To James Madison from Lafayette, 11 November 1815
From Lafayette
La Grange November 11th 1815.
My Dear sir,
Amidst the services I would be happy to render to the U.S. I set in the first rank an acquisition so precious, that America is the only Country upon earth which I cannot grieve to see benefitted by the loss of France.
General Bernard1 whom the Polytechnic School glories to have possessed, has so eminently distinguished himself in the Corps of Engineers, namely on the fortification of Antwerp, that Emperor Napoleon made him his Aid de Camp. In that capacity he obtained more and more the respect and affection of all, not only by the superiority of his military talents, and the amiableness of his disposition but also by the Patriotic frankness of his opinions—so that if the abilities, activity and economy of General Bernard place him far more in his professional line, his private character has been on every account an object of universal regard and applause.
How it becomes adviseable for him to leave his native Country which he has gloriously served for which he has often bled, where he is much esteemed and beloved I need not to explain. Offers have been made to him by several courts. However advantageous he has refused them, but has desired me to make a tender of his services to the U.S. more congenial to his feelings, where he intends if they are accepted to settle for life with his family.
I am so sensible of the value of General Bernard that I will feel highly happy to hear his proposal has obtained your approbation. Receive my Dear sir, the expression of my most affectionate respect.
La Fayette.
Tr (DLC: Andrew Jackson Papers); Tr (ViU: Barbour Family Papers, Special Collections). First Tr enclosed in George Graham to Andrew Jackson, 21 Feb. 1817, with a copy of an 11 Nov. 1815 letter from Lafayette to William Harris Crawford, recommending Bernard in terms similar to those of the present letter.
1. Simon Bernard (1779–1839) studied engineering at the École Polytechnique and received a lieutenant’s commission following his graduation in 1797. In 1813 he rose to the rank of lieutenant general of engineers. After the first Bourbon restoration, Bernard remained in the army, serving at the rank of brigadier general, but he rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days and stayed with him through the Battle of Waterloo. Crawford and Albert Gallatin supported his application for employment in the United States, and Congress facilitated it by appropriating $838,000 for fortifications on 29 Apr. 1816. The same day, that body passed a resolution authorizing JM “to employ, in addition to the corps of engineers as now established, a skilful assistant,” at a salary as high as that of “the chief officer of that corps.” In November 1816 Bernard was commissioned an “assistant in the corps of engineers … with the rank of brigadier general by brevet.” As such, he became the head of a board of engineers that drew up a comprehensive plan of U.S. coastal defense including roads, canals, and fortifications. Bernard also designed Fort Monroe, a massive work built at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, between 1819 and 1847. The administration tried to mitigate displeasure within the Corps of Engineers over the decision to hire a foreigner, but by late 1816 chief engineer Col. Joseph Gardner Swift concluded “that the executive had purposed to place [him] in a position to make it difficult to interfere with the professional functions of General Bernard as his superior officer,” and in the spring of 1819, he and Lt. Col. William McRee resigned as a result. Swift assessed Bernard as “not candid or frank” but “an excellent bureau officer, a cold-hearted man; not in any sense a man of genius.” Bernard nevertheless retained his position until 1830, when he returned to France. At the rank of lieutenant general in the French army, he was given charge of the defense of Paris and served as inspector general of engineers and minister of war (Webster’s American Military Biographies, 31; Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, 2:269; Chase C. Mooney, William H. Crawford, 1772–1834 [Lexington, Ky., 1974], 82; 3:330, 342; 1:682, 941; The Memoirs of Gen. Joseph Gardner Swift … First Graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, Chief Engineer U. S. A. from 1812 to 1818. … [Worcester, Mass., privately printed, 1890), 145–46, 180; Roger J. Spiller et al., eds., Dictionary of American Military Biography [3 vols.; Westport, Conn., 1984], 3:1083–85).