Sold – Lafayette: “Washington Was Like a Father to Me”

Lafayette’s unique relationship with George Washington was vital to America’s victory in the American Revolution. From the Marquis’s influential letters urging France to join the Patriots’ cause to his personal support and his gifts as a battlefield leader, Lafayette was a crucial part of Washington’s accomplishments. Washington saw in Lafayette the son he never had, and Lafayette found in Washington the father he never knew. The importance of his touching relationship to Lafayette is demonstrated by a warm story of an incident that occurred the night after the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. General Nathanael Greene went looking for Washington, and he found the commander in chief asleep on his cloak spread on the ground. Lafayette lay curled up beside him, also asleep on the general’s cloak.

In time Lafayette would gift to Washington the keys to the Bastille, taken at the start of the French Revolution and now hanging at Mount Vernon.

Nathanael Greene was close to Washington throughout the war, and when Washington had to leave camp. When he went to Hartford in 1780 to meet Rochambeau, Greene was left in command in his stead. When Washington gave Greene the crucial command of the American army in the South, Greene proved to be his best general and helped win the war. Greene named his son after Washington (the child’s name was George Washington Greene), and Washington became the child’s godfather. Greene also played a key role in the life of Lafayette. He gave Lafayette his first battlefield command, and Lafayette served under him in the early part of the war. Greene was so enthusiastic about the boy general’s courage and ability that he informed Washington, who then asked Congress to give the young Frenchman his own command. Washington also, notably, gave up his opposition to foreign officers commanding in the American army.

Autograph Letter Signed, Lagrange, October 24, 1829, to Joseph Jacotot, relating to both Washington and Greene. The recipient was a renowned educator of the day and a long-time friend of Lafayette. A supporter of Napoleon and foe of the Bourbons, Jacotot fled France in 1815 and became professor of the French language and literature at the University of Louvain in Belgium.  “It is with great pleasure, my dear old colleague, that I present to you a young friend of mine, George Washington Greene, godson of the renowned American general who bore the same name and in whom the young Greene inspired complete confidence.  General Washington was like a father to me, and had an eminent place in the revolution of the United States in the war of independence.  

“The young Greene, who has come to Europe for his health and instruction, has greatly benefited from his journey.  He has recently arrived from Italy and would have stayed with our family until the opening of the session if the desire to meet you and to give himself to your instruction, to be one of your most devoted disciples, had not so taken his spirit that he could not longer delay in fulfilling this desire.  He knows my opinion of and friendship for you.  I have often spoken well of you. It’s under these circumstances that I wish to address you.  My deep ties to his family, my sincere interest in him, and my confidence in you all led to this recommendation. I recently had the opportunity to travel through France and I found there many admirers of my old dear colleague [referring to Jacotot] and of his principles.” This is the first letter we can recall seeing in which Lafayette actually states that Washington was like a father to him. It shows the love and lifelong admiration that Lafayette maintained for Gen Washington. It belonged to George P. Putnam. Sold with both engravings pictured.