“No, Mr. Speaker, posterity has not begun for me, since, in the sons of my companions and friends, I find the same public feelings; and, permit me to add, the same feelings in my behalf, which I have had the happiness to experience in their fathers.
“Sir, I have been allowed, forty years ago, before a committee of a congress of thirteen states, to express the fond wishes of an American heart; on this day, I have the honour and enjoy the delight, to congratulate the representatives of the Union, so vastly enlarged, on the realization of those wishes, even beyond every human expectation, and upon the almost infinite prospects we can with certainty anticipate; permit me, Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the house of representatives, to join to the expression of those sentiments, a tribute of my lively gratitude, affectionate devotion, and profound respect.”
I will not attempt to depict the deep impression produced by the reply of the general, and by this simple yet majestic scene on the spectators. I fear that it would be understood but by few. As regards my own feelings, I frankly avow, that I could not avoid drawing a comparison between this touching picture of national gratitude crowning the civic virtues, with those pompous ceremonies, in the midst of which the monarchs of Europe deign to show themselves, surrounded with the glitter of arms and the splendour of dress: the latter appeared to me only similar to some brilliant theatrical representation, which it would be gratifying to behold, if we could forget that they but add to the misery of the people.
After these testimonies of devotion and feeling, hitherto unknown in the history of nations, thus tendered by congress to General Lafayette, it might have been supposed, that all marks of national gratitude were exhausted. But, in compliance with the message of the president, and above all, with the expression of public opinion which was daily manifested in the public prints and in private letters addressed from all parts of the Union to the members, congress still conceived that more remained to be done, and hastened to appoint a committee to devise a mode of presenting to General Lafayette a recompense worthy of the nation which tendered it. This committee reported a bill on the 20th of December, in which, after detailing the services rendered by Lafayette to the American nation, and the sacrifices he had made in the achievement of its independence, they proposed that the sum of 200,000 dollars, and the fee simple of a tract of land of 24,000 acres, to be chosen in the most fertile part of the United States, should be offered as a compensation and testimony of gratitude. This proposition was received with enthusiasm by the senate, and it was believed that it would pass without discussion, when at the moment it was about to be sent to the house of representatives, a senator observed, “that he had no objections to make either to the sum about to be voted, or to the services for which it was given; that he yielded to no one in gratitude and friendship towards General Lafayette, whose virtues and services, he believed, could not be too highly recompensed; but thought that the proposed method was defective; that charged with the administration of the public revenues, he did not believe that congress was permitted to dispose of them otherwise than for the public service; he thought that each state might claim with justice, a right to testify its gratitude to Lafayette; finally, that he voted against the consideration of the proposition, to avoid establishing a precedent, the consequences of which might hereafter be fatal.”
The eloquence of Mr. Hayne easily triumphed over this opposition, arising from a scrupulous attention and care of the public finances, and the bill having been a third time read, was almost unanimously adopted. Seven votes only were in the negative; and it was universally known that even those who opposed the bill, were among the warmest friends and partizans of the general. Motives of public expediency, and, with some, the habit of opposing every novel measure of finance, were the only reasons for their course of conduct.
The proposition was received with equal warmth and good will in the house of representatives. As soon as the committee presented their report, all other business was postponed, and the consideration of the bill commenced. The discussion that ensued, as in the senate, fully recognized the rights of the general to national gratitude, and only turned on the legality of the proposed plan. After the third reading the bill was passed by an overwhelming majority.
During these discussions in congress, General Lafayette, who was wholly ignorant of their existence, was at Annapolis, whither he had been invited by the legislature of Maryland. It was not until the day after his return to Washington, that the two committees of the senate and the house of representatives waited on him, to acquaint him with the resolutions of congress.
Mr. Smith, the chairman, presented him the act, and observed that the congress of the United States, fully appreciating the great sacrifices made by the general in the cause of American Independence, had taken that opportunity of repaying a part of the vast debt owed to him by the country.
General Lafayette was greatly embarrassed on hearing this munificence of congress towards him. He was at first tempted to refuse it, as he thought the proofs of affection and popular gratitude which he had received from the moment of his arrival in the United States, were a sufficient recompense for all his services, and he had never desired any other. But he nevertheless felt, from the manner in which this offer was made, that he could not refuse it without offending the American nation, through its representatives, and he therefore immediately decided upon accepting it. He replied to the committee with his usual promptness and feeling, assuring them of the deep gratitude he felt, as an American soldier, and as an adopted son of the country, for this as well as other marks of affection that had been bestowed upon him.
This act of congress was soon spread, by means of the public journals, through all parts of the Union, and was every where received with unanimous approbation. Some states even wished to make an addition to these grants of congress. Thus, for example, Virginia, New York, and Maryland, were desirous to heap additional favours on the guest of the nation. It required all the determined moderation of the general to repress this excess of gratitude, which would have ended in placing at his disposal all the funds of the United States; for if the states had once engaged in this struggle of generosity, it is difficult to say where it would have ended.