1716. CONSTITUTION (French), Jefferson, Patriots and.—
The features of the
new Constitution were thus assuming a fearful
aspect, and great alarm was produced among
the honest Patriots in their ranks. In this uneasy
state of things, I received one day a note
from the Marquis de Lafayette, informing me
that he should bring a party of six or eight
friends to ask a dinner of me the next day. *
* * When they arrived, they were Lafayette
himself, Duport, Barnave, Alexander La
Meth, Blacon, Mounier, Maubourg and Dagout.
These were leading Patriots, of honest but differing
opinions, sensible of the necessity of effecting
a coalition by mutual sacrifices, knowing
each other, and not afraid, therefore, to unbosom
themselves mutually. This last was a
material principle in the selection. With this
view, the Marquis had invited the conference,
and had fixed the time and place inadvertently
as to the embarrassment under which it might
place me. The cloth being removed, wine set
on the table, after the American manner, the
Marquis introduced the objects of the conference,
by summarily reminding them of the state
of things in the Assembly, the course which the
principles of the Constitution were taking, and
the inevitable result unless checked by more
concord among the Patriots themselves. He
observed, that although he also had his opinion,
he was ready to sacrifice it to that of his
brethren of the same cause; but that a common
opinion must now be formed, or the Aristocracy
would carry everything and that, whatever
they should now agree on, he, at the head of the
National force, would maintain. The discussions
began at the hour of four and were continued
till ten o'clock in the evening; during
which time I was a silent witness to a coolness
and candor of argument, unusual in the conflicts
of political opinion; to a logical reasoning
and chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy
tinsel of rhetoric or declamation, and truly
worthy of being placed in parallel with the
finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us
by Xenophon, by Plato and Cicero. The result
was an agreement that the King should have
a suspensive veto on the laws, that the legislature
should be composed of a single body only,
and that to be chosen by the people. This
Concordat decided the fate of the Constitution.
The Patriots all rallied to the principles thus
settled, carried every question agreeably to
them, and reduced the Aristocracy to insignificance
and impotence.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 104.
Ford ed., i, 144.
(1821)
