APPENDIX II. 



LETTERS TO COLONEL JOHN TRUMBULL FROM LAFAYETTE, 

 JOHN ADAMS, JEFFERSON, BENJAMIN WEST, AND LORD 

 GRENVILLE. 



FROM LAFAYETTE TO COLONEL TRUMBULL.* 



PARIS, January 4, 1824. 



MY DEAR SIR, Words cannot sufficiently express how happy 

 you have made me by your most valuable and no less welcome 

 present. I received it in my usual family retirement at La Grange, 

 and was delighted with many happy recollections it did produce, 

 among which the pleasure of my friendly acquaintance with the 

 painter had a very great share. I at once recognized all the por 

 traits, and think you have been remarkably fortunate in hitting not 

 only the features but the manners and deportment of the principal 

 characters. It is so much the case, that my children, who, George 

 excepted, were very young when they had a peep at John Adams, 

 pointed out the father from their acquaintance with the son. Han 

 cock, Charles Thompson, Jefferson, Franklin, Roger Sherman, 

 &c., &c., suddenly appeared to me in the grand act which has be 

 gun the era of national freedom and self-government. I hailed 

 the banner under which I enlisted in my youth, and shall die in 

 old age ; and I bless the great artist, the good fellow-citizen and 

 soldier to whom I was obliged for so many lively, affectionate, and 

 patriotic sensations. 



It is to me also an inexpressible gratification to think your ad 

 mirable pencil has fixed me on the grand central rotunda of the 

 capitol of the United States, in the situation where I like myself 

 best, namely, in my American regimentals, under our Republican 

 continental colors, at the head of my beloved, gallant, affectionate 

 light infantry, at the successful close of the Virginia campaign. I 

 cannot promise you my actual features would do justice to your 

 portrait of that time ; but the heart is the same. 



* In acknowledgment of the present of a copy of the engraving of Trum- 

 bull's picture of the Declaration of Independence. F. 



