Selfish blessings were forgot, Whilst he thought on Fayette's lot, Now in poverty and chains. "Fayette,' cried he-'honored name! "Soldiers in our fields of death- Was not Fayette foremost there ? "Hapless Fayette! 'midst thine error, How my soul thy worth reveres! Son of freedom, tyrant's terror, Hero of both hemispheres! What reward for all remains, What, but poverty and chains! "Born to honors, ease, and wealth, See him sacrifice them all; Sacrificing also health, At his country's glorious call, What for thee, my friend, remains, What, but poverty and chains! "Thus with laurels on his brow Alas! Fayette at once sustains EXILE, POVERTY, and CHAINS!' 'Courage, child of Wasnington! Though thy fate disastrous seems, Rise and burn with brighter beams, Thy country soon shall break thy chain, Thy country soon shall break thy chain, In the horrid dungeon at Olmutz, in a cell three paces broad and five and a half long, containing no other ornament than two French verses which rhyme with the words to suffer and to die, the generous Lafayette was confined almost three years, and yet his great soul was not bound by suffering, nor his zeal for liberty one whit abated. Deprived of pen, ink, and paper, except a sheet that "by a miracle" he possessed, he wrote a letter with a toothpick to a princess who sympathized with him, and said, in a postscript: "I know not what disposition has been made of my plantation at Cayenne, but I hope Madame Lafayette will take care that the negroes who cultivate it shall preserve their liberty." Lafayette's noble wife, as soon as she could get permission to leave France, hastened to Olmutz, with her daughters, to share the prison with the husband and father, while their son, George Washington, came to the United States, with his tutor, consigned to the fatherly care and protection of the great patriot whose name he bore. They arrived at Boston at the close of the summer of 1795, and immediately informed Washington of the fact. The President's first impulse was to tako the young man to his bosom and cherish him as a son, but grave reasons of state denied him that pleasure. "To express all the sensibility," he said, in a letter to Senator Cabot, of Boston, "which has been excited in my breast by the receipt of young Lafayette's letter, from the recollections of his father's merits, services, and sufferings, from my friendship for him, and from my wishes to become a friend and father to his son, is unnecessary." He then declared himself the young man's friend, but intimated that great caution in the manifestation of that friendship would be necessary, considering the light in which his father was then viewed by the French government, and Washington's own situation as the executive of the United States. He desired Mr. Cabot to make young Lafayette and M. Frestel, his tutor, understand why he could not receive them as he desired, but that his support and protection, until a more auspicious moment, might be relied on. He ordered them to be provided with every thing necessary, at his expense, and advised their entrance at Harvard University. Young Lafayette assumed the name of Motier (a family name of his father); and in November Washington wrote to him with caution, telling him that the causes which rendered it necessary for them both to be circumspect were not yet removed, and desiring him to repair to Colonel Hamilton, in New York, who would see that he was well provided for. "How long the causes which have withheld you from me may continue," Washington said, "I am not able at this moment to decide; but be assured of my wishes to embrace you so soon as they shall have ceased, and that, whenever the period arrives, I shall do it with fervency." He then, with fatherly solicitude, advised him to attend well to his studies, that he might "be found to be a deserving son of a meritorious father." After leaving Boston, young Lafayette lived with his tutor for awhile in the vicinity of New York, in comparative seclusion. At length the Congress took cognizance of the presence of the young man, and on the 18th of March the House of Representatives passed the following resolution and order: "Information having been given to this House that a son of General Lafayette is now within the United States; 66 Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the truth of the said information, and report thereon; and what measures it would be proper to take if the same be true, to evince the grateful sense entertained by the country for the services of his father. "Ordered that Mr. Livingston, Mr. Sherburne, and Mr. Murray be appointed a committee pursuant to the said resolu tion." As chairman of the committee, Mr. Livingston wrote to young Lafayette as follows: "SIR: Actuated by motives of gratitude to your father, and eager to seize every opportunity of showing their sense of his important services, the House of Representatives have passed the resolution which I have the pleasure to communicate. The committee being directed to inquire into the fact of your arrival within the United States, permit me to advise your immediate appearance at this place, that the legislature of America may no longer be in doubt, whether the son of Lafay ette is under their protection, and within the reach of their gratitude. "I presume to give this advice as an individual personally attached to your father, and very solicitous to be useful to any in whose happiness he is interested. If I should have that good fortune on this occasion, it will afford me the greatest satisfaction. "I am, etc., "EDWARD LIVINGSTON." This letter and the resolutions of the House of Representatives young Lafayette forwarded to President Washington, and asked his advice as to the course he should pursue. Washington advised him to come to Philadelphia at the opening of the next session of Congress, but to avoid society as much as possible. He complied, and remained in Philadelphia until the following spring, when Washington, on becoming a private citizen, embraced the son of his friend as if he had been his own child, and bore him to his home on the Potomac. There he remained until early in October, when the joyful news having reached him of the release of his father from confinement, and his restoration to his country and friends, caused him to leave for the seaboard to depart for France. He and M. Frestel sailed from New York on the 26th of October, 1797. As young Lafayette was about to leave Mount Vernon, Washington placed a letter in his hands for his father, in which he said: "From the delicate and responsible situation in which I stood as a public officer, but more especially from a misconception of the manner in which your son had left France, till explained to me in a personal interview with himself, he did not come immediately into my family on his arrival in Amer. ica, though he was assured in the first moments of it of my protection and support. His conduct, since he first set his feet on |