“It is idle now to speculate whether our fathers could have succeeded without the French alliance. The struggle would have been indefinitely prolonged and probably compromised. But the alliance secured our triumph, and La Fayette secured the alliance. The fabled argosies of ancient, and the armadas and fleets of modern, times were commonplace voyages compared with the mission enshrined in this inspired boy. He who stood before the Continental Congress and said, ‘I wish to serve you as a volunteer, and without pay,’ and at twenty took his place with Gates, and Green, and Lincoln as major-generals in the Continental army. As a member of Washington’s military family, sharing with that incomparable man his board, and bed, and blanket, La Fayette won his first and greatest distinction in receiving from the American chief a friendship which was closer than that bestowed upon any other of his compatriots, and which ended only in death. The great commander saw in the reckless daring with which he carried his wound to rally the flying troops at Brandywine, the steady nerve with which he held the column wavering under a faithless general at Monmouth, the wisdom and caution with which he manœuvred inferior forces in the face of the enemy, his willingness to share every privation of the illy-clad and starving soldiery, and to pledge his fortune and credit to relieve their privations, a commander upon whom he could rely, a patriot he could trust, a man he could love.
“The surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga was the first decisive event of the war. It defeated the British plan to divide the country by a chain of forts up the Hudson and conquer it in detail. It inspired hope at home and confidence abroad. It seconded the passionate appeals of La Fayette and the marvellous diplomacy of Benjamin Franklin; it overcame the prudent counsels of Necker, warning the king against this experiment; and won the treaty of alliance between the old Monarchy and the young Republic. La Fayette now saw that his mission was in France. He said, ‘I can help the cause more at home than here.’ and asked for leave of absence. Congress voted him a sword and presented it with a resolution of gratitude, and he returned, bearing this letter from that convention of patriots to his king, ‘We recommend this young nobleman to your Majesty’s notice, as one whom we know to be wise in council, gallant in the field, and patient under the hardships of war.’ It was a certificate which Marlborough might have coveted, and Gustavus might have worn as the proudest of his decorations. But though king and court vied with each other in doing him honor, though he was welcomed as no Frenchman had ever been by triumphal processions in the cities and fêtes in villages, by addresses and popular applause, he reckoned them of value only in the power they gave him to procure aid for Liberty’s fight in America. ‘France is now committed to war,’ he argued, ‘and her enemy’s weak point for attack is in America. Send there your money and men.’ And he returned with the army of Rochambeau and the fleet of De Grasse.
“‘It is fortunate,’ said De Maurepas, the prime minister, ‘that La Fayette did not want to strip Versailles of its furniture for his dear Americans, for nobody could withstand his ardor.’ None too soon did this assistance arrive, for Washington’s letter to the American commissioners in Paris passed it on the way, in which he made this urgent appeal: ‘If France delays a timely and powerful aid in the critical posture of our affairs, it will avail us nothing should she attempt it hereafter. We are at this hour suspended in the balance. In a word, we are at the end of our tether, and now or never deliverance must come.’ General Washington saw in the allied forces now at his disposal that the triumph of independence was assured. The long, dark night of doubt and despair was illuminated by the dawn of a hope. The material was at hand to carry out the comprehensive plans so long matured, so long deferred, so patiently kept. That majestic dignity which had never bent to adversity, that lofty and awe-inspiring reserve which presented an impenetrable barrier to familiarity, either in council or at the festive board, so dissolved in the welcome of these decisive visitors that the delighted French and the astounded American soldiers saw Washington for the first and only time in his life express his happiness with all the joyous effervescence of hilarious youth.
“The flower of the young aristocracy of France, in their brilliant uniforms, and the farmers and frontiersmen of America, in their faded continentals, bound by a common baptism of blood, became brothers in the knighthood of liberty. With emulous eagerness to be in at the death, while they shared the glory, they stormed the redoubts at Yorktown, and compelled the surrender of Cornwallis and army. While this practically ended the war, it strengthened the alliance and cemented the friendship between the two great peoples. The mutual confidence and chivalric courtesy which characterized their relations has no like example in international comity. When an officer from General Carlton, the British commander-in-chief, came to headquarters with an offer of peace and independence, if the Americans would renounce the French alliance, Washington refused to receive him; Congress spurned Carlton’s secretary bearing a like message; and the states, led by Maryland, denounced all who entertained propositions of peace which were not approved by France as public enemies. And peace with independence meant prosperity and happiness to a people in the very depths of poverty and despair. France, on the other hand, though sorely pressed for money, said, in the romantic spirit which permeated this wonderful union: ‘Of the 27,000,000 livres we have loaned you, we forgive you 9,000,000 as a gift of friendship, and when with years there comes prosperity, you can pay the balance without interest.’
“With the fall of Yorktown La Fayette felt that he could do more for peace and independence in the diplomacy of Europe than in the war in America. His arrival in France shook the continent. Though one of the most practical and self-poised of men, his romantic career in the New World had captivated courts and peoples. In the formidable league which he had quickly formed with Spain and France, England saw humiliation and defeat, and made a treaty of peace by which she recognized the independence of the Republic of the United States.
“The fight for liberty in America was won. Its future here was threatened with but one danger,—the slavery of the negro. The soul of La Fayette, purified by battle and suffering, saw the inconsistency and the peril, and he returned to this country to plead with state legislatures and with Congress for the liberation of what he termed ‘my brethren, the blacks.’ But now the hundred years’ war for liberty in France was to begin. America was its inspiration, La Fayette its apostle, and the returning French army its emissaries. Beneath the trees by day and in the halls at night, at Mount Vernon, La Fayette gathered from Washington the gospel of freedom. It was to sustain and guide him in after years against the temptations of power and the despair of the dungeon. He carried the lessons and the grand example through all the trials and tribulations of his desperate struggle and partial victory for the enfranchisement of his country. From the ship, on departing, he wrote to his great chief, whom he was never to see again, this touching good by: ‘You are the most beloved of all the friends I ever had or shall have anywhere. I regret that I cannot have the inexpressible pleasure of embracing you in my own house, and welcoming you in a family where your name is adored. Everything that admiration, respect, gratitude, friendship, and filial love can inspire is combined in my affectionate heart to devote me most tenderly to you. In your friendship I find a delight which no words can express.’ His farewell to Congress was a trumpet blast which resounded round a world then bound in the chains of despotism and caste. Every government on the continent was an absolute monarchy, and no language can describe the poverty and wretchedness of the people. Taxes levied without law exhausted their property; they were arrested without warrant, and rotted in the Bastile without trial, and they were shot as game, and tortured without redress, at the caprice or pleasure of their feudal lords. Into court and camp this message came like the handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast. Hear his words: ‘May this immense temple of freedom ever stand a lesson to oppressors, an example to the oppressed, a sanctuary for the rights of mankind, and may these happy United States attain that complete splendor and prosperity which will illustrate the blessings of their government, and for ages to come rejoice the departed souls of its founders.’ Well might Louis the Sixteenth, more far-sighted than his ministers, exclaim, ‘After fourteen hundred years of power the old monarchy is doomed.’”
CHAPTER V.
The French Revolution approaching—Ominous Signs—The Price of Bread—Causes back of the Famine—Influence of the American Revolution—Reckless Extravagance of the French Courts—Public Finances in a State of Chaotic Ruin—Maurepas, Turgot, de Clugny, Necker, and Calonne—Convocation of the Notables—La Fayette chosen a Member—The Direful Financial Chasm—The Notables confronted by the Dreadful Deficit—La Fayette upholds the People’s Rights—His Letter to Washington upon Public Affairs—Washington writes of American Prosperity—La Fayette demands the Convocation of the States-General—The Notables aghast at Such Audacity—Louis obliged to yield to Popular Clamor—Convocation of the States-General—La Fayette chosen a Deputy—The Tiers État—Their Demands—Their Reception—Their Resolve—Defiance of the Tiers État—La Fayette joins the National Assembly—His Famous Declaration of Rights—A Riotous Mob—Storming of the Bastile—La Fayette assumes Command of the National Guards—His Ideas of Liberty Subservient to Law and Order—His Difficult Position—Execution of Foulon—La Fayette’s Resignation—Appeal of the National Guards—La Fayette resumes Command—Awful Juggernaut of the Revolution—A Versailles!—Carlyle’s Description—King Louis and Marie Antoinette at the Mercy of the Mob—La Fayette rescues them—Le Roi à Paris—Versailles deserted.
“What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”—Burke.
PARIS ran red with blood. The ghastly knife of the guillotine fell incessantly. The terrible tocsin sounded forth its ominous knell under the black midnight sky, and clanged its harsh and horrid discords in the midst of the summer’s stillness, and the glowing brightness of midday. Why were these demons of chaotic riot let loose upon the doomed city? Why had men, and even women, become like wild beasts, thirsting only for blood? Ah! there had gone forth unheeded another wail, before the awful cry of Blood! Blood! Blood! rang through the land. From the homes of twenty-five millions of people had ascended the pitiful appeal for Bread! Bread! Bread! And they had been answered only by the exasperating spectacle of gorgeous banquets, spread in the splendid salons of Versailles, where the weak-minded king and the selfish, shortsighted nobles surfeited themselves with luxuries, while the people died of starvation unheeded.