Return to Washington—Character of the new President—Visit to the ex-president, become a farmer and justice of peace—Government offers Lafayette a ship of war to return in to France—Presents made to Bolivar through Lafayette—New homage from the city of New York—Farewell of the President to the Nation’s Guest—Departure from Washington city—Embarkation in the Brandywine—Voyage—Testimonies of attachment and regret of the crew of the Brandywine to Lafayette—Reception at Havre—Some hours at Rouen—Reception of Lafayette at La Grange by the inhabitants of his vicinity.
After resting two days at Baltimore we set out for Washington city. General Lafayette wished to depart privately, and the citizens, always solicitous to satisfy his desires, contented themselves with calling in the evening to take leave and express their regrets. This circumstance employed several hours, and left in our hearts impressions of profound melancholy. We commenced our journey on the 1st of August, accompanied by two members of the Baltimore committee. A few miles from Washington we were met by an elegant carriage, which drew up near us, from which a young gentleman alighted and inquired for General Lafayette. This was the eldest son of the new president Mr. Adams, who was sent by his father to the nation’s guest, to inform him that he had solicited and obtained from the citizens of the metropolis, permission to offer him the use of the president’s house. The general accepted the invitation for himself and travelling companions, entered Mr. Adams’s carriage, and we continued on our route. Our two members of the Baltimore committee had not anticipated such an occurrence, which threw them into considerable embarrassment. They had been zealous “Jackson men,” and had declared themselves strongly against Mr. Adams, during the election; of this Mr. Adams was not ignorant, and on this occasion it appeared difficult to them to present themselves under the auspices of General Lafayette, without exposing themselves to the chance of being thought willing to make the amende honorable. They determined to separate from our party, on entering the city, and took lodgings in a hotel.
During the canvass of the presidential election, I had frequently heard the adversaries of Mr. Adams accuse him of aristocratic habits, contracted, as they said, in the foreign courts at which he had passed many years. This accusation appeared to me much opposed to what I had seen and have related of his conduct in the steam-boat going from Frenchtown to Baltimore; but, at length, in consequence of hearing the charge frequently repeated, I began to fear, that, with the exercise of power, he might fall into what we call in Europe the manners of a prince; my surprise was therefore the more agreeable, to find, on reaching Washington, that the president was not changed. It is true, we found Mr. Adams in the place of Mr. Monroe; but the public man was still the same. The plainness of the domestics, and facility of access to the house, appeared not to have undergone the least alteration, and in Mr. Adams’s reception of us we experienced all the cordiality of his predecessor. He soon ascertained why our companions had not remained with us, and hastened to send them an invitation to dinner, which they accepted without embarrassment or hesitation, as men who understood the politeness intended them, but who did not consider themselves as being in any way pledged by accepting it.
The lodgings prepared for us in his own house by the president were plain, but commodious and in good taste. Anxious to enable General Lafayette to enjoy the repose he thought him to need after so many and such long voyages, and after numerous and profound emotions, he secluded himself with us in entire privacy. Aided by Mrs. Adams, her two sons, and two nieces, he made us taste, if I may so express myself, the sweets of domestic life. During the early portion of our stay, there rarely set down to table or around the hearth more than two or three persons at once, and usually these were some public officers who, after being occupied all day with the president in business, were detained by him to dinner and the familiar conversation of the evening. It was during this period which glided away so swiftly, that I could appreciate the character of Mr. Adams, whom I had previously known only by the eulogies of his friends or the attacks of opponents. I discovered that the first had but done him justice, and the last been misled by party spirit. It is difficult to find a more upright and better cultivated intellect than is possessed by the successor of Mr. Monroe. The beautiful reliefs of the capitol, to which he is not a stranger; his treatise on weights and measures, and the numerous diplomatic missions he has discharged with distinction, bear witness to his good taste in the arts, the correctness of his scientific judgment, and his skill in politics. As to the accusation of aristocracy, which some have preferred against him, it is sufficiently refuted by his manners, which remain unaltered by his elevation to the chief magistracy of the republic.
Notwithstanding that General Lafayette was daily preparing to return to Europe, before quitting the American soil, he wished once more to see some of his old Virginia friends, and especially desired again to embrace and thank him, who, as head of the government, had first welcomed him to its capital, and who, at present returned to private life, continued to give his fellow citizens an example of all the virtues, in cultivating his modest patrimony. The general mentioned the subject to Mr. Adams, who offered to accompany him on this visit, saying, “that he would gladly take this occasion to go and present to his predecessor his tribute of veneration and attachment.” The 6th of August was the day fixed upon for this visit, and we set out for Oak Hill, the seat of Mr. Monroe, which is thirty-seven miles from Washington, unaccompanied by any escort. Mr. Adams took the general and Mr. George Lafayette, with one of his friends, in his carriage; I rode in a tilbury with the president’s son. At the Potomac bridge we stopped to pay the toll, and the gate-keeper, after counting the company and horses, received the money from the president, and allowed us to pass on; but we had gone a very short distance, when we heard some one bawling after us, “Mr. President! Mr. President! you have given eleven-pence too little!” Presently the gate-keeper arrived out of breath, holding out the change he had received, and explaining the mistake made. The president heard him attentively, re-examined the money, and agreed that he was right, and ought to have another eleven-pence. Just as the president was taking out his purse, the gate-keeper recognized General Lafayette in the carriage, and wished to return his toll, declaring that all gates and bridges were free to the nation’s guest. Mr. Adams told him, that on this occasion General Lafayette travelled altogether privately, and not as the nation’s guest, but simply as a friend of the president, and, therefore, was entitled to no exemption. With this reasoning, our gate-keeper was satisfied, and received the money. Thus, during his course of his voyages in the United States, the general was but once subjected to the common rule of paying, and it was exactly upon the day in which he travelled with the chief magistrate; a circumstance which, probably in every other country, would have conferred the privilege of passing free.
We did not reach Oak Hill until the morning after we left Washington. We found the ex-president of the United States, now a farmer, pleasantly settled with all his family, in a handsome house near his farm. He was engaged in superintending his agricultural affairs, and endeavouring to improve his property, which had long been neglected for public business. Some of Mr. Monroe’s friends had collected to assist him in entertaining Lafayette. We passed three days in their company, and then the inhabitants of Leesburg, a small adjacent village, came in company with the Loudon county militia, to invite the presence of the nation’s guest at an entertainment prepared for him. The president, ex-president, and chief justice of the United States, accompanied him, and received their share of popular attention; but it was easy to perceive that this homage was inspired by the veneration of their virtues, rather than by any titles which they possessed.
After the Leesburg and Loudon county festivals we took leave of Mr. Monroe to return to Washington. Wishing to make the journey in a single day, we set out very early, but soon had cause to repent of this arrangement; about two o’clock the heat became so oppressive, that one of Mr. Adams’s horses was struck down by apoplexy. The driver in vain attempted to save its life by copious blood-letting, and in a few minutes the animal expired in the ditch where it had fallen. As soon as the accident happened, we all alighted to help the horse, but finding him dead, we took seats on the grass until a waiter went to the nearest village for another horse. Travellers were passing us continually, and cast inquisitive glances upon our group, without once suspecting the presence of the first magistrate of the republic, or that of the adopted son of a great nation. Having procured another horse, we resumed our journey, but the delay caused by this accident prevented our arrival at Washington until long after sunset, which prevented us visiting the falls of Potomac, near to where we crossed the river. Although these falls are of slight elevation, their effect is said to be very fine.
A few days afterwards we again left the capital to make a last tour in Virginia. On this occasion we visited Albemarle, Culpepper, Fauquier, Warrenton and Buckland. Although in all these towns the progress of Lafayette was marked by popular festivals, he could not avoid feeling pained by the recollection that in a few days he was about to leave, perhaps for ever, a country which contained so many objects of his affection. At Albemarle we were re-joined by Mr. Monroe, whom we now found invested with a new public character. Faithful to the doctrine that a citizen should always be entirely at the service of his country, he did not think that his title of late president of the republic withheld him from being useful to his countrymen; and he had therefore accepted the office of justice of the peace, to which he had been elected by the confidence and suffrages of the people of his county. Mr. Madison had also left his retreat and re-joined us on the road to Monticello, whither the general went to take leave of his old friend Jefferson, whose enfeebled health kept him at present in a state of painful inaction. The meeting at Monticello, of three men, who, by their successive elevation to the supreme magistracy of the state, had given to their country twenty-four years of prosperity and glory, and who still offered it the example of private virtues, was a sufficiently strong inducement to make us wish to stay there a longer time; but indispensable duties recalled General Lafayette to Washington, and he was obliged to take leave of his friends. I shall not attempt to depict the sadness which prevailed at this cruel separation, which had none of the alleviation which is usually left by youth, for in this instance, the individuals who bade farewell, had all passed through a long career, and the immensity of the ocean would still add to the difficulties of a reunion.
One of Mr. Adams’s first cares on attaining the head of the administration had been to decide General Lafayette to accept the use of a public ship for his return to France. This vessel, built in Washington navy yard, was launched about the end of June, and was to be ready for sea by the beginning of September, the time fixed upon by General Lafayette for his departure. “It is customary,” Mr. Adams wrote to him, “to designate our frigates by the names of rivers of the United States; to conform to this custom, and make it accord with the desire we have to perpetuate a name that recalls that glorious event of our revolutionary war, in which you sealed with your blood your devotion to our principles, we have given the name of Brandywine to the new frigate, to which we confide the honourable mission of returning you to the wishes of your country and family. The command of the Brandywine will be entrusted to one of the most distinguished officers of our navy, Captain Charles Morris, who has orders to land you under the protection of our flag, in whatever European port you please to designate.”
This invitation was too honourable, and made with too much delicacy, to be for an instant refused by General Lafayette; therefore he hastened to return to Washington to express his gratitude to the president, and concert with Captain Morris the day of sailing, which was settled for the 7th of September. When this determination became known, a great number of persons thronged from the neighbouring cities to take a last farewell of the nation’s guest; and all the constituted authorities of the capital determined to take a solemn leave of him. From this time to the day of our embarkation the general devoted his whole time to the duties of friendship, and in answering to the invitations of various cities, which, for want of time and on account of their distance, he had been unable to visit.