LAFAYETTE Marie-Joseph de (1757-1834) général et homme politique

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  3. LAFAYETTE Marie-Joseph de (1757-1834) général et homme politique
  4. Lot n° 243 
Lot n° 243
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Result : 45 500EUR
LAFAYETTE Marie-Joseph de (1757-1834) général et homme politique
100 L.A.S. and 13 L.S. "L.F." or "Lafayette" and 7 L.A. or P.A. (some incomplete) plus a dictated letter, 1825-1834 and n.d., to her son George Washington de LAFAYETTE (1), her daughter-in-law born Émilie DESTUTT DE TRACY (12, plus one to her father), their daughter and granddaughter Nathalie de LAFAYETTE and her husband Adolphe PÉRIER (101), or his father, Augustin PÉRIER (4); 153 pages in-4 or in-8, most with address (many small cutouts of qqs words or lines, most in letters to Nathalie). Important family correspondence, mainly to his granddaughter Nathalie and her husband Adolphe Périer, but also interesting political correspondence, where he comments for Adolphe on current events, notably the end of the Restoration and the beginning of the July Monarchy. From Washington, he sends condolences to the father of his daughter-in-law, his friend Destutt de Tracy, on the death of his wife, "this cherished mother of our common family" (February 23, 1825); then, on tour, he tells his granddaughter about the adventures and pleasures of the trip: a shipwreck between Tennessee and Kentucky (where a county bears his name), a reception in Ohio, the return to his former Unitarian church in Boston, a ball for 6,000 people. Back at La Grange, he was delighted with Nathalie's engagement, writing to Adolphe: "I was not long in wishing a paternal liaison with you", and recalling the old friendly relations between their two families (June 12, 1827)... He speaks of his return to the House - "where I can only say the three words, let us go" (July 12, 1827), and congratulates Nathalie's future father-in-law on his election a few months later: "all the bonds of patriotism, family and friendship contribute to our solidarity in this House where for the first time in a long time we can hope to do some good" (December 1, 1827)... Condolences to the same on the loss of his daughter Amélie... A few months after Nathalie's marriage, in January 1828, he was still not consoled by her absence: living with her had become "second nature, and as if you had been my contemporary. The opposite habit will never be established and I am too old to give myself up to this sad education" (May 25, 1828)... He speaks with admiration of a parliamentary report by Augustin Périer... "The Ministry and the House are doing very poorly and do not take on any colour" (June 9, 1828)... Incident in the House: "We were about to discuss the petition of the Paris National Guard, according to an excellent report by Gal Andreossy, when Mr. de Martignac came up to the gallery to ask for the agenda; the president removed the deliberation without allowing the speakers to speak; all this went very badly; we refused for a long time to continue the session" (July 13, 1828)... The parliamentary session was delayed: "It seems that the King's trip to did not advance matters, and as in everything he was told, there is hardly a word of public needs and wishes, this inaccurate expression of general contentment, this magic picture of the union between the administrators and the people, serve as an answer to the small and very insufficient attempts of the ministers" (29 October 1828)... The birth of his great-granddaughter and goddaughter, Octavie Périer, is the occasion of outpourings of tenderness; the paternal grandfather represents him at the baptism . The end of the Bourbon regime exasperates him. "The ministry still hesitates; our newspapers, including articles by Benjamin Constant, tell him that the King will be very angry if his ministers are not great libertarians. They may well have some less encouraging notions about them. Besides, if the House wants liberal institutions it has only to take them. I do not see when the budget is available why the custodians of executive authority and the framers of bills are being tormented. There is no more eloquent argument than to sit down and stand up" (January 3, 1829) . He gives echoes of the philosophical debate between the Platonic school (Ch. Rémusat) and the Tracy-Cabanis-Daunou school, and of a polemic between the abbot of Pradt and B. Constant; he also speaks of the beautiful silver vase offered by the Brandywine midshipmen, adorned with emblems of the United States, and of its bronze bust by David d'Angers, which the statuary offered to the American Congress . "You will have seen, my dear children, that the ministry, which is not a skull and crossbones, had made a headbutt, and that almost all the left side, which is not always very firm, had made a resistance proportionate to the small oppression. It is better to have a departmental and communal law than to enshrine in law an olygarchy similar to that of the double vote" (April 12, 1829)...
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