Calculated For The Good Of The Citizens

In this happy country where every thing is more calculated for the good of the citizens than for the satisfaction of the authorities, it is necessary, before all other requisites, that a city should be as near the centre of a state as possible, in order to be selected as the seat of government.

I've started reading Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Or, Journal of a Voyage to the United States by Auguste Lavasseur.  The quoted passage is by way of explaining why Albany, and not New York City, was the capitol of the state.

You can find a post I wrote in 2014 about Lafayette's Tour here.  It was the 66 year old general's first return to the country since 1784, undertaken after a resolution of Congress, forwarded by President James Monroe, requesting his visit, a visit that would end up lasting thirteen months, covering all 24 states of the Union, and culminating in an address to Congress.  During his visit more than thirty towns were named in the general's honor and he visited many old colleagues, including 89 year old John Adams and 81 year old Thomas Jefferson.

In that earlier post I quoted this account of the tour:

What was planned as a short visit to major cities turned into a . . . . procession.  The hysterical receptions were much alike.  He entered a town escorted by militia, through victory arches decorated with boughs and bunting; endured speeches by local dignitaries and greetings from Revolutionary veterans and the Society of Cincinnati; received poems and flowers from children; and made the rounds of dinners, Masonic banquets, schools and anybody else who wanted to hear him.  The nation went insane for the "last major general of the Revolution".

Lafayette was accompanied by his son George, named after George Washington who had provided the youngster refuge in the 1790s after his father fled France and was imprisoned by the Emperor of Austria, and Auguste Lavasseur, his secretary.  Lavasseur published his account of the journey in 1829 and the first American translation, which I am reading, by Dr John D Godman, was published that same year.

Godman, who was at the time living in Germantown, outside Philadelphia, had given up his medical practice because of ill-health (tuberculosis) to concentrate on writing.  He died the following year at the age of 36.  The translation contains footnotes added by Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (1760-1844), an interesting character in his own right.  Born in France, Du Ponceau came to America in 1777 as part of the entourage of Baron Von Steuben.  Von Steuben, a former Prussian military officer, joined the Continental Army, and with Washington's support, designed a training and discipline regimen for the army, transforming it into a well-drilled and capable military force.  Du Ponceau served as Von Steuben's secretary throughout the war, becoming acquainted with, among others, Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton, and John Laurens.  At the end of the war he settled in Philadelphia where, according to wikipedia, "He contributed significantly to work on the indigenous languages of the Americas, as well as advancing the understanding of written Chinese".

From 1818 until his death in 1844, Du Ponceau served as vice-president and then president of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin who served as its first president.  The Society, considered the first scholarly society organized in the U.S., still exists.  So far my favorite Du Ponceau footnote is in response to Lavasseur's observation that "The inhabitants of Connecticut have the reputation of being litigious" but then stating:

But I believe this reputation has no better foundation than that which they formerly had of allowing their youth of both sexes to live in a state of excessive familiarity before marriage.

This leads to a vigorous correction by Du Ponceau who claims the people of that state are no more litigious than those of any other state and attributes the general litigiousness of Americans to the confused state of English common law while, "as to the excessive familiarity which is supposed to exist . . . between young people before marriage", well that is much exaggerated!  In fact:

There is not a people on earth more truly moral and religious than the people of that state.

That's a relief having been born and raised in the state!

As to Lavesseur it's been difficult to find much information, beyond his birth in 1795, his accompanying of Lafayette and later representing France in diplomatic missions to Haiti and Mexico.  He died in 1878.

I'm still in the early pages of the book but already can see it provides a fascinating look at how both a visitor saw the new Republic and Americans saw themselves.  More to come.