To John Adams from the Marquis de Lafayette, 25 May 1788
From the Marquis de Lafayette
Paris May the 25th [1788]
My dear Sir
I Will not Enter on a detaïl of European Affairs, Still less So of our trouble in france, as M. Barret will tell You What Has Happened Since You Embarked— Governement Have Made a Great Effort— I think it will Be like Turnus’s Big Stone in the Æneïd—1 for the present the Parliaments are Put to the Rout, But Rallying Again under Cover of public Opinion, which you know Has a Great force in this Country— M. jefferson Has Sent all publications which no doubt will Be Printed
Give me leave to introduce to You M. de warville a Man of letters and M. de [Verriere] an officer who are travelling through the United states, and whom I Recommend to You2
I give you joy, My dear Sir, on the Happiness you Have to live Again on the land of liberty, in the Good town of Boston, and Among our friends to whom I Beg You to present My Best Compliments— Md̃e de lafayette joins in Affectionate Compliments to You and mr̃s Adams and the Rest of the family— Remember me Most Affectionately to M. Sam. Adams and family— with Great Regard and Attachement I Have the Honour to Be / My dear Sir / Your obedient humble / Servant
lafayette
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “john Adams Esq.”; endorsed in an unknown hand: “General La Fayette”; notation by CFA: “May 25th 1788.”
1. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Turnus confronts Aeneas and hurls a boundary stone at him. But his renowned strength wavers, causing Turnus to miss, and Aeneas kills him ()
2. JA was familiar with the work of French writer and orator Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754–1793), having read his Testament politique de t’Angleterre, Phila. [Paris], when it was published in 1780. In 1788, Brissot embarked on a tour of American political life, and in 1791 he printed his three-volume analysis of it, Nouveau voyage dans les États-Unis de l’Amérique septentrionale, fait en 1788, Paris. A fervent Girondist, Brissot was guillotined for his political views on 30 Oct. 1793 (vol. 10:301; ).