Georges Washington de La Fayette

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Georges Washington
de La Fayette

| image = Georges Washington de Lafayette.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Lithograph by Émile Desmaisons, 1848

| office1 = Vice President of the Constituent Assembly

| term_start1 = 4 May 1848

| term_end1 = 26 May 1849

| predecessor1 = Office established

| successor1 = Office abolished

| office2 = Member of the Chamber of Deputies
for Haute-Loire

| term_start2 = 17 November 1827

| term_end2 = 26 May 1849

| term_start3 = 16 May 1822

| term_end3 = 24 December 1823

| term_start4 = 12 May 1815

| term_end4 = 13 July 1815

| native_name =

| native_name_lang = French

| birth_name = Georges Washington Louis Gilbert de Lafayette

| other_name =

| nickname =

| birth_date = 24 December 1779

| birth_place = Paris, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|1849|11|29|1779|12|24|df=y}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| placeofburial =

| party = Help yourself

| education = Harvard University

| allegiance = {{flag|French First Republic}}
{{flag|French First Empire}}

| branch =

| serviceyears = 1800–1807

| rank =

| rank_label =

| unit =

| commands =

| battles =

| awards =

| memorials =

| parents = Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
Adrienne de La Fayette

| spouse = {{marriage|Émilie Destutt de Tracy|1802}}

| children = 5

}}

Georges Washington Louis Gilbert de La Fayette (24 December 1779 – 29 November 1849) was the son of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, the French officer and hero of the American Revolution, and Adrienne de La Fayette. He was named in honor of George Washington, under whom his father served in the Revolutionary War.[https://books.google.com/books?id=cV454kuJiHMC&pg=PT54 Marquis de La Fayette Gregory Payan, Alice B. McGinty p. 51]

Early life

File:Le serment de La Fayette a la fete de la Federation 14 July 1790 French School 18th century.jpg of La Fayette at the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July 1790. Talleyrand, then Bishop of Autun can be seen on the right. The standing child is the son of La Fayette, the young Georges Washington de La Fayette.Notice at Musée Carnavalet. French School, 18th century, Musée Carnavalet.]]

File:Georges Washington de La Fayette in Le serment de La Fayette a la fete de la Federation 14 July 1790 French School 18th century.jpg

La Fayette was born in Paris on Christmas Eve in 1779, while his father was on a one-year return to France. He was christened the next day and named after George Washington, the victorious commanding general of America's Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. The elder Lafayette said the gesture was "a tribute of respect and love for my dear friend."{{Cite web |title=Georges Washington de Lafayette |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/georges-washington-de-lafayette/ |work=MountVernon.org |access-date=12 August 2020}}

From 1783, La Fayette grew up in the Hôtel de La Fayette at 183 rue de Bourbon, Paris. Their home was the headquarters of Americans in Paris. Benjamin Franklin, John and Sarah Livingston Jay, and John and Abigail Adamsib. Maurois, André, p. 113. met there every Monday, where they dined with the La Fayette family and with the liberal nobility, including Stanislas Marie Adélaïde, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre, Madame de Staël, André Morellet, and Jean-François Marmontel.

In 1789, the French Revolution began. After 10 September 1792, in the wake of the September Massacres, La Fayette went into hiding with his tutor, Félix Frestrel. His mother was put under house arrest and, later, in prison. On 22 July 1794, his great-grandmother, Catherine de Cossé, duchesse de Noailles, his grandmother, Henriette Anne Louise d'Aguesseau, duchesse d'Ayen, and aunt, Anne Jeanne Baptiste Louise, vicomtesse d'Ayen, were guillotined.{{Cite book |author1=Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer |author2=Thomas Waters Griffith |title=My Scrap-book of the French Revolution |url=https://archive.org/details/myscrapbookfren00grifgoog |year=1898 |publisher=A. C. McClurg |page=[https://archive.org/details/myscrapbookfren00grifgoog/page/n500 393]}}

On 15 October 1795, Georges' mother was sent to join his father and his sisters, Anastasie and Virginie, in the prison fortress of Olmütz. All of their money and baggage were confiscated.{{Cite book |title=Lafayette |url=https://archive.org/details/lafayette00unge |url-access=limited |first=Harlow Giles |last=Unger |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2002 |isbn=0-471-39432-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lafayette00unge/page/n337 309]}} On 18 September 1797, the family was released under the terms of the treaty of Campo-Formio (18 October 1797). They recuperated at Lehmkuhlen, Holstein, near his aunt Madame de Montagu and great-aunt Madame de Tessé.

Adult life

In April 1795, Georges was sent to America with Frestrel.{{Cite book |title=Adopted Son |author=David A. Clary |pages=411, 421}} While there, he studied at Harvard University, and he was a house guest of George Washington at the presidential mansion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and at the Washington family home, Mount Vernon in Virginia.

In 1798, Georges returned to France from the United States. In 1799, the family moved to Vianen, near Utrecht during the brief time it was the Batavian Republic.[https://archive.org/details/householdlafaye00sichgoog/page/n268 Edith Helen Sichel, The Household of the Lafayettes, p. 260] Since Georges was turned back at the French border as an exile, he stayed behind with his father, while his mother Adrienne returned to France. After Napoleon's plebiscite, on 1st March 1800, he restored La Fayette's citizenship and removed their names from the émigrés list.

Georges entered the army and was wounded at the Battle of Pozzolo in 1800. Later, he was aide-de-camp to General Grouchy at the Battle of Eylau, 1807, where he gave up his horse, at the risk of his own life.[http://www.histoire-empire.org/1807/eylau/ Grouchy correspondence with his wife, Emmanuel de Grouchy à Eylau] Napoleon's distrust of Georges' father's independence rendered promotion improbable, and Georges de La Fayette retired into private life in 1807. He entered the Chamber of Deputies and voted consistently on the Liberal side. He was away from Paris during the revolution of July 1830, but he took an active part in the Campagne des banquets, which led up to the French Revolution of 1848.{{EB1911|wstitle=La Fayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de|volume=16|pages=65-67}}

Georges accompanied his father on the latter's triumphant visit to America in 1824 and 1825. Throughout most of the long tour, he kept close company with his father's secretary, Auguste Levasseur.{{cite book |title=Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825 |publisher=Gallaher & White |author=Levasseur, Auguste |year=1929 |location=New York |pages=211-212 |oclc=847833282}} They observed a volunteer fire company turnout in New York City.{{Cite book |title=Lafayette in America |page=16 |author=Auguste Levasseur |others=Translator Alan Hoffman}} He met George Washington Parke Custis at Arlington House. He visited Mount Vernon,{{Cite book |title=Lafayette in America |page=197 |author=Auguste Levasseur |others=Translator Alan Hoffman}} and he met Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.{{Cite book |title=Lafayette in America |page=234 |author=Auguste Levasseur |others=Translator Alan Hoffman}}

Personal life

In 1802, Georges Washington de Lafayette married Émilie Destutt de Tracy, daughter of the Comte de Tracy. Together, they had three daughters and two sons:

Natalie Renée du Motier de Lafayette (1803–1878), who married Adolphe Périer, a banker and nephew of Casimir Pierre Périer;
Charlotte Matilde du Motier de Lafayette (1805–1886), who married Maurice de Pusy (1799–1864), the son of Jean-Xavier Bureau de Pusy;
Clémentine Adrienne du Motier de Lafayette (1809–1886), who married Gustave de Beaumont (1802–1866);{{Cite book |author1=Jules Cloquet |author2=Isaiah Townsend |title=Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette |url=https://archive.org/details/BIUSante_185302 |year=1835 |publisher=Baldwin and Cradock |page=[https://archive.org/details/BIUSante_185302/page/n257 227]}}
Oscar Thomas Gilbert Motier de La Fayette (1815–1881) was educated at the École Polytechnique and served as an artillery officer in Algeria. He entered the Chamber of Deputies in 1846 and voted, like his father, with the extreme Left. After the revolution of 1848, he received a post in the provisional government; as a member of the Constituent Assembly, he became secretary of the war committee. After the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly in 1851, he retired from public life, but emerged on the establishment of the third republic, becoming a life senator in 1875;
Edmond François du Motier de La Fayette (1818–1890) shared his brother's political opinions; Edmond was one of the secretaries of the Constituent Assembly and a member of the senate from 1876 to 1888.

Lafayette and Tracy lived at their family estate LaGrange, outside Paris, where he spent the rest of his life until his death in 1849, at the age of 70.

= Legacy =

The appearance of the young Georges Washington is known from a painting, The oath of La Fayette at the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July 1790, in which he is standing on the right alongside his father. The painting is on display at the Musée Carnavalet.

Georges Washington de La Fayette

Early life

Adult life

Personal life

= Legacy =

Notes and references

See also