This visit was an historical event. I had made up my mind, and so talked with another member of the Commission, that it would be a fine thing to purchase this property, endow it with a fund which would keep it always open as a museum and present it to the French Government. Since our return to America the property has been acquired by a group of prominent American men and women, headed by Mrs. William Astor Chanler, for the same purpose that some of the members of our Commission had in mind, a most worthy project. This birthplace is known as The Chateau de Chavagnac-Lafayette. It is the hope of the purchasers to make it "A French Mount Vernon".
The Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette was born at the Chateau de Chavagnac, in the French province of Auvergne, on September 6th, 1757. It is some four hundred miles from Paris, in southern France. The crowning architectural feature of this little settlement of some five hundred souls, it stands, sentinel-like, among the sixty red-tiled roofs of the village. The little church at which Lafayette worshipped is only a step from the Chateau gates.
The original Chateau de Chavagnac dates from the fourteenth century. It was destroyed by fire in 1701, but was very soon afterward rebuilt from the original plans.
It is the purpose of the French Heroes' Fund to make this Chateau in France a complement to Mount Vernon. In it are to be kept records of Colonial days, as well as those of the present war. There is to be a room dedicated to the British; one to the Legion; another to the American Ambulance and still another to aviation. It is also to be made a home for orphans and for soldiers who have been disabled.
After a collation, we visited the reception room, which contains a number of old-time engravings, facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence, a bronze bust of Lafayette, a marble bust of Lafayette and a bronze bust of Franklin. Overhanging the bed in which Lafayette was born is a fine portrait of Benjamin Franklin. Although Lafayette died in Paris, the bed in which he died was brought to the Chateau, and we were shown this also.
Among other things in the reception room was a large placard with the heading "North American United States Constitution Explained". There was also a billiard table which looked as if it had seen much service.
I have alluded to this visit to the birthplace of Lafayette in a little address which I made at Besancon, and which will appear later.
Some photographs of the Commission were taken before leaving. Quite a large sum was raised among the Commissioners and given to the mayor to be distributed among the poor of the village.
Our next objective was LePuy, where we arrived at 4:30 P.M. and had breakfast, so-called, although the detour to the birthplace of Lafayette made us about ten hours late. We were met by the prefect, the mayor and the president of the Chamber of Commerce. We visited a church built on the top of a rock, the ascent to which was by three hundred perpendicular steps, two feet wide. It was said that these steps were built in this way as an opportunity for penance, it being a very hard operation to climb to the top. Some of our people made the ascent, myself among the number. When we reached the top we were rewarded by a magnificent view of the surrounding country. At the highest point is a statue of the Virgin Mary, made of Russian cannon, recast after capture by Napoleon.
While at LePuy we were shown the only spot where the immortal Caesar was defeated; otherwise his reign was triumphant.