Letter from the Marquis de Lafayette, Château de la Grange-Bléneau, to Julia Ursin Niemcewicz Kean, 1831 April 26 : autograph manuscript signed.

Record ID: 
193491
Accession number: 
MA 22860
Author: 
Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834.
Credit: 
Gift of Nathaniel Spear, Jr., 1987.
Description: 
1 item (1 page, with address) ; 25.4 x 20 cm
Notes: 

Written from "La Grange." This is a reference to the Château de la Grange-Bléneau in the commune of Courplay, where the Marquis de Lafayette lived from 1802 until his death in 1834.
Address panel with seal: "Miss Julia Ursin Niemcewicz Kean / Elizabeth town / New Jersey."
Julia Kean would marry Hamilton Fish in 1836.
Transcription on file.

Summary: 

Sending regards to her grandfather, the Polish patriot and author Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, who accompanied Tadeusz Kościuszko to the United States and in 1800 married Susan Livingston Kean, the widow of John Kean, delegate to the Constitutional Convention from South Carolina; forwarding certain letters (not present); writing of Poland: "Poland has become the bulwark, the wonder, the example of Europe. Her situation, isolated as she is, cannot but be still very critical. But she has performed miracles of heroism, patriotism, and every virtue that can excite sympathy and admiration;" sending regards to her mother and grandmother as well.

Provenance: 
Gift of Nathaniel Spear, Jr., 1987.