His Later Years

Lafayette’s Later years in France 

After the surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, Lafayette returned to France and was welcomed as a hero by the French people. He purchased a new home in Paris where he and Adrienne lived with their children. Their first daughter, Henriette, was born before Lafayette left France to join Washington’s army but had died while he was in America. A second daughter, Anastasie, conceived before Lafayette left for America, was born in 1777, and a son, named for George Washington, was conceived and born in 1779 while Lafayette spent a year in France during the war. Another daughter, Marie Antoinette Virginie, known as Virginie as a tribute to George Washington’s home state, was born after Lafayette’s return home to France after the war. 

Adjusting to civilian life, Lafayette became involved in committees and societies concerning the rights of all people. This included religious rights, rights for women and children, prison reform and aid for starving peasants. From the time Lafayette saw firsthand the evils of slavery in America, he believed the custom should end and devised a plan for gradual manumission. To test his plan, he purchased a plantation in Cayenne, present day French Guiana, which was being worked by seventy enslaved people. On the plantation he paid the enslaved for their work and prohibited whippings. Education was provided for the children and more family time was allowed. Lafayette believed that these and other measures would prepare the enslaved for new lives when they were freed. Unfortunately, the French Revolution ruined plans for manumission on the plantation when all of Lafayette’s property was confiscated.

For the people of France, Lafayette desired a more representative form of government in which citizens had more input into how they were governed. He believed in a constitutional monarchy. After being elected to the National Assembly in 1789 he, with the assistance of Thomas Jefferson, wrote the draft for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a document that expressed the ideas which inspired the French Revolution. 

By 1786, it became clear that France was in extreme financial trouble and headed toward bankruptcy. Most solutions to the problem involved higher taxes for the already overtaxed lower classes as the nobility was exempt from taxes. To make matters worse, there were food shortages; the common people were starving while the king was living in luxury. And so, the rebellion began. One of the first acts of the revolution was the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, a jail in Paris which was a symbol of royal authority. Because Lafayette was a well known and liked military figure, the king appointed him as head of the National Guard to establish order. 

For the next tumultuous years, as head of the military, Lafayette tried to steer a middle road between the monarchy and the revolutionists in order to keep the peace. At first the revolutionists believed that Lafayette, as a hero of the American Revolution, was on their side and would support them. At the same time, the king, although not entirely trusting Lafayette because of his liberal views, believed Lafayette’s favor with the people was useful to the monarchy. Lafayette continued to believe that the government should be ruled by the people of France, but he also felt it was his duty to protect the lives of the king and the royal family. 

In 1792 the revolution escalated, and heads began to roll. The king was forced from the throne and a new government ruled by radicals came to power. The people no longer saw Lafayette as a hero but instead a traitor.  An order for his arrest was issued by radical factions, and fearing the guillotine, Lafayette launched a quick escape from France by traveling through Austrian territory to board a ship for America. Traveling through Austrian territory was risky for Lafayette because at this time, France was at war with Austria. In reaction to the revolution in France, the Austrian emperor, brother of Marie Antoinette, fearing the spread of revolution throughout Europe, made threats towards the new radical French government. The French retaliated and declared war on Austria. Lafayette was especially in danger as he was known for his revolutionary views and considered a threat to the Austrian government.

Lafayette managed an escape from France but did not make it through Austrian territory. When recognized he was captured, arrested, and eventually sent to the prison in Olmütz, Austria as a political prisoner. Here, at age thirty-five, he languished in solitary confinement in a dungeon, all the while not knowing what was happening to his wife, his family or his country. 

During the dark years of Lafayette’s imprisonment, his home, estates, and fortunes were confiscated, including the plantation in Cayenne. Adrienne was arrested and imprisoned in Paris while the children were taken into hiding. During the Reign of Terror, Adrienne’s mother, grandmother, and sister were guillotined as they were part of the noble Noailles family. Adrienne survived only through the intervention of the American Minister to France, James Monroe. To protect young Georges Washington de La Fayette, Adrienne arranged with George Washington for the boy to be sent to live in America with the Washingtons. Adrienne and her daughters opted to travel to Austria to live in prison with Lafayette and endure the dank and squalid conditions of confinement with him. 

When a young French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, successfully invaded the Austrian dominions in 1797, he was able to free the Lafayette family and other prisoners from the Olmütz prison as a condition for peace. The Lafayette family eventually made it back to France where they were reunited with Georges, home from America. They settled at La Grange, a chateau Adrienne had inherited from her family and where she died about eight years later at age 47. Lafayette continued to work for the rights of all people and sat on a government committee where he was committed to supporting liberal policies for the common people. 

In 1824, when Lafayette was sixty-seven years old, the United States Congress invited him to visit the United States as an honored guest of the nation. Lafayette happily accepted the invitation to the country he loved. He traveled throughout the country for fourteen months and was greeted by thousands of residents at every town and city where he stopped as the Hero of Two Worlds.    After his tour of the United States, Lafayette returned to his home at La Grange where he lived with his children and grandchildren. He continued to defend democratic ideals until his death in 1834 at the age of 76.  He is buried in Paris in the Picpus Cemetery, beside his wife, Adrienne. At his funeral, Lafayette’s son, Georges Washington de Lafayette, spread soil from Bunker Hill over the grave. Since the end of WWII, an American flag has flown over the tomb of Lafayette and is changed each year on the 4^th of July in a ceremony attended by French and American dignitaries, including representatives of the U.S. Embassy, the French Senate, the Society of American Friends of Lafayette, the Sons of the American Revolution in France, and the Society of the Cincinnati in France.