In the midst of his popularity he thought always of America, and often wished that the cost of the banquets bestowed upon him could be poured into the treasury of Congress.  His favorite project at that time was the invasion of England—­Paul Jones to command the fleet, and he himself the army.  When this scheme was given up, he joined all his influence with that of Franklin to induce the French Government to send to America a powerful fleet and a considerable army.  When he had secured the promise of this valuable aid, he returned to America and served again in the armies of the young republic.

The success of the United States so confirmed him in his attachment to republican institutions, that he remained their devoted adherent and advocate as long as he lived.

“May this revolution,” said he once to Congress, “serve as a lesson to oppressors, and as an example to the oppressed.”

And, in one of his letters from the United States occurs this sentence:  “I have always thought that a king was at least a useless being; viewed from this side of the ocean, a king cuts a poor figure indeed.”

By the time he had left America, at the close of the war, he had expended in the service of Congress seven hundred thousand francs—­a free gift to the cause of liberty.

One of the most pleasing circumstances of La Fayette’s residence in America was the affectionate friendship which existed between himself and General Washington.  He looked up to Washington as to a father as well as a chief; and Washington regarded him with a tenderness truly paternal.  La Fayette named his eldest son George Washington, and never omitted any opportunity to testify his love and admiration for the illustrious American.  Franklin, too, was much attached to the youthful enthusiast, and privately wrote to General Washington, asking him, for the sake of the young and anxious wife of the marquis, not to expose his life except in an important and decisive engagement.

In the diary of the celebrated William Wilberforce, who visited Paris soon after the peace, there is an interesting passage descriptive of La Fayette’s demeanor at the French court: 

“He seemed to be the representative of the democracy in the very presence of the monarch—­the tribune intruding with his veto within the chamber of the patrician order.  His own establishment was formed upon the English model, and amidst the gayety and ease of Fontainebleau he assumed an air of republican austerity.  When the fine ladies of the court would attempt to drag him to the card-table, he shrugged his shoulders with an air of affected contempt for the customs and amusements of the old regime.  Meanwhile, the deference which this champion of the new state of things received, above all from the ladies of the court, intimated clearly the disturbance of the social atmosphere, and presaged the coming tempest.”