Читать книгу Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825 (Vol. 1&2) - Auguste Levasseur - Страница 4

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In publishing at this late period the journal of my voyage to the United States, along with General Lafayette, in 1824 and 1825, I think it right to account for the circumstances, which have so long delayed this publication.

The duties of private secretary, which I performed for General Lafayette, were prolonged for three years after our return. During all this time, I thought that the intimacy of my relations with him, rendered it a point of delicacy, that I should not cause to emanate from his cabinet a narrative, of which he was the principal object. Swayed by this sentiment, I resisted the solicitations of my friends, and resolved to await the period, when having become entirely independent, and entering into a career of industry, I could publish my journal without exposing any one to participate with me in responsibility for the opinions or facts produced. This time has now arrived, and there is no longer any inconvenience in my publishing details, not altogether unknown, but which cannot be found any where so complete as in this journal, which moreover, has a character of incontestible authenticity, for in addition to the testimony of several millions of witnesses, that might be adduced if necessary, I can also say, all I relate I have seen.

I need not say, that in offering to my friends and the public, the details of a triumph, which honours the nation that decreed it, as much as the man who was its object, the recital of which, I hope, will one day prove the greatest encouragement that can be offered to the sincere friends of a wise liberty, I am less concerned to adorn my narration, than to preserve that character of verity, which will be its greatest, perhaps even its only merit.

Involved during fourteen months in the torrent of popular festivities, which uninterruptedly followed the steps of Lafayette throughout the twenty-four states of the Union, it was only during the brief hours of the night, and as I may say, in presence of the events of the day, that my journal was written. It necessarily must partake of that extreme agitation; however I have not thought of making any other change in it, than that of dividing it into a certain number of chapters, each of which contains a series of facts more particularly attached to some epoch or locality. This division appears to me more suitable, because it allows of the suppression of all the dates, that would embarrass the narrative, and a multitude of details which could only interest a small number of individuals.