[ Autographs ] MARIE JOSEPH DE LAFAYETTE (1757 - 1834) French statesman and military officer who served as a major general under Washington and was instrumental in the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Exceptional content A.L.S. "Lafayette" 2pp. 4to., La Grange,Jan. 5, 1826, in French to the Marquis of Chauvelin shortly after his final, triumphant voyage to the United States in 1824. In very small part: "...One of my little girls, Clementine Lafayette, had died, it is the result that my best friends have been precisely those to whom Ihave done the most wrong...You have been very indulgent of me. You speak of my voyage in terms so honorable to me that I scarcely dare add other things...I need to, however, to tell you...each hour and every time had been a series of personal pleasures, I had had also enjoyed more, if it is possible, of the state of prosperity, freedom, domestic happiness that I had witnessed. The solution to the great problem is completely demonstrated, completely practiced. I believe that enemies and false friends are in agreement in Europe, contrary tothe repetition of the Mexican and South American formulae; but I hope that they will not be successful, even in Brazil where the old republicans are numerous. The death of the emperor Alexander, the congratulations of succession between the imperial brothers, occupies all the statesmen. One believes to see escape the principal thread from the net of the Holy Alliance, also that the schemes of the Christian powers in favor of Islam, and the uncertain system of England...it will be to the advantage of Greece. I have come back to my retreat and my agriculture in La Grange, but...I will spend some time in Paris..." An indefatigable supporter of American independence from 1775, Lafayette spent nearly E200,000 of his personal fortune in support of the Revolution, and never sought reimbursement. Not surprisingly, he was warmly welcomed in the States on his ultimate journey there in 1824-25. Accomplished at the request of President James Monroe, Lafayette's tour of the country as the last surviving major general of the Revolution was met with an almost frenzied devotion from the citizens. Boldly written in Lafayette's neat hand, with the original integral address leaf, and very good.