The Marquis de LaFayette Insists that France Adhere to “true principles and veritable practice of legal liberty, which in the end will triumph”

“I regret above all the state of the public spirit in a country in which I have seen such zeal for the cause of liberty, and in which the zeal was so often pushed to such exaggeration that it afflicted its true friends”

 

A powerful summation of his hopes for a peaceful freedom in democratically aspiring countries

In 1824 the United States was in the midst of the Era of Good Feelings, was growing and progressing, and seeing a brilliant future. At the same time the generation of the Founding Fathers and Mothers who had created the republic was passing from the scene; the memory of their deeds and their ideals was growing dim, even as their grandchildren enjoyed the benefits of their labors. So the nation was looking forward and backward at the same time. Lafayette was the last surviving general of the Revolution, and although neglected in Europe, the story of his gallantry during that war, his wounds suffered at the Battle of Brandywine, his Virginia campaign that forced Lord Cornwallis into Yorktown, his relationship with the beloved Washington, were all part of the American legend. President Monroe invited him to visit the U.S. He accepted, and his 1824-5 visit to the United States became one of the landmark events of the first half of the 19th Century in America. For those who had been involved in that fight—the Revolutionary officers and those of the Society of the Cincinnati and similar organizations—the visit of their old chief would be the occasion to again light the torch just in time to pass it to a new generation. For their progeny, it would be the chance to bid a symbolic farewell to the fading, revered generation of the Revolution.

While Lafayette was returning to France, Louis XVIII died, and Charles X took the throne. As king, Charles intended to restore the absolute rule of the monarch, and his decrees had already prompted protest by the time Lafayette arrived. Lafayette was the most prominent of those who opposed the king. In the elections of 1827, the 70-year-old Lafayette was elected to the Chamber of Deputies again. Unhappy at the outcome, Charles dissolved the Chamber, and ordered a new election: Lafayette again won his seat. He was popular enough that Charles felt he could not be safely arrested, but Charles’ spies were thorough: one government agent noted “his [Lafayette’s] seditious toasts … in honor of American liberty”.

On March 17, 1830, the majority in the Chamber of Deputies passed a motion of no confidence, the Address of the 221, against the king and Polignac’s ministry. The following day, Charles dissolved parliament, and alarmed the opposition by delaying elections for two months. During this time, the liberals championed the “221” as popular heroes, while the government struggled to gain support across the country, as prefects were shuffled around the departments of France. The elections that followed, taking place between July 5 and 19, 1830, and returned a narrow majority for Polignac and his Ultra-royalists, but many Chamber members were nevertheless hostile to the king.

Among the men sympathetic to the cause of liberty were Toussaint Borely, President of the Court of Appeals in the Southern French cultural center of Aix-en-Provence, and a candidate for the representative in the chamber representing the South, M. Thomas.

However, as much desirous of the freedoms associated with representation, justice, and press freedoms, Lafayette feared the anarchy and chaos he had seen before in the French Revolution, the overthrow of the monarchy that led to bloodshed and a generation of war.

Letter Signed, La Grange, July 3, 1830, to Toussaint Joseph Borély, Preident of the Court of Appeals in the Southern French town of Aix-en-Provence. “The details you give me are certainly side, my dear President; I thank you nonetheless for having communicated them to me. I regret the situation with our colleague Mr. Thomas, all while hoping that he will be able to be nominated elsewhere; but I regret above all the state of the public spirit in a country in which I have seen such zeal for the cause of liberty, and in which the zeal was so often pushed to such exaggeration that it afflicted its true friends. We must hope that your beautiful region will repose itself one day in the true principles and veritable practice of this legal liberty, which in the end will triumph. Offer to my dear old colleague and received yourself the expressions of my sentiments which I offer with all my heart.”

On July 25, 1830, the King signed the Ordinances of Saint-Cloud, removing the franchise from the middle class and dissolving the Chamber of Deputies. The decrees were published the following day. On July 27, Parisians erected barricades throughout the city, and riots erupted. In defiance, the Chamber continued to meet. When Lafayette, who was at La Grange, heard what was going on, he raced into the city, and was acclaimed as a leader of the revolution. When his fellow deputies were indecisive, Lafayette went to the barricades, and soon the royalist troops were routed. Fearful that the excesses of the 1789 revolution were about to be repeated, the deputies made Lafayette head of a restored National Guard, and charged him with keeping order. The Chamber was willing to proclaim him as ruler, but he refused a grant of power he deemed unconstitutional. He also refused to deal with Charles, who abdicated on August 2. Many young revolutionaries sought a republic, but Lafayette felt this would lead to civil war, and chose to offer the throne to the duc d’Orleans, Louis-Philippe, who had lived in America and had far more of a common touch than did Charles. Lafayette secured the agreement of Louis-Philippe, who accepted the throne, to various reforms.