Let me start with a word of caution: throughout this talk I shall use the word "liberal" in its original 19th century sense, i.e. "classical liberal" or "libertarian" – depending upon the context – which is still its sense in France. I know that in America the leftists have stolen the word, but I see no reason to let them get away with it.

     Now, from a liberal standpoint, something quite extraordinary happened in America during the 1770's. In the early 1770's, there was an intense conflict between the 13 colonies and England: the former refusing to pay taxes for which they had not voted.

     In 1774 a congress of the 13 colonies begged the crown to address their petitions. London responded with more repression.

     In 1775, the war of independence began. George Washington was appointed commander of an army made up of disparate elements.

     In 1776, each colony formed a State and adopted a constitution. In June, Virginia adopted a declaration of rights inspired by the philosophy of the great English liberal John Locke. The Congress followed that example and asked five persons, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, to write a draft for a Declaration of Independence, which was adopted straight away. This declaration is a hymn to liberalism. I cannot help quoting its two most famous paragraphs:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
     That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it."

     On the 4th of July, Congress proclaimed the independence of the United States.

     An 18 year old French aristocrat, captain in a garrison in Metz, heard about these events at a dinner offered by his general to the Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III. He endeavored to find out more about them, and the more he learned, the more he became enthusiastic about the ideas behind the events. His name was Gilbert Motier, marquis of La Fayette. He had inherited his title when he was two, when his father, also a military man, was killed during the 7 Years War.

     He had been raised by his mother in the Castle of Chavaniac, in the middle of France. He enjoyed great freedom, running across the countryside with the little peasants, strengthening his body, acquiring a sense of Liberty, a special acquaintance with nature and a total absence of prejudice.

     He lost his mother when he was 13 and his grandfather a few months later. The latter left him an immense fortune. He married Adrienne de Noailles, a girl from another wealthy family when he was 16 and she 15. It turned out to be a very happy marriage. During his leaves from the army and through his letters, he shared with her his enthusiasm for people's freedom, as it was developing in America.

     In 1776, he obtained a leave from the army. He bought a small vessel and sailed to America with a small troop of gentlemen whom he had convinced to accompany him. The king tried to stop him. Not that Louis the 16th was hostile to the American cause, but he did not want to break the peace treaty signed a few years before with England at the end of the so called 7 Years War. He had his own prudent policy vis à vis the insurgents, and he was nervous about the uncontrolled agitation of the young marquis.

     However La Fayette managed to escape the king's agents and sailed for America on April 20, 1777. He landed in South Inlet, welcomed by its inhabitants, and sailed for Charleston. From there, his little troop set off for Philadelphia on horseback, where they arrived on July 27.

     La Fayettte, then 20 years old, met with George Washington, then 45, on the 1st of August. The latter had been favorably informed about La Fayette by a letter from Benjamin Franklin, at the time representative of the Congress to France. The understanding between the two men was instantaneous and was to last throughout their lives. Washington's support and the fact that the young man insisted on enlisting without pay and assuming his own costs won the consideration of Congress who appointed him Major General. For a while, Washington kept him at his side as aide de camp, in order to let him familiarize himself with the army and the other generals.

     In early September, Philadelphia was threatened. An English army was coming down from Canada, while other troops were disembarked from an English Fleet in Chesapeake Bay. Between the two, forces led by General Cornwallis, were actively fighting the American army. The division of General Sullivan was on the verge of being surrounded. La Fayette was sent to the rescue. There, with extraordinary energy, he gathered the men fleeing in all directions by exposing himself with a total contempt for danger. He was wounded in the leg. He fell from his horse, but asked to be put back into the saddle and went on gathering his soldiers until the time when he had to be evacuated as the hemorrhaging was becoming alarming. Washington had him taken care of by his own surgeon.

     At the head of a disparate and ill-equipped army of 11,000 men against a more numerous and better-trained English army, Washington could not avoid evacuating Philadelphia and gathered his men in Valley Forge. The Winter was rigorous. The men were short of just about everything: rifles, food, clothes, shoes. They had to build huts. General La Fayette shared the hardships of his subordinates. He imposed himself by his soberness, his contempt for comfort, his generosity – using his own money to alleviate some of the hardships – and his enthusiasm for the cause.

     Washington's enemies tried to lure La Fayette into schemes that would undermine Washington's command, but La Fayette asserted his loyalty.

     At the end of the winter, he went alone to the border of Canada to rally Indian tribes.

     On May 18, 1778, Washington directed La Fayette to lead a force between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers and disrupt British communications with Philadelphia. He displayed tactical genius by cleverly ambushing several British detachments, then maneuvering his men back through British lines. The British pulled their soldiers out of Philadelphia and headed for New York. Washington asked La Fayette to pursue them and inflict as much damage as possible.

     On January 11, 1779, he was sent to France with a letter to Benjamin Franklin. He arrived on February 6th, the anniversary of the Franco American treaty that had been signed a year before. He had to convince the king to send ships and troops to his new allies. The king decided to send 6000 men under General de Rochambeau and a war fleet of 30 ships under Admiral de Grasse.

     La Fayette went back to America on March 9 in order to prepare the reception of the French forces. He would have liked to command it himself, but Louis the 16th and his aides decided that he was too young (he was only 22) to command officers with considerably more seniority. He then went on serving Washington as an American General.

     Exhibiting tactical genius, La Fayette harassed the British and escaped from them. For the record, one engagement in Virginia was marked by the death of General Phillips, the man who, 22 years earlier, as an artillery officer, had ordered the cannon fire that killed La Fayette's father. He was replaced by General Arnold, a traitor coming from the insurgent ranks. Arnold was to be joined by General Charles Cornwallis, marching up from South Carolina, and by General Clinton, coming down from New York.

     Cornwallis' primary mission was to cut off the South from the North, destroy the arsenals, and if possible capture La Fayette who had about half the total force commanded by Cornwallis. He retreated as Cornwallis advanced. He was careful not to be outflanked by always staying on higher ground. His men found ways to cross the rivers of Virginia and harass Cornwallis from positions that were hard to assault. On the way, he was joined by local insurgent forces and new recruits, so that his forces grew almost as large as those of Cornwallis. However his forces dwindled in the spring as volunteers had to go back home to tend their fields. Two of his subordinates marched into a British trap, 139 Americans were killed, and La Fayette had to spur his horse through the gunfire to rally his troops. It was a defeat, but Cornwallis withdrew as he was asked to send some forces to New York to help Clinton. La Fayette regained Williambsburg, the very town where we are today, and believe it or not, this is what gave me the idea of proposing a talk on La Fayette to my good friends from ISIL.

     On July 31, Washington ordered La Fayette to rebuild his forces and keep Cornwallis bottled up in Yorktown, to where Admiral de Grasse was sailing, while himself and Rochambeau were coming down from New York.

     La Fayette amassed provisions, increased his intelligence about the British and begged Virginia's governor for help. A month later, on August 30, de Grasse reached Yorktown with six frigates and 28 battleships, 15 000 sailors and 3 100 marines. Soon La Fayette commanded 5,500 regular troops and 3,000 militiamen against the 8 800 soldiers of Cornwallis. They were even for a few days, but Washington and Rochambeau arrived in Yorktown on September 9, and Cornwallis was then outnumbered.

     The siege of Yorktown began on October 6, 1781. La Fayette was in the thick of the action, leading the capture of British positions. Cornwallis was almost out of food and ammunition, and about a quarter of his men were ill. He surrendered at noon, on October 19.

     It was time for La Fayette to go back to his family. As an American officer, he had to ask Congress to let him go back to serve the king of France. He received the Cincinnati medal and was made a citizen of honor of the United States. A frigate was left at his disposal. After an emotional parting with George Washington, he left Boston amidst a storm of applause on December 23, 1781, about 5 years after he landed in America for the first time.

     I am not going to elaborate on the French life of La Fayette, since it is not the subject of my talk. I shall simply recapitulate the essential points from our libertarian viewpoint: his tireless struggle for the people's freedom.

     Up to 1790, he received at home all Americans staying in Paris, like Franklin, Jefferson, Paine, as well as European liberals such as Germaine de Staël, Benjamin Constant, Horace Say. He promoted free trade. He pleaded the cause of protestants to the king. He corresponded with Bolivar, the liberator of several South American States. He encouraged the Italian liberals, the Spanish constitutionalists, the Greek and Polish freedom fighters. He spent a lot of money to help free slaves in French colonies.

     He tried to interest George Washington in the emancipation of slaves and he invited him to come to France. But the latter convinced him to visit him in America instead. Landing in New York on August 4, 1784, he went to Mount Vernon 15 days later, and he spent 11 days there with Washington. He then visited some friends. On the way, he met enthusiastic crowds, and was invited to all sorts of parties and celebrations. By November, he was back with Washington. They traveled together to Anapolis. They bid farewell on December 1st.

     Back in France, he played a decisive role in the preparation of the Revolution – which, I recall – was initially peaceful and liberal – in the declaration of human rights, and in the abolition of privileges. He was appointed commander of the new, popular, National Guard. His popularity was at its peak. But from mid 91, the Revolution sank into a totalitarian phase, the paroxysms of which would degenerate into a reign of terror. His troubles were about to start.

     At the head of the Eastern Army, facing Prussians and Austrians who wanted to reestablish a monarchy, he left it briefly to go to the National Assembly to try and moderate those who wanted to execute the king, but he was accused of desertion and condemned to death. He escaped narrowly only to fall into the hands of the Austrians, who considered him a dangerous revolutionary and imprisoned him. He stayed in various Austrian and Prussian prisons for 5 years in appalling conditions. He lost all his possessions. His wife narrowly escaped the Guillotine and also lost her possessions. She went to stay with him in his prison, with their two daughters.

     He was freed by Napoleon in 1797 but maintained in exile for two years in Belgium. Back in France, he settled in an old Castle that his wife had been able to recover. He led the life of a gentleman farmer, fairly active and entrepreneurial, while regaining some influence on the political scene, which he used to fight tirelessly against Napoleon' violation of liberties, then against that of the monarchy that followed.

     But he no longer had the same luster in France as he had in the United States, even though he was the same character. The reason is that there was a total symbiosis between himself and the philosophy which drove the American people, while in France, in spite of the liberal burst of the early Revolution, the Jacobin disposition of my compatriots praised La Fayette only for his military glory. But he was to have compensations.

     In 1823, while he was 66, La Fayette accepted president James Monroe's invitation for a farewell tour of America. He declined Monroe's offer to send a warship for him and instead traveled aboard an ordinary commercial ship. He arrived on August 15, 1824 and was greeted by some 30,000 people. An estimated 50,000 cheered La Fayette as he rode a wagon drawn by four white horses to New York City Hall. People threw flowers at him. Mothers brought their children for his blessing. Some 6,000 people attended a ball in his honor. He began a 13 month tour through all 24 states.

     La Fayette commended Americans for what they had accomplished: "in the United States, he said, the sovereignty of the people was achieved by a glorious and spotless revolution, universally acknowledged, guaranteed not only by a constitution . . . but by legal procedures which are always within the scope of the public will. It is also exercised by free, general, and frequent elections . . . Ten million people, without a monarchy, without a court, without an aristocracy, without trade guilds, without unnecessary or unpopular taxes, without a State Police, a constabulary or any disorder have achieved the highest degree of freedom, security, prosperity, and happiness, which human civilization could have imagined".

     At Bunker Hill, Massachusetts, the orator Daniel Webster declared: "heaven saw fit to ordain, that the electric spark of Liberty should be conducted through you from the new world to the old". La Fayette entered Philadelphia escorted by four wagons carrying about 160 revolutionary veterans. He stopped at the Brandywine battlefield where he had been wounded. He returned to Yorktown, which was still in ruins. Big crowds welcomed him everywhere, about 50,000 in Baltimore and 70,000 in Boston. He was cheered in Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, Saint-Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Buffalo, to name only a few of the 132 towns which greeted him. He appeared at Catholic Churches, Protestant Churches and Masonic Lodge gatherings. He attended receptions opened to everybody and he publicly welcomed the Blacks and Indians who came. La Fayette descended to the vault of George Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon. There was a reception at the University of Virginia. He saw John Adams in Quincy and James Madison in Montpelier.

     And then he reached Monticello where he fell into Jefferson's arms. The two men burst into tears. In Charlottesville the Nation's guest was seated at a patriotic banquet between Jefferson and Madison.

     He was received in Congress, an honor which is normally reserved to heads of state.

     On September 7 he went down the Potomac river on the steamboat Mount Vernon, boarded the frigate Brandywine, and sailed back to France, bringing with him a load of American soil destined to be mixed with French earth on his tomb.

     Dozens of American cities, counties and schools bear his name. The Association of the friends of La Fayette is still lively and owns more than a thousand historical paintings or pictures which feature him. Americans being sensible people, one cannot help thinking that La Fayette was really a more extraordinary man than the French recognized.

     Since that time, there was going to have been other examples of great French liberals, not that well appreciated at home, sometimes even rejected by the political power, and highly praised by educated Americans. The reason is that most American people are predominantly liberal in their guts, while in France, outstanding liberals have always been mavericks, little known by the public, half forgotten by the historians.

     One can think about Destutt de Tracy. His Commentary on Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, in which he criticizes the monarchism of the philosopher, was praised by Jefferson, who translated it himself in 1811. It was not until 1817 that the book was authorized in France. Destutt's Treaty of will, a very liberal book, was used as a manual of political economy in the United States, thanks again to Jefferson.

     Or one can think about Jean-Baptiste Say, whose Treatise on Economics drew the attention of Jefferson and Madison. Madison thought that it was the best treatise on economy ever written so far, even superior to the famous treaty by Adam Smith on the Wealth of Nations. Say's first treatise was first published in France in 1803. But newer, enriched editions could not be published in France before 1814, because of Napoleon's opposition.

     Or one can think about Bastiat, forgotten in Europe throughout the 20th Century, while his masterpieces never stopped being sold in the U.S. The Law still sells today at the rate of 15,000 copies a year.

     Or one can think about Tocqueville, who was largely forgotten during the 3rd republic, but never lost his luster in the United States. Thanks to the Americans, he was literally rediscovered by the French in the 1960s.

     Conversely, it is the liberals, in France, who cultivate an enduring friendship with America and combat the totally irrational anti-American feelings that erupt from time to time.

     Raymond Aron was a friend of Hayek's. He created throughout the second part of the 20th century a liberal, Atlantist and anticommunist school of thought. He had Stanley Hoffmann and Henry Kissinger among his disciples. During the cold war, he was one of the principal relays of the cultural diplomacy of the U.S. He even took part in several operations managed by the American Secret Services. He thus contributed to the ideological success of the Congress for the Freedom of Culture.

     Jean-Fraçois Revel, a famous philosopher and pamphleteer who died recently, fought latent anti-Americanism in numerous articles and in his two books Neither Marx nor Jesus, a sociological essay, and The Anti-American obsession, a devastating satire.

     To conclude, I would say that liberal thinking has so far been the strongest link between the French and American people, a perennial link which has enabled us to overcome the occasional vagaries of such and such a Head of State.

Acknowledgment. This paper owes a lot to the article by Jim Powel "Lafayette, hero of two worlds" (The Freeman, September 1997), for the description of the battles and the reception of Lafayette by the people of the United States in 1824-25. Some sentences of the article have been reproduced verbatem.

Jacques de Guenin, is a graduate of the Ecole de Mines in Paris and holds a Master of Science from the University of Berkeley (California). He worked for 22 years in the oil industry (Exxon), then for 12 years in the car industry (PSA Peugeot-Citroën) where he was a director before his retirement in 1993. He has lived, worked, or traveled in fifty or so countries, but he has always remained close to his village of Saint-Loubouer, in Les Landes region. He was mayor from 1995 to 2001. He has stood as a (liberal) candidate in parliamentary elections: against Henri Emmanuelli in 1993, then against Joël Gohyeinex in 1998.
     Having been taught by two winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics, he has himself published various works in this discipline. His favorite author is the great economist and humanist Frédéric Bastiat who came from Les Landes and about whom he has written numerous articles and given many talks. In 1980 he founded in Les Landes Le Cercle Frédéric Bastiat – which he still runs. He is currently president that organization.
     In 2001 Jacques was host for ISIL's world confernce in Dax, France. The conference celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Bastiat.