Riègert to Thomas Jefferson, 15 August 1821
From Riègert
Washington City ce 15 Août 1821.
Monsieur le Président,
Obligé d’abandonné ma Patrie, depuis quatre ans j’habite la terre hospitalière de l’heureuse Amérique; mon intention à toujours été de me fixer en Virginie, et jamais il ne m’a1 été possible de mettre mon projet a éxécution.
Je vous prie de m’excuser Monsieur le Président, si je prends la liberté de vous entretenir; vos talens et vos vertus, me sont un sur garant que vous ne vous offenserez pas de ma licence, et qu’a un Philanthrope comme vous, un éxilé peut dire! Je suis sans patrie, sans moyens, et souffre encore de mes blessures! Dans l’excès du malheur dont je suis la victime, je n’ai jamais eu le courage d’ouvrir mon cœur à mon semblable, mais connoissant vos Sentimens pour de pareilles infortunes, je ne balance pas a demander votre protection, et j’ose croire que jamais vous en aurez le moindre repentir.
J’ai l’honneur de vous prévenir Monsieur le Président, que je suis porteur des papiers suivant; Mon admission à l’école impériale Militaire, mes brevets de sous-lieutenant, de lieutenant, de Capitaine aide-de-camp d’un Général de la garde (ce qui me donnait rang de lieutt Colonel) et de plusieurs certificats.
Je desire trouver un emploi, soit pour l’instruction de la jeunesse, où autre chose. Ayant toujours habité la Louisiane (chez Monsieur le Gouverneur Villeré) que le funeste climat m’a forcé de quitter; je dois vous prévenir que je parle peu anglais.
Daignez je vous prie Monsieur le Président, jeter vos regards sur un proscrit, qui dit comme Mr de Maubreil, reste de santé, reste de fortune, repos, patrie, tout a disparu pour moi sur la terre.—
J’ai l’honneur d’être avec le plus profond respect,
Riègert
P.S. Si vous daignez m’honorer d’une reponse, veuillez je vous prie y mettre le moins de retard possible.—Post office Washington City
Editors’ Translation
Washington City 15 August 1821.
Mr. President,
Obliged to abandon my home country, I have lived for four years in the hospitable land of fortunate America. I have always intended to settle in Virginia, but I have never been able to realize my plan.
Please excuse me, Mr. President, for taking the liberty of conversing with you. Your talents and virtues are a certain guarantee to me that you will not be offended by the liberty I am taking, and to a philanthropist like you, an exile can say that “I am without a homeland, without means, and am still suffering from my wounds!” In this excess of adversity of which I am the victim, I have never had the courage to open my heart to anyone, but knowing your sentiments toward such misfortunes, I do not hesitate in asking for your protection, and I dare believe that you will never regret it.
I have the honor to inform you, Mr. President, that I am carrying the following documents: my admission into the École Spéciale Impériale Militaire, my brevets as second lieutenant, lieutenant, captain aide-de-camp of a general of the guard (which gave me the rank of a lieutenant colonel), and several certificates.
I wish to find a position, either educating young people or something else. Having always lived in Louisiana (at the home of Governor Villeré), which I was forced to leave because of its deadly climate, I must warn you that I speak little English.
Please deign, Mr. President, to turn your attention to a proscribed man, who says, like Mr. de Maubreuil, “the remains of health, the remains of fortune, repose, homeland, everything for me has disappeared from the earth.”—
I have the honor to be, with the most profound respect,
Riègert
P.S. If you condescend to honor me with a reply, please do so without delay.—Post office Washington City
RC (MHi); dateline between signature and postscript; with Dft of TJ to Riègert, 9 Sept. 1821, adjacent to closing and signature; endorsed by TJ as received 6 Sept. 1821 and so recorded in SJL. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene.
Gabriel Valentin Philippe Riègert (1794–1850), soldier, was born in Jallieu, Isère, France. He graduated from the École Spéciale Impériale Militaire in 1811 and entered the French army, becoming a first lieutenant in 1813 before his proscription following the Bourbon restoration in 1815. Riègert arrived in the United States about 1817 and joined other Bonapartists in the short-lived Champ d’Asile under Charles François Antoine Lallemand, which attempted late in 1817 and early in 1818 to establish a post on Galveston Island from which to attack Spanish Florida. He lived in Louisiana for about four years before traveling in 1821 to Washington, D.C. Riègert returned to France by 1825 and rejoined the army with his former rank of first lieutenant. By 1838 he was captain of a company of fusiliers garrisoned at Chaumont, Haute-Marne. Riègert retained this position until his retirement, one year before his death in Chaumont (Rafe Blaufarb, Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815–1835 [2005], 220; Annuaire de l’État Militaire de France [1828]: 622; Journal Militaire. Officiel [1831]: 94; Almanach Royal et National [1838]: 666; Bulletin des Lois de la République Française, 10th ser., supplement, 3 [1849]: 970–1; 9 [1852]: 586–7).
Marie Armand de Guerry de Maubreuil, marquis d’Orvault (de maubreil), lamented his losses in his Adresse au Congrès, à Toutes les Puissances de l’Europe (London, 1818), 57.
1. Manuscript: “m a.”
Index Entries
- École Spéciale Impériale Militaire; students at search
- French language; letters in, from; Riègert search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Correspondence; letters of application and recommendation to search
- Orvault, Marie Armand de Guerry de Maubreuil, marquis d’; quoted search
- patronage; letters of application and recommendation to TJ search
- Riègert, Gabriel Valentin Philippe; identified search
- Riègert, Gabriel Valentin Philippe; letter from search
- Riègert, Gabriel Valentin Philippe; seeks position search
- schools and colleges; École Spéciale Impériale Militaire search
- Villeré, Jacques Philippe; and Riègert search