IE 207 
 
 L2 M98 
 I Copy 1 
 
 ('W' 
 
 AN EULOGY 
 
 ON 
 
 LAFAYETTE, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NINTH OF MAY, 1835, 
 
 AT THE REQUEST OF 
 
 THE CITIZENS AND STUDENTS. 
 
 
 BY ANDREW VVYLIE, D. D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF INDIANA COLLEGE. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 TAYLOR AND TRACY. 
 
 1835- 
 
E"2 0-7 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 PRINTED BY F. S. BENTON. 
 

 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 President Wylie: 
 
 Sir,— At a meeting of the citizens of Bloomington and students of Indiana 
 college, on Saturday, the sixteenth instant, the undersigned were appointed a 
 committee, to request for publication, a copy of an address delivered by your- 
 self, a week previously, on the life and character of General Gilbert Mortier 
 de Lafayette. A compliance with this request will be highly gratifying to 
 our citizens, and to none more so than 
 
 Your obedient humble servants, 
 
 DAVID H. MAXWELL, 
 
 BEAUMONT PARKS, . Commtltee 
 
 PARIS C. DUNNING, ^ %.ommiuee 
 
 JOSEPH G. McPHEETERS, 
 Bloomington, May 18<A, 1835. 
 
 Bloomington, May 18<A, 1835 
 
 Messrs. D. H. Maxwell, Beaumont Parks, Paris C. Dunning, and Joseph G, 
 McPheeters : 
 Gentlemen, — A copy of the address requested for publication, in your note 
 of this morning, is at your disposal. A desire to cherish the remembrance of 
 one to whoni our country and the world are so deeply indebted, and a wish to 
 comply with your request, must be my apology for submitting to public inspec- 
 tion a performance so far below the merits of the subject whom it presumes to 
 celebrate. 
 
 With due sense of that kind feeling to which, rather than the merits of the 
 address, I know, I am indebted for your favorable opinion of it, 
 I remain, gentlemen, your humble servant, 
 
 ANDREW WYLIE 
 
#•• 
 
 AN EULOGY 
 
 ON 
 
 LAFAYETTE. 
 
 Friends and Fellow-Citizens, 
 
 The virtues of Lafayette deserve to be celebrated. His 
 sacrifices and services in the cause of civil liberty, merit the 
 gratitude of all the friends of the rights of man, in both hemis- 
 pheres. By the citizens of these United States especially, 
 they should be held in everlasting remembrance. Every 
 individual of our M^hole republic, however obscure may be his 
 condition in life, should be again and again reminded of the 
 debt of gratitude which we all owe to the great and good 
 Lafayette. The rising generation should be taught to love 
 and revere the name, and commemorate the virtues of their 
 country's benefactor. His bright example should be ever 
 before their eyes. To show to what a pitch of exalted excel- 
 lence our nature may be elevated, when its powers are 
 animated by generous sentiments, and devoted to honorable 
 ends, a specimen should be shown in the life of Lafayette, to 
 the delight and admiration of all future ages. Such a specimen 
 is, indeed, of rare occurrence in the annals of mankind. The 
 conjuncture of trying circumstances which formed the occasion 
 of its display, was itself a rare phenomenon; and it ought not 
 to pass over without making such use of it as wisdom dictates. 
 Like the conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, the occasion 
 may furnish an opportunity for such observations as may give 
 to mankind a more perfect insight into that sublime economy 
 M'hich governs their destinies. Sure I am, that, if any one can 
 contemplate such a character of singular and exalted excel- 
 
 1* 
 
ience as the one we are now called upon to celebrate, without 
 being made better by it — without being refreshed and exhilar- 
 ated by the comtemplation of so many, and such noble virtues ; 
 without finding himsdf silently and pleasantly beguiled into 
 better and higher thoughts of the human species and their 
 destiny; without feeling, as it were, exalted by the company 
 and presence of such a man; without becoming more recon- 
 ciled to the world, brightened as it has been by a new lustre; 
 without, in fine, having his own virtue inspired with new 
 vigor, by having brought in contact with him, an object so 
 worthy of love and admiration — the fault must be his own. 
 
 I feel deeply sensible, fellow-citizens, how inadequate I am 
 to the present occasion. Since the appearance of the oration 
 of our distinguished fellow-citizen, John Quincy Adams, on 
 the life and character of Lafayette, this feeling has been greatly 
 increased, since that has left me no hope of saying any thing 
 on the subject which has not already been better said. I, 
 mdeed, most sincerely regret that I suffered myself to be 
 committed on the subject. It might have been better honored 
 by another. But it is too late for regret. You know the 
 press of duties that are constantly upon me, and which have 
 been peculiarly heavy since 1 came under the engagement 
 which I have now come before ^-ou to discharge. Let this 
 pass, with your kind indulgence, for my apology, in part, for 
 the very imperfect manner of discharging it. 
 
 In the remarks which are to follow, I shall not attempt to 
 trace in detail the events which distinaruished the career of 
 our departed friend and benefactor. This has been done by 
 an abler hand. To sketch, imperfectly, a few only of the 
 traits which adorned his character, without entering at all 
 into the particulars of his biography, is all that I shall even 
 attempt. In doing this, I shall, however, pay some regard to 
 the order of events. 
 
 The occasion which first brought Lafayette upon the stage 
 of public action, and in the view of the world, was furnished 
 bv one of the earliest scenes of our revolution. Bv the 2;lori- 
 ous consequences which followed, it has since challenged and 
 obtained the admiration of the world. But at the time when 
 
K 
 
 it attracted the eye and fired the heart of Lafayette, there was 
 nothing great or brilHant about it. A colony had risen in 
 arms against the parent country. They were a handful of 
 men, scattered over the half-cultivated districts of an ample 
 territory, which, with hard and persevering toil, amidst perils 
 and sufferings the most appalling, they had begun to reclaim 
 from the wilds of nature and the dominion of savage beasts, 
 and more savage men. To appearance, their attempt would 
 have been considered, and by all ordinary observers was ac- 
 tually considered, as wild in its origin as it was likely to prove 
 abortive in its issue. Of the elements of war, except prudent 
 heads, stout hearts, and sinews hardened by toil, they had 
 none. The mother country, now their implacable enemy, 
 v^^ielded a power more formidable than that of any other single 
 nation on the globe, and which, in a recent contest, had come 
 off proudly victorious over two great nations combined. To 
 the ruling powers of Europe the cause of the colonists was in 
 itself odious, as well as contemptible. It was the cause of 
 subjects rebelling against legitimate authority; of the weak 
 inconsiderately rising against the mighty; of upstart preten- 
 sion presuming to interrogate privileged prescription on his 
 right to rule. Lafayette belonged, by birth, to that class of 
 men M'ith whom these views and feelings were habitual and 
 familiar — handed down from age to age. Born a peer of the 
 realm of France, and of one of its most distinguished families, 
 and heir to a princely inheritance, he was secluded by fortune 
 from all participation in the feelings and experiences of that 
 part of society whose only concern with government, accord- 
 ing to the received doctrine, was to hear and to obey; to suf- 
 fer and be silent. ' To this class we belonged; a class, which 
 in France, is known by an epithet too opprobrious to be even 
 translated into our language. We were, besides, foreigners 
 to Frenchmen. A vast ocean rolled between us. More still: 
 we were of a race between whom and them war had raged 
 from age to age, and from century to century, almost without 
 cessation or respite, or even truce. Their armies and ours 
 had often met in deadly conflict on this very soil. Besides, in 
 religion, manners, language, temper, every thing, we were a 
 
8 
 
 different people. Like oil and water, our bloods would not 
 commingle. 
 
 Besides all this, at the time to which I refer, Lafayette was 
 in the bloom of youth ; his affections to home, kindred and coun- 
 try increased and strengthened by the marriage tie, contracted 
 recently with a young lady in rank, fortune and accomplish- 
 ments, entirely worthy of his choice. Add to all these con- 
 siderations, the fact, that the government of France was 
 apprized of Lafayette's intentions in coming to our aid — for, 
 the slightest movement of a person so conspicuous could not 
 escape the jealous eye of power — and had taken measures to 
 prevent their execution. Yet, bound as he was by so many 
 silken bonds, fascinated by so many enchantments, and bless- 
 ed, substantially blessed, with every thing which could render 
 home delightful — so powerful was the impulse which moved his 
 generous nature, that from the first moment when he heard the 
 story of our cause, our wrongs and our magnanimous appeal 
 for redress ' to arms and to the God of hosts,' he could not rest: 
 the call of humanity oppressed, and of weakness and innocence 
 likely to be overpowered and borne down by the ruthless hand 
 of power, tingled in his ears like the notes of the war trumpet, 
 and he broke away from all — wife, friends, country, rank, 
 wealth, honor, life itself: every thing he put in jeopardy; and 
 eluding the vigilance of his government, he got ready a vessel 
 in one of the ports of Spain, from which he set sail, and on the 
 twenty-fifth of April, in the year seventeen hundred and se- 
 venty-seven, he arrived safe in the harbor of Charleston. South 
 Carolina. 
 
 Such, fellow-citizens, is a brief recital of the first decisive 
 movement made by the youthful hero in our behalf. What 
 were his motives? This is a question which cannot always 
 be answered with certainty. Most of human actions result 
 from different inducements united, and tending to the same 
 point — some more, some less pure. But there are cases 
 wherein all ignoble influences lead in one direction; and but 
 the single motive of the great, the good, the noble points in 
 the opposite direction. It was clearly so here. Lafayette 
 would have been just; he might have been virtuous; he might 
 
have been generous and brave, had he remained in France: 
 but he would not have raised his name for these virtues, above 
 the level of ordinary attainment. But the course he actually 
 adopted and pursued, showed him to be possessed of virtue of 
 no ordinary grade, and placed his name on high amongst the 
 brightest constellations in the firmament of the world's history, 
 where it shall remain, as long as time endures, a luminary of 
 the first magnitude, shedding its beams of glory on the most 
 distant ages and nations. Others have nobly done and nobly 
 suffered in the cabinet and in the field, for their own country. 
 Some have even been moved by sympathy for their brethren 
 of the human family, suffering in foreign lands, and have gen- 
 erously ventured life and fortune in their behalf. To Lafayette 
 belongs the peculiar glory of devoting himself to the deliver- 
 ance from foreign domination, of a people and a country to 
 whom he was not only bound by no ties of interest or obliga- 
 tion, but who were not, as yet, acknowledged as a nation, but 
 stigmatized as a confederacy of traitors and rebels, and of 
 putting to hazard in their cause the splendor of youth, rank 
 and affluence, the favor of his government, and the attractions 
 of power. Magnanimous philanthropist ! our warmest expres- 
 sions of admiration fall below thy praise ! 
 
 If envy itself could fix upon a circumstance that might be 
 considered, in the smallest degree, derogatory from the merit 
 of so much generosity, a spot in a disk of such overpowering 
 brightness — that circumstance, that spot, it may be supposed, 
 would be found in the fact, that Lafayette belonged to that 
 class of the French people, with whom the virtues of chivalry 
 might almost be considered as hereditary, and whose rank in 
 society would suffer degradation in the person of that indivi- 
 dual, belonging to it by birth, who should fail to illustrate the 
 line of his genealogy, by new displays of virtue added to its 
 hereditary glory. And since their rank and wealth gave them 
 the power of distinguishing themselves by generous deeds, and 
 as such deeds passed with them as no more than the ordinary 
 doings of their eyery-day life, it may be imagined that La- 
 fayette, in espousing our cause, was moved, not chiefly, or, at 
 least, solely, by moral considerations, but by the impulses of 
 
10 
 
 that spirit of chivalry, and thirst for fame and deeds of arms, 
 which, from time immemorial, had distinguished the noblesse 
 of France, and may be considered as resulting from the genius 
 of tlie feudal systems of Europe, to whose nobility it belongs, 
 as one of the prerogatives of their r^ink, as well as a perma- 
 nent trait in their character, to seek the post of danger in the 
 front ranks of war. 
 
 All that is contained in this suggestion, may be frankly 
 granted, without detracting in the slightest degree from the 
 merit of Lafayette. Not only so, but if properly considered, 
 it will redound to his glory. 
 
 We, indeed, are strongly prejudiced against a class of men 
 of whom so much evil has been said, and whose hereditary 
 prerogatives of wealth and power are so foreign from the 
 genius of our free institutions, and so revolting to our gener- 
 ous feelings of republican equality. Yet, with all the evils of 
 hereditary greatness, it is not without strong tendencies of an 
 opposite character. An exalted grade in society more exposes 
 the one who occupies it, to the observation of the world, and 
 consequently renders him more sensible to considerations of 
 reputation and honor. The stock of glory derived from 
 ancestors, as it is committed, successively, to the keeping of 
 each heir to the distinctions of noble birth, must be preserved 
 with a care and fidelity becoming the depositary of such a 
 trust. Disgrace falls with blasting effect upon the miscreant 
 who suffers himself to forget from what lineage he derives his 
 origin and titles of respectability. But if the peer is neces- 
 sarily subjected to the salutary influence of such considera- 
 tions as these, let it not be overlooked, on the other hand, 
 that he is exposed to temptations which the frailty of our 
 nature finds it dilBcult to resist. His wealth lays open before 
 him the avenues of refined sensuality. His condition exempts 
 him from toil and trouble, and exposes him, on the one hand, 
 to the calls of lawless ambition; on the other, to the solicita- 
 tions of inglorious ease; into the one or the other of which, he 
 will be in danger of falling, according as his constitutional 
 temperament may be inclined. A circle of flatterers contin- 
 ually surround him, eager to offer incense to his vanity, and 
 
11 
 
 to basely cater to his appetites. When all these corrupting 
 influences are duly considered, we should perhaps be rather 
 surprized, that the ranks of the nobly born should have fur- 
 nished instances of men whose virtues were no less exalted 
 than their condition, than that they should have abounded in 
 characters who have degraded themselves below the level of 
 ordinary insignificance, or sunk below the depths of vulgar 
 baseness. That the descendants of the ancient nobility of 
 France, at the period to which our remarks refer, were not 
 preeminent for those virtues which are peculiarly appropriate 
 to their order, is undeniable. To philanthropy, to a disinter- 
 ested and generous zeal for the rights andliberties of man, they 
 made, in general, no pretensions. These considerations serve 
 to enhance the merit of Lafayette ; as they show, that, in his 
 zeal for liberty, and his sympathy for the rights of men be- 
 longing neither to his own order nor even to his own nation, 
 he has the praise of being not only first among his peers, but 
 singular among them. And if the weight of influence and 
 wealth, which Lafayette brought with him to our cause, be 
 ascribed wholly, and the spirit of chivalrous enterprise which 
 actuated him, be ascribed, in part, to his condition and rank; 
 still, the merit of directing these powers and this fieiy spirit 
 into a worthy channel, is due entirely to the man. And this 
 merit is the greater, because all selfish considerations lead in a 
 direction opposite to the course which he adopted. Had not 
 Lafayette been a peer of France, his interposition at the 
 critical moment would have been of no avail ; had not the 
 peer of France been Lafayette, he would not have interposed 
 at all. 
 
 In the same point of light, it is proper to consider the pecu- 
 niary aid so opportunely rendered by Lafayette to our coun- 
 try during the struggle for independence. The funds he 
 expended in furnishing the vessel which first transported him 
 to our shores, in raising and equipping for service an entire 
 regiment in the early part of the war, and of procuring the 
 necessary supplies for the destitute and dispirited troops that 
 followed his standard in Virginia, during the campaign of 1781, 
 at a time when Lord Cornwallis, with an overwhelming force 
 
12 
 
 was spreading devastation and terror through the South, were 
 the avails, it is true, of a princely estate, which, without any 
 merit on his part, had fallen to his inheritance. But shall the 
 amount and efficiency of services so promptly rendered, de- 
 tract from the praises of him who rendered them? Absurd 
 idea! Who does not know, that it does not belong to rank 
 and affluence to generate liberality and generosity? Their 
 tendency is to produce selfishness and avarice. Men are gen- 
 erally found to be tenacious of their possessions, and even 
 anxious to extend them, in proportion to their amount. High 
 rank loves to set itself off in a style of corresponding magnifi- 
 cence, and to dazzle the eye of vulgar admiration, by a vain- 
 glorious display of pomp and equipage. Immense revenues 
 are requisite to keep up the show and parade of fetes and 
 balls and entertainments, with a dissolute retinue of liveried 
 servants, retainers, dependents and flatterers, which are 
 usually thought necessary to compose the state of pampered 
 greatness. Hence it is, that profligacy and rapacity usually 
 go together, qualities which, generally speaking, have been 
 quite as conspicuous as generosity and beneficence in the 
 lives and conduct of the nobility of Europe. Be it remem- 
 bered, that Lafayette, though he could vie with the proudest 
 of his compeers in wealth, and all those gaudy distinctions 
 which gratify the taste, and pamper the pride of vulgar great- 
 ness, chose rather to expend his treasures in feeding the hun- 
 gry, clothing the naked, and arming and cheering the dispir- 
 ited and feeble bands of patriot militia, who were fighting 
 the battles of an oppressed and wasted country. This was 
 true glory. 
 
 But this was not all. Though it is enough to raise him 
 above the grade of ordinary merit, and far more than enough 
 to give him preeminence above his fellows in rank and station, 
 and even above what the majority of them could adequately 
 conceive, yet it is but the beginning of the praise of Lafayette. 
 For, he not only expended his wealth, as I have said, in re- 
 lieving the necessities and encouraging the hearts of the des- 
 titute and half-famished patriots of oui revolution, but he 
 shared their toils, their privations and their dangers, fought 
 
13 
 
 a volunteer in their ranks, and shed bis blood in then- defence. 
 His money he might have contributed to their relief, though 
 he had remained at home in the quietude of La Grange, and the 
 bosom of his family. But such a course did not satisfy his 
 generous zeal. He knew that his presence here, in the midst 
 of the scene of conflict, was needed, to inspire fresh vigor 
 into the languishing cause of liberty, and that his personal 
 efforts in the field of battle would strike terror into the ranks 
 of her enemies, and do something effectual towards diminish- 
 ing their numbers, and disappointing their hopes. Or, if he 
 should fail in this, he knew — for he had sounded the depths of 
 his resolution — his was no inconsiderate undertaking — it is 
 impossible that such a man should have adopted the choice he 
 . did, without deliberately weighing alternatives — he knew he 
 could die — die by the fire, or the bayonet of the foe — die, far 
 from his country and his home, and leave his lifeless body in a 
 foreign field, to be trampled by the hoofs of insulting cavalry; 
 and his name to be scoffed at by the minions of arbitrary 
 power. 
 
 The space which I have prescribed for these remarks leave 
 room for but little to be said as to the military virtues of La- 
 fayette. These have attracted the less notice, because they 
 are surrounded, if not eclipsed, by other shining qualities in a 
 character which is all over luminous. In this respect he 
 resembles our own Washington, who though justly pro- 
 nounced * first in war,' has been on this account the less 
 admired, because he was also 'first in peace.' But if Lafay- 
 ette were not entitled to our highest veneration for the other 
 great qualities which adorn his character, his military talent? 
 and conduct alone, employed as they always were on the side 
 of justice and humanity, would entitle him to a conspicuous 
 place among the names of those who have been distinguished 
 in war. During the war for independence, the superiority in 
 numerical force and all the various resources subsidiary to 
 war, especially in that skill and patient endurance which vet- 
 eran troops necessarily possess over militia, and in the many 
 advantages resulting from the possession, on our coast, of a 
 numerous and well-appointed navy, giving them the command 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 of all our bays and inlets, belonged to the enemy. The policy 
 on our part, was, whenever it was possible, to avoid pitched 
 battles; and to harass and weaken the enemy by minor oper- 
 ations. In such a state of things, true military talent will as 
 often display itself in retreating as in fighting. In both these 
 respects Lafayette, during the five years which he spent in 
 arms in our cause, was eminently distinguished. The retreats 
 of Napoleon, unquestionably the first name on the scroll of 
 military fame, were always disastrous. Lafayette always 
 eflected his retreat in safety and good order. In the attack 
 he was prompt, resolute and daring. I cannot enter into a 
 detail of historical facts to illustrate the truth of these remarks. 
 Let the retreat of our troops after the defeat at Brandy wine, 
 which he conducted so ably, although suffering from a severe, 
 wound received at the time from a musket ball; and that series 
 of skilful movements in Virginia during the campaign of '81, 
 by which he outmanoeuvred and baffled the veteran Cornwal- 
 lis, who said ' the boy could not escape him' — let these serve, 
 by way of specimen, to justify the first of the foregoing 
 remarks. Let his intrepid boldness and good conduct at Mon- 
 mouth, and in various other actions throughout the war, espe- 
 cially in heading one of the divisions of the army w^iich took 
 by storm the fortified camp of Cornwallis at Yorktown, jus- 
 tify the second. 
 
 It is sufficient for our present purpose, and sufficient for the 
 military reputation of Lafayette, to say, that during the five 
 years' service, in which the good fortune of our rising coun- 
 try and his own choice employed him in arms, he was always 
 found equal to the occasion; that he never incurred the impu- 
 tation of having neglected his duty, or committed an oversight; 
 that he always proved himself, whether acting as the assailant 
 or on the defensive, superior to the enemy; and that to the 
 end of his brilliant career, he continued to enjoy the increas- 
 ino; coniidence of his commander-in-chief. 
 
 A circumstance intimately connected with that part of the 
 life of Lafayette to which the foregoing remarks are particu- 
 larly intended to apply, in this place specially demands our 
 notice, as it is calculated to give us additional insight into hi?; 
 
15 
 
 character, and neW cause of admiration for his virtues. At 
 the commencement of our struggle for independence, the king 
 of France, and those who with him directed the councils of 
 the nation, would not by any act, or even by any connivance, 
 commit themselves to our cause. We were rebels and un- 
 friended. They would not provoke the jealousy of the mother 
 country by any thing which might look like partiality to our 
 interests. Consequently Lafayette, as we have before seen, 
 incurred the displeasure of his government by embarking for 
 our shores in 1777. But in the course of that year, the rebel 
 colonies, through the blessing of Heaven in calling men of spi- 
 rit and foresight to take the lead in our affairs, had been trans- 
 formed into the United States, declared free and independent. 
 And the capture of Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga, an 
 event which took place near the close of the year, stamped 
 the declaration with the promise of fulfilment. What effect 
 these things produced upon the court of Versailles we may 
 ■easily imagine. A treaty of commerce with the United States 
 and France followed in February of the ensuing year, soon 
 after the news of the brilliant affair of Saratoga reached the 
 hitherto dull ears of Lewis and his court; and this treaty of 
 commerce eventuated in a treaty of defensive alliance in war. 
 The sharp twang of yankee rifles, we see, was prompt and 
 effectual in the drowsy ear of majesty, and added persuasive 
 force to the eloquence of Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin. 
 Now mark the conduct of Lafayette, and see how, in the high 
 character of the philanthropist and the friend of liberty, in 
 which hitherto we have viewed him, there shine forth the vir- 
 tues of the patriot and the milder lustre of the domestic affec- 
 tions. He seizes the first bright interval, which the events 
 just noticed had given to our affairs, and obtains leave of con- 
 gress to return to France, now, in consequence of her alliance 
 with us, involved in war, urged by a sense of his duty (I use 
 his own words) as well as a love of his country, to present 
 himself before the king that he might know in what manner 
 he should think proper to employ his services. Enthusiasm 
 and even fanaticism may sometimes, in their wild and irregu- 
 lar impulses, propel a man for awhile along the path of noble 
 
16 
 
 actions. But in the conduct which originates in these vaga' 
 ries of a lieated imagination, we never see that beautiful pro- 
 portion, that steady consistency, that nicely adjusted propri- 
 ety which is the result of virtuous principle. One duty will be 
 neglected, and one interest sacrificed for the sake of another. 
 Sometimes the most flagrant enormities will be perpetrated 
 under the imposing sanction of the one engrossing passion, 
 which, under the guise of some sacred name, has taken exclu- 
 sive possession of the soul. Such was not the character of the 
 man whom we are contemplating. He was no weak enthu- 
 siast, whom some freak of fancy had captivated and impelled 
 into the society of men embarked in a noble enterprise, no 
 wayward renegade, who, while assisting in the deliverance of 
 a people from oppression on one continent, could forget that 
 he had on another, a country, a home and a government, to 
 which his affections and allegiance were primarily due. The 
 claims of country and kindred, as they are nearer, so in gen- 
 eral they should be more strongly felt, than those which lie 
 remote in the wider circle of our relations to the human race. 
 But when suffering, which itself imposes an obligation on for- 
 eign aid, is added to the latter, an exigeiicy is created which 
 inverts this order, and while it lasts gives to them the prece- 
 dence before the former. Lafayette acted on this maxim. He 
 p'ave to our cause the weight of his. wealth, name and personal 
 efforts, when that cause was at its utmost need; but w^hen he 
 saw it begin to preponderate, he obeyed the voice of nature 
 and duty and returned to his native country. But during the 
 year which he spent there he was still assiduous and untiring 
 in his zeal for our cause. After his return to the scenes of 
 war in 1780, he continued, as is well known, to display the 
 same gallantry and good conduct for which he had been before 
 distinguished, till the last campaign of the revolution was 
 closed by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, his bra- 
 very on that occasion adding new lustre to his brilliant career. 
 It remains that we view the character of Lafayette as it was 
 displayed in the scenes of that revolution in the government 
 of his own country, which followed so closely the one which 
 he had exerted so great an influence in bringing to a success- 
 ful and glorious issue in ours. 
 
17 
 
 The view which I shall endeavor, as briefly as possible, to 
 present to you, of the part acted by Lafayette in the course 
 of that wonderful, and in some respects atrocious revolution, 
 is one which, I must confess, has left upon my own mind a 
 deeper inipression and a higher admiration both of his talents 
 and virtues, than have resulted from that portion of his history 
 which has just passed swiftly under review; rich though it is, 
 in the display of generosity, humanity, patriotism, philan- 
 thropy and military virtue. In this I may be singular, but my 
 honest conviction is, that the theatre, emphatically the theatre, 
 of Lafayette's greatest glory, is the French revolution. Here 
 he will, in the eye of posterity, stand in the most amiable as 
 well as the most commanding attitude. I speak of him in a 
 moral, not in a political sense. In this last respect another 
 figure will seem more gigantic than his. But, as seen through 
 the pure medium of reason and truth, Napoleon will bear no 
 more proportion to Lafayette than a pigmy to a colossus. 
 
 Even a summary of the causes which lead to the French 
 revolution cannot nqw be given. Did even time permit, the 
 speaker would hardly presume to undertake such a task. In 
 order to gain such a view of the person and position of Lafay- 
 ette as may answer our purpose at present, it will be only 
 necessary to glance at the state of things in France at the 
 time when Lafayette was placed at the head of the militia, or 
 ^i they were called, the national guards of that kingdom. 
 
 The first impulse of the revolution gave rise to the assem- 
 bly of notables, composed of men distinguished for their rank 
 and wealth. This assembly determined on two important 
 measures, which had a powerful influence in directing the 
 course of events. The first was, that a convocation of the 
 states general should be called: and the second settled the 
 ratio of representation which should be adopted by the peo- 
 ple in choosing delegates to compose that body; by which it 
 was provided, that the delegation from the tiers etat should 
 equal, in point of numbers, the representatives of the other 
 two estates of the kingdom: the nobility and clergy. Thus 
 was composed that famous assembly, which, among other mat- 
 ters decisive in their character and consequences, finally 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 inatured and adopted the new constitution, by which France 
 in futti,re was to be governed. The state of parties at this cri- 
 sis, for it was the crisis of the revolution, stood thus. First, 
 there was tlie party of the royalists, who were in favor of the 
 government as it formerly existed, and consequently of a 
 counter revolution. Second, the constitutionalists, so called 
 because they were in favor of the new constitution; a consti- 
 tution based on the rights of man and embracing all the essen- 
 tials of civil liberty, but retaining, under the name of a king, 
 l^ouis the reigning monarch, but shorn of his regal power, and 
 swaying instead of his broken sceptre, an executive influence 
 really less important than that which the constitution of the 
 United States confers on our chief magistrate. Third, the 
 republicans. These were for abolishing monarchy entirely 
 with all its appendages, root and branch, leaving not a vestige 
 of the ancient form of government. Fourth, the jacobins, 
 who seemed to have no ultimate or well-defined object in view. 
 They were for the most part men daring and reckless in char- 
 acter, bankrupt in fame and fortune, and who, as they had 
 nothing to lose, looked to the scenes of confusion which 
 attended the revolution arid in which they were the principal 
 acto-rs, for the means of supporting their profligacy and grati- 
 fying their thirst for rapine and blood. Besides these parties 
 there lurked through France, and especially m the alleys and 
 fauxbourgs of its capital, the partisans of the faction of the 
 Duke of Orleans. These were mostly assassins, gamblers, 
 rakes and desperadoes of all sorts, whom that infamous prince 
 had kept in pay, as the ready and willing instruments of his 
 horrible purposes. Lafayette attached himself to the second 
 of these parties, the constitutionalists, of which indeed he was 
 the leader; and in this capacity he continued to act with firm- 
 ness and discretion, till the tumultuous violence of the revo- 
 lution dissolved the constitution, and involved the nation in 
 anarchy; from which, after passing through the unparalleled 
 atrocities of the reign of terror, it was rescued, at length, by 
 the strong hand of a military despotism, seizing it with a grasp 
 so suddenly and powerfully compressive, that the hydra mon- 
 ster which had astonished and terrified the nations of the 
 
19 
 
 ■earth with its frightful bulk and hideous hissings, and maddened 
 the multitude everywhere with its poisonous breath, expired 
 instantly and without a struggle. Liberty and the constitu- 
 tion had been destroyed before, and Lafayette their friend, and 
 tor the time, unsuccessful champion, had been, at the same 
 time, forced to seek safety in foreign lands. 
 
 To us, in whose conceptions a republican form of govern- 
 ment is identified with liberty, and whose successful experi- 
 ence, for now half a century, has tested its superior excellence, 
 the question will naturally occur, why did not Lafayette attach 
 himself to the republican party in France, rather than to that 
 of the constitutionalists? 
 
 Our ignorance of the precise state of things, as they were 
 when Lafayette declared himself, disqualifies us from deciding 
 too peremptorily on the propriety of his choice; but from all 
 that we know, and especially from the light which subsequent 
 events have cast on the subject, we may safely affirm that 
 the considerations which determined his choice in this matter, 
 and the course of conduct to which it lead, are the very 
 things which give to his character the impress of true great- 
 ness; as they show not only the goodness of heart and the 
 genuineness of his patriotism, but his firmness and force of 
 principle — his wisdom, fortitude, and magnanimity. There is 
 no one point perhaps in which we are more liable to mistake 
 in our opinions of men than in regard to what is called decis- 
 ion of character. Where parties are violent, he generally 
 gets the praise of decision of character, who goes to the fur- 
 thest extreme of the party to which he is attached. In vulgar 
 apprehensions, violence is always considered a proof of 
 strength; and moderation an object of scorn, because it is 
 taken for an evidence of weakness or indecision. But, is 
 there no way of exhibiting strength of character, but by run- 
 ning to the poles'? Is a rock less a rock, because at the equa- 
 tor? When the storm of party violence rages, is it the chaff" 
 which rests in a middle position ? Is it the man of weak mind, 
 or weak principles, who exposes himself to the cross fire of 
 poltrons, lurking behind the hedgerows of bigotry and fanati- 
 cism, on the extreme right or left, during scenes of civil or 
 
20 
 
 yeligious discord? The man who does not think for himself, 
 and who, indeed, all things considered, is least likely to err 
 in not thinking for himself, of course, goes with a leader. 
 The timid take shelter behind the shield of the brave. The 
 selfish go where there is the greatest show of numbers and 
 strength. All these herd with a party, and go to extremes. 
 The slow, from indecision; the temporizing, from interest, 
 may, at the same time, with the man of integrity and firmness 
 occupy an intermediate position. But mark the difference: 
 the former do not declare themselves till the issue seems no 
 longer doubtful; the latter takes his position while difficulty 
 and danger surround it. Besides, we are deceived by names. 
 When a party changes ground, it still retains the name ; and 
 often denounces those who now stand where once it stood. 
 The party in France calling themselves republicans, were 
 not the same in character and views with those so denomina- 
 ted here. They were, as a party, violent, visionary, extrava- 
 gant in their notions, and too little under the influence of 
 justice and humanity. They were, in short, but jacobins of 
 a lighter complexion. Between Regniaud and Robespierre; 
 Lameth and Danton; Petion and Marat, the difference was 
 only specific. They were of the same genus — the same 
 brotherhood. Both parties, in fact, acted in concert at first. 
 Both tampered with the mob. Lafayette was in favor of 
 allowing to the people, as their just right, the direction of 
 government affairs, through the channels of constituted au- 
 thority, the action of a free press, and the operation of the 
 representative principle. But, on all occasions, he exerted 
 himself to repress every attempt by demagogues to impede, 
 or accelerate, or aflect in any way the steady and calm opera- 
 tion of the constitution and laws, by the demonstration of 
 insurgent violence. He studied and pursued, in short, the 
 real and permanent good of his country, observing, with the 
 utmost caution, the narrow path which separates liberty from 
 licentiousness. In such times, beset as he was, on the one 
 hand by the jealousy of the king — '■vultus instantis tyranni'' — 
 and on the other by the inconsiderate impetuosity of a people 
 unaccustomed to liberty, and goaded to phrenzy by unprin- 
 
21 
 
 eipled agitators'^^' d«jmm ardor prava jubentium^ — to have 
 attempted such a course, was proof enough of the strength 
 and depth of his moral courage ; to have succeeded in it, as he 
 ultimately did, is sufficient evidence of his capacity. 
 
 Lafayette possessed ample means of correct information 
 as to the spirit and ultimate views of the different parties in 
 the state. It could not, therefore, have escaped his penetra- 
 tion, that the leaders of the jacobins, who, on account of the 
 complete organization of the affiliated societies, extending 
 throughout the realm, as well as by reason of the numbers 
 and character of those under their influence, were the most 
 formidable, meditated not only the overthrow of the existing 
 government and dynasty, but proscription, confiscation, exile 
 and massacre, to all who should offer resistance to their absurd 
 and impractical design of reducing every thing to a perfect 
 equality. He felt, therefore, under the strongest obligations, 
 from motives of patriotism as well as humanity, to do every 
 thing in his power to prevent these violent and bloody meas- 
 ures. It was not the fault of Louis XVI, that he had the 
 misfortune to be born of a race of kings, who by the will of 
 the nation had for centuries filled the throne of France, nor 
 that he should have been destined to reign in a period so dark 
 and portentous. The vices of the government belonged to 
 the system, and not to the man who, unfortunately for him- 
 self, was placed at its head. For Louis, in temper and in 
 the tone of his administration, was one of the mildest and 
 most lenient of rulers. Why, then, in a change which was 
 to bring so many advantages to the nation at large, should it 
 be thought necessary to involve him and his family in ruin? 
 Why should the first offering to be presented by the French 
 nation, in their newly built temple of liberty, be in the form 
 of a libation composed of the blood of the innocent? 
 
 Besides, it is doubtful whether, supposing the jacobins 
 possessed of skill sufficient, with all the aid to be derived 
 from such a bloody offering, to construct a republic, France 
 contained the proper materials requisite for its construction. 
 Republican simplicity does not suit the French taste. At the 
 time of the revolution, a corrupt system of religion had 
 
22 
 
 debauched the minds of the common people; and a species of 
 atheism, the result of this, had deplorably weakened all sense 
 of moral obligation in the liigher orders- The plenary power 
 of the pope, in spirituals, was an article of their creed: that 
 man is a machine, obedient to the laws of necessitrj, was a 
 dogma of their philosophy. The actual state of public mor- 
 als was such as might be expected from such principles — but 
 I shall spare you and myself the pain of a recital. Republican 
 liberty cannot exist where there is so much corruption. In 
 densely peopled countries, such as was France at the time of 
 which we speak, and such as it is now, a degree of energy, 
 scarcely compatible with liberty, such as republics only can 
 fully enjoy, is necessary for the maintenance of order and 
 public tranquility. 
 
 Besides all this, the relative state of France, with respect to 
 the adjoining kingdoms of Europe, was to be taken into view. 
 The Bourbon dynasty had, on each of the thrones of these 
 kingdoms, except that of Great Britain, either an ally or a 
 prince of its blood. Violence done to the reigning family in 
 France, would be likely to involve it in war with these king- 
 doms, if not with the whole of Europe. Every body in 
 France expected this. The jacobins distinctly foresaw it. 
 I call the party by this name, because they were in fact the 
 only efficient party, except the royalists, (and they were weak- 
 ened by emigration and massacre) which opposed Lafayette 
 and the constitution. The republicans, or girondists, could 
 do nothing without their concurrence. The jacobins, I say, 
 distinctly foresaw the coming storm which threatened them 
 from abroad. And, to provide for it, they trusted to a scheme, 
 which shows of what stuff they were composed. Their 
 scheme was, by means of their emissaries and publications, 
 and the agency of secret societies, to foment and organize 
 rebellion against every government of Europe, in the expecta- 
 tion, that being severally engaged in quelling insurrection at 
 home, they would not have the means of molesting them in 
 their attempts to 7'egenerate France — for this was their favor- 
 ite phrase — and the world — a work to be performed by the 
 pistol and dagger of the sansculotte, the pike and musket of 
 
23 
 
 the gens d'armes, their own favorite instrument of persuasiony 
 the guillotine, and other such means of reformation. Many 
 philosophers, men of great name — for the bigoted theorist, as 
 well as the stupidly ignorant, can believe any thing — thought 
 this a plausible scheme. To the honor of Lafayette's philoso- 
 phy, he did not. His practical habits, if nothing else, (joined 
 to his native goodness) would have kept him from such 
 extravagance. There is, as Burke has well said, a wisdom of 
 the heart — a better guide than that of the head — which is the 
 crowning excellence in the character of Lafayette. Through 
 the sanguinary scenes of a revolution, characterized through- 
 out by party violence and deeds of atrocity, he passed with 
 skirts unstained with innocent blood. Nor would he suffer 
 his honor to be sullied by connexion with any — whether party 
 or individuals — who had polluted themselves by the blood of 
 their fellow-citizens. 
 
 The constitutionalists, as a party, were dissolved by the 
 flight of Lafayette. Soon after this event was publicly known, 
 the duke of Orleans returned from his exile in England — that 
 citizen, Egalite, (Equality !) who, it is agreed on all hands, was 
 the basest man in these times, when ordinary villany might 
 have been esteemed a virtue. This man's return was an omen 
 of direful presage to France; and I mention it here with the 
 flight of Lafayette, and the fall of his party, as the connexion 
 of these events serves to show in what light the character of 
 the latter stood in the view of all parties at the time. The 
 most effective guardian of the public weal had been compelled 
 to fly; the spirits of the friends of constitutional liberty and 
 social order sank at once; and the dogs and vultures, who for 
 awhile had been held in abeyance, returned, with sharpened 
 appetite, to scenes of anticipated carnage. 
 
 Whether his flight from France was an act entirely worthy 
 of Lafayette, may perhaps admit of some slight degree of 
 doubt. It is a question, which, had we the time, we have not 
 now the light necessary to solve. All that we know compel 
 us to justify, if not to commend, the course he adopted. 
 Indeed, he had scarcely another alternative left, unless, to be 
 sure, he chose to perish, a useless death, by the hand of an 
 assassin. 
 
24 
 
 On the 20th of June, 1792, he was engaged, on the fron- 
 tiers of France, in fighting the allied forces of Austria and 
 Prussia, who had invaded the country, with the view — insti- 
 gated as they were by emigrants of the royal party, and their 
 own fears of revolution — to restore Louis, by force of arms, 
 to the possession of those dangerous powers, of which, by the 
 new constitution, he had been deprived. On the same day. 
 the mob of Paris, amounting to fifty thousand men, paraded 
 the streets, broke into the hall of the national assembly, with 
 arms in their hands, and thence proceeded to the palace of 
 the Tuilleries, where they perpetrated all manner of outrage 
 short of actual murder. Lafayette, in company with a few 
 officers of his staff", hastened to restore order to Paris, which 
 having done, he returned to the army. ' The poor people — the 
 virtuous people,' as Robespierre was wont to call the rabble of 
 Paris, had been prevented from accomplishing their violent 
 purposes, and Lafayette, who had stood firm for the constitu- 
 tion and social order, in opposition to their sanguinary tumults, 
 was secretly, by their leaders and instigators, devoted to des- 
 truction. An impeachment was urged against him in the 
 assembly by these men — selfstyled republicans. But his 
 friends were firm, and it did not pass into a decree. With 
 the mob, their attempts were not so easily defeated. A mob 
 accordingly was raised on the famous 10th of August. The 
 issue of this decisive movement was, that the commander' of 
 the militia of Paris, and hundreds besides, were assassinated; 
 the Swiss guards, the body guard of the king, publicly massa- 
 cred, and the king and royal family imprisoned, and ultimately, 
 with the exception of a young female, the whole of them — 
 king, queen, princess Elizabeth, the princess Lamballe, and 
 the dauphin — murdered: the two former, by the guillotine, 
 after undergoing the mockery of a trial; the two princesses, 
 by the pikes of the mob; and the dauphin, a tender youth, by 
 the abuse of an inhuman jailer, acting by direction of the 
 more inhuman assembly. The same mob, which now ruled 
 Paris, the assembly, and France, with despotic sway, proceeded 
 to the halls of the assembly, which they entered, 'band after 
 band,' their faces blackened with powder, their hands and 
 
25 
 
 weapons streaming with blood from the recent slaughter, and 
 demanded — no: petitioned — the assembly to abolish the con- 
 stitution. The petition, offered thus modestly, and by such 
 worthy hands, was graciously granted by the assembly, and 
 three of their number were sent in triumph, to exact, in their 
 name, submission to their decrees, from Lafayette and his army. 
 Could Lafayette hesitate a moment, whether to submit to an 
 order requiring him to acknowledge the acts and doings of an 
 assembly, which had, at a blow, demolished the constitution, 
 the fruit of so much labor, and so many patriotic sacrifices; 
 a constitution, which they and he had sworn to support, and 
 which was the only remaining bulwark to protect the liberties 
 and lives of the citizen?, from the pikes of confederated ruf- 
 fians, who had turned murder into a trade, and who expected 
 to support themselves in riot and debauchery, by the price of 
 blood? No: but resolving instantly to organize a force, from 
 the army under his command, sufficient to quell the atrocious 
 banditti of the capital, as soon as he began to sound his troops 
 and their officers on the subject, he found that the jacobins had 
 planted their spies, friends and agents, in the very heart of 
 those companies and battalions, which he esteemed the most 
 faithful, and by this means had brought them over to their 
 interests. In short, the whole army was infected, and as 
 completely under the control of the assembly, as the assembly 
 itself was under the control of the mob, or they under that 
 of their jacobin leaders. Danton, Robespierre and Marat, a 
 triumvirate of fiends, were the absolute rulers of France. 
 For Lafayette, there was little hope of safety except in 
 flight. 
 
 In attempting his escape, he fell into the hands of the Aus- 
 trians, and was subsequently treated as a prisoner of state. 
 During his confinement in a dungeon at Olmutz, where he was 
 treated with unusual rigor, solicitations were urged, with great 
 interest, not only by Washington, and by the friends and 
 family of Lafayette, but even by individuals of high standing 
 in the British government, for his deliverance. But in vain. 
 The emperor of Austria was inexorable; and, in violation of 
 the law of nations, and the rights of humanity, Lafayette 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 continued to languish in his confinement. Two generous and 
 enterprising individuals, whose names will be repeated with 
 gratitude, whenever the story of Lafayette's sufferings in the 
 cause of rational liberty is rehearsed, resolved to effect his 
 deliverance. The one was a citizen of the United States, 
 Francis Huger; the other a Hanoverian, Erick BoUman; 
 whose nephew was a student in our college, and is now a 
 respected citizen of Bloomington. Their plan was well devi- 
 sed, and partly executed. But, though entitled to the credit 
 of doing whatever prudence, patient perseverance, and bold- 
 ness could accomplish in their hazardous attempt, they had 
 not the gratification of that complete success which they had 
 fondly expected, and well nigh achieved. Lafayette was 
 pursued, overtaken, and remanded to the walls of his prison; 
 from which at length the victorious sword of Napoleon opened 
 the way to his deliverance. For this deliverance, Lafayette 
 ever after cherished, and on all proper occasions, expressed 
 his cTi-atitude, to the wonderful man who had been, under the 
 auspicies of the directory, the instrument of effecting it. But, 
 though warmly and repeatedly invited to such a course, he 
 never acknowledged the right of Napoleon to rule over 
 France, by consenting to take part in his administration. 
 Thus he afforded a new and almost singular proof of the firm- 
 ness of his principles, and of the sincerity of that stand in 
 favor of liberty and the rights of man, which he had so early 
 and so nobly taken, and which, through all the labors and 
 vicissitudes of his eventful career, he had so strenuously and 
 zealously maintained. 
 
 The rule of the directory was of short duration, and France 
 was hurried rapidly through the eddies of the succeeding con- 
 sular government, into the vortex of a military despotism, in 
 which the fragments of the old monarchy, the constitutional 
 republic, and the shortlived and illcompacted forms that fol- 
 lowed—scarcely deserving the name of government— which 
 had been in quick succession wrecked by the fury of the 
 revolutionary whirlwind, were engulphed together. In the 
 mean time, the public mind in France was seized by a new 
 species of frenzy, produced by the splendid campaigns of 
 
27 
 
 Napoleon. Under the guidance of his daring and fruitful • 
 genius, victory followed victory, in such close succession; 
 achievments, before deemed impossible, were performed with 
 such celerity and ease; the power of the great nation, wielded 
 by his hand, discharged its bolts upon the armies and the 
 capitals of the trembling potentates of Europe, with such 
 sure and destructive effect; that the French people began to 
 think themselves omnipotent. Intoxicated with success, and 
 dazzled by false glory, they lost sight of that boasted liberty 
 for which such immense sacrifices had been made, and so much 
 blood had been cruelly spilt. Now, let us contemplate Lafay- 
 ette. His mind is not carried away by the epidemic delirium. 
 He is not misled by phantoms. His thoughts are still bent on 
 the real interests of his country. Fortune has no power over 
 him. He remains in quietude at La Grange, and comes not out 
 from his retirement to join his voice to the cry of the giddy 
 throng, who are shouting after the gilded car of the fickle 
 goddess ; nor will he bow the knee to the proud minion whom 
 she has raised from the dust to trample on the necks of hum- 
 bled kings, and sport himself with their glittering emblems ol 
 power. 
 
 A regularly constructed government has been compared to 
 a cone; of which the apex represents the highest constituted 
 authority — the base, the lower orders of the people, and its 
 body the intermediate ranks. If I might speak in language 
 borrowed from such an emblem, I would say that powder, dur- 
 ing the progress of the French revolution, not only descended 
 rapidly along the cone from the apex to the base, but, as if by 
 reiterated explosions, burst and shivered to atoms each sepa- 
 rate section of the cone, which, in its descent it had left behind. 
 First went the hereditary ranks of royalty and nobility; next 
 the limited monarchy of the moderes, (which indeed existed 
 only in design); next the constitutional republic with the king 
 as chief magistrate; next exploded the pure republic of the 
 philosophic girondists, bespattering with their blood and brains 
 not only. the streets of Paris but the fields of France. After 
 this nothing remained but the lowest frustrum, and this was 
 soon calcined to ashes by the fires of faction. The structure. 
 
28 
 
 now dissolved to its elements, was rebuilt by the daring 
 genius and mighty hand of the man of destiny. It rose with 
 diminished base but towering height — not a pyramid but an 
 obelisk, its lofty summit terminating in the dominion of one 
 will, and glaring over Europe with the lurid lustre of some 
 angry and portentous meteor, shedding disastrous twilight 
 over half the nations, and with fear of change perplexing mon- 
 archs. In the shock of nations, which took place at Leipzig, 
 it fell; and its architect was banished to Elba. After the 
 lapse of one short year, during which the Bourbon dynasty 
 was restored in France, Europe beheld with amazement the 
 prodigious effort of those hundred days, which was made to 
 erect again the fallen fortunes of Napoleon. Waterloo ended 
 it. And the Bourbon dynasty, supported by the force of 
 twelve hundred thousand foreign bayonets, was once more 
 replaced on the throne of France. The spirit of Napoleon, 
 lofty and daring as it was, was quelled and broken. Lafay- 
 ette, the champion of liberty, stood erect. Against the arbi- 
 trary proceedings of the members of the holy alliance in pla- 
 cing Louis the eighteenth on the throne of France, and in the 
 face of their armed force he had made his solemn protest. Now 
 he takes his stand in the chamber of deputies, the only strong 
 hold of liberty which arbitrary power had left in the posses- 
 sion of the people. And when, in 1830, Charles the tenth, by 
 four tyrannical decrees, attempted, as at a blow, to destroy 
 this strong hold, we see this ever-watchful guardian of the 
 people's rights, forgetting the infirmities which age and so 
 many laborious services had brought upon him, girding on his 
 sword with the alacrity of youth — the alacrity which he dis- 
 played at Brandy wine and Yorktown — and repairing to Paris 
 to resist the tyrant! He puts himself for the last time, at the 
 head of the national guards, whom his presence and voice 
 had, as it were, recalled to life ; and thus by his welltimed 
 energy, having brought to a successful issue the glorious revo- 
 lution of the three days, establishes in France a government, 
 in its essential features the very same with that of the consti- 
 tution which he had so zealously advocated in the early stages 
 
29 
 
 of the first revolution, and with the dissolution of which he 
 had been compelled to fly from his native country! 
 
 The principles of Lafayette were purely republican. In 
 politics he avowed himself of the American school. But he 
 submitted to compromise his principles, both when he advo- 
 cated and most strenuously supported and defended the gov- 
 ernment under the constitution in the early periods of the 
 French revolution, and when near the close of his consistent 
 career, he recommended to his countrymen the same form of 
 government as finally settled and established after the three 
 glorious days revolution in 1830 — a form of government hav- 
 ing an hereditary officer for its supreme executive. This is no 
 derogation from the merit of Lafayette, but the contrary; as 
 it shows that he preferred the enjoyment of a great deal of 
 liberty to having none at all. A bigoted tenacity to abstract 
 principles in matters of expedience — and those pertaining to 
 forms of government, however important, are no more than 
 such — is no mark of -wisdom. He who would make a coat on 
 abstract principles, that is, without reference to the shape and 
 size of the wearer, may have the credit of making a very 
 sightly garment. But as, in the language of a shrewd politi- 
 cian of ancient time, that is a well-proportioned garment which 
 is made to fit the wearer, so that is the best form of govern- 
 ment which is best suited to the genius and condition of the 
 nation which adopts it, and which possesses the further prop- 
 erty of selfadjustment and selfpreservation ; like the seam- 
 less garment which nature makes for all her children, which 
 expands with their growth, and repairs itself when severed or 
 bruised by violence or accidental injury. A great change 
 must take place in France before she will be prepared to enjoy 
 the benefits of a pure republic — such a change as never was 
 eflfected, and in the nature of things never can be effected by 
 . revolutionary violence. And it may be well for us to bear 
 in mind, that this truth has its counterpart, and that when- 
 ever a corresponding change, though in an opposite direction, 
 shall take place in our own character as a people, a republi- 
 can form of vgovernment will not be found the best for these 
 United States. Let the country but revert to gothic super- 
 
30 
 
 stition and gothic manners* — may it never be ! — ^and gothic 
 institutions must, and ought to follow. 
 
 As despotism itself is preferable to anarchy, so the tyranny 
 of one will is infinitely more tolerable than that of many. The 
 sultan is immediately responsible to his subjects, the fear of 
 whose cimeters is a check upon the operation of his bow- 
 string. But what resource is left to the oppressed, when the 
 spirit of ignorance and vice has infected with frenzy the minds 
 of a lawless majority? The women and children who were 
 baked in ovens at Pillau; the heaps of dead bodies which 
 choked the Seine and the Loire; the city of Lyons, the second 
 in France, depopulated, and its very houses razed to their 
 foundations; and the capital itself so often the scene of mas- 
 sacre and consternation during the reign of terror, may answer 
 that question. To the immortal honor of Lafayette be it 
 remembered — and surely this is no common praise — that he 
 was almost the only person of note in the entire nation of 
 France, who, throughout the trying scenes of the revolution, 
 pursued a course which was equally opposed to the tyranny 
 ot the government and the tyranny of the mob, and who was 
 honored through life with the hatred of both. 
 
 To conclude, we may safely pronounce Lafayette not only 
 one of the greatest, wisest, and best men that ever lived, but 
 also — though this praise is due rather to Providence than to 
 the man — the most fortunate and happy. The present, indeed, 
 is not a state of retribution: yet, there are periods in the his- 
 tory of this world wherein, even during the lifetime of indi- 
 viduals, moral causes, owing to the quick motion of events, 
 are hastened to their appropriate results. That invisible hand 
 which is upon the machinery of the world then whirls it round 
 with unusual velocity, for the twofold purpose, as it would 
 seem, of shortening to miserable mortals the days of evil, and 
 ot exhibiting, on this side the impenetrable veil which hides 
 the great future from our eyes, a specimen of that just retri- 
 bution which, wc may hence the more readily conclude, will 
 
 * Note. — ' The Catholic Sentinel ' speaking of Lafayette, says, 'his memory 
 is abhorred by all good and patriotic Frenchmen, as the ingrate betrayer of the 
 heroic Napoleon, and the parasite and elevater of the regal poltron, nick- 
 named the citizen king.' 
 
31 
 
 be found in the end to have marked all the divine dispensation. 
 Never, perhaps, since the world began, was this truth more 
 strikingly demonstrated than in that period through which the 
 life of Lafayette was extended. The sons of violence who, 
 for their brief day, figured amidst the bloody scenes of the 
 revolution, had sown the wind, and they reaped the whirl- 
 wind. A horde of infidels, calling themselves republicans, 
 taught the populace of France to renounce their God and 
 make a jest of an hereafter; and by the rabid fury of that very 
 populace, whom their doctrines had converted into wild beasts, 
 they themselves were torn to pieces. The monster Marat 
 was poignarded by a woman. Napoleon took the sword, and 
 by the sword he perished. Toulon saw him first in arms 
 against a portion of his countrymen, goaded by violence into 
 rebellion; and the weapons of assembled Europe struck him 
 down at Waterloo. The same course of retributive justice 
 we may clearly discern — though manifested in a ditTerent man- 
 ner, as his merits were ditferent — in that series of events, 
 which, at last, conducted Lafayette to the consummation of 
 his patriotic wishes and plans. In his youth we see him in 
 this land, a bold adventurer, come to plant the tree of liberty 
 in our soil and to water it with his blood; and when but lit- 
 tle past the meridian of life, he returns to witness its majestic 
 growth, refresh himself under its shadow and taste its mel- 
 lowed fruits. The experime^it which he assisted in making in 
 the new world with so much pi'omise of success, he had also 
 repeated in the old. There, by the course he adopted, he was 
 personally beset with the most unheard of difficulties. But it 
 was the only course which offered a rational prospect of free- 
 dom and peace to his oppressed and distracted country. For 
 awhile disappointment bafl[les his efforts. The dungeon of a 
 foreign prison holds his person, while the liberties of his coun- 
 try expire in the talons of a harpy faction. But the drama 
 is not yet closed. The man of destiny mounts the stage which 
 trembles beneath his tread. The prison doors which had con- 
 fined Lafayette, fly open. But liberty is not restored to 
 France. It lies crushed beneath the throne of the emperor. 
 That throne is demolished. That of the Bourbon rises in its 
 
32 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 801 156 9 
 
 stead— is removed— rebuilt— again removed, and in the revo- 
 lution of the three days is demolished— demolished by the 
 hands of Lafayette, and by the same hands a government, 
 securing constitutional liberty to the people, is reared in its 
 stead— a government, in all its essential ingredients, identical 
 vi^ith that which he had so zealously labored to establish at an 
 early period of the revolution. His life is prolonged lon^ 
 enough to see its successful operation, and France, under it, 
 contented and happy— but not so long as to see (what would 
 have embittered the close of life had he seen it) the country 
 of his birth and that of his adoption — the two countries ren- 
 dered, partly by his labors, (one of them principally by his 
 labors) the freest and most powerful on earth— and united too 
 by his labors in the bands of mutual friendship and alliance— 
 not so long as to see these countries involved — but here we 
 must stop. The future is unknown — God avert the illomen 
 that flits dimly before our eyes! He dies— full of days and 
 full of honors— with the blessings of the civilized world and the 
 everlasting gratitude of two great nations settled on his 
 memory ! 
 
 In virtue, usefulness, honor and felicity, what name of mor- 
 tal man is furnished by the annals of our race, which can vie 
 with the beloved and revered name of Gilbert Motier de 
 Lafayette!