[LAFAYETTE, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de] Manuscrit autographe Washington, 7 septembre 1825 3 pages, in-folio, sur un papier au filigrane 'Golding & Snelgrove 1815’, avec quelques corrections. Filigrane 'Amies/ Philada’ avec une colombe tenant...
Estimation :
30000 / 50000
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
un rameau d’olivier. Deux traces de bande adhésive dans les marges
LES DERNIERS MOTS DE LAFAYETTE AUX INSTITUTIONS DE LA LIBERTÉ. L’UN DE SES PLUS GRANDS DISCOURS. LAFAYETTE’S AUTOGRAPH DRAFT OF HIS SPEECH TO PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, BIDDING FAREWELL TO AMERICA : “GOD BLESS YOU, SIR, AND YOU ALL WHO SURROUND ME, GOD BLESS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, EACH OF THEIR STATES, AND THEIR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT !" LAFAYETTE’S LAST WORDS TO THE INSTITUTIONS OF FREEDOM “Amidst My High obligations to the General Government and particularly to You, Sir, its Respected Chief Magistrate, I Have Most thankfully to Aknowledge the Opportunity Given Me at this Solemn and painful Moment to present the people of the United States with a parting tribute of my profound, inexpressible gratitude. To Have Been in the infant and Critical days of these States Adopted by them as a favourite Son, to Have participated in the toils and perils of our Unspotted struggle for independence freedom and Equal Rights, and in the foundation of the American Era of a New Social order which has already pervaded this, and shall Successively for the dignity and happiness of Mankind pervade Every part of the other Hemisphere, to have received, at every stage of the Revolution and during forty years after that period from the people of the United States, and their representatives, at Home and abroad, continual marks of their confidence and kindness, had seen the pride, the Encouragement, the support of a long and eventful life. But how could I find words to aknowledge that series of welcomes, those unbounded and universal displays of public affection, which, as you are pleased to describe them, have marked each step, each hour of a twelve months progress throughout the 24 states, and which, while they overwhelm my heart with grateful delight, have, most satisfactorily evinced the concurrence of the people in the kind testimonies, in the immense favor bestowed on me by the several branches of their representatives through every part and the central point of the Confederacy. Yet, gratifications still higher awaited me. in the wonders of Creation and improvement which have met my enchanted eye, in the unparalleled and self felt happiness of the people, in their rapid prosperity and insured security, in a practice of good order the appendage of true freedom and a national good sense the final settler of all difficulties, I have had proudly to recognize a result of the Republican principles for which we have fought and a glorious demonstration to the most timid and prejudice (?) of the superiority, above degrading aristocracy or despotism of these popular institutions, founded on the plain Rights of Man, and where the local Rights of every section are preserved under a Constitutional bond of Union. The cherishing of that union between the states, as it has been the farewell entreaty of our great paternal Washington and should ever have the dying prayer of every American patriot so it has become the Sacred pledge of the Emancipation of the world, an object in which I am happy to observe that the American people, while a proper and progressing sense of the European nuisances entailed upon them is every day more correctly felt, returning good for evil, and (continues) of their moral influence show them every day more interested. And now, Sir, how can I do justice to my deep and lively feelings for the assurances most peculiarly valued of your action and friendship, for your so very kind references to our old times to my beloved associates, to the various vicissitudes in my long career, for your affecting picture of the Blessings poured by several generations of the American people on the Remaining days of a surviving delighted veteran, for your affectionate remarks on this sad hour of separation on the Country of my birth field, I am happy to say, of American sympathy, on the Hope so necessary to me of my seeing again the country that has deigned near half a century ago also to call me Hero ? I shall content myself, refraining from superfluous repetitions, at once, on this day, before you, sir, and this respected circle, to proclaim my cordial confirmation of everyone of the sentiments which I have had daily opportunities publicly to (?) from the time when your (General) predecessor, my old brother in arms and friend transmitted to me the Honorable invitation of Congress, to this time when you, my dear sir, whose friendly connaissance with me dates from your youthful days are going to consign me, across the Atlantic, to the protection of Heroic National flag, on board the splendid ship, the name of which has been one of the more (flattering) and find among them (?) favors conferred upon me. God Bless you, Sir, and you all who surround me, god bless the American people, each of their states, and their federal government, I accept this patriotic farewell of an overflowing heart"... This is Lafayette’s draft of his reply to President John Quincy Adams’s speech of farewell, which had ended : “speaking in the name of the whole people of the United States, and at a loss only for language to give utterance to that feeling of attachment with which the heart of the nation beats, as the heart of one man - I bid you a reluctant and affectionate farewell". As Levasseur describes the scene, “General Lafayette, deeply affected with what he heard, was obliged to pause a few moments before he was able to reply. At last, however, after having made an effort to regain his voice, he thus expressed himself" (Levasseur, Lafayette in America, ii, p. 252) The manuscript has been scored through, seemingly by Lafayette himself, no doubt denoting that a fair copy had been made. As a draft, it differs in some respects from the speech as actually delivered. For example, while Levasseur prints the opening as “Amidst all my obligations to the general government" ; in our draft, this runs “Amidst My High obligations to the General Government". The only other manuscript recorded of this particularly important speech is a copy in the Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society (Gottschalk, Guide, p.199). It might have been enclosed in the manuscript of the speech of John Quincy Adams exhibited in 1957 (Lafayette, Archives nationales, n° 422). II s’agit ici du brouillon de la réponse de Lafayette au discours d’adieu du Président John Quincy Adams “I bid you a reluctant and affectionate farewell". Le grand trait d’encre vertical figurant sur les pages signifie sans nul doute qu’une mise au net fut immédiatement réalisée.
LES DERNIERS MOTS DE LAFAYETTE AUX INSTITUTIONS DE LA LIBERTÉ. L’UN DE SES PLUS GRANDS DISCOURS. LAFAYETTE’S AUTOGRAPH DRAFT OF HIS SPEECH TO PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, BIDDING FAREWELL TO AMERICA : “GOD BLESS YOU, SIR, AND YOU ALL WHO SURROUND ME, GOD BLESS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, EACH OF THEIR STATES, AND THEIR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT !" LAFAYETTE’S LAST WORDS TO THE INSTITUTIONS OF FREEDOM “Amidst My High obligations to the General Government and particularly to You, Sir, its Respected Chief Magistrate, I Have Most thankfully to Aknowledge the Opportunity Given Me at this Solemn and painful Moment to present the people of the United States with a parting tribute of my profound, inexpressible gratitude. To Have Been in the infant and Critical days of these States Adopted by them as a favourite Son, to Have participated in the toils and perils of our Unspotted struggle for independence freedom and Equal Rights, and in the foundation of the American Era of a New Social order which has already pervaded this, and shall Successively for the dignity and happiness of Mankind pervade Every part of the other Hemisphere, to have received, at every stage of the Revolution and during forty years after that period from the people of the United States, and their representatives, at Home and abroad, continual marks of their confidence and kindness, had seen the pride, the Encouragement, the support of a long and eventful life. But how could I find words to aknowledge that series of welcomes, those unbounded and universal displays of public affection, which, as you are pleased to describe them, have marked each step, each hour of a twelve months progress throughout the 24 states, and which, while they overwhelm my heart with grateful delight, have, most satisfactorily evinced the concurrence of the people in the kind testimonies, in the immense favor bestowed on me by the several branches of their representatives through every part and the central point of the Confederacy. Yet, gratifications still higher awaited me. in the wonders of Creation and improvement which have met my enchanted eye, in the unparalleled and self felt happiness of the people, in their rapid prosperity and insured security, in a practice of good order the appendage of true freedom and a national good sense the final settler of all difficulties, I have had proudly to recognize a result of the Republican principles for which we have fought and a glorious demonstration to the most timid and prejudice (?) of the superiority, above degrading aristocracy or despotism of these popular institutions, founded on the plain Rights of Man, and where the local Rights of every section are preserved under a Constitutional bond of Union. The cherishing of that union between the states, as it has been the farewell entreaty of our great paternal Washington and should ever have the dying prayer of every American patriot so it has become the Sacred pledge of the Emancipation of the world, an object in which I am happy to observe that the American people, while a proper and progressing sense of the European nuisances entailed upon them is every day more correctly felt, returning good for evil, and (continues) of their moral influence show them every day more interested. And now, Sir, how can I do justice to my deep and lively feelings for the assurances most peculiarly valued of your action and friendship, for your so very kind references to our old times to my beloved associates, to the various vicissitudes in my long career, for your affecting picture of the Blessings poured by several generations of the American people on the Remaining days of a surviving delighted veteran, for your affectionate remarks on this sad hour of separation on the Country of my birth field, I am happy to say, of American sympathy, on the Hope so necessary to me of my seeing again the country that has deigned near half a century ago also to call me Hero ? I shall content myself, refraining from superfluous repetitions, at once, on this day, before you, sir, and this respected circle, to proclaim my cordial confirmation of everyone of the sentiments which I have had daily opportunities publicly to (?) from the time when your (General) predecessor, my old brother in arms and friend transmitted to me the Honorable invitation of Congress, to this time when you, my dear sir, whose friendly connaissance with me dates from your youthful days are going to consign me, across the Atlantic, to the protection of Heroic National flag, on board the splendid ship, the name of which has been one of the more (flattering) and find among them (?) favors conferred upon me. God Bless you, Sir, and you all who surround me, god bless the American people, each of their states, and their federal government, I accept this patriotic farewell of an overflowing heart"... This is Lafayette’s draft of his reply to President John Quincy Adams’s speech of farewell, which had ended : “speaking in the name of the whole people of the United States, and at a loss only for language to give utterance to that feeling of attachment with which the heart of the nation beats, as the heart of one man - I bid you a reluctant and affectionate farewell". As Levasseur describes the scene, “General Lafayette, deeply affected with what he heard, was obliged to pause a few moments before he was able to reply. At last, however, after having made an effort to regain his voice, he thus expressed himself" (Levasseur, Lafayette in America, ii, p. 252) The manuscript has been scored through, seemingly by Lafayette himself, no doubt denoting that a fair copy had been made. As a draft, it differs in some respects from the speech as actually delivered. For example, while Levasseur prints the opening as “Amidst all my obligations to the general government" ; in our draft, this runs “Amidst My High obligations to the General Government". The only other manuscript recorded of this particularly important speech is a copy in the Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society (Gottschalk, Guide, p.199). It might have been enclosed in the manuscript of the speech of John Quincy Adams exhibited in 1957 (Lafayette, Archives nationales, n° 422). II s’agit ici du brouillon de la réponse de Lafayette au discours d’adieu du Président John Quincy Adams “I bid you a reluctant and affectionate farewell". Le grand trait d’encre vertical figurant sur les pages signifie sans nul doute qu’une mise au net fut immédiatement réalisée.
