Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de, & Marinus Willett

Autograph letter, signed ("Lafayette"), 1 page (9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.; 252 x 200 mm), Paris, 12 April 1826, to Marinus Willett in New York, with Willet's autograph draft response on the recto of the integral address leaf, signed ("Marinus Willett"); address leaf inlaid, seal tear mended affecting a few letters. With six portraits of Lafayette taken at various stages in his life.

Adrian H. Joline (his sale, Anderson Galleries, 22 November 1915, lot 302)

address leaf inlaid, seal tear mended affecting a few letters.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A touching exchange of letters by "old friend[s] and brother[s] in arms."

Marinus Willett (1740-1830) served as commander of various New York regiments in the northern theater during the Revolution. After the war, he aligned himself with George Clinton and the anti-federalist party, fighting against adoption of the Constitution as a delegate to the ratification convention. He was mayor of New York City from 1807-1808. The Marquis de Lafayette had, at the time of writing, returned from his triumphal tour of the United States, to find an old letter of Willett's, providing an occasion to write.

Lafayette remarks: "Happy I am in every opportunity to renew or to form a similar personal connection in so pleasing company, and I enjoy those feelings of American Home which never were obliterated in my mind but have become more than ever necesary to me." He goes on to describe his retired life: "I generally live at La Grange with my family, but about the middle of winter we spend three months in town, saving some excursions to my farm from which I have been for several weeks secluded by an attack of the gout. I hardly can quarrel with it when I reflect on the much greater disappointment it might have inflicted had I been visited in that way during my blessed journey throughout the United States." In closing, Lafayette sends his regards to Willett's family and "all our military companions and other friends in New York." Referring to the ongoing application of officers for back pay (not settled until 1832), he writes "I hope the application of our brother officers to Congress has been successful, we have not yet received a precise information."

In his reply, unencumbered by punctuation, Willett recalls: "The first time my dear general that I saw you was when I was introduced to you by General Washington at White Marsh in November 1777. You was [sic] then about 20 years and two months old at that time and afterwards at the battle of Monmouth your youthful and grave appearance left an impression on my mind that has never been absent and reflections of your patriotism and gallantry were such as I could never reflect on but with admiration, the whole circumstance respecting your visit to our country under circumstances so brilliant at home and so gloomy in this country, for the battle of Brandiwin[sic] and the useless great suffering of the army after that defeat were calculated to damp the ardor even of patriotism unless it was accompanied ... in some respects similar to that of the great Washington ... I have a likeness that was taken of you when you was last here but it is so different from what you was when I first saw you that caused me to enquire of you the last time you was at my house whether you had not a likeness that was taken in your young days, if you had it would be esteemed an invaluable favor to be furnished with a small copy or miniature of it."