Beschreibung:

LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER, MARQUIS DE. An archive of letters, documents and manuscripts relating to Lafayette's personal financial crisis and the mortgage of his lands in Louisiana, the group comprising: four autograph letters, two signed ("Lafayette" or "LF"), two unsigned, all to an unidentified correspondent, possibly Sir John Coghill, Bart., various dates from 1809-1823, 7 1/2 pages, 4to, one with integral address leaf in Lafayette's hand , in English; LAFAYETTE. Autograph draft manuscript signed, with several corrections, n.d. [c.1808], 2 pages, 4to , in French, summarizing his finances, his service in America and his American lands, part of which have already been sold; LAFAYETTE. Letter signed (proxy signature?) to an unidentified correspondent, n.p., n.d. [1805-1809], 3 pages, 4to, in French, detailing two propositions by a businessman for Lafayette's Louisiana lands, one a brick factory to be operated by slave labor (which Lafayette rejects as unacceptable) -- Manuscript summary of Lafayette's American land grants and their use as collateral, n.d. [c. 1808], 3 1/4 pages, folio , referring at different points to the roles of Madison, Livingston and Jefferson -- Four manuscript documents signed (promissory notes, in English), two with Lafayette's red wax seal -- Manuscript document, a description of Lafayette's Louisiana lands, n.p., n.d. [c.1804], 2 1/2 pages, folio, in French, explaining that the boundaries had been drawn by the surveyor Duplantier of New Orleans, consisting of 900 acres near New Orleans and a further 10,000 acres of sugar-growing lands at the "pointe coupée on the Mississippi" -- Manuscript document headed "Copie de l'Etat donné par M. Morizot" (Lafayette's financial manager), 4 pages, 4to, n.d., comparing Lafayette's income and liabilities from 1777-1783 (the American Revolution), 1783-1789 and 1789-1792, in an attempt to assess the total expenses incurred by Lafayette during these periods; together 37 1/4 pages, 4to and folio, occasional very minor defects, but generally in fine condition. A PATRIOT'S PLIGHT: LAFAYETTE MORTGAGES THE LOUISIANA LANDS GRANTED HIM BY A GRATEFUL UNITED STATES An archive which discloses in telling detail the serious financial straits of a soldier and political idealist who had the distinction of having been an active participant in political revolutions on two continents. Having served at his own expense in the Continental Army, Lafayette returned to France where he formed and was later elected to command the National Guard; he fought the Austrians at Metz but was declared a traitor by the National Assembly and fled to Flanders. Captured and imprisoned by the Prussians for five years (1792-1797), he was finally freed by Napoleon and returned to France in 1800 only to find his inheritance, his properties and his investments in disarray. Tired of war and politics alike, he declined a tentative offer of President Thomas Jefferson to become Governor of the new territory of Louisiana, although he was glad to accept from Congress a generous tract of 11,520 acres of land, ultimately located within the former French possessions in Louisiana (see his letter to Dearborn in thanks, lot 30). Necessity soon forced him to offer these tracts as collateral in various loan arrangements, and it is thought that no actual income from the lands reached him until about 1815. His letter of 8 October 1809 dispassionately enumerates these financial misfortunes: "...[A]lthough the Revolutions of America and France had lessened my capital of above a million and a half there remained a landed revenue of [70,000] francs, and ten thousand in the funds. I owed an interest of 13,000 a year...to which must be added a floating debt increased by the seizure of my expected income in 1792...But while my property in France was delapidated and sold, the expenses of my imprisonment in Germany...notwithstanding the sums given by Congress [$24,424 voted him in 1794 in lieu of salary he declined during the