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Tag Archives: American War of Independence

Designing Washington, DC: Pierre-Charles L’Enfant

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in France, History, The Enlightenment, United States

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

American War of Independence, Anderson House, André Le Nôtre, Masonic layout of Washington, Monticello & UNESCO, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, The Da Vinci Code, The Society of the Cincinnati

Balcony beneath The Apotheosis of Washington (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Balcony beneath “The Apotheosis of Washington,” in the Capitol Rotunda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beaumarchais enlists Pierre-Charles L’Enfant

Beaumarchais recruits Pierre-Charles L’Enfant: a coincidence
L’Enfant does not return to France
L’Enfant is initiated into Freemasonry
Washington commissions L’Enfant to be build a capital city
Thomas Jefferson supervises the building of Washington DC
 

Coincidentally, French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, (24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799), the gentleman who authored The Marriage of Figaro (Le Mariage de Figaro, 1784), recruited soldiers wishing to fight against the British in the American War of Independence (1775 – 1783). Among the men Beaumarchais recruited is major Pierre-Charles L’Enfant (August 9, 1754 – 14 June 1825), an architect and civil engineer who decided to settle in New York after the American War of Independence. In 1791, L’Enfant would be asked, by George Washington, to design what would be the future capital of the United States. George Washington wanted the United States to have an impressive capital city.

The National Mall was the centerpiece of the McMillan Plan.

The National Mall was the centerpiece of the McMillan Plan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pierre-Charles in the “Federal City”

George Washington, first President of the United States
George Washington, a Freemason
L’Enfant, a Freemason
 

When Pierre-Charles heard that a capital would be built, he wrote to George Washington asking to be commissioned to do this work, and Washington graciously obliged. Because Washington was a Freemason, he asked L’Enfant to include Masonic symbols in the layout of the city that would eventually be named after him. Freemasonry is not a religion. It is a fraternity. Consequently, integrating Masonic symbols would not violate the Enlightenment ideal of the separation of Church and State, an ideal also promoted by Freemasonry. Again, coincidentally, Pierre-Charles L’Enfant had been initiated in Freemasonry in New York, on 17 April 1789. He could therefore incorporate Masonic symbols in his layout, known as L’Enfant Plan. L’Enfant was never very active as a Freemason but, as an architect and civil engineer, he followed the instructions of his clients, at least to a point. The layout of Washington, D.C. contains Masonic symbols as do some of its buildings.

Wahington, D.C. Pentagram

Washington, D.C. Pentagram (Photo credit: United States Presidents and the Illuminati /Masonic Power Structure)

Masonic and Illuminist elements in the layout of Washington

The layout of Washington, D.C. may indeed feature Masonic elements and reflect the thinking of the Illuminati. George Washington was influenced by the Illuminati or “luminaries,” a movement rooted in the Enlightenment. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial has its Internet entry. On the Internet, one also finds a rather alarming entry entitled Washington D.C. and Masonic/Lucifer Symbology.

Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code

Parisian Elements

L’Enfant also incorporated in his designs Parisian architectural elements our “Americans in Paris,” Thomas Jefferson in particular, had admired in certain buildings. Consequently, there was a will among members of the former American Delegation to remember their stay in Paris. Like tourists, they brought back “souvenirs.” They did so by inserting Parisian motifs in houses they had built and in their décor. Therefore, Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) does reflect the involvement of the French in the American War of Independence, but these elements are not necessarily Masonic. I wonder if they visited Vaux-le-Vicomte. There can be no doubt that L’Enfant was inspired by Louis XIV‘s landscape artist André Le Nôtre and noted British architects:

“[t]he influence of Baroque architecture at Versailles, by André Le Nôtre [12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700], appears in his plan and it also bears resemblances to the London plans of Sir Christopher Wren PRS [20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723]  and John Evelyn FRS [31 October 1620 – 27 February 1706].”[ii]

French Coins

French Coins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thomas Jefferson as Architect

Supervising L’Enfant was Thomas Jefferson, whose home at Monticello Jefferson designed and redesigned personally. It included architectural features that had caught his eye in Paris. In fact, Monticello is a historical landmark and, in 1987, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Jefferson also designed the University of Virginia, the first buildings. Jefferson had a passion for architecture.

“Thomas Jefferson, who worked alongside President Washington in overseeing the plans for the capital, sent L’Enfant a letter outlining his task for the capital which was to provide a drawing of suitable sites for the federal city and the public buildings. Though Jefferson had modest ideas for the Capital, L’Enfant saw the task as far more grandiose, believing he was not only locating the capital, but also devising the city plan and designing the buildings.” (See Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, Wikipedia.)

Problems arose. Allow me to quote Wikipedia:

“L’Enfant was supervised by three commissioners. In February 1792, Andrew Ellicott, who was conducting the original boundary survey of the future District of Columbia (see Boundary Stones [District of Columbia]) and the survey of the “Federal City” under the direction of the Commissioners, informed the Commissioners that L’Enfant had not been able to have the city plan engraved and had refused to provide him with the original plan (of which L’Enfant had prepared several versions.” (See Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, Wikipedia.)

Andrew Ellicott

Andrew Ellicott had not been commissioned to design the layout of the future Washington, D.C., but he took over the project and modified L’Enfant Plan. George Washington dismissed L’Enfant without remuneration for the work he had carried out. Later on, L’Enfant would be remunerated, though barely so: $3,800, enough to pay a few creditors. After leaving the “Federal City,” L’Enfant surveyed and platted Indianapolis, Indiana, and Perrysburg, Ohio, but he was now in disgrace and would die in poverty. When he grew old, friends provided a refuge at Green Hill, a Maryland estate in Chillum, Prince George’s County. Chillum is where L’Enfant was first buried.

The McMillan Commission (1901-1902)

Pierre-Charles Rehabilitated
The National Mall
Pennsylvania Avenue
The Capitol Building
The “Grand Avenue” 
 

The future would bring recognition to L’Enfant. In 1901 and 1902, his plans were used by the McMillan Commission “as the cornerstone of a report that recommended a partial redesign of the capital city. Among other things, the Commission’s report laid out a plan for a sweeping mall in the area of L’Enfant’s widest ‘grand avenue’, which had not been constructed.” (See c, Wikipedia.)

The Society of the Cincinnati (1783)

The Society of the Cincinnati
La Société des Cincinnati de France
Louis XVI ordains the Society of the Cincinnati
The French ‘connection’
 

In the course of his career, Pierre-Charles, an aristocrat by birth, had become “Peter.” Thomas Jefferson had asked him to paint a portrait of George Washington. He also designed the badge for the Society of the Cincinnati, a society commemorating the involvement of France in the American War of Independence. L’Enfant would also establish a French branch of the Society, La Société des Cincinnati de France, ordained by Louis XVI. The Society of the Cincinnati is a “hereditary, military, and patriotic organization formed in May 1783 by officers who had served in the American Revolution. Its objectives were to promote union and national honours, maintain their war-born friendship, perpetuate the rights for which they had fought, and aid members of their families in case of need.”[iii]  The Society of the Cincinnati also remains a testimonial honouring the presence of the French in America during the American Revolutionary War, which is its most important role. France was impoverished, but its military wanted to fight for the independence of the United States and Louis XVI signed the Treaty of Alliance (1778) with France. George Washington would be elected the Society’s first President and its headquarters are the Larz and Isabel Anderson House in Washington, D.C..

Conclusion

Jean-Jules Jusserand
Lying in State, the Capitol rotunda
Pierre-Charles re-interred
Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia
 

At the request of Jean Jules Jusserand, a French Ambassador to the United States during World War I, the United States recognized L’Enfant’s contributions to his adopted nation. In 1909, after lying in state at the Capitol rotunda, L’Enfant’s remains were re-interred in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. L’Enfant’s name is included in the list provided by Wikipedia (The Society of the Cincinnati). La Fayette is listed as Gilbert du Motier and Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, as Pierre L’Enfant. (See The Society of the Cincinnati, Wikipedia.) “At his first inauguration in 1791, President Washington took his oath of office on a Bible from St. John’s Lodge in New York. During his two terms, he visited Masons in North and South Carolina and presided over the cornerstone ceremony for the U.S. Capitol in 1793.”  (See George Washington Masonic National Memorial.)

(Photo credit: Google images)

The Society of the Cincinnati (Photo credit: Google images)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Americans in Paris: George Washington (22 May 2014)
  • Americans in Paris: Thomas Jefferson (17 May 2014)
  • Americans in Paris: Benjamin Franklin (14 May 2014)

Sources and Resources:

BBC History: The American War of Independence: The Rebels and the Redcoats,
by Professor Richard Holmes
L’Enfant Plan is an online document
The Masonic Career of Major Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, by Pierre F. de Ravel d’Esclapon, 32°, Valley of Rockville Center, N.Y. (March-April 2011)
Washington, the Mason: http://gwmemorial.org/washingtonTheMason.php
United States Presidents and the Illuminati/Masonic Power Structure, by Robert Howard
George Washington Masonic National Memorial
The Masonic Trowel
Washington D.C. and Masonic/Lucifer Symbology
The Society of the Cincinnati
La Société des Cincinnati de France
The Larz and Isabel Anderson House

_________________________

[i] “[A]t Holland Lodge No. 8 F&AM, which the Grand Lodge of New York F&AM had chartered in 1787. L’Enfant took only the first of three degrees offered by the lodge and did not progress further in Freemasonry.” (See Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, Wikipedia.)    
[ii] “Pierre Charles L’Enfant”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 22 May. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/335841/Pierre-Charles-LEnfant>.
[iii] The “Society of the Cincinnati”.  Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 22 May. 2014 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/117977/Society-of-the-Cincinnati>. 
 
Gershwin plays “Swanee”
 

Monticello

Jefferson’s Monticello

Pete Seeger sings “Way down upon the Suwannee River,” by Stephen Foster 
 
 

1

© Micheline Walker
22 May 2014
WordPress 
 
The insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati 
(Photo credit: Google Images)

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Americans in Paris: Thomas Jefferson

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in The Enlightenment, The French Revolution, The United States

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

American War of Independence, Assembly of Notables, Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, Marquis de La Fayette, Tax reforms, the United States, Thomas Jefferson, Vicomte de Calonne

 

Stone sign affixed on the rue Jacob building
Stone sign affixed on the rue Jacob building (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In this building, formerly the York Hotel [Paris], on 3 September 1783, David Hartley, in the name of the king of England, and Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams, in the name of the United States of America, signed the definitive peace treaty recognizing the independence of the United States.

 —ooo—

Five years after Louis XVI hesitatingly signed the Treaty of Alliance (1778), which  ensured the future independence of a country to be named the United States of America, the Treaty of Versailles (sometimes called the Treaty of Paris) was signed at the Hôtel  d’York in Paris, a hotel that no longer exists, the above stone sign commemorates the victory of the young Republic. The Treaty of Versailles proclaimed the independence of the United States.

When the Treaty of Versailles was signed, in 1783, Thomas Jefferson had yet to assume his duties as United States Minister Plenipotentiary to France, an office now  known as that of Ambassador. Moreover, and ironically, France itself would not become a republic until 22 September 1792, and not under the best of circumstances.

The names engraved on the stone shown above are those of members of the American Delegation in Paris, architects of the United States of America:

  • Benjamin Franklin  (17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790), the “first American,” and perhaps the main artisan of an independent United States;
  • John Jay (12 December 1745 – 17 May 1829), of the American Delegation, the 2nd Governor of New York and an opponent of slavery;
  • John Adams (30 October 1735 – 4 July 1826), also of the American Delegation in Paris and the second President of the United States of America.

Representing Britain was David Hartley, King George III‘s plenipotentiary.

King George III of England, by Allan Ramsay

King George III of the United Kingdom, by Allan Ramsay (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Aftermath

It could be said that all parties gained from the Treaty of Versailles/Paris. The United States was an independent nation and Benjamin Franklin had made sure both France and England would be its trading partners. As for France, it had regained the prestige it lost when it ceded Canada to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1673, but Canada remained a British colony. However, in 1783, Benjamin Franklin did glance northwards. The mostly French-language British Province of Quebec shrank significantly. Please see the maps.[i]

Expansion

The United States would expand, but it would be to the west rather than the north. In 1803, under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the United States would purchase Louisiana from France. Again, ironically, the groundwork for the Louisiana Purchase, was one of Thomas Jefferson’s contributions to the United States as Minister to France. Jefferson had kept alive an alliance with France. The French did not look upon the sale of Louisiana as a severe loss. Louisiana had been disputed territory between France and Spain and the United States needed a port to the south. In short, France would have lost Louisiana. It may therefore have been in its best interest to sell it. Am I writing this?

Thomas Jefferson, by Rembrandt Peale

Thomas Jefferson, by Rembrandt Peale (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thomas Jefferson

In May 1785, Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 – 4 July 1826), the 3rd President of the United States and a good friend of the Marquis de La Fayette, was installed as the United States Minister, or United States ‘Ambassador’ to France. Like his predecessor, Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson was a polymath who had read abundantly, played the violin, spoke several languages, but suffered violent attacks of migraine. He was a man of the Enlightenment and truly impressed the French, but not in the same manner as his predecessor, Benjamin Franklin, who was milling financial and military support for the American Revolutionary War, and did so as a “regular” in various French Salons and the Café Procope, major institutions in France, and importing racoon hats, “du nouveau,” something new, for the ladies of the French court and Salons. These ladies only wore the “trendy” and would not be caught otherwise. The French did however name Benjamin Franklin to the French Academy as an honorary member. As for Jefferson, his legacy would be one of the mind, to the French and to the world. I will not speak of his dependence on slaves.

Thomas Jefferson arrived in Paris in 1785 and left on 26 September 1789 in order to serve as the United States’ first Secretary of State, under George Washington (22 February 1732  – 14 December 1799). In other words, Jefferson left France a mere two weeks before Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince de Talleyrand suggested, on 10 October 1789, that France resolve its financial crisis by confiscating the wealth of Church, which it did on 2 November 1789. During his stay in Paris, Jefferson was a witness to vain attempts on the part of Louis XVI to pay the huge debt accrued mainly because of wars it had fought, one of which was the American Revolutionary War. The American Revolutionary War was indeed a catalyst in the apocalyptic French Revolution. France had supported the future United States’ effort to break its ties with Britain. But who could have predicted a catastrophe that would ignore the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment to persecute the clergy and the nobility, by killing thousands of its innocent citizens?

The American Declaration of Independence

Franklin was in France to rally the French to the American cause of independence from England. Such would not be Jefferson’s task. Given that he had drafted the American Declaration of Independence, a text reflecting the liberalism of John Locke, Thomas Jefferson’s main contribution to the French Revolution would be the lofty idealism he had contributed to the American Declaration of Independence, which he had drafted almost single-handedly. Jefferson was in a position to play an active role in the actual drafting of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen), a pivotal text in the history of France, written mainly by Jefferson’s friend, La Fayette, with assistance on the part of Thomas Jefferson, and issued on 26 August 1789, a month to the day before Jefferson left France to take up his duties as first American Secretary of State.

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is derivative. It is rooted in John Locke’s principles and, to a substantial extent, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau‘s Social Contract (1762), as is the American Declaration of Independence. At the very heart of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is Jefferson’s “all men are created equal,” not in so many words, but in spirit. Equality was part of the motto of the French Revolution: liberté, égalité, fraternité, and it remains part of the motto of France. However it left room for a constitutional monarchy, the initial goal of the French Revolution. No one could have predicted such incivility as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Nor could anyone have foreseen that the French Revolution would spin out of control to the point of regicide: the execution of Louis XVI.

Le Pressoir

Le Pressoir (The Pressurizer) (Photo credit: Google Images)

George Washington: the “Proclamation of Neutrality”

On 22 April 1793, after the execution of king Louis XVI (21 January 1793), George Washington issued a Proclamation of Neutrality. The United States declared it would remain neutral in conflicts between France and Great Britain and in Wars abroad. Americans breaking this rule could be prosecuted. (See Proclamation of Neutrality, Wikipedia.) Yet, the American Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a catalyst in the apocalyptic French Revolution. France had been the main financial and military supporter in the Americans’ effort to break their ties with Britain. But, again, who could have imagined a catastrophe that would ignore the liberalism of the Enlightenment and persecute the clergy and the nobility.

Therefore, would that the Parliament of Paris had ratified Charles Alexandre, vicomte de Calonne‘s proposal of imposing taxes across the board. Would, moreover, that the Assembly of Notables, created by Louis XVI, in 1787, had seen fit to implement universal taxation. Levying taxes from the First and Second Estates, the Church of France and its nobility, was the only solution to France’s financial crisis. Its participation in the American War of Independence cost France 1.3 billion livres.

In 1787, the Parliament of Paris refused to register Charles Alexandre, vicomte de Calonne‘s[ii] proposal to tax all three estates, the only way to remedy France’s desperate financial crisis. Louis XVI therefore created an Assembly of Notables, 144 individuals handpicked by him, whose duty it would be to save France from bankruptcy. The Marquis de La Fayette was a member of king Louis XVI’s Notables, but Louis’ élite team also refused across-the-board taxation. It was proposed, instead, that the matter of tax reform be handled by the Estates-General which had not convened since 1614.

“While the an [sic] Assembly of Notables had no legislative power in its own right, Calonne hoped that if the Assembly of Notables could be made to support the proposed reforms then this would apply pressure on parlement to register them. The plan failed, as the 144 Notables who made up the Assembly included Princes of the Blood, archbishops, nobles and other people from privileged positions in society, and they did not wish to bear the burden of increased taxation. The Assembly insisting that the proposed tax reforms had to be presented to a representative body such as an Estates General.” (See Assembly of Notables, in Wikipedia)  
 

Conclusion

To end this post, one could state that “the rest is history.” But it need be retold that, on 10 October 1789, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand (and the Comte de Mirabeau) proposed that France confiscate the wealth of the Church and convert it into assignats: paper money, which was approved by the Assembly on 2 December 1789. Calonne’s proposal that all Estates be taxed turned into greater misery, the confiscation of the property of the Church of France. To harm the Church of France further, Talleyrand, a member of the clergy, l’évêque d’Autun (the bishop of Autun), also proposed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, a law passed on 12 July 1790. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy did not separate separate Church and State, a separation proposed by the Baron de Montesquieu, among others. Laïcité was part of the programme of the Enlightenment, but the Civil Constitution of the Clergy subjugated the Church of France to the State, which  was not laïcité.

By 12 July 1790, Thomas Jefferson was no longer the American Minister to France. His mission terminated on 26 September 1789, as indicated above.

To sum up, I need simply say that Thomas Jefferson was in Paris as he was in the United States: a superior mind. The video is about Thomas Jefferson.[iii]

Preliminary Treaty of Paris (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Preliminary Treaty of Paris (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

____________________

[i] The Treaty of Versailles (1783) and the Redrawing of the Canada-US Border (Site for Language Management in Canada [SMLC]).

[ii] Calonne was Louis XVI’s Controller-General of Finances. He was appointed to this office in 1783. Jacques Necker, however, remained in the background.

[iii] Here is the text (short) of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (just click). It completes the video.

Monticello, Jefferson's home designed by Jefferson

Monticello, Jefferson’s home designed by Jefferson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
17 May 2014
WordPress 

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