157 / 239
156
276
[
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]
Lettre autographe signée par le général Francis Peston
Abingdon, Virginia, 17 juillet 1825
3 pp. in-4, adresse sur la dernière page (“Genl Lafayette Washington
politness of Colo. Barbour”), légère déchirure due à la rupture du
cachet avec manque de quelques lettres sur la dernière page
EXEMPLAIRE DE LAFAYETTE. DEMANDE DE FAVEUR PAR
UN GÉNÉRAL AMÉRICAIN : “I BEG THAT YOU WOULD NAME
ME TO Mr. MONROE, Mr. MADISON OR Mr. JEFFERSON”
Le général Preston demande à Lafayette s’il pourrait, pour raisons de
santé, rentrer en France avec lui, comme le Président le lui a accordé :
“My object is to sail with you to France on the frigate Brandywine” ;
avec post-scriptum : “PS. Altho’ you may recollect me from what I have
said above, yet your not knowing my standing in Society, I beg that you
would name me to Mr M[onr]oe, Mr Madison or Mr Jefferson, with all
of wh[om] I am well acquainted”
Francis Preston (1765-1836) was a lawyer who represented
Virginia in Congress from 1793 to 1797 and had served as a
Colonel of Volunteers in the War of 1812. He was promoted
Brigadier-General of the Virginia Militia in 1820. Like his father,
who had been a friend and fellow-surveyor of Washington’s,
and Lafayette himself, he was a prominent Freemason. The
Colonel Barbour who delivered the letter is probably the
Virginia Senator John S. Barbour (1790-1855), who had served
as Madison’s ADC in the War of 1812, and was cousin of the
Secretary of War, Senator James Barbour.
400 / 600
€
277
[
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]
Lettre autographe signée J.R.J
Princeton, 18 juillet 1825
1 p. in-4, déchirure due à la rupture du sceau, adresse sur la dernière
page (“Sir Night M Lafayette Philadelphia”)
EXEMPLAIRE DE LAFAYETTE. LETTRE DÉLIRANTE
METTANT LAFAYETTE “ON THE LEVEL WITH WASHINGTON
& BOLIVAR BECAUSE THE SQUARE DECLARED YOU”
Ce chrétien excentrique et Franc-Maçon signe “J.R.J.” et s’adresse au
“Sir Night Lafayette” lui reconnaissant une préeminence : “It has been
your happy & merited lot to be placed on the level with Washington &
Bolivar because the square declared you, with them, a ‘Key Stone’” ;
il demande “if Sir Night Lafayette has been ‘taught of God’? if he has
enlisted under the Captain of Salvation
”
150 / 200
€
278
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de
[Toast 26] Document autographe signé
Philadelphie, Mr Rush dinner, 20 juillet 1825
28 lignes
TOAST PRONONCÉ À PHILADELPHIE. EXEMPLAIRE DE
LAFAYETTE.
TOAST IN PHILADELPHIA. LAFAYETTE’S COPY
“Gal Lafayette rose and expressed his acknowledgments for the toast
that had been drunk in his behalf, and at the same time he attends to
the sentiments which the guest of the day has expressed upon the
superiority of American civilization over the institutions of every part
of both hemispheres. He expressed (…) the happy message of his old
fellow and companion in arms, President Monroe, a message which
at once was just a stop to the plots of the continental governments
against the independence and freedom of South America (…)
He gave the following toast : Philadelphia. May the fair city for every
conscience to redeem the pledge of her philanthropic name and rejoin
(?) the blessings of her republican freedom.
Gal L.F. being asked for a volunteer toast gave the memory of William
Penn and Benjamin Franklin” (...)
“We were now in the middle of July (...) We shall pause an instant
longer in Philadelphia, to visit the Water Works, and attend
the celebration festival with which the citizens particularly
engaged in these works desired to honour the nation’s guest”
(Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, II, p. 227)
3 000 / 5 000
€