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[
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]
Lettre signée par Joseph Watson, maire de Philadelphie
Philadelphie, “Mayors office”, 31 juillet 1824
2 pp. in-4
EXEMPLAIRE DE LAFAYETTE, ENCORE EN FRANCE, DE
LA LETTRE D’INVITATION DU MAIRE DE PHILADELPHIE,
JOSEPH WATSON : “BY ALL YOU ARE ANXIOUSLY
EXPECTED”
“It is with the utmost pleasure I fulfill the duty enjoined upon me by
an unanimous vote of the Council of Philadelphia, in inviting you to
become the guest of the City. The enclosed resolutions faithfully
represent the feelings of all classes of our Citizens – By all you are
anxiously expected – and to all your presence will be most welcome.
In their name therefore, and on their behalf, I beg you Sir to gratify this
universal desire ; and give the City of Philadelphia a participation in the
joy which your arrival in America will produce. To me personally Sir, it
will ever remain a subject of pride that it has fallen to my lot to be the
medium of this Communication”
Philadelphie n’entendait pas demeurer en reste après les
réceptions somptueuses que New York et Boston avaient
orchestrées pour le général. Le 28 septembre 1824 fut un
triomphe avec une procession énorme, un arc triomphal et
de nombreuses illuminations. Lafayette resta huit jours à dans
l’ancienne capitale des États Unis :
“Never could it be more truly said, that a whole population came out
to meet Lafayette ; none remained at home but those whom age and
feebleness detained. Stages had been erected on each side of the
streets, as high as the eves of the houses, for the accommodation of
spectators. In the principal street of the suburbs by which we entered,
the different trades were drawn up in line, at the head of each corps
was a workshop, in which were workmen at their employment ; a
banner accompanied each of these workshops, containing portraits
of Washington and Lafayette...After passing through the principal
streets, and under thirteen triumphal arches, we halted and alighted
before the senate house. While we rested there a few moments,
the representatives and senators of Pennsylvania, the city councils,
judiciary, and military officers, assembled in the principal hall, and a
few minutes after, under a salute of thirteen guns, we were conducted
into the Hall of Independence, and the general having been led to the
foot of the statue of Washington, was impressively addressed by the
mayor./ In listening to this address, and recognizing this hall in which
the declaration of independence of the United States was signed ; this
hall at whose door he had waited in 1777, with so much impatience
to devote his life and fortune to an almost desperate cause, Lafayette
felt an emotion he could scarcely conceal, and which several times
shewed itself in his eloquent answer./ The people were then admitted
to take the guest of the nation by the hand ; this greeting lasted for
several hours, and presented a picture of the most perfect equality that
can be imagined. mechanics with their hardened hands and uprolled
sleeves, advanced to Lafayette ; the magistrate and plain clad farmer
stood together ; the clergyman and player moved side by side, and
children sure of having their rights and feebleness respected, marched
boldly along before soldiers and sailors... At night, a population of one
hundred and twenty thousand souls, augmented by forty thousand
strangers from various parts of the union, walked about by the light of
an illumination” (Levasseur,
Lafayette in America
, i, pp. 141-143).
Joseph Watson (1784-1841) was Mayor of Philadelphia from
1824 to 1828. He was, as Levasseur records, particularly
pleased by the way things had gone and the good order
preserved :
“The next morning the mayor, Joseph Watson, came to visit General
Lafayette. He brought in his hand the report from the high constable,
which he showed us. “See there,” said he with an expression of lively
satisfaction, “see how freemen behave ! More than forty thousand
strangers have come to participate in the rejoicings of my fellow
citizens, and I have not found it necessary to increase the number
of watchmen. We have but a hundred and sixty, who are unarmed,
and they have not a single tumult to repress in this night of joyous and
popular effervescence! Examine these reports! not a single complaint
– not the slightest trouble,” and joy sparkled in the eyes of this virtuous
magistrate, whose chief happiness has its source in the excellence
of those over whom he presides (...) In my opinion the mayor of
Philadelphia would make a very bad prefect of police in Paris’” (pp.
143-144).
RÉFÉRENCE : une grande partie de la correspondance de Joseph
Watson est conservée à la Louisiana University (Bâton Rouge)
800 / 1 200
€
157
[
LAFAYETTE
, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de]
Lettre signée par Benjamin R. Morgan, “Secretary”
Philadelphie, The Library Company, 5 août 1824
1 p. in-4
L’UNE DES PLUS ANCIENNES BIBLIOTHÈQUES DES
ÉTATS-UNIS, FONDÉE PAR BENJAMIN FRANKLIN EN 1731
ET FONCTIONNANT ENCORE AUJOURD’HUI, AUTORISE
LAFAYETTE À EMPRUNTER DES LIVRES
Promulgation transmise à Lafayette, certifiée par le
Secrétaire, de la résolution prise par “the Library Company of
Philadelphia” ; Lafayette a le droit d’utiliser la bibliothèque : “he
be presented with a copy of the Catalogues, upon his arrival :
and, that Thomas Parke M.D. and William Rawle Esquire, be a
committee, to carry this Resolution into effect”
Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the
Library Company
is
America’s oldest cultural institution and served as the
Library
of Congress
from the Revolutionary War to 1800. The
Library
Company
was the largest public library in America until the
Civil War.
1 200 / 1 800
€