[LAFAYETTE, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de] Lettre signée par Joseph Watson, maire de Philadelphie Philadelphie, “Mayors office", 31 juillet 1824 2 pp. in-4
Estimation :
800 / 1200
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
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 gseptembre 28Le .énéral 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)
