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to me the castle of Olmutz, and her stay there, with her mother and sister, during the imprisonment of her father; and I felt that I had not now a wish ungratified, since I had seen the hero and the survivors of the three heroines of that dungeon. "I will subscribe," said Lafayette, to the agent of the Prussian government, who proposed to him a renunciation of his republican principles as a condition for his release, "I will subscribe no declaration inconsistent with my duties as an American citizen." Such was his language forty years ago, when the American republic was in its infancy. "I will not support," said he in 1830, "a government which is inconsistent with my principles as an American citizen." Was ever human character, through all vicissitudes, so consistent as that of Lafayette. Madame Maubourg told me, that the most sincere and unmingled pleasure she had ever enjoyed, was in reading the American newspapers, which recorded her father's arrival and progress through the United States. It was the triumph, the reward, the crown of a life of sacrifices, perils, and sufferings in the cause of human freedom. Now I find it impossible to write these things without my letter running into a kind of grandiloquence. But I wish you to understand, that in all their conversation there is not the slightest indication of a desire to magnify the importance of anything relating to themselves. The general's tour was spoken of with no more apparent self-complacency, than if it had been a ride in his little glass-coach from La Grange to Paris, and the revolution of the three days was treated with no more effort at effect than if it had been an election of a congressman in our own country. The party (rather the family) remained at the table about an hour and a half, and then retired to the drawing-room, where the evening was spent in free and unrestrained conversation. The ladies, as if they were the females of a farmer's family, had their sewing and knitting-work; the elder being employed principally in the homely operation of mending, with conversation, upon books, and music, and the newspapers, which were by turns resorted to. If any American of respectable education and associations fears to trespass upon Lafayette's goodness by accepting his hospitality, let him, upon my assurance, dismiss all his fears. He will find, when he arrives at La Grange, that his visit causes neither trouble nor expense. The habits of the family are fixed, the household is adapted to them. He will find no neglect of

any duty, and no extra provision of cheer on his account; the addition of another pair of sheets to the wash-woman, another cover on the table, is all that marks the visit of a stranger, who, while there, becomes one of the family, and may amuse himself as he will, and depart when he will. But it is the duty of Americans to visit La Grange. The approbation of Americans is primafacie evidence, in France, that the man or measure upon which it is bestowed is right. Lafayette has sacrificed power greater than that of the throne, and gone into a minority of about thirtynine in the chamber of delegates, to preserve his principles of American republicanism. While it can not be perceived that the tribute is so acknowledged by Lafayette, any one who is familiar with the French journals, will see that every carriage which rolls up to La Grange excites the enthusiasm of the people, and the discontent of the juste milieu. At precisely ten o'clock each of the younger members of the party affectionately saluted the general, who retired after taking leave of us for the night, and saying to us that we should take breakfast at ten o'clock. When I retired to my room I found every measure had been taken to render my sleep tranquil. The curtains were dropped, the armchair and slippers placed before the bed, and the covering turned down. I was weary, and soon sank into a sleep so profound that it was undisturbed by dreams.

This morning the hours seemed long before breakfast, but I supposed one must perforce remain in his chamber. Of course, I was surprised on meeting the family at breakfast by the inquiry if I had been out. The general said he rose every morning at six, and I found all the gentlemen, and some of the ladies, had been abroad over the plantation. From breakfast the ladies retired to the shade-trees on the lawn in front of the chateau. Mademoiselle Clementine, the daughter of George Lafayette, and an adopted daughter of the general, accompanied us in a long walk over the grounds, until we reached a small artificial lake containing several islands planted with evergreens. S and other gentlemen walked over the farm, while one of the young gentlemen and myself applied ourselves to the oar, and rowed the ladies from island to island. On our return to the chateau we found the general waiting for us. He first exhibited to us the beautiful barge which had been presented to him by the Whitehall boatmen, after they had won the boat race against the

Thames barge. It is a beautiful and graceful craft some thirty feet long. It bears an inscription reciting the wager and prize, and the names of the oarsmen, and the fact that it was presented to Lafayette. The vanquished Englishmen offered the victors three thousand dollars for the boat. It is evidently a favorite among the multitude of American presents which meet your eye everywhere. He has built a house over it, with a substantial tiled roof, and enclosed by network of iron, which excludes it even from the touch. IIe next walked with us through every department of his farming affairs, which are in the most perfect order. He showed an entire familiarity with the whole, and is passionately fond of the pursuit. His horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, were all housed and taken care of in the most systematic manner. I could not but mark the economy which prevailed. Even the acorns were all hoarded as food for the swine. The farm attached to the chateau contains about eight hundred acres. Besides this he has another and larger farm in the south of France. George Washington Lafayette resides there during the summer and takes charge of it. The care of La Grange is intrusted to one superintendent. Regular daily accounts are kept, and these are carefully posted and examined every Saturday. A portion of the concern, such as the dairy, &c., and the use of what is required in the family is subject to the supervision of his daughters. I was struck by the homage paid him by every domestic and laborer. It was merited, for his manner toward them was parental. It was three o'clock when we completed this interesting survey. The morning's conversation ended with the exhibition of his museum of American presents, among which I remarked he was particularly pleased with the vase presented to him by the officers of the Brandywine, and the volume published at New York in commemoration of his visit. But I ought not to forget to say that the general told me to tell the Whitehallers, that "he had their boat safe, and it would last longer than he would."

At dinner he descanted to his family in glowing terms upon the homage universally exhibited in America to the soldiers of the Revolution, as witnessed by him on public occasions. We have taken leave of this most interesting family, and to-morrow morning at six o'clock will bid farewell for ever to La Grange, the most endearing spot in France, and that one which will live

SPEECHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE.*

CONTINENTAL RIGHTS AND RELATIONS.

JANUARY 26, 1853.

MR. PRESIDENT: On the 23d day February, 1848, John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, who had completed a circle of public service filling fifty years, beginning with an inferior diplomatic function, passing through the chief magistracy, and closing with the trust of a representative in Congress, departed from the earth, certainly respected by mankind, and, if all posthumous honors are not insincere and false, deplored by his countrymen.

On a fair and cloudless day in the month of June, 1850, when the loud and deep voice of wailing had just died away in the land, the senator from Michigan, of New England born, and by New England reared, the leader of a great party, not only here, but in the whole country, rose in the senate-chamber, and after complaining that a member of the family of that great statesman of the east, instead of going backward with a garment to cover his infirmities, had revealed them by publishing portions of his private diary, himself proceeded to read the obnoxious extracts. They showed the author's strong opinions, that by the federal compact the slaveholding class had obtained, and they had exercised, a controlling influence in the government of the country.

Placing these extracts by the side of passages taken from the Farewell Address of Washington, the senator from Michigan said—“He is unworthy the name of an American who does not feel at his heart's core the difference between the lofty patriotism and noble sentiments of one of these documents, and; but I *Continued from vol. i., p. 388.

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