Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution

Abstract

The meeting of this conference at the University of Virginia inevitably calls to mind the first public occasion in the history of the institution 163 years ago. General Lafayette, on his year-long triumphal tour of the United States, came to Charlottesville for a tearful reunion with his old friend, Thomas Jefferson. They had met in the perilous days of 1781 when Jefferson was governor of Virginia and Lafayette marched a small army into the state to repel the British invaders. Jefferson was grateful to the spirited young general, whose zeal for the American cause seemed scarcely less than his own. Three years later, in France, they became friends, and, in 1789, their friendship personified the historical nexus between the American and the French Revolution. Thereafter, they corresponded intermittently but did not meet again until 1824. Lafayette, though he had long since ceased to be a hero in France, remained a hero in America -- in itself a poignant commentary on the contrasting fates of the two great democratic revolutions. The University fathered by Jefferson was still unfinished in 1824. The Rotunda, commanding the Lawn, was still under scaffolding, and the massive Corinthian capitals imported from Carrara had yet to be raised atop the columns of the portico. But over 400 people crowded into the Dome Room for the great public dinner in honor of the “nations’s guest.” There were many toasts, of course; and Jefferson, who was 81 and in poor health, made a little address, through the voice of another, extolling Lafayette’s services in war and peace and closing with a prayer for “the eternal duration” of the nation’s freedom.