4377. LAFAYETTE (Marquis de), Washington and.—
The President has seen
with satisfaction that the Ministers of the
United States in Europe, while they have
avoided an useless commitment of their nation
on the subject of the Marquis de Lafayette, have
nevertheless shown themselves attentive to his
situation. The interest which the President
himself, and our citizens in general take in the
welfare of this gentleman, is great and sincere,
and will entirely justify all prudent efforts
to save him. I am, therefore, to desire that
you will avail yourself of every opportunity of
sounding the way towards his liberation, of
finding out whether those in whose power he is
are very tenacious of him, of insinuating
through such channels as you shall think suitable,
the attentions of the government and people
of the United States to this object, and
the interest they take in it, and of procuring his
liberation by informal solicitations, if possible.
But if formal ones be necessary, and the moment
should arrive when you shall find that
they will be effectual, you are authorized to
signify, through such channels as you shall find
suitable, that our government and nation, faithful
in their attachments to this gentleman for
the services he has rendered them, feel a lively
interest in his welfare, and will view his liberation
as a mark of consideration and friendship
for the United States, and as a new motive for
esteem, and a reciprocation of kind offices towards
the power to whom they shall be indebted
for this act. A like letter being written to Mr.
Pinckney, you will of course take care, that
however you may act through different channels,
there be still a sufficient degree of concert
in your proceedings.—
To Gouverneur Morris. Washington ed. iii, 524.
Ford ed., vi, 202.
(Pa.,
March. 1793)
