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[
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]
Lettre autographe signée de Friedrich List ; et deux autres documents (3)
Philadelphie, 13 août 1825
4 pp. in-4
LA FIN DU
FAREWELL TOUR
.
EXEMPLAIRE DE LAFAYETTE. SUPERBE LETTRE DU GRAND ÉCONOMISTE
FRIEDRICH LIST À LAFAYETTE, SON PROTECTEUR POUR UN TEMPS. IL LUI
DEMANDE ARGENT ET EMPLOI
[En français]. Il discute le statut de la langue allemande aux États Unis, parle de sa
triste vie et annonce son intention de rester à Philadelphie. Le français de F. List, peu
maîtrisé, fait la part belle à de charmants germanismes : “les renseignements que j’ai
pris pour m’établir dans ce pays, ou j’espérai voir finir enfin mes longues souffrances
me montrent une situation bien pénible. Il n’y a rien à faire ici pour moi avec une
gazette allemande. Cette langue va s’éteindre en Pennsylvanie. Les hommes instruits,
de la race germanique, lisent les gazettes anglaises. Les autres, parlent et écrivent un
patois allemand, une langue grossière, que je ne saurais ni parler ni écrire” etc.
[JOINT] :
2. [Imprimé]. [Prospectus publicitaire pour une nouvelle revue en langue allemande de Frederick
List].
Sir, You are no doubt aware
..., Lancaster, 7
3. L.a.s. de Friedrich List à Georges Washington Lafayette, “The report of the sickness your
venerable father cause great affliction”,
2 pp. in-4,
Harrisburg, 2 juillet 1826
The great German economist Friedrich List (1789-1846), developer of the National
System of Innovation, forefather of the German historical school of economics and
theorist of European economic union, is thought by many to have inspired Japanese
economic policy after the Second World War as well as the reforms in China after
Mao. In the first letter he discusses the status of the German language in American
scholarly discourse and the wisdom of learning English. Most of the letter devoted
to a description of his desperate life circumstances. He ends by stating his intention
either to settle in Philadelphia for the sake of his family or to become a woodsman
in Ohio. Much of his inspiration in its turn deriving from Alexander Hamilton and his
American followers. Like Lafayette, List had been a political prisoner in Europe, and
had emigrated to America in 1825, where he was to remain until 1832, working first
as a farmer and then as a journalist. Lafayette had met him in Paris earlier in 1824 and
had offered to travel with him to America.
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