Nothing of office, honor, or power was beyond his reach, while peril of all kinds lay in wait for him or sat openly in his path.

But he was indifferent alike to temptation and to danger.

Emoluments in whatsoever form he rejected, saying that he attached no more importance to the rejection than to the acceptance.

Field-Marshal, Grand-Constable, Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, Dictator even,--such were titles which he put aside.

Had his been a vulgar ambition, he might have clutched at supreme power, and played the part of Cromwell or Napoleon.

But, true to the example of Washington, and, above all, true to himself and those just sentiments which belonged to his nature, he thought only of the good of all.

The generous Lafayette, who had been its representative and its glory, in whom its true grandeur and humanity were all personified, revolted at its excesses.

From camp he addressed the National Assembly, denouncing the Jacobins as substituting license for liberty,--and then, supporting his letter, gallantly appeared at the bar of the Assembly and repeated his denunciation.

But the Reign of Terror was lowering, destined to fill France with darkness, and to send a shudder through the world.

Doubly faithful, first to the oath he had taken, and then to his own supreme integrity, he denounced the audacious crime.

Power, fortune, family, country, all were suddenly changed for a dungeon, where, amidst cruel privations, for more than five years, he wore away life.

But not in vain; for who can listen to the story of his captivity without confessing new admiration for that sublime fidelity to principle which illumined his dungeon?

But never for one moment was his soul shaken in its majestic fidelity; never was his example more lofty.

This confiscation, where Liberty itself disappeared, was the terrible climax of that proscription which now enveloped his friends and his family.

In the prevailing masquerade of blood the charge of Fayettism was equivalent to a decree of death.

To her prayer for the release of her husband, he answers that “his hands are tied”; but, moved by her devotion, so womanly, so wifely, so heroic, he yields so far as to consent that she, with her daughters, may share his wretched captivity.

These things are not to be forgotten, because, while exhibiting the cruelty of despotic power, against which the world now rises in judgment, they show how his fidelity was tried, as also that of his family.

Lafayette himself, when tempted by offer of release on certain conditions or promises, was stern as his jailer, and refused inexorably,--choosing to suffer, sooner than compromise in any respect his rights and duties as Frenchman or as…

This endeavor, though unsuccessful, is never read without a gush of gratitude towards the courageous men, who, taking life in hand, braved Austrian tyranny.

It was the early sword of Napoleon Bonaparte, which, flashing across the Alps from his Italian victories, broke open the dungeon of Olmütz.

In the negotiations ending in the Treaty of Campo Formio, it was required, under special instructions from the French Directory, that he should be released; and the conqueror was heard to say afterwards, that, among all the sacrifices…

But life with him, though brief in years, had been extended by events full of lessons never to be forgotten; above all was that great lesson of perpetual fealty to Human Rights.

As in dungeon, so in exile, Lafayette could not forget the cause to which his life was devoted, especially the liberty of the African.

Bonaparte wished to make him Senator; Lafayette declined, as he afterwards declined the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor from the same hand.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.