I also want to tell you right away that this is the first time that i have spoken on lafayette. I thought youd be interested in knowing that you are going to be at the Maiden Voyage of this trip. [laughter] mr. Miller i wonder about how much i could say to, and i wrote two pages of notes last night. I thought to myself, no, that is what the book is for. If you really want to know, you can consult the book. It is 446 pages. It is illustrated. And my wife says it moves along really rapidly. [laughter] mr. Miller the story of lafayette is quite profound. He was born to wealth. In central france. In a area called auvergne, and he grew in his early years in a chateau there called chavaniac. The town has since changed its name to chavaniac lafayette. And in france someone who has any kind of relationship through marriage can have the name of a famous person to their own name. Rather nice. Lafayette never knew his father. His father was killed in battle against the british at age two. And he was raised by his very plain but wise grandmother. At chavaniac. His own mother was much happier living in the luxembourg palace in paris. Which, of course, after the kings moved out it was turned over for nobility to live there, and as you probably know now is the french senate. And of course, the park is still there. It is a great place to visit and get the french flavor. Which i certainly enjoy. And he was treated like a prince. As a young lad. And he knew very early what the story of his family was. That he came from the blood of knights, course through his blood system. He was an early challenger. Unfortunately, his mother remained in paris, pretty much, and the boys stayed with his grandmother. And eventually, unfortunately, well, im getting ahead of my story, but anyway, his mother invited him to come to paris and enroll in school which he did. And then she died when he was 11. Although she did not care for chavaniac, she is buried in the church there. He very quickly his father had been killed in germany. Killed by the british. And bonaparte in battle. And lafayette, early on, decided that he did not like the british. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the case may be, at the age of 16 a very impressive scholar and close friend and soldier and scientist, his soontobe fatherinlaw was close to louis the 15th, not only had an apartment at versailles, but also a mansion. A palace that you might they, and the town of versailles. He had great flexibility, so at the age of 16 lafayette married adrienne. Her name goes all the way back. She was nobility. It was a step up in his life. Said he was very excited. Something you probably will not know because it has not been published in english, but it hasnt french, by a man who had a personal interest in it. We found out that lafayette soon would be a cadet, a student cadet for the royals. He was strapping. About my height, i would say. He had a typical head style for the family, a large nose, and his for head went back. He actually was the head of cadets for a wild. And he would go out to hunt with the king. Im talking about louis xv. And the king led been in office for 60 years. You know, louis xv, apres moi, le deluge. After me, the flood. He cannot do anything about it, because he cannot find his battles either. We think of louis the 15th as a man of great taste. He was known as much beloved, and then there would be a snigger because he was a. He would have a bunch of girls brought in for his elect the location and so forth. One way or another, he died. He died of the most horrible disease. Smallpox. His body was sealed up, and take and where the kings were buried and virtually forgotten. His grandson, then, would become king and that was louis xvi. The interesting thing is when lafayette was living at versailles, learning, he also learned what louis was like. He was the duke at the time. His younger brothers, all three of them would become kings of france. Later on he was sent to the town it was a french town. It was then, it is now. He did not have much to do. I wanted to tell you particularly about the commandant. You know that he attended a famous tenor. It was held by his commandant who is very eager to find out what was going on in the colonies, the american colonies. Anything that he could find out, because he was also, of course, opposed to england maintaining the country because in the seven years war some 30 years before, the king of france lost to the british. Lost his holdings in the new world. They went into a chance of how are they ever going to get back . Get back the british. I should tell you something that most people dont know, i dont think. That the population of the British Isles at the time was about 8 million people. And the population of france was 20 million people. However, the educated were very far and few between. The nobility, which managed everything virtually. People in the field, most people were of a foreign background. And plowed with rags on their feet. There was a great decisiveness, one of the theories that i like to talk about is before the Industrial Revolution wonderful furniture, you know french, 18thcentury furniture, you know how elegant it is. Gorgeous. Time was not important. Time, however long it took, it cannot really matter. With the industrial age, which really of course coming from britain, time became as important as labor and material. And so, suddenly, everything changed. When lafayette lived, for the most part, there was a group of french economists known as the and they gave a liberal look, they felt that the economy of most countries dependent on was dependent on farming. You can see how far we have come from that point of view. Because with the Industrial Revolution the whole thing changed. In the midst of all of this was the famous party and the duke of gloucester was coming. He had a new wife that his brother george iii did not like, because she was called illegitimate. So they were touring europe. And the commandant, his name was he married an extremely wealthy and Famous Family and in france. She was the only woman who came to this dinner. And lafayette was there. And the person who was older than he was, he was in his 50s at the time, was john decalb. You probably know how famous the word dekalb is in the United States for cities and things like that. He was an agent of. Who had trained him. He was about 65. He was in his 50s. He was one of the ones who began this wonderful experiment about how lafayette could come to aid the americans. There are already 225250 french officers before lafayette came there. Something like 50 skirmishes, battles before he arrived. Trenton had happened. One of the things i wanted to point out, my friend who i give credit to for giving me the french viewpoint on many things, his name is jacques. He felt that lafayette did not have enough. He was not old enough. He was barely 19. So we know that somehow, with his newly acquired wealth had a longhand and getting us all set up. At first, he did not want lafayette to go. He said you are young father, he will destroy your family if you dont come back. So he sailed over and the ship on its return sank in charleston harbor. It hit a boulder and went down. The interesting thing is lafayette always said that in the hold of the ship, it looks Something Like the mayflower, perhaps a little smaller, about 40 crew. And about 15 french officers who went along. And i did not tell you that the was also a master spy. Under louis xv. When louis xvi came in, he wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong. He came up with a magnificent way to attack the British Isles. And the new young king said, no, no. Thats why he became commandant. He was out of the situation for quite some time. As part of the spy thing, he sends 15 of the best officers went over with lafayette to serve in the american army, and he had each one of them he told each one of them, and what you to report back to me, but he did not tell the others. So in other words, he told each one but he did not tell the other person that they were reporting back. Ingenious. Ship there of his was an old tell the tub. The ship was old. Gone up and down the atlantic many times. Brought a munition plant. They filled the hold with mostly brass cannons and canon parts. I dont know how extensively you know, but even the father of modern chemistry created a new form and better form of gun gunpowder that was so much better than what the british had. That was also sent over. There was a very prominent american, a playwright, also worked very closely with the king. Was a secretary. He was the one who started the company. It was supposed to be shipping over farming equipment. Thats what he thought. Heavy, heavy industrial things. To the point that before the americans anyway lafayette , landed. He landed 26 miles north of charleston, s. C. And in the dark, they managed to find some black men who were out oystering. G that they said, find our master. Dekalb spoke english. He had a secret. He had been to the United States before. He had a secret. They wanted to go to congress and see if they would like to take on. As the new commanderinchief. Because George Washington was losing the war. This man had been very successful in european battles. He was short. Had a lot of european connections. He thought he could bring all of those. He was convinced, even know he didnt know english and he did not know the first thing about frontier fighting. He thought he could do it. His master plan was to become king of the new republic. Unfortunately, or fortunately, dekalb said that there was no way that was going to happen. He found that the American Congress was so tired up for doing anything, that of course, he would never want to go there and be in such a paltry situation. It was hard for the french officers not to Say Something about how the americans were dressed. Anyway, lafayette manages over six weeks buys all kinds of things. And manages to get after six weeks to philadelphia. Of course, by that Time Congress had had its fill with french officers who could look down their noses at how bad things were. But were not very successful or do not speak english. Lafayette made a very strong effort to learn english on the ship as much as he could. And very quickly, because had every intention, and i will tell you some thing else, when he met George Washington shortly after, first he wrote to john hancock and there were three or four dots and it was a masonic symbol and he wrote back to john hancock, who i believe was the president of the congress at the time, to move this along. Finally, lafayette was hired, but they never expected him to be more than an observer. They did not know what his plans were. I want you to imagine this. He came over with two servants, and can you imagine him at valley forge in the americans are bleeding all over the snow and he is there with two servants . And a magnificent uniform which he had a lot to do with the design of . Not only that, but lafayette, in his initial coming over, brought with him to flintlock battle pistols which were a gift to George Washington. Those traveled down to a point where when he came back after the success of the revolution, and after years there, he was invited by his dear friends, president james monroe to come over, and i cannot help but think of james monroe and think it was known as the age of good feeling. And how different it is from our politics today. It was the end. It was pretty much the end of the federalist party. The whole thing, the election, when Andrew Jackson does not win. He did win the next one. Anyway, lafayette, 40 years after the revolution, invited back, comes over, and he realizes that he is going to be invited to lay the cornerstone at the bunker hill monument, which was a masonic endeavor. But what he didnt realize was by the time he was there he would travel through all between 24 states and have lots of wonderful inventions. But he found out when he got there, and he was welcomed by Daniel Webster who gave a magnificent speech a fortunate, fortunate man, he goes on to say what with a spark of electricity brought the new world to the old. Just gorgeous. So many people there. Anyway, i will leave that. And tell you that lafayette had a choice, finally, of what troops he would need and it turned out he chose washingtons virginia to be commander there. His adventures are very, very interesting. And of course, it overlaps with the treachery of benedict arnold, who was an american hero. And one of lafayettes embarrassments. He was asked by the congress in york, pa, by then, forced to move inland, because of the british taking over new york, etc. To command an invasion of canada. The area he is driving in the dead of winter, on his horse, riding up there, and he finds out that there are insufficient supplies, and he had boys and old men, who are the ones who are supposed to instruct and be the fighters, and he realizes that he has been had. The idea was that certain congressman called the conway cabal did not Like Washington and they wanted to separate lafayette from him. He was very close. Lafayette never gave up where he stood in terms of what his record was. So when he went back he was really chagrined. He said, i cannot go back to france. I will be absolutely laughed at. Washington said, no, you will fight another day. Of course he did, in virginia. And it was he, who had all of the troops and bottled up cornwallis. And then he was ill that particular day, and he was able to welcome George Washington and rochambeau down from the north. And the battle began one of my. Heroes is alexander hamilton. Who was the first one over the barricades into the british. He said, i want to do this. Lafayette pulled one of his people back. Off they went. Hamilton was a very was like the private secretary to George Washington. Anyway, there was all the excitement of the british coming up. Lafayette crossed the atlantic eight times and was usually seasick each time. And you know how the french fleet came over and gobbled up lord cornwallis. And i even found a message that lord cornwallis sent to lafayette, asking for an exchange of troops. Each had captured members of the other side and they wanted to get them back. I presume that that occurred. Cornwallis also said please leave enough time for them to get back before you start warfare again. One interesting things to show you how different those times are from now, is i have never found a letter or such that mentions lord cornwallis that does not call him lord cornwallis or general cornwallis. I think there was a basic respect that he is probably the best general the british sent to america. He is usually credited with that. I did not mention brandywine, which is really the first battle. Battle that lafayette took part in. And he was shot through the left calf and rode home to his wife and was fine. She was so proud that he shed blood for america. Later in his life he fell in the ice near a hotel in paris. They put him into a device in which they tried to mechanically pull his legs so they would go back into make contact. I assume it was the femur that was broken. But he developed a lifelong need to use a cane. He was about 64 years when he came over 40 years later. What i would like to stress before my time runs out is to say that one of the great things was when he came back he quickly realized that the military was not going to be enough for him. And he became he ran for office and was elected four times to the chamber of deputies in france, which is the equivalent of the house of representatives over here. And his son, who stayed with George Washington at mount vernon at one point, was right beside him. Elected from a different district. And they were liberals, of course. They sat on the left side. One of the great moments i think youll enjoy reading is when napoleon was defeated at the battle of waterloo in belgium. His brother came to the chamber and said the emperor wishes to return. Lafayette stood up at the meeting in the chamber and said, well, just think. I cannot quote it exactly, but just think how many people died on the way in egypt under napoleon. And how many died Something Like 400,000 died marching on russia. Maybe you have read this recently that they have found some of the bones in lithuania. They were deformed from carrying packages on their backs. Their war materials. Even though lafayette owed a great deal to napoleon in a way in his career as a general of , the north, of the northern army, he was to repel the invasion by the prussians and the austrians. And suddenly one day the jacobins in control of the of chamber of deputies were going to try for treason. But he was an aristocrat. He gave up his title willingly. He was opposed to the old system. The aristocratic system. He was for, and this is the important thing, he was for the rights of everyone, not just the aristocracy or the nobles. So he campaigned brilliantly and spent five years in an unknown jail in the wilds of moravia, which was controlled by austria. The world lost touch. There even plays written about lafayette. Where is he . Songs are written. The whole thing is that lots of information on that at Lafayette College in eastern pennsylvania, which was kind enough to lend me some old illustrations of the period for the book. I think we have about 15 minutes for questions from the audience. I could tell you a lot more, of course, [applause] thank you. Anyone dying to ask . I. S. About the picture in front and what it is. Mr. Miller this is a painting 13 feet long that hangs in paris. It depicts something i was not able to get in earlier. It depicts the high moments of something called the. The festival of the federation. Lafayette devised this after the fall the bastille. A year went by and in 1790, he organized this place. I bet a lot of you have been where it was. This is where the eiffel tower stands today. The three blocks that go down that way, they dug it up and made benches along the side. There were earthen seats along the side. There were 20 masses that were set inside during the thing, and the extreme left, you will see lafayettes horse. He wrote into the ceremony and was absently supreme at that moment, except the king is also at the pavilion on the side. He is accepting the new status. He is still king. But he is king of the french. Not the king of france. Semantics means a great deal in terms of politics at the time. It would take six years from about this time of july 14, 1790, until he was actually tried and went to his death. As you may know, he was innocent. My claim in the book that he was absolutely guilty because he and Marie Antoinette wrote to her brother in austria to have the Austrian Army and the Prussian Army come in and defeat the french army and restore them to their majesty. In my way that is treason. , great question. Any other questions . I will have you ask it into the microphone please. Was lafayette accepted as part of the revolutionaries in france . Mr. Miller no. That is a very good question. He really wasnt. He was to moderate for the rebels. He was despised by the aristos. He had to find his middle way, and he never developed what i would call a constituency. You might ask why. And i think i know why, because he was asked to be a policeman in his early years before the revolution got going. He was the one who dismantled the bastille and got rid of it. He had trumpeters go out to announce that it was happening. He had a wonderful sense of Public Relations. Terrific. I have to tell you little bit about him personally. They always said theres an old saying that you can always tell someone who grew up at their side versailles. He was extremely courtly, yet a way of sort of picking up your vibrations. And knowing how you work. He was honest, but a born politician, no question about that. It just so happens that he did not agree with the king, and certainly he did not agree with Marie Antoinette. Later in his life, his liberal aunt by marriage. He was in prison, his wife went there with an american passport, given to her through james monroe, who would later invite lafayette to tour the country, and american passport, which latter to travel. Over to france. Down to vienna. Then she went to the king, the emperor, and said we would like my daughters and i would like to join my husband in the present. He is treated so well there. Actually, it was the most vile place you ever imagine. She came away with a terrible affliction. And vermininfested straw. They took a way the girls silver forks and they had to eat with their hands. As did lafayette. He had shrunken away and went bald. That is another thing. He was rather vain. He always wore some been called a short wig on top. When he traveled to the United States, he also came with his son, George Washington lafayette, and his Public Relations man who wrote a book in english in france about the trip. I borrowed liberally from that. It is fascinating. There are about Nine Chapters in which he travels with lafayette and goes through all of the broken down roads. All of the troubles and so forth. The one that is really fascinating is on the ohio river. On the mechanic, which is a flat steamboat. In the dark it hits a boulder off of indiana and begin sinking immediately. It is a fabulous scene. Suddenly lafayette sees his correspondence and his trunks and so forth floating out into the dark into the ohio river and he loses track of where george is. He was 64 years old at the time. That is the other thing i should mention to you. Because of all the trousers regulations of living in those eras, people aged tremendously. Unlike today. So, at the age of 65 he thought of himself as a very old man. And he was. Literally. He lived to be 76. And made many friends. Constantly. The writers just swarmed to him. The last of the mohicans . Who wrote that . James fenimore cooper. Thats right. Im lucky to have a description of his apartment. Townhouseeft him a about a block away from a palace. Who knows what might have happened if lafayette was there to be called upon . He had an apartment. I know what he ate. He loved to eat roast chicken. And for dessert he loved dates. Being a reporter, cooper would ask him what were they like . What was Marie Antoinette like . What was the king like . He would get his impressions of them. He felt that louis xviii was the worst. He had an interesting relationship with him. Louis xviii had gone to the rebel government and said if you do a way with my brother, i would be willing to be the next king. [laughter] mr. Miller lafayette is head of the police at the time, had those papers. Louis xviii knew that he had them into now want to bring up the subject. As far as i know, they never brought it up officially. That meant that lafayette could do a lot. He sided with the after napoleon was defeated he sided with the napoleon politicians who were pretty much gotten rid of by the new conservative government under the new king. When he was in america, louis xviii died. He was having dinner in alexandria went the secretary of state came in and said that he died. He said he could not imagine that charles x would be any better. And he was not. Fascinating storing their story there. He was a religious man. He wanted to impose religion on everyone. It got to be really heavy. He would move people around. Politicians, they would be in his favor, and were supporting him and they were not good enough any change them quickly, and out they would go. And you people come in. But never anything better. The job the way that lafayette had at a new man came in, one point mandat. He was dragged into the chamber and as he came out with his son. He was shot on the steps, and his body was thrown into the river into the seine, right then and there. Of course the chaos began. Thomas carlyle said that nobody knew about the maelstrom that was coming. Yes . Ive read the book. The quality of narrative, the storytelling aspect to it, not just the bits of information of reality and events that existed at the time would you get from many were writrers, but i said o myself, as i was reading it, i read it several times, i thought i was right there with them. One of the things early on i learned, was that lafayette loved the United States, even before he got here. When he was a teenager he read some things about the events that were going on. He loved liberty. Freedom. Religious toleration. And those things are expressed in the book. I know he mustve had something to do with the United States and valley forge. I did not know that yet a fatherson relationship with George Washington. When he leaves the United States, the gentleman asked about the french revolution, i was overwhelmed with how what an important job he had in that revolution. He was head of the entire national guard. I cannot emphasize again how important he was. He end up in jail. He had kind of a mixed relationship when it came to the french revolution. He was for those principles and freedom and so forth that we associate with the french. But he was close to the monarchy. So he was not for all of this violence and so forth that we associate with it. He spent several years in jail. Again, the same thing. When they describe the thing that happens to people that are in jail, you feel like you are right there with them. One of the major things that stuck with me is how much time he devoted to slavery in the United States. And donald goes into it. Many people in france were very conscious of slavery. They were strong abolitionists. The question i was going to ask you, or rather the comment i was going to ask about, i was interested in learning that he and jefferson were marvelous friends, too. He stayed at monticello and all of that stuff. It was about the time that slavery was beginning to be spread with the missouri compromise and so forth. It was going west. He had a total difference than jefferson of what that would do to slavery itself. Jefferson felt as it spread it would be good. That is what it would be jefferson said it would be diluted and fade away. Lafayette wrote back, just the opposite. But i was interested in that whole subject and the emphasis that you place on not just lafayette, but his friends who are interested in our abolition. He mentioned hamilton. Hamilton has been in the news kind of a bit, he has written some books. We all know he kind of this grabs the dual and hamilton shoots and he gets killed. And the last thing that donald says is, one year ago, hamilton son was killed in a duel defending the honor of his father. Mr. Miller in the same place. In the same place. I was interested in more comments. I think you had letters between lafayette and jefferson about the difference and what was great to happen to slavery. That is what i was interested in. Miller he was opposed to it. In fact, one of the many things that i could tell you is that he and his wife set up a farm in French Guiana in the tropics where 120 black people were invited to earn their freedom by working on the farm. It lasted seven years and was destroyed by the rebels in paris when they came to power. He was always very much in favor of equal rights for all. He even tried to start it with George Washington. That is what led him, when george was too busy, a southern gentleman and all of that sort of thing, and getting ready for the new presidency. He never did. Lafayette referred to lafayettes idea about freedom as his favorite hobby horse. He actually started to create a new similar farm in tallahassee. In florida. He never came over for that but he thought it would be good to grow wine there. It did not pan out. Have you ever heard of having a blind spot here. Francis wright . Known as fanny wright . The famous woman liberationist. She started a similar farm in the worst way she could have chosen which was called nashoba. Its on the wolf river near memphis. It did not last. She was born the same day as lafayette. September 6. She had inherited money, too. When that did not work out she took all of her black friends and sailed to haiti and made sure that they were accommodated in haiti. There is so much more to this story. One of the things i thought to bring up to our time is that in 1935 a wealthy frenchman named pierre does anybody remember him . 37 years later he was the collaborationist premiere of france who worked very closely with the nazis. In 1935, he provided the money that allowed his daughter and her husband, who was a direct descendent of lafayette to eventually restore lafayettes house, the chateau. But they did not take over until the 1950s. Suddenly they were up in the attic one day and they found a false wall. Behind the wall where lafayettes books and documents. And those have been translated onto microfilm, 64 microfilms and they are in four locations in this country. Of course, the library of congress, it took an active congress to do it. An act of congress to do it. It cost 300,000 in 1950s to do that. And the outgoing secretary of the library of congress was responsible for overseeing the program. Thank you much. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] much. Nk you very that was fantastic. We appreciate you coming today and hopefully we will see you again. Hearings66 vietnam this month on American History tv. You can watch each weekend on saturday nights at 10 of 4 p. M. Eastern and sundays at 4 00 p. M. Eastern. American history tv, only on cspan3. I am trying to decide which candidate to support. I am trying to decide between the governors who have executive experience or some of the other marketers, who have experience, or some of the other candidates like mark kruse, and marco rubio. That will abortion issue to me is National Service in are 500 million americans who are ready to step forward with programs like americorps, peace corps. Welcome to greenville south carolina. Founded in 1831, and is known for its rich textile heritage. The city has a population of 62000 and is really developing its downtown