act that he had been a member of the National Assembly and
prominent in the constitutional struggle for liberty. A feeling of
revenge, as mean as it was groundless--for he had done everything in
his power to protect the dignity as well as the life of Marie
Antoinette, the sister of the Austrian emperor--joined with a fear
that other peoples might follow the lead of the French and overthrow
monarchical institutions unless deterred by some world-shocking
example, formed the mainspring of this atrocious procedure. Efforts
were made in this country and in England to procure the release of
the prisoner, but no governmental action was taken in that
direction, the United States Congress declining to pass a resolution
to that effect, so that President Washington was left alone in his
unceasing attempts, by instructions to our ministers abroad and by a
personal letter to the emperor, to repay some of the debt that he
and the whole country owed to our adopted citizen. It was not till
the successes of the French republican armies enabled General
Bonaparte, at the instance of the Directory, to insist upon the
liberation of Lafayette as one of the conditions of the treaty of
Campo Formio, that he was discharged on September 19, 1797, the
Austrian Government pretending that this was done out of regard for
the United States of America. Passing into Denmark and Holland he
resided in those countries for two years, when he returned to France
only to receive from Bonaparte a significant message recommending to
him a very quiet life, a piece of advice which, as it accorded with
his own desires, he followed, settling down at Lagrange, an estate
inherited by his wife, as his own property had been confiscated by
the National Convention, which had succeeded the Legislative
Assembly. True to the principles that he had always entertained, he
cast his vote, in 1802, with less than nine thousand others, and in
opposition to the suffrages of more than three-and-a-half millions,
against the decree to make Bonaparte consul for life, writing after
his name on the polling register the statement that he could not
vote for such a measure till public freedom was sufficiently
guaranteed. This insured the continued displeasure of the military
despot, who revenged himself by refusing to Lafayette's only son,
George Washington, the promotion that he had earned by his brilliant
exploits in the army. President Jefferson's offer in 1803, of the
governorship of t