriptive List of French Manuscripts Copied for New York State Library from National Archives and National Library at Paris 1888,” New York State Library Bulletin 57, History 5 (1903): 362.

letter of appointment: Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1886 (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1886), 359–60.

“I wanted by my objections”: Quotes from Mauroy are found in LAAR, 1:415–16.

“The manners”: Lafayette to Adrienne, June 15, [1777], LAAR, 1:419.

“the simplicity”: Lafayette to Adrienne, June 19, [1777], LAAR, 1:420.

“new products”: LAAR, 1:393.

completely at home: Lafayette to Adrienne, February 28, 1777, LAAR, 1:408.

“I believe I’ll bury”: De Kalb to Mme de Kalb, July 23, 1777, as translated from German to French in Doniol, Histoire, 3:214.

In a lengthy memoir: Memoir by the Chevalier Dubuysson, LAAR, 1:427–34.

“burning sand”: Ibid., 1:427.

a great deal like “beggars”: Ibid., 1:427–28.

“ruined by debt”: Ibid., 1:428.

“Volunteers and French Officers”: “Charles-Town, S.C. June 16,” Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser [Boston, MA] 9, no. 466 (July 31, 1777), p. 2.

The identities are garbled: LAAR, 1:405–6, lists the officers who traveled with Lafayette.

American audience: This is the first mention I have found of Lafayette’s name in an American paper. However, earlier versions of this article might well have appeared in newspapers published between South Carolina and Boston, as was customary in the period.

“I started out brilliantly”: Lafayette to Adrienne, July 17, 1777, LAAR, 1:423.

“harder than this voyage”: Dubuysson, LAAR, 1:429.

“speaks French very well”: Ibid., 1:429–30.

“ended his harangue”: Ibid., 1:430.

“terms are very high”: John Adams to James Warren, June 19, 1777, Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 5:226.

“very bad”: Philippe Charles Tronson du Coudray, “Du Coudray’s ‘Observations on the Forts Intended for the Defense of the Two Passages of the River Delaware,’ July, 1777,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 24, no. 3 (1900): 343.

“badly situated”: Ibid., 344.

“a hundred times more enthusiasm”: Duportail to Vergennes, November 12, 1777, as translated in Paul K. Walker, Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (1981; repr., Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2002), 177.

“the rank and commission”: Resolution of Congress, July 31, 1777, LAAR, 1:88.

“zeal, illustrious family”: Resolution of Congress, July 31, 1777, LAAR, 1:88.

“have a Short Campaign”: Henry Laurens to John Gervais, August 8, 1777, LAAR, 1:88.

“that great man”: Mémoires, 1:19.

“the majesty of his figure”: Ibid., 1:20.

“embarrass me beyond measure”: Washington to Major General William Heath, July 27, 1777, PGWRW, 10:438.

“to learn and not to teach”: “Memoir of 1779,” LAAR, 1:394.

“What the designs of Congress”: Washington to Benjamin Harrison, August 19, 1777, LAAR, 1:104.

“never meant”: Benjamin Harrison to Washington, August 20, 1777, LAAR, 1:106.

Washington welcomed him: Mémoires, 1:20.

“a friendly Affection”: The American Commissioners to [George Washington], c. August-September 1777, LAAR, 1:107.

“rallying the troops”: Mémoires, 1:25.

“surrounded by citizens”: Ibid., 1:26.

“the Marquis La Fayette was wounded”: Washington to John Hancock, September 11, 1777, PGWRW, 11:201.

seven hundred men: John W. Jordan, “Bethlehem During the Revolution: Extracts from the Diaries in the Moravian Archives at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 13, no. 1 (1889): 78.

particularly attentive: Joseph Mortimer Levering, A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741–1892 (Bethlehem, PA: Times Publishing Company, 1903), 465.

“inaction”: Mémoires, 1:28.

“a very intelligent and pleasant young man”: Jordan, “Bethlehem During the Revolution,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 12, no. 4 (1888): 406, note 4.

“the gentle religion”: Mémoires, 1:26.

Lafayette proposed his ventures: This paragraph is based on Mémoires, 1:28–29, note 1.436.

“intimate friend”: Lafayette to Adrienne, October 1, 1777, LAAR, 1:437.

“being honour’d with the name of French”: Lafayette to Laurens, November 18, 1777, LAAR, 1:152.

CHAPTER 5: DISENCHANTMENT

“What a date”: Lafayette to Adrienne, January 6, 1778, LAAR, 1:458–59.

some three thousand men: On January 1, 1778, Lafayette had under his command Brigadier Generals Muhlenberg, Scott, and Woodford with 3,086 men. “Arrangement of the Continental Army,” January 1, 1778, PGWRW, 13:94–97.

“consider, if you please”: Lafayette to Laurens, January 2, 1778, LAAR, 1:210.

“When I was in Europe”: Lafayette to Washington, December 30, 1777, LAAR, 1:204.

Conway Cabal: The question of how serious a threat the Conway Cabal actually posed to Washington is still open to debate. See, among many other sources, Gloria E. Brenneman, “The Conway Cabal: Myth or Reality,” Pennsylvania History 40, no. 2 (April 1973): 168–77, and Thomas Fleming, Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 166–205.

Lafayette reported hearing: Lafayette to Washington, January 20, 1778, LAAR, 1:238–39. All quotes found on 1:239.

A scheme is, indeed: My interpretation follows that of Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, 166–73, 192–96.

“your Ardent Desire”: Horatio Gates to Lafayette, January 24, 1778, LAAR, 1:249.

“As I neither know”: Washington to the Board of War, as quoted in LAAR, 1:250.

Writing to Laurens: Lafayette to Laurens, January 26, 1778, LAAR, 1:253–56.

a letter of January 31: Lafayette to [the President of Congress], January 31, 1778, LAAR, 1:267–71.

a resolution of Congress: LAAR, 1:273.

“see if some harm can be done”: Lafayette to Adrienne, February 3, 1778, LAAR, 1:462–63.

“blunders of madness or treachery”: Lafayette to Washington, February 19, 1778, LAAR, 1:299.

“from a precipice”: Lafayette to Laurens, February 19, 1778, LAAR, 1:296.

“Why am I so far from you”: Lafayette to Washington, February 19, 1778, LAAR, 1:299.

“However sensibly your ardour”: Washington to Lafayette, March 10, 1778, LAAR, 1:342–43.

“When a man does all he can”: George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation, ed. Charles Moore (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926), 11.

CHAPTER 6: ALLIANCES

“with infinite pleasure”: George Washington to Henry Laurens, May 1, 1778, PGWRW, 15:5.

“in a transport of joy”: David Ramsay, The History of the American Revolution (1789; repr., Trenton: James J. Wilson, 1811), 2:93.

“I am myself fit to receive”: Lafayette to the president of Congress, May 1, 1778, LAAR, 2:40.

“that in serving the cause of humanity”: Lafayette to Adrienne, June 16, 1778, LAAR, 2:401.

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben: See Paul Lockhart, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), 114–15.

“must have more than the common quantity”: PGWRW, 15:41, note 6.

“in order that due honour”: Letter from George Bryan, vice president of the executive council of Pennsylvania, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Washington, May 23, 1778. “As it is apprehended here, that the Marquis-de-la Fayette has been nominated by the Most Christian King Ambassador to the United States of America, and that he may be expected shortly to pass through this borough in his way to Congress, it would highly oblige the Executive council of this state, if some previous intimation of the time of his Lordships Journey could be given by one of the Gentlemen of your Excellencys family, in order that due honour might be done to so respectable a personage by this state, as far as present circumstances may admit.” PGWRW, 15:195.

“refused to listen”: Laurens to Washington, July 31, 1778, PGWRW, 16:210.

“if my compatriots make war”: Lafayette to Lazare-Jean Théveneau de Francy, May 14, 1778, LAAR, 2:398.

forty-seven Oneida warriors: Joseph T. Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin, Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 205.

“Young warriors often need advice”: “Address to Oneida Warriors,” Connecticut Journal 556 (June 10, 1778): 2.

“be all of one mind”: On Anne-Louis de Tousard (1749–1817), who would go on to lose an arm fighting under General Sullivan at Newport in 1778, see Michael A. Burke, “Tousard, Anne-Louis,” in American National Biography: Supplement 2, ed. Mark Christopher Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 553–54.

“The detachment under your command”: Washington to Lafayette, May 18, 1778, LAAR, 2:54.

nine dead: The number of casualties is given by Washington in Washington to Laurens, May 24, 1778, PGWRW, 15:210.

“a timely and handsome retreat”: “York-Town, May 30,” Pennsylvania Packet; or, The General Advertiser (June 3, 1778): 2.

“The commander of the enemy’s party”: Ibid.

“French mercenaries”: see, for example, “American News,” Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser 2864 (July 25, 1778): 2. The British soldier’s account appeared in multiple papers, including “Extract of a Letter from Philadelphia, May 23,” General Evening Post (London), no. 6948 (July 7–9, 1778): 1; Public Advertiser (London), no. 13200 (July 8, 1778): 2.

“set up the war whoop”: “York-Town, May 30,” Pennsylvania Packet; or, The General Advertiser (June 3, 1778): 2.

in the diary of Joseph Plumb Martin: James Kirby Martin, ed., Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin, 3rd ed. (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008), 71–72. I was directed to this source by Glatthaar and Martin, 208–16, which gives a full account of the role of the Oneidas at Barren Hill.

“six Indian scouts”: Glatthaar and Martin, Forgotten Allies, photo opp., 179.

Lee and Washington: The hostilities between Lee and Washington have received considerable attention. My understanding of the events is particularly indebted to Fleming, Washington’s Secret War, and Charles Lee, The Lee Papers, 4 vols. (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1872–75).

“when my honest quadruped friends”: Lee Papers, 4:322.

“indecision”: Lee to the president of the Massachusetts Council, Lee Papers, 2:303.

“the most idle”: Lee to James Bowdoin, November 30, 1776, Lee Papers, 2:323.

“my former letters”: Washington to Lee, Lee Papers, 2:318.

“to move the morning after”: “Order of March and Route of the Army from Camp Valley Forge to Newburg on the North River Opposite Fishkill,” Lee Papers, 2:408.

“the most effectual means”: Washington to Lafayette, June 25, 1778, LAAR, 2:87.

“I must repeat”: Washington to Lafayette, June 26, 1778, LAAR, 2:92.

“is undoubtedly the most honorable”: Lee to Washington, June 25, 1778, Lee Papers, 2:417.

“the People here”: Lee to Washington, June 27, 1778, Lee Papers, 2:426.

“exchanging roles”: All quotes in this paragraph are from Mémoires, 1:52.

An outraged Washington: As Washington described it, upon arriving, “to my great surprise and mortification, I met the whole advanced Corps retreating” and the “Rear of the Corps … closely pressed by the Enemy.” Washington to Henry Laurens, July 1, 1778,Lee Papers, 2:444.

“what the devil brought us”: Lee to Richard Henry Lee, Englishtown, June 28 [29], 1778, Lee Papers, 2:430.

“that nothing but the misinformation”: Lee to Washington, July 1 [June 30], 1778, Lee Papers, 2:435.

his court-martial began: For the transcript of Lee’s court-martial, including Lafayette’s testimony, see Lee Papers, 3:1–208.

“passed the night”: Mémoires, 1:53.

“ill will and insubordination”: Mathieu-François Pidansat de Mairobert, L’espion anglois; ou, Correspondance secrète entre milord All’Eye et milord All’Ear (London: Adamson, 1786), 9:31.

“haughty and presumptuous”: Extrait du journal d’un officier de la marine de l’escadre de M. le comte d’Estaing (Paris, 1782), 2.

“However pleasantly”: Lafayette to the Comte d’Estaing, July 14, 1778, LAAR, 2:403.

“no other ambition”: Lafayette to the Comte d’Estaing, July 24, 1778, LAAR, 2:405.

“no one was better situated”: “Rapport du comte d’Estaing au secrétaire d’État de la Marine,” November 5, 1778, as published in Doniol, Histoire, 3:460.

at least six separate letters to d’Estaing: These are included among the twenty-seven letters Lafayette sent to d’Estaing between July and October 1778, all of which are published as “Correspondance inédite de La Fayette: Lettres écrites au comte d’Estaing pendant la campagne du Vice-Amiral de la Delaware à Boston du 14 juillet au 20 octobre 1778,” Revue d’histoire diplomatique 6 (1892): 395–448.

On July 30: D’Estaing to Lafayette, July 30, 1778, LAAR, 2:408.

serve under Major General John Sullivan: Washington to Lafayette, July 22, 1778, PGWRW, 16:127.

“Harmony and the best understanding”: Washington to Sullivan, July 27, 1778, PGWRW, 16:188.

Washington himself remained wary: Washington to Gouverneur Morris, July 24, 1778, PGWRW, 16:157. Aware that his letter touched on a delicate matter, Washington added a postscript explaining that he was writing “with the freedom of a friend” and asking Morris not to “make me enemys [sic] by publishing what is intended for your own information & that of particular friends.”

“militarily inadmissible”: D’Estaing to Sullivan, August 7, 1778, as quoted in LAAR, 1:135, note 3.

“vexing for certain people”: Lafayette to d’Estaing, August 5, 1778, LAAR, 2:410.

“saw among the Fleet”: Lafayette to Washington, August 6, 1778, LAAR, 2:133.

“This measure gave much umbrage”: John Laurens to Henry Laurens, n.d., John Laurens, The Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the Years 1777–8 (New York: Bradford Club, 1867), 220.

“that the Americans do not find”: Lafayette to d’Estaing, August 10, 1778, LAAR, 2:412.

“risk our friendship”: Lafayette to Washington, August 25, 1778, LAAR, 2:149.

“Would you believe”: Lafayette to d’Estaing, August 24, 1778, LAAR, 2:416.

“Reccommend to the several chief persons”: Lafayette to Washington, August 25, 1778, LAAR, 2:153.

tended to the young man’s wounded honor: Washington to Lafayette, September 1, 1778, PGWRW, 16:461.

“palliate and soften matters”: Washington to Major General William Heath, August 28, 1778, PGWRW, 16:401.

“people old in war”: Washington to Sullivan, September 1, 1778, PGWRW, 16:465.

CHAPTER 7: HOMECOMINGS

“I long my dear general”: Lafayette to Washington, September 1, 1778, LAAR, 2:163.

“our Separation has been long enough”: Lafayette to Washington, September 21, 1778, LAAR, 2:179.

wrote to Silas Talbot: Lafayette to Silas Talbot, September 8, 1778, LAAR, 2:171.

“the instrument of her ambition”: LAAR, 2:182, note 1.

“I have nothing very interesting to do here”: Lafayette to d’Estaing, September 13, 1778, as cited and translated in LAAR, 2:182, note 2.

“If you have entertained thoughts”: Washington to Lafayette, September 25, 1778, LAAR, 2:183.

“How dreadful”: Lafayette to Adrienne, June 16, 1778, LAAR, 2:400.

“Now … that France is involv’d”: Lafayette to the president of Congress, October 13, 1778, LAAR, 2:190.

“wisdom and dexterity”: Gérard to Vergennes, October 20, 1778, John J. Meng, ed., Despatches and Instructions of Conrad Alexandre Gérard, 1778–1780 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1939), 344.

“personal satisfaction”: Doniol, Histoire, 3:460.

“Zeal, Courage and attachment”: Congress to Louis XVI, October 21, 1778, LAAR, 2:194.

“no one but [Lafayette] has known”: William Carmichael to Benjamin Franklin, October 30, 1778, LAAR, 2:199.

ceremonial sword: President of Congress to Lafayette, October 24, 1778, LAAR, 2:193.

he returned home a hero: The crossing was not without incident. A plotted mutiny was discovered and thwarted. Mémoires, 1:63–64.

“Upon my arrival”: Ibid., 1:65.

But even this penalty: LAAR, 2:231, note 2.

80,000 livres: The amount is given in Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942, rpt. 1974), 7.

“the first battles”: Ségur, Mémoires, 1:128.

John Paul Jones: Jones had enjoyed great success against the British fleet throughout the war, and he continued to do so. Most famously, the Bonhomme Richard captured HMBS Serapis on September 23 after a four-hour battle, during which Jones is reputed to have proclaimed defiantly, “I have not yet begun to fight.” Evan Thomas, John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 192.

public feud: Writing to Washington of the rift among the American envoys on June 12, 1779, Lafayette pleaded, “For God’s sake prevent theyr loudly disputing together.” LAAR, 2:277. Discussed by Schiff, Great Improvisation.

newborn daughter Virginie: Technically, the infant had been named for the queen of France—her full name was Marie Antoinette Virginie. But she would always be known by the name that honored the home state of Washington and Jefferson. Actes de naissances et baptême à St.-Roch en 1782. LOC, reel 41, folder 435.

“as an offering to My Western Country”: Lafayette to Franklin, September 17, 1782, LAAR, 5:57; Franklin’s response, Franklin to Lafayette, September 17, 1782, LAAR, 5:57.

“Miss Virginia”: The anecdote quickly circulated throughout Europe thanks to the Mémoires secrets, which published a variation on the story. Louis Petit de Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets pour server à l’histoire de la république des letters en France depuis 1762 jusqu’à nos jours, 36 vols. (London: Adamson, 1783), 21:125–26.

“to impress the minds”: LAAR, 2:267, note 2.

“I great deal love our project”: Lafayette to Franklin, May 19, 1779, LAAR, 2:265.

twenty-six possible images: A partial list of possible prints, in the handwriting of Franklin and Lafayette, is reproduced in LAAR, 2:266.

“I never saw a man”: Lafayette to Washington, September 1, 1778, LAAR, 2:164. The Peale painting owned by Hancock is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

“when you requested me”: Washington to Lafayette, September 25, 1778, LAAR, 2:183.

filled Monticello: Susan R. Stein, The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello (New York: Abrams, 1993), 122–37, 166–74, 198–214, 216–33, 434–36.

Lafayette arranged: Carol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 2006), 281, note 95.

“If you are curious”: Lafayette to Vergennes, July 1, 1779, LAAR, 2:455.

Jean-Baptiste Le Paon: Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, known as Louis, had been rejected from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and was thus barred from participating in the biennial Salon exhibitions that marked the high point of the Parisian art calendar. Instead, he showed in a notably less prestigious venue organized by Pahin de la Blancherie, discussed on this page. An established painter of decorative battle and hunting scenes, Le Paon was employed by the Prince de Condé as a battle painter for thePalais Bourbon, just a stone’s throw from Lafayette’s home, and had several paintings in the École Militaire. Notices of Le Paon’s work are scattered throughout Nouvelles de la république des lettres et des arts (1779–1782).

“much more advantageous”: Lafayette to Vergennes, February 2, 1780. Mémoires, 1:327–31.

“hasten to join”: “Instructions from the Comte de Vergennes,” March 5, 1780, as translated in LAAR, 2:364.

“in the Uniform”: John Adams to James Lovell, February 29, 1780, as quoted in LAAR, 2:352, note 2.

“last week arrived at Boston”: Abigail Adams to John Adams, May 1, 1780, Adams Family Correspondence, L. H. Butterfield, ed. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1973), 3:334.

“It’s to the roar of cannon”: Lafayette to Adrienne, May 6, 1780, LAAR, 3:430.

“particular delight”: Lafayette to Samuel Adams, May 30, 1780, LAAR, 3:41–42.

“If the French troops arrive in time”: Lafayette to Vergennes, May 20, 1780, LAAR, 3:436.

detailed letter to Rochambeau: Lafayette to Rochambeau and the Chevalier de Ternay, July 9, 1780, LAAR, 3:455–60.

Rochambeau had more immediate concerns: Rochambeau to Lafayette, July 16, 1780, LAAR, 3:464–65.

“I am persuaded”: Washington to Lafayette, July 22, 1780, LAAR, 3:106.

“added in my own name”: Lafayette to Washington, July 31, 1780, LAAR, 3:117.

“it is very clearly settled”: Lafayette to Rochambeau and Ternay, August 9, 1780, LAAR, 3:473.

“He proposes Extravagant things”: Rochambeau to Luzerne, August 14, 1780, LAAR, 3:477.

“inclined to believe”: Luzerne to Rochambeau, August 24, 1780, as excerpted and translated in LAAR, 3:142.

“You know me well enough”: Rochambeau to Lafayette, August 27, 1780, LAAR, 3:484–85.

“to act against the corps”: Instructions from George Washington, February 20, 1781, LAAR, 3:334–36.

“four or five to one”: Lafayette to Luzerne, May 22, 1781, LAAR, 3:459.

“we’ll be in a condition”: Lafayette to the Vicomte de Noailles, May 22, 1781, LAAR, 3:462.

CHAPTER 8: HONOR

Paris was abuzz: The festivities in honor of the dauphin are described in detail by Ann H. Sievers, Linda Muehlig, and Nancy Rich, Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art, exhibit catalog (New York: Hudson Hills Press; Northampton, MA: Smith College Museum of Art, 2001), 105–11, which discusses the elaborate preparatory drawings for prints of the events by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune.

Marie Antoinette bestowed: Ségur, Mémoires, 242, and Louis-François Métra, Correspondance secrète, politique et littéraire (London: 1787), 2:607.

Marie Antoinette’s grace: A published dispatch dated January 24, 1782, describes the event as “une circonstance qui peint bien l’âme sensible & délicate de notre Reine.” Métra, Correspondance secrète, 2:607.

“large and joyous group of fishwives”: Ibid.

“his conduct throughout the past campaign”: November 23, 1781, Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 1135, 34 vols. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 21:135, reproduced in LAAR, 3:440–41.

no one on either side: In reading Lafayette’s commercial efforts as being parallel to, though not prompted by, desires outlined by both French and American representatives, I concur with Gottschalk’s assessment in Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 34–52.

“Collecting the Opinions of Every American Merchant”: Lafayette to Washington, November 11, 1783, LAAR, 5:164.

“Observations on Commerce”: as translated in LAAR, 5:168–75. The document was twelve octavo pages per Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 44.

“free ports”: Calonne to Lafayette, Versailles, January 9, 1784, as translated and entered into the May 3, 1784, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 26:334–35.

from timber to whale oil: Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 222–37.

“I Have a Great Value”: Lafayette to Livingston, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:89.

“to Have a Resolve”: Lafayette’s request was answered some two months later, when the American legislature resolved, “That Congress … have a high sense of the new proofs he has exhibited of his zeal in the cause of the said states, and of his constant attachment to their interests and welfare.” April 10, 1783, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 24:234.

“Be so kind only as”: Lafayette to McHenry, Paris, December 26, 1783, LAAR, 5:185.

Honor, which had long: See Chaussinand-Nogaret, French Nobility, 34.

“I sometimes contemplate the situation”: Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, February 28, 1780, Adams Family Correspondence, 3:288.

“the love of fame”: Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 72, in Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers, Project Gutenberg, December 12, 2011, www.gutenberg.org/files/18/18.txt. On the Founding Fathers’ understanding of fame as an important force that compelled men to great deeds, see Peter McNamara, ed., The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor, and the American Founding (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999).

“nature strews approbation”: “Réputation,” Dictionnaire, 14:161.

“Because that Entrusting Temper”: LAAR, 5:184–85.

“that Your plenipotentiarie’s letters”: Lafayette to McHenry, Paris, December 26, 1783, LAAR, 5:185.

“The Marquis’s business”: November 23, 1782, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961) 3:71.

“the same Friend to Us here”: John Adams to James Warren, February 28, 1780, Papers of John Adams, 8:376.

Adams was struggling: My understanding of Adams’s vexed relationships with Franklin and Vergennes are indebted to David McCullough, John Adams, and Schiff, A Great Improvisation.

“so agreeable to my inclinations”: Adams to Lafayette, February 20, 1782, Papers of John Adams, 12:248.

“the Instruction of Congress”: John Adams to James Warren, April 16, 1783, LAAR, 5:122.

“Seeds of Mischief”: John Adams to James Warren, April 16, 1783, LAAR, 5:122.

“ardent to distinguish himself”: John Adams to James Warren, April 16, 1783, LAAR, 5:123.

“during the Treaty at Paris”: May 9, 1782, Journal of the Peace Negotiations, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, ed. Francis Wharton, 6 vols. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1889), 5:553.

“the expectation of peace is a joke”: Ibid., 5:576.

“Would Highly flatter”: Lafayette to Robert R. Livingston, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:89.

“I Would take it as a Most flattering Circumstance”: Lafayette to Washington, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:92.

“the bearer of the Ratification”: Washington to Robert R. Livingston, March 29, 1783, New-York Historical Society, Robert R. Livingston Papers, MS 388, box 6.

“the honor of the nation”: Livingston to Washington, April 9, 1783, New-York Historical Society, Robert R. Livingston Papers, MS 388, box 6.

“there is no Man upon Earth”: Washington to Livingston, April 16, 1783, New-York Historical Society, Robert R. Livingston Papers, MS 388, box 6.

“will not I apprehend”: Washington to Lafayette, October 12, 1783, LAAR, 5:155.

“that it is inconsistent”: March 16, 1784, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 26:144.

Society of the Cincinnati: On the history of the society, see: Markus Hünemörder, The Society of the Cincinnati: Conspiracy and Distrust in Early America (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), and Minor Myers, Liberty Without Anarchy: A History of the Society of the Cincinnati (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983).

“to inculcate to the latest age”: “The Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati as Altered and Amended at Their First General Meeting,” in Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati, 1784–1884 (Philadelphia: Review Printing House, 1887), 13.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus: Wendy C. Wick, George Washington: An American Icon, exhibit catalog (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Service, 1982), 133–35. The most thorough discussion of Washington’s image as a modern-day Cincinnatus is Garry Wills, Cincinnatus: George Washington and the Enlightenment (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984).

“a bald eagle of gold”: Proceedings of the General Society, 14.

welcomed fifteen: Bachaumont, Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de la république des lettres en France, 89.

Duval and Francastel: Baron Ludovic de Contenson, La Société des Cincinnati de France et la Guerre d’Amérique, 1778–1783 (1934; repr. Paris: Picard, 2007), 32–33.

Lafayette voluntarily shouldered: Lafayette to Washington, March 9, 1784, LAAR, 5:209.

Adams condemned the group: Adams to Lafayette, March 28, 1784, LAAR, 5:211–12.

“I have been informed”: Adams to Matthew Ridley, January 25, 1784, Papers of John Adams, 15:49. I was directed to the existence of this letter, the original of which is in the Massachusetts Historical Society, by LAAR, 5:203, note 1.

“against the confederation”: Jefferson to Washington, April 16, 1784, Papers of Thomas Jefferson.

“that the people may look to them”: Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, May 10, 1785, Adams Family Correspondence, 6:139.

“most of the Americans”: Lafayette to Washington, March 9, 1784, LAAR, 5:209.

“as to your going to America”: Adams to Lafayette, March 28, 1784, LAAR, 5:212.

“A friendly letter I wrote You”: Lafayette to Adams, April 9, 1784, LAAR, 5:213.

“Altho’ I have not Been Honoured”: Lafayette to Adams, June 2, 1784, LAAR, 5:222.

“received in Season”: Adams to Lafayette, June 11, 1784, LAAR, 5:223.

CHAPTER 9: 1784

thousands of escaped slaves: On African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, see Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (New York: Vintage, 2009).

the city had hosted a sprawling: My descriptions of New York in the immediate aftermath of the war are based largely on Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 277–87, and I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909, 6 vols. (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–28), 1:365–473.

equestrian statue of King George III: Arthur S. Marks, “The Statue of King George III in New York and the Iconology of Regicide,” American Art Journal 13, no. 3 (Summer 1981): 61–82.

The landing of the ship: J. Bennett Nolan, Lafayette in America Day by Day (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1934), 217.

Approaching Philadelphia: As described by Frederick Eugene Francis, Baron de Beelen-Bertholff, who was in the United States as a trade representative of Emperor Joseph II, in a letter of August 12, 1784. Excerpted in Hubert van Houtte, “Documents: American Commercial Conditions, and Negotiations with Austria, 1783–1786,” American Historical Review 16, no. 3 (April 1911): 569.

“wherever [Lafayette] passes”: James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, September 7, 1784, The Writings of James Madison, Comprising His Public Papers and His Private Correspondence, Including His Numerous Letters and Documents Now for the First Time Printed, ed. Gaillard Hunt, 9 vols. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900), 2:2.

“admitted and received”: Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1784–1831, 19 vols. (New York: City of New York, 1917), 1:73–74, quote on this page.

For the next five months: For the itinerary of Lafayette’s 1784 visit to the United States, see Nolan, Lafayette in America, 217–39.

Republic of Letters: My understanding of this topic is deeply indebted to Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994).

“the search for knowledge”: Goodman, Republic of Letters, 33.

“the cultivation of useful knowledge”: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge (Philadelphia: Robert Aitken, 1786), xi.

“all specimens of natural Productions”: Ibid., ix.

“the importance or singularity”: Ibid., iv.

“Geography, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy”: Ibid., ix–x.

admitted on January 19, 1781: J. Bennett Nolan, “Lafayette and the American Philosophical Society,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 73, no. 2 (1934): 120, and Nolan, Lafayette in America, 218.

A well-known figure: On Chastellux’s biography, see Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782, ed. and trans. Howard C. Rice, Jr., 2 vols. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1903), 1:1–41.

“thought to be a mistake”: Chastellux, Travels in North America, 1:178.

“Salon de la Correspondance”: I discuss the organization in depth in Laura Auricchio, “Pahin de la Blancherie’s Commercial Cabinet of Curiosity (1779–1787),” Eighteenth-Century Studies 36, no. 1 (2002): 47–61.

“books, paintings, mechanical devices”: Nouvelles de la république des lettres et des arts ([November?] 1777): 4. In La Blancherie’s rooms, one would have found, jumbled together in no particular order, paintings, drawings, and sculptures, as well as scientific wonders ranging from “a pair of waterproof leather shoes” (May 1, 1782), to “three blocks of rock crystal” excavated in Switzerland, “each containing views and perspectives of the Alps” (January 22, 1783), to “a living hen” that regularly laid eggs through two different orifices (June 26, 1782).

The American Philosophical Society: My understanding of the APS in this era is based in large part on: Early Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, Compiled by One of the Secretaries, from the Manuscript Minutes of Its Meetings from 1744 to 1838 (Philadelphia: McCalla and Stavely, 1884).

“a serpent in a horse’s eye”: The examples given here are selected from Early Proceedings, 116–21.

According to Barthélemy: Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, Description des expériences de la machine aérostatique de MM. de Montgolfier et celles auxquelles cette découverte a donné lieu (Paris: Cuchet, 1783), 36.

“the grandest, most illustrious”: Faujas de Saint-Fond, Description, 40.

“enclosing an authentic narrative”: Nolan, “Lafayette and the American Philosophical Society,” 120. Although Nolan gives the date of Lafayette’s letter as December 10, 1784, the context indicates that it must have been 1783.

“duplicated by one of the secretaries”: The duplication of Lafayette’s materials was reported at the meeting of April 16, 1784; Early Proceedings, 125.

attention-seeking ploy: Robert Darnton, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 23–24. The following paragraphs are indebted to Darnton, although all primary sources have been consulted directly.

“made the greatest discovery”: Lafayette to Washington, May 14, 1784, Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, 6:807.

“Sciences and letters are frighted”: Lafayette to Franklin, May 20, 1784, LAAR, 5:222.

newspapers from Massachusetts: See, for example, “Account of the Report of the Committee, Appointed by Order of the French King, to Inquire into Animal Magnetism,” Massachusetts Spy (May 19, 1785): 2.

One American author: “Boston, Nov. 29,” American Herald (November 29, 1784): 2.

“private citizen”: Washington to Lafayette, from Mount Vernon, February 1, 1784, PGWC, 1:87.

Baltimore stagecoach route: Oliver W. Holmes, “Stagecoach Days in the District of Columbia,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 50 (1948/1950): 1–42.

“the retreat of General Washington”: Lafayette to Adrienne, August 20, 1784, LOC, reel 31, folder 354. The following discussion of Lafayette’s cabinet is based on this version of the letter.

“barometer”: Barometers were quite fashionable among elite men in Paris, and were written about in the newspapers of the day. See, for instance, “Physique,” Journal de Paris (May 7, 1785), 127:515–55, a front-page article by La Lande announcing the second edition of a sought-after 1772 book by Jean-André De Luc on thermometers and barometers.

An enormous 1859 painting: On the painting in relation to Rossiter’s campaign to salvage Mount Vernon, see Thomas P. Rossiter, A Description of the Picture of the Home of Washington After the War. Painted by T. P. Rossiter and L. R. Mignot. With Historical Sketches of the Personages Introduced (New York: Appleton, 1859). Thomas P. Rossiter, “Mount Vernon, Past and Present. What Shall Be Its Destiny?” Crayon 5, no. 9 (September 1858): 243–53.

more than two hundred slaves: My understanding of the role of slaves at Mount Vernon is indebted to sources including: Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 147–67, and Kenneth Morgan, “George Washington and the Problem of Slavery,” Journal of American Studies 34, no. 2 (August 2000): 279–301.

“it Has Ever Been My”: Lafayette to Adams, March 8, 1784, LAAR, 5:202. Adams firmly rejected Lafayette’s advice, insisting that he saw “no motive of Reason or Prudence, for making a Mystery of our Sentiments upon this Subject in Europe or America, or for reserving them for America. It is a publick Thing about which every Man has a right to think for himself and express his Thoughts.”Adams to Lafayette, March 28, 1784, LAAR, 5:212.

“a plan … Which Might Become”: Lafayette to Washington, February 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:91–92.

“striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart”: Washington to Lafayette, April 5, 1783, LAAR, 5:121.

“prudent, calm, and intrepid conduct”: LOC, folder 222.

“proofs of its love for the rights of all of humanity”: Ibid.

“his or her hand and sealed”: “Act XXI. An Act to Authorize the Manumission of Slaves,” May 1782, ed. William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619, 13 vols. (Richmond: Samuel Pleasants, 1809–23), 11:39–40. On reactions to the 1782 act, see George William Van Cleve, “Founding a Slaveholders’ Union, 1770–1797,” in Contesting Slavery: The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation, ed. John Craig Hammond and Matthew Mason (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011), 123. On the postwar backlash against emancipation in Virginia, see also Michael A. McDonnell, “Class War? Class Struggles During the American Revolution in Virginia,” William and Mary Quarterly 63, no. 2, 3rd ser. (April 2006): 305–44, esp. 341.

pro-slavery petitions: See Fredrika Teute Schmidt and Barbara Ripel Wilhelm, “Early Proslavery Petitions in Virginia,” William and Mary Quarterly 30, no. 1, 3rd ser. (January 1973): 133–46, esp. 138. I was directed to this valuable article by a classic text, originally published in 1973: David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 167–68.

“done Essential Service”: Recommendation for James, November 21, 1784, LAAR, 5:277–78.

His archives include: See Melvin Dow, ed., Lafayette and Slavery, from His Letters to Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp (Easton, PA: American Friends of Lafayette, 1950), 29–31; Condorcet to Lafayette, February 24, 1785, LAAR, 5:299–300; and Franklin to Lafayette, May 27, 1788, LOC, LaGrange, 221.

In the same year, Lafayette: Dow, Lafayette and Slavery, 6.

Description of a Slave Ship: “Description d’un Navire Négrier,” Cornell, box 2, folder 29.

abolitionist contemporaries: For an excellent overview, see Davis, The Problem of Slavery.

“final purposes”: The Compleated Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin, ed. Mark Skousen (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2007), 2:382.

like Jefferson, who wrote: On Jefferson’s proposals, see Christa Dierksheide, “ ‘The Great Improvement and Civilization of That Race’: Jefferson and the ‘Amelioration’ of Slavery, ca. 1770–1826,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 6, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 165–97.

“the double voice of self-interest”: LAAR, 5:172.

acquired two properties in Cayenne: The sales contracts for the properties and slaves are housed in ANOM COL/C14/81 F° 9 and FR ANOM COL/C14/81 F° 18.

They ranged in age: Geneste, “Liste des nègres … ,” Cornell, box 2, folder 18. Dow, Lafayette and Slavery, 6, reports that, “according to Thomas Clarkson … Lafayette liberated all of the slaves on his Cayenne plantation toward the end of 1789.” However, Clarkson was mistaken. I thank Miranda Spieler for calling my attention to this fact. On slavery in French Guiana, see Miranda Spieler, Empire and Underworld: Captivity in French Guiana (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012). As discussed above, evidence that Lafayette never freed his slaves may be found in the archives at Cornell and ANOM. The facts are also presented accurately in John T. Gillard, “Lafayette, Friend of the Negro,” Journal of Negro History 19, no. 4 (October 1934), 364, and in Liliane Willens, “Lafayette’s Emancipation Experiment in French Guiana—1786–1792,” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 242 (1986): 345–62.

“to free my negroes”: Lafayette to Washington, February 6, 1786, PGWC, 3:546.

“would to God a like spirit would diffuse”: Washington to Lafayette, May 10, 1786, PGWC, 4:44.

Oneidas, whose young men: Glatthaar and Martin, Forgotten Allies, 208–15.

“fell in with the Marquis”: James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, New York, September 15, 1784, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 7:416.

whose diary offers: The following description of the journey is based on Barbé-Marbois’s “Journal of His Visit to the Territory of the Six Nations,” LAAR, 5:245–53. Quotes are as translated by the editors.

Shakers: My understanding of the Shakers is deeply indebted to Stephen J. Stein, The Shaker Experience in America: A History of the United Society of Believers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).

“My companions”: Lafayette to Adrienne, October 4, 1784, LAAR, 5:416.

fascinated by Native American: The classic text on French attitudes toward America in general, and Native Americans in particular, is Durand Echeverria, Mirage in the West: A History of the French Image of American Society to 1815 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). More recent treatments include Aurelian Craiutu and Jeffrey C. Isaac, eds., America Through European Eyes: British and French Reflections on the New World from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009), and Philippe Roger, The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism, trans. Sharon Bowman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). A wide selection of documents, images, and objects on the theme are published in Betty-Bright P. Low, France Views America, 1765–1815, exhibit catalog (Wilmington, DE: Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, 1978).

“noble savage”: On the concept of the noble savage and its use (and misuse) by anthropologists, see Ter Ellingson, The Myth of the Noble Savage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

“the respect that we have”: Peter Jimack, ed., A History of the Two Indies: A Translated Selection of Writings from Raynal’s “Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements des Européens dans les Deux Indes” (Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2006), 211.

“One calls sauvages all the Indian peoples”: Encyclopédie, 14:729.

“five hundred men, women, and children”: Mémoires, 1:43.

“Europeans who are curious”: Our Revolutionary Forefathers: The Letters of François, Marquis de Barbé-Marbois During His Residence in the United States as Secretary of the French Legation, 1779–1789, trans. and ed. and with an introduction by Eugene Parker Chase (1929; repr., Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969), 189.

address the assembly: The following description is based on “Relation of What Pass’d at the Opening of the Treaty Between the United States and the Indian Nations at Fort Schuyler, October 3, 1784,” Connecticut Courant (November 30, 1784): 1. Similar reports appeared in many other papers.

“of the immoderate stress”: Madison to Jefferson, October 17, 1784, LAAR, 5:273.

Lee did not hesitate: Lafayette wrote to Adrienne that Lee, who “had no desire to be indebted to me,” had observed “that the sauvages had been too occupied with me to pay attention to the commissioners.” Lafayette to Adrienne, October 4, 1784, LAAR, 5:416.

“was the only conspicuous figure”: Madison to Jefferson, October 17, 1784, LAAR, 5:273.

“I take him to be as amiable”: Ibid., 274. Eugene Parker Chase observes that the phrase “as his vanity will admit” was stricken from the letter by a later hand. Chase, Our Revolutionary Forefathers, 274. It is omitted from the transcription in Writings of James Madison, 2:76, and replaced with “as can be imagined.”

“personal credit with the sauvages”: Lafayette to Adrienne, October 4, 1784, LAAR, 5:416.

“beautiful”: Nolan, Lafayette in America, 228.

first histories: For an overview of Ramsay and Warren, see Eve Kornfeld, Creating an American Culture, 1775–1800: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), 39–48. On Gordon, see George William Pilcher, “William Gordon and the History of the American Revolution,” Historian 34, no. 3 (May 1972): 447–64.

“an eternal Talker”: Adams as cited in Pilcher, “William Gordon,” 452, note 11.

“recollect the train”: James McHenry to George Washington, New York, August 1, 1785, PGWC, 3:166.

“In certain places”: William Gordon to Washington, September 26, 1785; Washington to William Gordon, December 6, 1785; William Gordon to Washington, February 16, 1786, PGWC. On the role of vegetation in forging the political and intellectual culture of the early American republic, see Andrea Wulf, Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011).

Whether because the author mellowed: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, however, were both dismayed by Gordon’s unflattering descriptions of their actions. See Pilcher, “William Gordon,” 462–63.

CHAPTER 10: AN “AMERICAN” NOBLEMAN IN PARIS

Lafayette’s financial problems: Lafayette’s receipts and expenses during the 1780s are thoroughly documented in LOC, reel 8, folders 100–102a. All figures and quotations in my discussion of Lafayette’s finances are found in this collection unless otherwise noted.

Hôtel de Noailles: Adolphe Berty, Topographie historique du vieux Paris, 2 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1885), 1:298; Plan et façade en six planches, de l’Hôtel, rue St. Honoré à Paris, appartenant au très-honorable Francis Henry Egerton, des Ducs de Bridgewater, prince du S.E.R. &c. &c. &c. Paris: 1830.

“a house which, if not the most”: Letter from Lafayette to Prince de Poix, Hartford, October 12, 1784, excerpted in Charles Brabaint, ed., La Fayette exhibit catalog (Paris: Archives Nationales, 1957), 166.

Like Turgot’s, Lafayette’s was: For a thorough discussion of the area in general, and of Lafayette’s home at 119 Rue de Lille, see La Rue de Lille: Hôtel de Salm (Paris: Délégation à l’Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris; Musée de la Légion d’Honneur; Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie du VIIe Arrondissement, 1983).

Adrien Mouton: For a summary of Mouton’s career, see Michel Gallet, Les architectes parisiens du XVIIIe siècle: Dictionnaire biographique et critique (Paris: Mengès, 1995), 377–78.

“it is necessary”: Anatole de Montaiglon and Jules Guiffrey, eds., Correspondance des directeurs de l’Académie de France à Rome avec les surintendants des bâtiments (Paris: Noël Charavay, 1902), vol. 12 (1764–1774), 238. See John Goodman, “Jansenism, ‘Parlementaire’ Politics, and Dissidence in the Art World of Eighteenth-Century Paris: The Case of the Restout Family,” Oxford Art Journal 18, no. 1 (1995): 74–95, esp. 83–84.

“barbarously murdered”: February 21, 1785, David Grayson Allen, ed., et al., Diary of John Quincy Adams (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1982), 1:225.

special dispensation releasing: Lafayette to Elias Boudinot, March 16, 1785, New Jersey Historical Society. Photostat. Gottschalk, box 54, folder 1.

“Bernard Molitor”: Ulrich Leben, Molitor: Ebeniste from the Ancien Regime to the Bourbon Restoration (London: Wilson, 1992), 185.

“mahogany bookcase”: The inventories and sales of items in Lafayette’s home on the Rue de Bourbon are found in “Vente du Mobilier de l’Émigré La Fayette” and other documents housed in the Archives de la Seine, Paris, DQ10, carton 792.

“the true Cincinnatus”: Lafayette to Adrienne, August 20, 1784, LOC, reel 31, folder 354.

“I have discovered”: Lafayette to Adrienne, Church’s Tavern, October 10, 1784, LAAR, 5:417.

quick note to William Temple Franklin: Lafayette to William Temple Franklin, November 19, 1783. Photostat. Gottschalk, box 53, folder 10.

four large mirrors: On August 25, 1795, the commune’s representatives itemized every mirror. Eighteen rooms were outfitted with mirrors, valued at 149,010 livres. Archives de la Seine, Paris, DQ10, carton 792.

English was the language: Abigail Adams Smith and Caroline Amelia Smith de Windt, Journal and Correspondence of Miss Adams, Daughter of John Adams, Second President of the United States (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1841), 1:49.

invitations preprinted in English: Lafayette to Franklin, March 9, 1784, Gottschalk, box 53, folder 11.

“life of ceremony and parade”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, April 15, 1785, Adams Family Correspondence, 6:84.

“dinner was so perfectly to my taste”: Colonel Smith to Abigail Adams Smith, May 5, 1787, Correspondence of Miss Adams, 1:132.

“I should always take pleasure”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, April 15, 1785, Adams Family Correspondence, 6:84.

“the fondness that Madame”: Correspondence of Miss Adams, 1:49.

“I shall lose part”: Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, May 8, 1785, Adams Family Correspondence, 6:120.

“as a favourite Servant”: Lafayette to Jeremiah Wadsworth, April 16, 1785, LAAR, 5:319.

“I might well bring back”: Lafayette to Adrienne, LAAR, 5:417.

“the difficulty that M. le M[arqu]is”: Barbé-Marbois, LAAR, 5:410.

“the whole family who are Oneidas”: Lafayette to Jeremiah Wadsworth, April 16, 1785, LAAR, 5:319. A slightly different version of the story is told in Amelia Cornelius with the assistance of Todd Larkin, “The Archiquette Genealogy,” in The Oneida Indian Journey: From New York to Wisconsin, 1784–1860, ed. Laurence M. Hauptman, L. Gordon McLester, and the Oneida History Conference Committee (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999), 126–27. This essay mentions “the children of Lafayette’s former clerk, a man named Otsiquette, and an Oneida woman named Sarah Hanyost. Otsiquette had long before returned to France, leaving the boys and Sarah behind.” It indicates that Lafayette had also hoped to bring Peter’s brother, Edward (Neddy), as well, but that Neddy had run away rather than be taken to Europe.

handful of small receipts: LOC, folder 102a.

“a sauvage from America”: Xavier de Schomberg as quoted in Agénor Bardoux, La jeunesse de La Fayette, 1757–1792 (Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1892), 194.

“rich Indian dresses”: Ledyard, 265–66.

“especially colorful description”: Ange Achille Charles, comte de Neuilly, Dix années d’émigration: souvenirs et correspondance du comte de Neuilly (Paris, Douniol, 1865), 10–11.

“Four Iroquois Kings”: The London visits of the Four Iroquois Kings in 1710 and Mai in 1776 have received a considerable amount of attention. My understanding of these events is particularly indebted to Kate Fullagar, “ ‘Savages That Are Come Among Us’: Mai, Bennelong, and British Imperial Culture, 1774–1795,” The Eighteenth Century 49, no. 3 (2008): 211–37, and Joseph R. Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).

reported in American papers: “News from New York,” Massachusetts Centinel ( July 30, 1788): 157. The article, which seems to have been published first by the Centinel, was reprinted verbatim in papers including The Cumberland Gazette, The Hampshire Chronicle, and The Pennsylvania Gazette.

“this young aboriginal”: This article appeared in at least two papers under two different headlines: “Providence,” Norwich Packet (August 7, 1788): 3; “New-York,” Pennsylvania Mercury (August 16, 1788): 3.

“a scarlet coat”: excerpts from the journal of Susan Woodrow Lear as published in In the Words of Women: The Revolutionary War and the Birth of the Nation, 1765–1799, eds. Louise V. North, Janet M. Wedge, and Landa M. Freeman (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), 239.

died of pleurisy: Gazette of the United States (March 28, 1792): 383.

“highly cultivated”: Van der Kemp to Mappa, as cited in Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 434. Although Gottschalk concluded that two Native Americans lived with Lafayette on the Rue de Bourbon, there appears to have been only one. A notice from Paris published in the London-based Gentleman’s Magazine and dated January 30, 1785, announced, “The Marquis de la Fayette is returned from Philadelphia, and brought with him a young sauvage of twelve years old.” Lafayette intended to provide the young man with “a very good education,” according to the Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle 55 (1785): 148. Lafayette did, in fact, return with a young American whom he intended to provide with a good education, but the boy, James Edward Caldwell, was not of Native American descent.

“friendly controversy”: Louis Gottschalk, Lady-in-Waiting: The Romance of Lafayette and Aglaé de Hunolstein (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1939), viii.

“I shall spare you also the confession”: LAAR, 1:5–6. Although the editors of LAAR refer to this portion of Lafayette’s memoirs as “Memoir of 1779,” they note that the first four pages were written in the nineteenth century. LAAR, 1:12.

telltale letter on March 27, 1783: A French transcript of the letter is published as Appendix III in Gottschalk, Lady-in-Waiting, 128–29, with a photostat of the original inserted between these pages.

The author Stéphanie Félicité: Mémoires inédits de Madame la comtesse de Genlis sur le dix-huitième siècle et la Révolution française depuis 1756 jusqu’à nos jours, 10 vols. (Paris: Ladvocat, 1825), 2:272. I was directed to this source by Gottschalk, Close of the American Revolution, 419, note 19.

“pretty” and “amiable”: Gottschalk, Lady-in-Waiting, 97.

“just to see the portrait that I was making”: Vigée-LeBrun, Souvenirs, 2:287.

“Rumor has it that Monsieur the Comte”: Mémoires secrets, 34:286.

CHAPTER 11: A POLITICAL EDUCATION

“the Happiness of 26 millions of People”: Lafayette to Washington, January 13, 1787, PGWC, 4:515.

“French Prerevolution”: The term was coined by Jean Egret, The French Pre-Revolution, 1787–1788, trans. Wesley D. Camp (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977). My understanding of this crucial period is indebted to Egret and to Vivian R. Gruder,The Notables and the Nation: The Political Schooling of the French, 1787–1788 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007).

“whose principles are the most”: Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787. The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series 1, General Correspondence, 1651–1827, Library of Congress. On Jefferson’s thoughts on the Assembly of Notables, see William Howard Adams, The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 259–69.

“Having a mild and timid character, uneducated”: Mémoires secrets, 34:184–85.

“King’s diversions”: The following description of the assembly’s first session is drawn from Procès-verbal de l’Assemblée de Notables tenue à Versailles en l’année MDCCLXXXVII (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1787), 32–42.

Measuring 120 feet long: Mémoires secrets, 34:147. For the details of the renovations conducted in preparation for the assembly, see Armand Brette, Histoire des édifices où ont siégé les assemblées parlementaires de la Révolution française et de la première République (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1902), 1:19–34.

“any frugal-minded citizen”: As translated in Jeremy D. Popkin, ed. and trans., Panorama of Paris (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 190–91.

“tossing several millions”: Mémoires secrets, 34:147.

“Gentlemen”: The discourse pronounced by Louis XVI is reproduced in Procès-verbal de l’Assemblée de Notables, 42.

“the most remarkable effect of this convention”: Jefferson to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 1784–1787, vol. 4, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: Putnam, 1894), 370. On Jefferson’s thoughts on the Assembly of Notables, see 259–69.

“that a good punster would disarm”: Jefferson to Abigail Adams, February 22, 1787, Ford, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 4:370.

He entered its deliberations: Except where noted, my understanding of, and quotations regarding, Lafayette’s participation in the second bureau are indebted to Jean Egret, “La Fayette dans la première Assemblée des Notables (février–mai 1787),” Annales historiques de la Révolution française 24 (1952): 1–31. Egret’s analysis is based on the bureau’s unpublished minutes, held at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris.

After less than a week: The bureaus completed their work on local assemblies on February 27. Mémoires secrets, 34:250, March 4, 1787.

Lafayette also objected: On this point, though, he was willing to compromise in the interest of moving the proposal along. Whereas eight of his bureau’s members categorically rejected the idea, demanding that the provincial assemblies hew firmly to the principle of “one man, one vote,” Lafayette requested only that “the rich would never have more than three or four times” as many votes as their less wealthy neighbors. Egret, “La Fayette,” 6.

“the most natural intermediate”: Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (Geneva: Barrilot, 1758), book 2, chapter 4.

“the people’s defense and the monarchy’s support”: Brienne, cited in Egret, “La Fayette,” 6.

“the distinctions among citizens are necessary”: Egret, French Pre-Revolution, 7.

size of the deficit: Gruder, The Notables, 41–42.

Compte rendu: Jacques Necker, Compte rendu au roi, par M. Necker, directeur général des finances, au mois de janvier 1781 (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1781).

to Lafayette’s embarrassment: “I have been much hurt to hear that the unpaid interest of the American debt was considered as a very uncertain revenue.” Lafayette to Washington, May 5, 1787, in Jared Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution; Being Letters of Eminent Men to George Washington, from the Time of His Taking Command of the Army to the End of His Presidency, 4 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1853), 4:171.

carried on a torrid affair: Vigée-LeBrun, Souvenirs, 1:90–91.

extravagant wardrobe: On the politics of Marie Antoinette’s wardrobe, see Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution (New York: Henry Holt, 2006).

“Diamond Necklace Affair”: For a brief but thorough discussion of the scandal, see Sarah Maza, “The Diamond Necklace Affair Revisited (1785–1786): The Case of the Missing Queen,” in Dena Goodman, ed., Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen(New York: Routledge, 2003), 73–97.

“to make the king work at economies”: The archbishop of Aix, as quoted and translated in Gruder, The Notables, 42.

“neither this Assembly”: Mémoires secrets, March 5, 1787, 34:253–54. For Castillon’s original discourse, see Egret, “La Fayette,” 8.

“The object of the deliberation”: Egret, “La Fayette,” 8.

“so useful to the nation”: Quotes in ths paragraph are from Mémoires secrets, 34:301.

“a siege of illness”: Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 294.

Jean Maury: Lafayette’s apothecary bills from 1787 to 1789 are found in LOC, reel 8, folder 102a.

“with satisfaction that in general”: Procès-verbal de l’Assemblée de Notables, 114.

seven separate réclamations: Ibid., 180–86.

“an exact record”: Ibid., 181.

avertissement: reprinted in Charles Alexandre de Calonne, De l’état de la France présent et à venir (London: 1790), 436–40.

“nothing but the Avertissement”: Pierre Chevalier, ed., Journal de l’Assemblée des Notables de 1787 par le comte de Brienne et Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, archevêque de Toulouse (Paris: Klincksieck, 1960), 43.

“What could be the pretexts”: Calonne, De l’état de la France, 439.

“misled the people”: Chevalier, Journal de l’Assemblée des Notables, 45.

“highly disapproved”: Ibid., 44.

“rigorous examination”: All quotes from Lafayette’s denunciation are from the copy published in Mémoires secrets, April 30, 1787, 35:59–62.

“has been spoken about”: Mémoires secrets, 35:58.

restore civil rights to French Protestants: My understanding of the Protestant cause in eighteenth-century France is indebted to Geoffrey Adams, The Huguenots and French Opinion, 1685–1787: The Enlightenment Debate on Toleration (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1991).

hopeful that the Assembly: Lafayette to Washington, January 13, 1787, Mémoires, 2:191.

memo: “Arrêté pris le 24 mai et présenté au roi,” Mémoires, 2:179–80.

“a truly national assembly”: As quoted in Egret, “La Fayette,” 26.

“got the King to make”: Lafayette to Washington, May 5, 1787, in Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution, 4:170.

“slow”: Thomas Jefferson, “Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 6 Jan.–29 July 1821,” Founders Online, National Archives.

“took the presence of the ceremonial”: Schama, Citizens, 263.

“Government have employed”: Lafayette to Washington, May 25, 1788, Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution, 4:216.

stoked by Orléans: See George Armstrong Kelly, “The Machine of the Duc D’Orléans and the New Politics,” Journal of Modern History 51, no. 4 (December 1979): 667–84.

CHAPTER 12: RIGHTS OF MAN

“first moments”: Lafayette to Washington, January 1, 1788, Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution, 4:198–200.

made its way to Lafayette: Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 364.

“keeping the good model”: Jefferson to Lafayette, February 28, 1787, Gilbert Chinard, ed., The Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1929), 109.

“political liberty”: Montesquieu, L’esprit des lois, book 9, chapter 6.

twelve noblemen: Lafayette to Washington, May 25, 1788, PGWC, 6:295.

“disgraced”: Jefferson to John Jay, August 3, 1788, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 13:463.

“more to save appearances”: Jefferson to Madison, January 12, 1789, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 14:437.

“I associate myself”: Mémoires, 2:183, as translated by Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 388.

“try to exorcise”: As quoted in ibid., 416.

“the advantage to work a new ground”: Lafayette to Jefferson [July 12, 1788?], as cited in ibid., 299.

“a joy, mixed with uneasiness”: Gottschalk, Lafayette Between the American and the French Revolution, 427.

“it contains the essential principles”: Jefferson to Madison, January 12, 1789, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 14:437.

“Nature has made men equal”: Quotations in this paragraph from Lafayette’s early draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man are as translated in Chinard, Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson, 137.

“the first declaration”: The following discussion of the history of the various declarations of rights drafted in and before 1789 is deeply indebted to Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History (New York: Norton, 2007), 113–36.

Frenchmen drafting declarations: Condorcet offered a critique of various American declarations in his 1789 Idées sur le despotisme, à l’usage de ceux qui prononcent ce mot sans l’entendre, ed. Arthur Condorcet O’Connor and F. Arago (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1847), 168–70.

faction of their own: My understanding of this faction is based on Daniel L. Wick, A Conspiracy of  Well-Intentioned Men: The Society of Thirty and the French Revolution (New York: Garland, 1987).

modern-day political campaign: On the pamphlets produced by the Society of Thirty, see Kenneth Margerison, Pamphlets and Public Opinion: The Campaign for a Union of Orders in the Early French Revolution (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1998).

“the slender stock of bread-stuff”: “Autobiography,” Ford, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 1:123.

“I am in great pain”: Jefferson to Washington, May 10, 1789, PGWP, 2:260.

On May 6, Jefferson: Jefferson to Lafayette, May 6, 1789, Chinard, Letters, 125.

Jean-Baptiste Réveillon: Leonard N. Rosenband, “Jean-Baptiste Réveillon: A Man on the Make in Old Regime France,” French Historical Studies 20, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 481–501. These events have been treated in many sources with varying inflections. See David Andress, The French Revolution and the People (London: Hambledon and London, 2004), 98–101; George Rudé, The Crowd in the French Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967); and Simon Schama, Citizens.

“Blood flowed in the Faubourg St-Antoine”: Marquis de Ferrières, Correspondance inédite (1789, 1790, 1791) (Paris: Armand Colin, 1932), 37–38.

“moderation”: Writing from Chavaniac when he was standing for election as a representative to the Estates-General, Lafayette had reported that he had “preached moderation” in preelection discussions with his would-be constituents. Lafayette [to Madame de Simaine?], March 8, 1789, Mémoires, 2:240.

“a composite of great principles”: Louis Gottschalk and Margaret Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution Through the October Days (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), 37.

Estates-General would be stormy: Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, between April 30 and May 4, 1789, Ferrières, Correspondance, 40.

“The orders are neither in accord”: Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, May 15, 1789, Ferrières, Correspondance, 47. On the divisions within each order in April and May 1789, see Timothy Tackett, Becoming a Revolutionary: The Deputies of the FrenchNational Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (1789–1790) (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), chapter 4, “The Creation of the National Assembly,” 119–48.

As the Marquis de Ferrières described: The following description is based on Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, May 6, 1789, Ferrières, Correspondance, 41–46.

procession: This description is based on Ferrières, Correspondance, 42–45.

“thro a double row”: Anne Cary Morris, ed., The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, 2 vols. (New York, 1888), 1:66.

“Consort received”: Morris, Diary, 1:67.

“the odious details”: Jules Michelet, Historical View of the French Revolution: From Its Earliest Indications to the Flight of the King in 1791, trans. C. Cocks (London: Bohn, 1864), 87.

As early as May 6: Edna Hindie Lemay, Dictionnaire des constituants, 1789–1791, 2 vols. (Paris: Universitas, 1991), 2:694.

On the one hand: Lafayette was hardly the only deputy grappling with this question, as discussed in Robert H. Blackman, “What Does a Deputy to the National Assembly Owe His Constituents? Coming to an Agreement on the Meaning of Electoral Mandates in July 1789,” French Historical Studies 34, no. 2 (Spring 2011): 205–41.

For a time, Lafayette considered: Mémoires, 2:309–10. Morris, who dined with Lafayette on Tuesday, June 23, wrote that Lafayette “is determined to resign his Seat, which Step I approve of because the Instructions by which he is bound are contrary to his Conscience.” Morris, Diary, 1:121.

“nineteen twentieths”: As quoted in William Doyle, Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 104.

“nothing can prevent it”: July 22, 1789, Ferrières, Correspondance, 71.

“At nineteen, I dedicated”: Mémoires, 2:308.

“I have tried everything”: Ibid., 2:309.

Tens of thousands: On May 27, Morris wrote in his diary, “Meet Monsr. de Durfort who tells me the Number of Troops in the Neighbourhood of Paris is to prevent Tumult if the States General are dissolved.” Morris, Diary, 1:93.

“very serious Events”: Morris, Diary, 1:128.

“the Soldiery in this City”: Morris to John Jay, July 1, 1789, Morris, Diary, 1:129. All quotes in this paragraph are from the same letter, Morris, Diary, 1: 129–31.

“very humble address”: July 8, 1789, AP, 8:210.

“the liberty and honor of the National Assembly”: Ibid.

“the danger, Sire, threatens the tasks”: July 9, 1789, AP, 8:213.

“caused the greatest stir in the Assembly”: Ibid., 8:212.

relocated to a more remote town: Morris, Diary, 1:142.

“are very angry with me”: Lafayette to Jefferson, n.d., Chinard, Letters, 135.

“They tell me that the head”: Lafayette to Madame de Simiane [?], July 11, 1789, Mémoires, 2:313. In identifying letters as directed to Madame de Simiane, I am following the lead of Louis Gottschalk, who presumes that letters published with no recipient identified were edited by Lafayette’s descendants who wished to cleanse the historical record.

thirty-man committee charged with determining: Lafayette was not a member of the committee. For the complete membership, see Lemay, Dictionnaire, Appendix II. 7 (a), 2:954–55.

Jean-Joseph Mounier: Lemay, Dictionnaire, 2:703–5, esp. 704.

“The goal of all societies”: AP, 8:216.

“seize the favorable moment”: Ibid., 8:215.

“to consider it again”: Chinard, Letters of Lafayette and Jefferson, 135.

Annotations to a copy of the text: Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 89, note 52.

Lafayette’s final copy jettisons: I am indebted to Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 90, for this interpretation.

In earlier drafts: See Keith Michael Baker, “The Idea of a Declaration of Rights,” in The French Idea of Freedom: The Old Regime and the Declaration of Rights of 1789, ed. Dale Van Kley (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 162–63.

“be the first to present them to you”: July 11, 1789, AP, 8:222.

“incalculable”: Ibid., 8:223.

gradual relaxation of censorship laws: In his classic study of the subject, Jeremy Popkin notes that the gradual liberation of the press began on July 5, 1788, when “Brienne lifted the censorship restrictions and encouraged all authors to publish their ideas about how the Estates-General should proceed,” and continued through July 1789. Jeremy D. Popkin, Revolutionary News: The Press in France, 1789–1799 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990), 25ff.

“Its author speaks of liberty”: Journal de Paris (July 13, 1789): 875.

American market: On French-American commerce in this period, see Peter P. Hill, French Perceptions of the Early American Republic, 1783–1793, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 180 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988). On American newspaper response to the events of 1789, see Beatrice F. Hyslop, “The American Press and the French Revolution of 1789,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104, no. 1 (February 1960): 54–85.

“M. Lally was so delighted with the speech”: “Marquis de La Fayette,” Massachusetts Centinel (September 30, 1789): 17.

“to the Marquis de La Fayette”: “London, August 8,” ibid., 18.

Thanks to an aide: The reading of Lafayette’s Declaration of Rights is described in Jean-Sylvain Bailly and Honoré Duveyrier, Procès-verbal des séances et délibérations de l’Assemblée générale des électeurs de Paris, réunis à l’Hôtel-de-Ville le 14 juillet 1789, 3 vols. (Paris: Baudoin, 1790), 1:166–67.

CHAPTER 13: A STORYBOOK HERO

“breaking open the Armorers’s Shops”: Morris, Diary, 1:145.

waxworks gallery: David McCallam, “Waxing Revolutionary: Reflections on a Raid on a Waxworks at the Outbreak of the French Revolution,” French History 16, no. 2 (June 2002): 153–73.

his carriage approached: On the lethal event that Morris happened upon, see Paul G. Spagnoli, “The Revolution Begins: Lambesc’s Charge, 12 July 1789,” French Historical Studies 17, no. 2 (Fall 1991): 466–97.

every room, corridor, stairway: Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 1:184.

“as trophies”: Ibid., 1:186.

“a storybook hero”: Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, Mémoires de Condorcet, sur la Révolution française, extraits de sa correspondance et de celles de ses amis, 2 vols. (Paris: Ponthieu, 1824), 2:53.

“I have already made known”: AP, 8:220.

“I have nothing to add”: Ibid., 8:234.

Paris electors were holed up: The electors’ rise to power is summarized in Henry E. Bourne, “Improvising a Government in Paris, July, 1789,” American Historical Review 10, no. 2 (January 1905): 284–89.

“wearing on their faces”: Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 266.

the entire populace seemed ready: The following description of the events of July 14 are based on Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 271–381.

“a countless multitude”: Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 271.

“carts of flour, wheat, wine”: Ibid., 272.

“perfidy”: Ibid., 313.

“a deputation is no longer”: Ibid., 334.

“Is it a revolt?”: Lemay, Dictionnaire, 2:536.

“the cause of the people”: Mémoires, 2:55.

“the defense of French liberty”: Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 422.

around two in the afternoon: Details of the number of carriages and time of departure are given in Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 109. The names of all the deputies in the contingent are listed in Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 447–49.

“filled with that eloquence”: Bailly and Duveyrier, Procès-verbal, 450.

“congratulated the Assembly”: Ibid.

“all the voices joined”: Ibid., 460.

CHAPTER 14: “I REIGN IN PARIS”

“I reign in Paris”: Lafayette to Madame de Simiane [?], July 16, 1789, Mémoires, 2:317.

the queen had arranged: Madame Campan, Mémoires, 272.

gang of vagabonds: Ferrières, Correspondance, 150.

“I bring your Majesty”: As translated in European Magazine and London Review (July 1789): 81. English sources consistently place Bailly in the Hôtel de Ville at the time of the speech, but Bailly indicates that the speech was given at the first meeting place:Jean-Sylvain Bailly, Mémoires d’un témoin de la Révolution, 3 vols. (Paris: 1804), 2:58.

two royal carriages: Bailly, Mémoires, 2:63.

streets lined with tens of thousands: Morris, Diary, 1:152–53. Estimated numbers vary: Jefferson reported 60,000 men; Morris, 80,000; Bailly, 200,000; and Ferrières, an astonishing 500,000. Jefferson to John Jay, July 19, 1789, The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from the Signing of the Definitive Treaty of Peace, 10th September, 1783, to the Adoption of the Constitution, March 4, 1789, 3 vols. (Washington, DC: Blair and Rives, 1837), 2:308; Morris, Diary, 1:171; Bailly,Mémoires, 61; and Ferrières, Correspondance, 1:151.

“pikes, pruning hooks, scythes”: Jefferson to John Jay, July 19, 1789, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:308.

“the utmost of his Wishes”: Morris to Washington, July 31, 1789, Morris, Diary, 1:171.

“turned himself over”: July 24 or 25, 1789, Mémoires, 2:322.

“If the king refuses”: Ibid., 2:321–22.

Jacques-Pierre Brissot: For two different interpretations of Brissot’s prerevolutionary career, see Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), 41–70; Frederick A. de Luna, “The Dean Street Style of Revolution: J.-P. Brissot, Jeune Philosophe,” French Historical Studies 17, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 159–90; and Darnton’s reply to de Luna, “The Brissot Dossier,” French Historical Studies 17, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 191–205.

“without the Gazettes”: “Prospectus,” Patriote français (April 1, 1789): 2.

praise of Lafayette’s plans: For example, “Hôtel-de-Ville,” Patriote français (July 28, 1789): 4; “Suite du plan d’organisation du milice de Paris,” Patriote français (August 4, 1789): 1.

“a stunning fortune”: “Détails. Du Mercredi, 23 juillet,” Révolutions de Paris: 22. The summary execution of Foulon and his son-in-law are recounted with remarkably little variation by Jean-Sylvain Bailly, Mémoires, 2:276–305; Ferrières, Correspondance, 155–60; Mémoires, 2:274–79, and Révolutions de Paris.

“obliges me to speak”: Lafayette’s speech as reported by Bailly, Mémoires, 2:290–91.

“the justice of the ideas”: Journal de Paris (July 25, 1789): 924.

“turn into fury”: Bailly, Mémoires, 2:293.

“it was reattached”: Révolutions de Paris, 1, no. 11 (July 18–July 25, 1789): 20.

omitted from the series of prints: Charlotte Hould, ed., La Révolution par la gravure: Les Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française; une entreprise éditoriale d’information et sa diffusion en Europe (1791–1817), exhibit catalog (Vizille: Musée de la Révolution française, 2002).

“Passive discontent”: Lafayette to Washington, May 25, 1788, PGWC, 6:292.

“the people did not heed”: Mémoires, 2:281.

“What to do?”: Mémoires, 2:320.

“the night the Old Regime”: See Michael P. Fitzsimmons, The Night the Old Regime Ended: August 4, 1789, and the French Revolution (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), for a full account of the day’s events and significance.

sweeping resolutions: AP, 8:420.

Vicomte de Noailles and the Duc d’Aiguillon: Ibid., 8:413–14.

Vicomte de Beauharnais: The representative from Orléans, he was the first husband of Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie, who, as the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, reigned as empress of France. On Beauharnais’s political career, see Lemay, Dictionnaire, 1:69–71.

“all ecclesiastical, civil, and military posts”: AP, 8:346.

“a curse”: Jean-Baptiste-Joseph de Lubersac, bishop of Chartres, AP, 8:346; Lemay, Dictionnaire, 2:608–9.

“It would have been useless”: Ferrierès to Monsieur de Rabreuil, August 7, 1789, Ferrières, Correspondance, 116.

“Restorer of French liberty”: AP, 8:350.

the Parisian bakers’ guild: Morris, Diary, 1:230.

“casting about for the Ways and Means”: Ibid., 1:237.

“plunging himself into Debts”: Ibid., 1:229.

“All hell has conspired”: Lafayette to [Madame de Simiane?], August [?] 1789, Mémoires, 2:322.

“rainy disagreeable Day”: Morris, Diary, 1:240.

“canine appetite for popularity”: Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787. The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series 1, General Correspondence, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

“orgy”: See, for example, Révolutions de Paris 1, no. 13 (October 3–10): 6 and Patriote français (October 6, 1789): 2.

broke bread together: Campan, Mémoires, 287.

“joy and jubilation”: The following discussion of events involving black cockades is given in Révolutions de Paris 1, no. 13 (October 3–10): 5–6. All quotations are from these pages.

Lafayette refused to sanction: This paragraph presents the events as recounted in Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 329–51; Sigismond Lacroix, ed., Actes de la Commune de Paris pendant la Révolution(New York: AMS, 1973), 2:165–82; and Mémoires, 2:329–46. There are nearly as many accounts of the day as there were people present. Although details vary, the broad outlines given here are consistent with other credible versions.

thirty thousand armed: Barry M. Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice in Paris, 1789–1790 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 86, places the number of protesters between 30,000 and 35,000. The day’s weather is described in Morris, Diary, 1:244.

Madame Campan: Except where noted, my description of the events as seen from Versailles is based on Campan, Mémoires, 289–98.

royal household leapt into action: Campan, Mémoires, 562, note 144.

the first Parisian women: The number of women is given in Henriette Lucie Dillon, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, Mémoires de la marquise de La Tour du Pin: Journal d’une femme de cinquante ans, 1778–1815: Suivis d’extraits inédits (Paris: Mercure de France, 1989), 136.

“the moment to flee was lost”: Campan, Mémoires, 291.

“marched by Compulsion”: Morris, Diary, 1:243.

drums and the flicker of torches: Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 349.

“the nation, the law, and the king”: Mémoires, 2:339.

“saw his approach with pleasure”: Ibid., 2:338.

“Long live the King!”: Courrier de Versailles (October 8, 1789): 109.

Place d’Armes around midnight: La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, Mémoires, 139.

“instead of being a guardian”: Mémoires, 2:339.

“Sire, I thought it better”: La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, Mémoires, 140.

Daybreak found Lafayette: The following description comes from Mémoires, 2:341. It is the only source that places Lafayette on the balcony with the queen; Madame Campan, for instance, has Marie Antoinette appearing alone, her “eyes and hands lifted toward the sky” as she steps onto the balcony “like a sacrificial victim” (Campan, Mémoires, 295). Gottschalk and Maddox address the discrepancy in Appendix IV, “Did Lafayette Kiss the Queen’s Hand?”; they conclude that the balcony scene probably did unfold more or less as Lafayette described it (Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 398–99).

CHAPTER 15: TRIUMPH

“Many people averred”: Campan, Mémoires, 294.

A pamphlet spelled out: On the rumor, see “Nouveaux indices de conjuration. D’un libelle intitulé: Domine salvum sac regem. Avis au peuple,” Révolutions de Paris, 15:29–30.

“charged by His Majesty”: “Versailles,” Patriote français (October 15, 1789): 1.

“I would have denounced”: Lafayette to Mounier, October 23, 1789, Mémoires, 2:416.

Orléans did not call his bluff: Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice, 84–96, esp. 96.

decamped for England: “Paris,” Patriote français (October 16, 1789): 2.

weighed heavily on Lafayette: Mémoires, 2:427–29, 431–32, 475–79.

“as his enemy”: Ibid., 2:430.

“provisioning of the capital”: Reported in “Paris,” Patriote français (October 10, 1789): 4. As translated by Louis Gottschalk and Margaret Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: From the October Days Through the Federation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 6–7.

“Lafayette and Liberty”: Courrier de Versailles (October 8, 1789): 109.

“the champion of liberty”: Ibid., October 12, 1789, 158.

English-language books: Two commissioners appointed by the municipality to inventory the books in the library of “the émigré Lafayette” on May 2, 1794, found these, among some 230 books and maps. This is in pointed contrast to the books inventoried in Lafayette’s office at the Hôtel de Ville, which were almost entirely in French or Latin, with the majority on religious subjects. One study of the libraries seized from twenty-six key figures found books on American topics in several collections but termed Lafayette’s library “the extreme illustration.” Agnès Marcetteau-Paul and Dominique Varry, “Les bibliothèques de quelques acteurs de la Révolution, de Louis XVI à Robespierre,” Mélanges de la Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne 9 (1989), 200–201.

“Minister and Soldier”: Morris, Diary, 1:252.

“Men do not go into Administration”: Ibid., 1:252–53.

1785 Salon: On the painting, see Laura Auricchio, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2009), 39–40. On the Comtesse de Flahaut, see Marie-José Fassiotto, “La Comtesse de Flahaut et son cercle: un exemple de salon politique sous la Révolution,” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 303 (1992): 344–48.

“La Fayette has no fixed Plan”: Morris, Diary, 1:283.

“whole army was devoted to him”: Campan, Mémoires, 291.

“Why, Citizens!”: Extract from the pamphlet Quand aurons-nous du pain? as quoted in Courrier de Versailles à Paris et de Paris à Versailles (October 12, 1789), 95:151–53.

“inciting an ignorant, cowardly”: Popkin, Revolutionary News, 146–51; quotes as translated on 146–47.

“a vile and accursed man”: Courrier de Versailles, 136.

“no man may be disturbed”: As quoted and translated by Gottschalk and Maddox, Lafayette in the French Revolution: Through the October Days, 86.

“the communications of his thoughts”: Mémoires, 2:252–53.

Marat had gone so far: On freedom of the press in September and October 1789, see Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice, 99–103, and Charles Walton, Policing Public Opinion in the French Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 97–99.

He responded in his favorite venue: Charles Vellay, ed., La correspondance de Marat: Recueillie et annotée (Paris: Eugène Fasquelle, 1908), 118–19.

“festivals of federation”: The most thorough account of the event is provided by Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 33–60. My understanding of the day is equally indebted to Schama, Citizens, 500–513.

“Messieurs”: AP, 16:117.

“our brothers to come, as deputies”: Ibid., 16:118.

“citizens of all ages”: Ibid., 16:119.

the citizens of Paris were unable to tame: The following description is based on Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Paris pendant la Révolution (1789–1798); ou, Le nouveau Paris, 2 vols. (Paris: Poulet-Malassis, 1862), 1:66–72; the quotes are on p. 69.

anonymous society of artists: Affiches, annonces, et avis divers (July 12, 1790): 2038.

Advertisements for products: Ibid., July 17, 1790, 2097–98.

“large and comfortable house”: Ibid., July 11, 1790, 2025.

no-frills seats: Ibid., July 12, 1790, 2038.

“Paris, like Boston”: “Comédie Française,” Révolutions de Paris (July 10–17, 1790), 53:40.

“musical drama”: Affiches, annonces, et avis divers (July 10, 1790): 2019.

priced at double the usual cost: “Fédération du 14 juillet,” Révolutions de Paris (July 10–17 1790), 53:11.

sodden affair: “Variétés,” Chronique de Paris (July 16, 1790): 785.

opening procession alone: The order of ceremonies, including the list of groups participating in the procession, is published as “Proclamation du roi, concernant l’ordre à observer le 14 juillet, jour de la Fédération générale,” Chronique de Paris (July 13, 1790): 773–74.

“triumph of human kind”: Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France, in the Summer of 1790, to a Friend in England (London: T. Cadell, 1791), 14.

“Ten thousand of them”: “Fêtes publiques,” Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 54 (July 17–24, 1790): 52.

due to the rain: “Fédération du 14 juillet,” Ibid. 5, no. 53 (July 10–17, 1790): 8–9.

“seemed to have taken full possession”: William Short to Gouverneur Morris, July 27, 1790, as published in Morris, Diary, 1:565–67.

opened the ground floor: William Short to Thomas Jefferson, July 16, 1790, Thomas Jefferson Papers.

“who is so justly the idol”: Williams believed that “aristocrats” may have wheedled into the crowd of admirers with the intention of harming Lafayette under cover of the crowd. Williams, Letters, 17. Révolutions de Paris reports the same event without the sinister overtones.

“the air of the general”: The description of the Palais-Royal is from Short to Morris, July 27, 1790, Morris, Diary, 1:565. The quote about Lafayette is from “Détails du 10 au 17 juillet 1790,” Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 53 (July 10–17, 1790): 13.

transparency of his likeness: Williams, Letters, 21.

“all the editions”: “Détails du 10 au 17 juillet 1790,” Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 53 (July 10–17, 1790): 13.

CHAPTER 16: UNFLATTERING PORTRAITS

“the zenith”: William Short to Gouverneur Morris, July 27, 1790, as published in Morris, Diary, 1:565–67.

Bouillé had sworn allegiance: See François-Claude-Amour de Bouillé, Mémoires du Marquis de Bouillé (Paris: Baudouin Frères, 1821), 122.

“If I love liberty”: Lafayette to Bouillé, May 20, 1790, Mémoires, 2:461.

“let us serve it”: Ibid.

“Revolts among the Regiments”: Lafayette to Washington, August 23, 1790, PGWP.

pamphlet: The full French title of the pamphlet, which is available at the Archives Nationales, the New York Public Library, and elsewhere, is Vie Privée, Impartiale, Politique, Militaire et Domestique, du Marquis de La Fayette, Général des Bleuets, Pour servir de Supplément à la Nécrologie des Hommes célèbres du dix-huitième siècle, et de clef aux Révolutions Françaises et Américaines. Dédiée aux soixante districts de Paris. Ornée de son Portrait. À Paris, de l’Imprimerie particulière de M. de Bastide, Président du District de Saint-Roch, en 1790.

bookseller was arrested: “Le Procès encommencé contre le S Le Normand, Imprimeur prévenu d’avoir imprimé en partie l’écrit intitulé Vie privée et impartiale, politique, militaire et domestique du Marquis de La Fayette,” Archives Nationales Y/10509. Inventaires des procès pour crimes de lèse-nation instruits au Châtelet 1789–90. “Procédure au sujet du libelle intitulé Vie privée et impartiale, politique, militaire et domestique du Marquis de La Fayette,” Archives Nationales, BB/30/160.

“Continue to adore”: Cloquet, Souvenirs sur la vie privée, iv–v.

he expressed hope: Mémoires, 3:137–40.

“a Declaration that”: Morris, Diary, 1:570.

“agree to consult”: “Lettre du Roi au Général Lafayette,” as published in Mémoires, 2:496.

“without discussion and unanimously”: AP 18, 93.

garrison town of Nancy: My understanding of the affaire de Nancy is indebted to Samuel F. Scott, “Problems of Law and Order During 1790, the ‘Peaceful’ Year of the French Revolution,” American Historical Review 80, no. 4 (October 1975): 865–71. Except where noted, the following discussion is based on Scott’s work.

assembly authorized Bouillé: The affaire de Nancy receives little attention in the English-language literature on Lafayette. Gottschalk’s final volume ends with the federation, and more recent American texts tend to minimize the event. For a fuller discussion of Lafayette’s role in the affaire de Nancy, see the French literature, especially Charavay, La Fayette, 240–47.

“The decree concerning Nancy”: Lafayette to Bouillé, August 18, 1790, Bouillé, Mémoires, 134.

called for an inquiry: See Charavay, La Fayette, 243–44.

ninety-four bodies: These figures are based on the report presented to the National Assembly by a royal commission charged with investigating the matter on October 14, 1790, and published in AP, 19:616–35. For Bouillé’s version of events, see Bouillé,Mémoires, 145–72. Bouillé declines to estimate the number of dead at Nancy but is in rough agreement with the commissioners in his summary of the soldiers’ punishment.

Marat reached the peak: Charavay, La Fayette, 245.

“pretending to pass”: “Lettre à Lafayette,” L’ami du peuple (September 15, 1790): 222, reprinted in Vellay, Correspondance, 182.

“That you, a mature and educated man”: Vellay, Correspondance, 183.

“the name of Lafayette”: As quoted in Charavay, La Fayette, 246. Charavay, in turn, quotes from François-Alphonse Aulard, La société des Jacobins: Recueil de documents pour l’histoire du club des Jacobins de Paris (Paris: 1888–97; repr., New York: AMS Press, 1973), 1:295.

“the art of circumspection”: Brissot to Lafayette, April 30, 1787, as quoted and translated by Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice, 18–19.

“with regret”: Patriote français, September 1, 1790, 2.

“swear a new oath”: Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 61 (September 4–11): 419.

“It is M. de Lafayette”: Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 62 (September 11–18, 1790): 489.

Lafayette’s maneuvers: Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 62 (September 11–18, 1790): 487.

Black draperies: This description is based on Patriote français (September 22, 1790): 4, and Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 63 (September 18–25, 1790): 531.

“seeming to accuse”: Révolutions de Paris 5, no. 63 (September 18–25, 1790): 532.

“Everything goes from bad to worse”: Marie Antoinette to Comte de Mercy, July 12, 1790, as reproduced in Maxime de la Rocheterie and Marquis de Beaucourt, eds., Lettres de Marie-Antoinette: recueil des lettres authentiques de la reine, 2 vols. (Paris: Picard, 1895), 2:177–79, quote on p. 178. First-person accounts of Marie Antoinette are notoriously unreliable, as are compilations of her letters, which are filled with fictions and forgeries. However, the volumes cited here are generally considered authentic.

pornographic prints: The pornographic texts and images that derided Marie Antoinette have received a considerable amount of attention from scholars since the 1980s. See for example, Dena Goodman, ed., Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen(New York: Routledge, 2003).

“What double rapture!”: Bordel patriotique institué par la Reine des François pour les plaisirs des Députés à la nouvelle Législature (Paris: 1791), 35. Through the process of elimination, Dena Goodman concluded that this pamphlet was produced by the Orléanists: nearly every other rival for power in 1791 comes under attack from the pornographer’s pen. Lynn Hunt, “Pornography in the French Revolution,” in The Invention of Pornography: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1500–1800, Lynn Hunt, ed. (New York: Zone Books, 1993), 316.

“thrust ahead”: Bordel patriotique, 35. The verb used is enfoncer, which means both to drive something in (such as a nail) and, in a military context, to vanquish.

“la poule d’autruche”: Because spelling was not yet standardized, the letters i and y are frequently used interchangeably, as in autriche and autryche, both of which mean Austria.

“Neither Phidias nor Scopas nor Praxiteles”: The Priapus Poems: Erotic Epigrams from Ancient Rome, trans. Richard W. Hooper (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 54.

Marquis de Favras: On the “Favras Conspiracy,” see Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice, 124–47.

He kept a locksmith busy: LOC, reel 6, folder 42.

CHAPTER 17: DOWNFALLS

Cannon fire: This description of the morning of June 21 is based on the report given in “Assemblée Nationale,” L’ami du roi (June 22, 1791): 689. My discussion of the events of June 1791 is deeply indebted to Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).

rumors swirled: Lafayette gives his version of events in Mémoires, 3:73–102.

In the chamber: AP, 27:358–97.

Alexandre de Beauharnais: Ibid., 27:361.

Soon, Lafayette himself was: Mémoires, 3:79.

“an attack”: AP, 27:370.

“Declaration of the King”: Ibid., 27:378.

“by special decree”: Ibid., 27:382.

“that services rendered”: Ibid., 27:379.

“Come back”: Ibid., 27:383.

“a satire of the Revolution”: Révolutions de Paris 8, no. 102 (June 18–25, 1791): 546.

“The Declaration written in the hand”: Ferrières, Correspondance, 368.

L’ami du roi: L’ami des français, de l’ordre, et sur-tout de la vérité (June 22, 1791), 173:689. On June 30, the paper reclaimed the title L’ami du roi.

at least since March: Campan, Mémoires, 338.

nécessaire de voyage: Ibid., 339.

twelve battalions and twenty-three squadrons: Bouillé, Mémoires, 237.

suspicions of local citizens: Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 69.

“happily”: Bouillé, Mémoires, 240.

added to the passenger list: Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 59.

Lafayette’s carriage: Memoirs of the Duchess de Tourzel, Governess to the Children of France During the Years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1795, 2 vols. (London: Remington, 1886), 1:323.

“then looking at his watch”: Ibid., 1:329.

rode into Sainte-Menehould: “Lettre des officiers municipaux de Sainte-Menehould à l’Assemblée nationale,” June 22, 1791, AP, 27:424.

As Drouet told: Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Récit fait par M. Drouet, maître de poste à Ste Menehould, de la manière dont il a reconnu le roi, et a été cause de son arrestation à Varennes: Honneurs rendus à ce citoyen et à deux de ses camarades (Paris: Imprimerie du Journal des Clubs, 1791), 2.

circumventing Reims: Bouillé, Mémoires, 192.

raced to the town: This account summarizes Drouet, Récit.

“Here is my wife”: Drouet, Récit, 6.

“Monsieur the Commander General”: Révolutions de Paris 8, no. 102 (June 18–25, 1791): 535.

“Flesselle and Delaunay”: Ibid., 102:538.

loyalty of Lafayette: On June 23, Lafayette would lead a crowd of National Guardsman into the assembly hall to swear an oath reaffirming their commitment to the nation’s freedom. Mémoires, 3:86–87.

“is criminal or imbecile”: Révolutions de Paris 8, no. 102 (June 18–25, 1791): 532.

a messenger arrived: AP, 27:446–47.

“Does Your Majesty”: Mémoires, 3:92.

“issued orders that no honors”: Joseph-Thomas d’Espinchal, Journal d’émigration du Comte d’Espinchal (Paris, Perrin, 1912), 241.

“at the head”: Bouillé to National Assembly, letter dated June 26, 1791, AP, 27:602.

“calumny”: AP, 27:671.

“happily for him”: Mémoires, 3:79.

When the sun rose: Sunrise and sunset are given in Chronique de Paris (July 17, 1791), 198:799. The following discussion of the social, political, and economic divisions roiling Paris is indebted to David Andress, Massacre at the Champ de Mars: Popular Dissent and Political Culture in the French Revolution (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 2000), and David Andress, “The Denial of Social Conflict in the French Revolution: Discourses Around the Champ de Mars Massacre, 17 July 1791,”French Historical Studies 22, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 183–209.

tens of thousands of men: Andress, “Denial of Social Conflict,” 192–93.

clearing Louis XVI: This discussion is based on Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 137–42.

“all the firebrands of the capital”: Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, July 20, 1791, Ferrières, Correspondance, 395.

“much Heat”: Gouverneur Morris to Robert Morris, July 16, 1791, Morris, Diary, 2:220.

“the principles that dictated”: AP, 28:372.

The violence began before noon: This description of the uncontested moments of the event is based on Andress, Massacre, 4–6; Mémoires, 3:103–9; and Tackett, When the King Took Flight, 145–50.

renewed their demand: AP, 28:380–81.

“were I to be a victim”: Ibid., 28:380.

“hailstorm of rocks”: Mémoires, 3:106.

Albert Mathiez: The following details are found in Albert Mathiez, Le club des Cordeliers pendant la crise de Varennes et le massacre du Champ de Mars (Paris: Champion, 1910), 146–52.

“Patriot’s Saint Bartholomew’s day”: Mathiez, Cordeliers, 152.

“Blood flowed”: Révolutions de Paris 9, no. 106 (July 16–23, 1791): 53.

“the roads of France”: Bouillé, Mémoires, 269.

popular destinations: Doyle, Oxford History, 156.

formal letter of good-bye: Mémoires, 3:120–23.

he reached Chavaniac: Ibid., 3:189.

“private life”: Ibid., 3:124.

“where he means, by his own example”: “The Following account of the Illustrious Marquis de la Fayette, extracted from a London paper, cannot fail to be acceptable to every reader who knows how to appreciate real magnanimity and patriotism.” The American Museum; or, Universal Magazine (February 1792): 48.

“this manner of serving my neighbors”: “Note relative à ma fortune personelle,” n.d. [1801?], Cornell, box 6, folder 16.

“give the region an example”: Ibid.

Dyson lived with Lafayette’s family: “Extrait du registre d’enregistrement des créances sur les émigrés du district de Brioude. Chapitre Lafayette, article 18, 9 février 1793,” Cornell, box 122, folder 1, D [Miscellaneous accounts, legal papers, documents, etc.] Chavaniac.

Vaudoyer also joined: Vaudoyer memo, 20 messidor year 8 (July 9, 1800). LOC, reel 6, folder 73. On Vaudoyer’s career, see Barry Bergdoll, “Vaudoyer, Antoine-Laurent-Thomas,” in Dictionnaire critique des historiens de l’art actifs en France de la Révolution à la Première Guerre mondiale, ed. Philippe Sénéchal and Claire Barbillon (Paris: INHA, 2009).

Vaudoyer served as Lafayette’s architect: Vaudoyer to Lafayette, July 4, 1792, Archives Nationales, C/358, no. 1900.

“all would be well”: “Lettre de Lafayette relative à une instruction à adresser aux paysans de la Haute-Loire pour leur expliquer la constitution de 1791,” Séances et travaux de l’Académie des sciences morales et politiques, n.s., 62 (1904): 79.

all priests to swear an oath: See François Furet, “Civil Constitution of the Clergy,” in Furet and Ozouf, eds., Critical Dictionary, 449–57.

“you will never convert a fanatic”: “Lettre de Lafayette,” 81.

“the advantages of liberty and equality”: Ibid., 80.

“Here,” wrote Ferrières: Ferrières to Madame de Ferrières, November 1, 1791, Ferrières, Correspondance, 440.

Calls for war: Gouverneur Morris speculates on the reasons for the widespread desire for war in a letter to Washington of February 4, 1792. Morris, Diary, 2:355. Some believed that the war against the royalists in exile would finally unite the nation; Robespierre, in contrast, vehemently opposed the war, believing with the king that it would ring the death knell of the revolution. For a well-researched and highly readable biography of Robespierre, see Ruth Scurr, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007).

“amassing of armed French troops”: Charavay, La Fayette, 291.

three armies of 50,000 troops each: Ibid.

product of an incestuous liaison: Morris, Diary, 2:354.

Nicolas Luckner: One of the many tragic ironies of the French Revolution is that Luckner, the man to whom “La Marseillaise” was dedicated, died on the guillotine in 1794.

choice that pleased almost no one: Charavay, La Fayette, 291, reports that Louis XVI initially objected to Narbonne’s selection of Lafayette but was quieted by Narbonne’s assertion that “if Your Majesty does not name him today … the nation will compel you to do it tomorrow.”

the Jacobin party had been abuzz: The rumors are refuted in Charavay, La Fayette, 288–90. For an example of the rumor as it circulated in the Jacobin press, see “Derniers efforts de la faction-Lafayette, pour empêcher la fête civique des soldats de Château-Vieux,” Révolutions de Paris (March 31–April 7, 1792), 143:8–16.

“Festival of Liberty”: Detailed plans for the festival are spelled out in “Détails & ordre définitivement arrête de la fête des soldats de Château-Vieux,” Révolutions de Paris 143 (March 31–April 7, 1792): 16–18, and the event is described in “Première fête de la liberté, à l’occasion des soldats de Châteaux-Vieux,” Révolutions de Paris 145 (April 14–21, 1792): 97–108. For an analysis of the festival, see Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, trans. Alan Sheridan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 66–82.

“the national guard of Paris”: Lafayette to Adrienne, April 18, 1792, Mémoires, 3:430. This letter was found on Adrienne’s person when she was arrested by revolutionary authorities on September 11, 1792.

Lafayette’s supporters: Révolutions de Paris 145 (April 14–21, 1792): 125–28.

rousing proclamation: Mémoires, 3:311–13.

“The clubs usurped”: Mémories, 3:323–24.

lengthy letter: The letter was published in AP, 45:338–40, and the debate recorded in AP, 45:340–43. It is reproduced with annotations in Mémoires, 2:325–31.

“Organized like a separate empire”: Mémoires, 3:326–27.

“Strike down Lafayette”: Charavay, La Fayette, 305.

stormed the Tuileries Palace: For the most recent discussion of the events of June 20, 1792, see Micah Alpaugh, “The Making of the Parisian Political Demonstration: A Case Study of 20 June 1792,” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 34 (2006): 115–33.

“excited indignation and alarm”: AP, 45:653.

Crimes of Lafayette in France: Crimes de La Fayette en France, seulement depuis la Révolution et depuis sa nomination au grade de général (Paris: Imprimerie du Patriote Français, [1792]). An original copy of this rare pamphlet is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Tolbiac, LB39-5208. A photocopy is available in Gottschalk, box 56, folder 9.

“issue a proclamation”: Mémoires, 3:345.

“we would be better off”: Ibid., 3:347.

What was to be done: Much of AP 46 and AP 47 is devoted to these questions.

“tyranny over the National Assembly”: This was the interpretation offered by the Left and voiced by the deputy Jean Debry on August 8, 1792. AP, 47:562.

expressing personal views: This argument was put forth by Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc, a leader of the Feuillants, in response to Debry. AP, 47:565.

“partisan and admirer”: AP, 47:8.

assembly took up the question: AP, 47:578.

“this was not another demonstration”: David P. Jordan, The King’s Trial: Louis XVI vs. The French Revolution (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979), 35. See also David Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 82–90; Doyle, Oxford History, 186–90; and Schama, Citizens, 611–18.

“torn [Lafayette] to pieces”: Morris to Jefferson, August 1, 1792, Morris, Diary, 2:483.

“plotting against liberty”: Charavay, La Fayette, 327. For the discussion and text of the resolution, see AP, 48:387–88.

at camp in Sedan: Mémoires, 3:401.

“the nation, the law, and the king”: Charavay, La Fayette, 326.

CHAPTER 18: EXILE

“there was nothing left to do”: Mémoires, 3:401.

Bouillon: Bouillon is part of modern Belgium, but Lafayette described it as being “the extreme frontier of France.” Mémoires, 3:405.

Lafayette and forty-three other Frenchmen: Charavay, La Fayette, 330–31, lists the names of the officers and aides-de-camp who accompanied him. Although Charavay gives the hour of their arrival as eight o’clock and others have placed it closer to midnight, I have accepted the time of nine o’clock, proposed on the basis of archival research published in Paul S. Spalding, Lafayette: Prisoner of State (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2010), 1, the definitive account of Lafayette’s life from his 1792 arrest to his 1797 release.

“unable to withstand”: Charavay, La Fayette, 331.

“You were the instigator”: Ibid., 340–41.

Lafayette put pen to paper: Lafayette to Adrienne, August 21, 1792, Charavay, La Fayette, 332.

“You will greatly oblige me”: Short forwarded Lafayette’s letter to Morris. It is included in Morris, Diary, 2:551–52.

“supposing that Monsieur”: Morris to Short, September 12, 1792, Morris, Diary, 2:556.

“The less we meddle”: Morris to Pinckney, September 13, 1792, Morris, Diary, 2:557.

wrote directly to George Washington: Adrienne de Lafayette to George Washington, October 8, 1792, PGWP, 11:204–6. As translated by John Dyson, who forwarded the original and his translation to Washington. Washington received the letter on February 20, 1793, and responded to it on March 16, 1793.

“Enclosed is a letter”: Washington to Jefferson, February 24, 1793, PGWP, 12:207.

“all the consolation”: Washington to Jefferson, March 13, 1793, PGWP, 12:313.

“sincere sympathy”: Washington to Marquise de Lafayette, June 13, 1793, PGWP, 13:70.

“His circle is completed”: Morris to Jefferson, August 22, 1792, as quoted in Jared Sparks, The Life of Gouverneur Morris: With Selections from His Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers; Detailing Events in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and in the Political History of the United States, 3 vols. (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1832), 203.

designated as émigrés: Massimo Boffa, “Émigrés,” in Furet and Ozouf, Critical Dictionary, 324–31.

begin the inventory: Cornell, 4611 bound manuscript 13++ supplement. A portion of this inventory is published by Henry Mosnier, Le château de Chavaniac-Lafayette, description—histoire—souvenirs (Le Puy: Marchessou Fils, 1883), Appendix 1, 45–51. However, Mosnier includes only those items inventoried on August 30, 1792. The inventory continued on August 31, 1792, and was conducted again on February 13–15, 1793. The 1793 inventory is more detailed than that compiled in 1792 and includes the estimated values of many of the items listed. I am grateful to Laurent Ferri, curator of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, for signaling the existence of Cornell’s complete inventory.

“sentiments of humanity”: “Mme de La Fayette au ministre, 28 novembre 1792.” This letter and several dozen additional documents related to the purchase and sale of Lafayette’s properties in Guiyana are housed in “Titres, pièces, correspondance et renseignements concernant l’habitation la Gabrielle, venue à l’État par le marquis de La Fayette suivant contrat passé à Paris, le 13 germinal an × (3 avril 1802) devant Mr Perhet, notaire (1756-1829),” ANOM FM C/14/81.

“nothing could have ever impelled”: Mme de La Fayette à Geneste, 28 novembre, 1792, ANOM FM C/14/81.

inventoried on April 5, 1794: “Extrait des Minutes et Registres du Directoire du Département de la Guyane Française,” Archives Nationales, AB/XIX/366.

wrote to the Ministry of the Marine: Au Citoyen Ministre de la Marine, year 8, ANOM FM C/14/81. Lafayette remained in regular contact with the ministry from 1799 to 1802 as he negotiated the restitution of his property and its subsequent sale to the ministry.

slavery had been abolished: Slavery had, in point of fact, been declared abolished in 1794. However, actions on this front were evidently not taken immediately.

“the Sovereign owes”: Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, Réflexions sur l’esclavage des Nègres (Neufchâtel: 1781), 29–30.

last will and testament: Adrienne’s wills are available in LOC, reel 5, folder 67a.

taken into custody: “Procès-verbal rédigé par Alphonse Aulagnier, juge de paix au Puy, chef-lieu du département de la Haute-Loire, lors de l’arrestation de madame et de mademoiselle Lafayette,” reproduced in Virginie de Lasteyrie, Vie de Madame de Lafayette par Mme de Lasteyrie sa fille précédée d’une notice sur la vie de sa mère Mme la Duchesse d’Ayen (Paris: Techener, 1868), 461–63. Virginie was in the house as well, but she hid with a servant and was not discovered. Maurois, Adrienne, 233.

quietly sympathetic: Aulagnier comes off poorly in the story as told by Maurois, Adrienne, 231–33. However, judging from his willingness to disobey orders at a moment when doing so could well have been fatal, he could not have been the “fanatical Jacobin” that Maurois describes.

Princesse de Lamballe: The most recent account of the murder of the Princesse de Lamballe and the September massacres is given by David Andress, The Terror, 93–115. Andress puts the number killed between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred.

shuttled from city to city: Spalding, Lafayette: Prisoner of State, 14–25.

“after all debts have been settled”: Grattepain-Morizot to Adrienne, January 5, 1793, as quoted and translated in Maurois, Adrienne, 244.

“deliberate in secret”: AP, 61:378.

September 5, 1793: My understanding of the events of September 5 is indebted to the classic text on the subject, R. R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution (1941; repr., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 44–55, and to Andress, The Terror, 205–9.

“the traitors within”: AP, 73:419.

“revolutionary army”: Ibid., 73:420.

National Convention began to make good: Ibid., 74:303.

“fatal decree”: Adrienne uses the term in her account of the life of the Duchesse d’Ayen, as published in Lasteyrie, Vie de Madame de Lafayette, 136. The law is published in AP, 74:303–4.

arrested in early October: Lasteyrie, Vie de Madame de Lafayette, 305. Adrienne’s father had fled to Switzerland where he remained safe.

house arrest: Ibid., 300.

Adrienne was imprisoned: Ibid., 294–96, 305.

sixty people per day: Ibid., 319.

“I have given up trying”: Ibid., 150.

“the Comité de Surveillance”: Morris, Diary, 2:52.

“as a citizen”: Morris to Washington, July 25, 1794, Morris, Diary, 2:64.

preferred to credit: Mémoires, 4:372. Monroe’s papers testify that Adrienne wrote to him repeatedly in the last six months of 1794.

wrote to the emperor: John C. Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1749, 39 vols. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931–44), 35:45–46.

Captivity of Lafayette: Philippe Charles d’Agrain, Captivité de Lafayette. Héroïde, avec figures et des notes historiques, non encore connues du public, sur les illustres prisonniers d’Olmutz, en Moravie (Paris: Chocheris, 1797). An English poem, The Castle of Olmutz: A poem, inscribed to La Fayette (London, 1797), seems to be a rough translation of d’Agrain. On d’Agrain’s arrest and liberation in 1792, see Spalding, Prisoner of State, 41.

“enduring a series of most dreadful”: Quotes in this paragraph are from The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, 36 vols. (London: Hansard, 1818), 32:1109. I was directed to Fox’s speech by Spalding, Lafayette: Prisoner of State, 151.

“what a scene”: Parliamentary History, 32:1353. Upon his release from prison, Lafayette wrote a letter thanking FitzPatrick and Fox for their support. Lafayette to FitzPatrick, October 8, 1797, Mémoires, 4:378–80.

“It is a torment to her conscience”: Parliamentary History, 32:1355.

“that a more striking and pathetic”: Ibid., 32:1358.

most popular men in the nation: David A. Bell, The First Total War: Napoleon’s Empire and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007), 195–207.

“to end their captivity”: Mémoires, 4:293.

“had the happiness of embracing”: Samuel Williams to Washington, October 5, 1797, PGWR.

“ordered their release”: William Vans Murray to Washington, August 26, 1797, PGWR.

expressed his dismay: Mémoires, 4:377. Francis Huger had been one of the conspirators in the failed plot to free Lafayette from prison.

“retailing abuse against Lafayette”: “Mr. Noah Webster’s Attack on Porcupine,” Porcupine’s Political Censor (March 1797): 75.

“that a desire to ingratiate yourself”: “Letter II. To Mr. Noah Webster of New-York,” Porcupine’s Political Censor (March 1779): 81.

“cured me of my good will”: Hamilton to Lafayette, April 28, 1798, Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 26 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 21:451.

“no one in the United States”: Washington to Lafayette, December 25, 1798, PGWR. Washington acknowledged having received, but not replied to, six letters from Lafayette written between October 6, 1797, and September 5, 1798. Even in an era of difficult communication, a delay of this length was extremely rare. Washington explained his silence by pointing out that, since the first four of Lafayette’s letters had mentioned an imminent departure for America, he had reason to believe that a response would not find Lafayette in Europe.

“how ardently”: Lafayette to Washington, May 9, 1799, PGWR, 4:54.

Murray reported: Worthingon Chauncey Ford, ed., “Letters of William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, 1797–1803,” Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1912 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1914).

“I am glad you have seen”: Ford, “Letters,” 396.

in a hot air balloon: Lafayette to Adrienne, July 4, 1799, Mémoires, 5:61.

“could I not … be useful”: William Vans Murray to George Washington, August 17, 1799, PGWR, 4:259.

addressing his mail to the United States: Secretary of State Timothy Pickering wrote to Washington on October 24, 1799: “I suspect Lafayette is coming to America: I saw lately a letter from an Emigrant in Germany, addressed to him in the United States.”PGWR, 4:363.

speculating that Talleyrand: The quotations below are from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to George Washington, June 25, 1799, PGWR, 4:155.

“explicit federalism”: William Vans Murray to John Quincy Adams, August 19, 1799, Ford, “Letters,” 585.

initially dismissed allegations: Washington to Timothy Pickering, July 14, 1799, PGWR, 4:187.

“to consolidate, guarantee”: F.-A. Aulard, Registre des délibérations du Consulat provisoire, 20 brumaire–3 nîvose an VIII (11 novembre–24 décembre 1799) (Paris: Société de l’Histoire de la Révolution Française, 1894), 3–4. On Napoleon’s repeated invocation of the original intent of the 1789 revolutionaries as the basis for his consolidation of power, see Isser Woloch, Napoleon and His Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship (New York: Norton, 2002).

“obligations”: Lafayette to Bonaparte, n.d., Mémoires, 5:154.

laying the groundwork: Lafayette to Adrienne, October 28, 1799, Mémoires, 5:141.

uncharacteristically succinct letter: Lafayette to Bonaparte, October 30, 1799, Mémoires, 5:146–47.

“talent for making friends”: As quoted in Constance Wright, Madame de Lafayette (New York: Henry Holt, 1959), 250.

“they surely knew me well enough”: Quotes in this paragraph are from Mémoires, 5:155. This section of the memoirs was begun at some point before 1805 and completed in July 1807, as discussed in Mémoires, 5:148, note 1.

“éclat”: Mémoires, 5:156.

CHAPTER 19: HOMAGES

“warrior … legislator”: Louis de Fontanes, Éloge funèbre de Washington; Prononcé dans le temple de Mars, le 20 pluviôse, an 8 (Paris: Henri Agasse, 1800), 29.

“to build a cradle”: Ibid., 19.

permitted to attend: Mémoires, 5:157.

“within the four walls of a prison”: “Livre de compte sommaire de mon exploitation de La Grange pour l’année 1828,” Cornell, box 130, folder 6, xv.

“retirement on a small farm”: Lafayette to Washington, May 9, 1799, PGWR, 4:55.

Virginia, New England, or New York: Lafayette mentions New England and Virgina to Adrienne in a letter of August 5, 1799, Mémoires, 5:71. In an undated letter possibly written around the same time, the Marquis de La Tour du Pin offers Lafayette advice on purchasing and running an American farm and recommends the area near Albany where he had settled during the French Revolution. Marquis de La Tour du Pin to Lafayette, n.d., “Description d’une ferme américaine … ,” Cornell, box 3, folder 31.

rerouted miles of roads: Cornell, box 130, folder 11.

203 pear trees and 165 apple trees: Bill of sale, November 26, 1806; LOC, reel 44, folder 823.

determined to make his lands: Lafayette explains these goals in the preface to “Livre de compte sommaire de mon exploitation de La Grange pour l’année 1828,” Cornell, box 130, folder 6.

“Before breakfast”: William Taylor to John Dyson, May 15, 1802, reprinted in J. W. Robberds, ed., A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich (London: John Murray, 1843), 406–7.

Lafayette hired Hubert Robert: LOC, reel 44, folder 822. On Robert’s work at La Grange, see Jean de Cayeux, Hubert Robert et les jardins (Paris: Herscher, 1987), 112–13.

“is in part filled up”: Robberds, Taylor, 404.

“learnt to perceive”: Ibid., 406.

“portrait of the young Lafayette”: Ibid., 405.

“works on agricultural and political topics”: Inventories of Lafayette’s books bear out Taylor’s observation: a list of works compiled by Lafayette’s secretary in 1816 includes some seventy-six books, in both French and En- glish, under the heading “Agriculture,” ranging from essays on picturesque gardens, to treatises on cultivation and livestock—such as R. W. Dickson, Practical Agriculture; Or, A Complete System of Modern Husbandry (London, 1805)—to a French translation of Virgil’s Georgics, the writings of Arthur Young, and periodicals published on both sides of the Atlantic, including Annales d’agriculture, Mémoires d’agriculture, and the American Farmer; LOC, reel 9, folders 1116 and 1116 bis.

forty-five habitable rooms: “La Grange, Château. [List of rooms and occupants] [before 1834?],” Cornell, box 130, folder 8.

“elegant and well chosen”: Published in at least two newspapers: “General La Fayette,” Essex Patriot [Haverhill, MA] (November 29, 1817): 1, and “From Lady Morgan’s ‘France,’ ” American Advocate [Hallowell, ME] (November 22, 1817): 4.

“command a view”: This account was published in at least two newspapers: “Lafayette at Home,” American Mercury [Hartford, CT] (August 22, 1826): 2, and “Travels: Letters from Europe—No. LXXIII,” Torch Light [Hagers-town, MD] (February 15, 1827): 1.

worked closely with Vaudoyer: Vaudoyer made his first trip to La Grange on January 28, 1800. This journey and all of the work and expenses for which Vaudoyer charged Lafayette in 1800 and 1801 are itemized in “Relève des honoraires du Citoyen Vaudoyer, architecte des Travaux Publics …” LOC, reel 44, folder 822.

letter to the deceased Van Ryssel: Mémoires, 5:148–240.

“your memory”: Ibid., 5:240.

lured out of retirement: Lafayette’s intellectual and political life in this period have been studied most extensively by Lloyd Kramer, Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), and Sylvia Neely, Lafayette and the Liberal Ideal, 1814–1824: Politics and Conspiracy in an Age of Reaction (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991). My understanding of the topic is indebted to both of them. In many cases, their citations directed me to primary sources quoted in my text.

“the protégé, the humble follower”: Lafayette, Mémoires, 6:24. Lafayette’s assault on the character of Louis XVIII comes in an 1816 letter to Madame de Simiane in which Lafayette defends his actions in favor of Napoleon, and against the restored Bourbon, during the so-called one hundred days when Napoleon returned to power before being definitively removed in 1815.

voted into public office: On Lafayette’s political affairs in the department of the Sarthe, which also elected his friend and ally Benjamin Constant, see Kramer, Lafayette in Two Worlds, 69–73.

“The great, good La Fayette”: Charles Guyot, “On the Elections” (1819), as quoted and translated in Kramer, Lafayette in Two Worlds, 70.

“curiosity”: La Minerve française (1818), 4:296.

ultraroyalist journal: Le conservateur (1818), 1:389.

“the friends with whom”: Lafayette to Monroe, November 25, 1823, Mémoires, 6:160–61.

“Congress had passed a resolution”: Monroe to Lafayette, February 7, 1824, Mémoires, 6:162.

each of the twenty-four states of the union: Auguste Levasseur, Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825; or, Journal of a Voyage to the United States, trans. John D. Goodman (Philadelphia: 1829; rpt. New York: Research Reprints, 1970), 243–306.

“Hail! Lafayette!”: Hail! Lafayette! (Philadelphia: 1824), 1.

fiftieth anniversary: Andrew Burstein, America’s Jubilee: How in 1826 a Generation Remembered Fifty Years of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 8–33.

spectacular dinner: Edgar Ewing Brandon, ed., Lafayette, Guest of the Nation: A Contemporary Account of the Triumphal Tour of General Lafayette Through the United States in 1824–1825, as Reported by the Local Newspapers, 3 vols. (Oxford, OH: Oxford Historical Press, 1950–57), 1:199–201.

Gouverneur Morris had rhapsodized: Jared Sparks, Life of Governeur Morris, 3:143–44.

“could constitute a museum”: See Jules Cloquet, Souvenirs sur la vie privée du général Lafayette (Paris: Galignani, 1836), 195.

La Grange today: Today, La Grange is owned and operated by the Josée and René de Chambrun Foundation and is open only to scholars and visiting dignitaries.

“at length we approached”: Mrs. Caleb Cushing, “Visit to La Grange,” The Literary Journal and Weekly Register of Science and the Arts 1, no. 13 (August 31, 1833): 97. I discuss Lafayette’s Americanization of La Grange in Laura Auricchio, “Transplanting Liberty: Lafayette’s American Garden,” in Dan O’Brien, ed., Gardening: Philosophy for Everyone—Cultivating Wisdom (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 93–105.

CHAPTER 20: PICPUS

“an old name of ’89”: Mémoires, 6:388–89.

“moral affections”: Cloquet, Recollections, 262.

“uninterrupted thunder”: Isaiah Townsend, Jr., to Mary Bennett Townsend, May 30, 1834, Townsend Family Papers, box 15, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.

“A month has scarcely elapsed”: Isaiah Townsend, Jr., to Mary Bennett Townsend, June 6, 1834, Townsend Family Papers, box 15, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Picpus Cemetery: See Les dernières victimes de la Terreur: 26 prairial–9 thermidor an II (14 juin–27 juillet 1794), exhibit catalog (Paris: Association du Souvenir de Picpus, 1994).