[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12748-S12749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    THE VISIT OF COMTE RENE DE CHAMBRUN TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
              CELEBRATING MICROFILMING OF LAFAYETTE PAPERS
 Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, as Chairman of the Joint 
Committee on the Library of Congress, I want to bring to the attention 
of this body an agreement between the Library of Congress and the Comte 
Rene de Chambrun of France to microfilm the Lafayette papers. In June, 
the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, agreed to begin 
microfilming the collection and make it available to scholars from all 
over the world by 1996. Rene de Chambrun, the great-great grandson of 
the Marquis de Lafayette, will be honored this evening, Lafayette's 
birthday, at a dinner sponsored by Congress and the Library.
  Many will remember Rene de Chambrun who, like his ancestor Lafayette, 
was held in high esteem by his American counterparts during World War 
II. Through a web of connections in the United States, Chambrun was 
able to convince President Roosevelt and others to send much needed 
military equipment to Britain in mid 1940. The assistance, instigated 
by Chambrun, was no small factor in the Battle of Britain--the first 
battle 

[[Page S 12749]]
fought for control of the air and a battle which Hitler eventually 
retreated from.
  In 1956, the Count de Chambrun, exploring La Grange, the 15th century 
chateau he had recently acquired near Paris, discovered a large 
collection of personal papers of Lafayette. Since its discovery, this 
collection, which has been carefully preserved and organized, has 
remained virtually inaccessible to historians and archivists and today 
remains one of the great scholarly mysteries of the 20th century.
  LaFayette played a central role in both the American Revolution and 
the French Revolution. Agreeing to serve without pay in the American 
army, Lafayette was present at Valley Forge in the harsh winter of 
1777-1778. In France, he worked to make his country a constitutional 
monarchy and held in his heart a strong desire that France would one 
day become a pure republic. Throughout his life he championed, 
sometimes at great personal cost, the ideas of liberty, equality, human 
rights and national self-determination that today are still cause for 
inspiration.
  Approximately one-quarter of the 18,000 items in the Lafayette 
collection contain information about the American Revolution and the 
establishment of the new national government. The collection contains 
extensive correspondence with leading American political and military 
leaders. The ``hero to two worlds,'' as Lafayette was called, knew many 
of America's Founding Fathers well, particularly Presidents Washington, 
Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe. A preliminary examination of the papers 
indicates that some of this correspondence may be the only existing 
records of lost original letters. There is substantial documentation on 
the American Revolution, including a secret code used by Lafayette and 
Washington and Lafayette's handwritten accounts of his 1781 campaign in 
Virginia and of the siege of Yorktown. There are important documents 
concerning the participation of the French Navy in the war. Also of 
interest are notes from visits to Monticello after the war where 
Lafayette and Jefferson discussed the subject of slavery.
  In addition, the collection contains original material regarding 
Lafayette's role in the French Revolution and his imprisonment and 
exile from 1792-1799. It records his interactions with every major 
French leader from Louis XVI to Napoleon and his activities during the 
Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period. It also contains significant 
correspondence with leaders of national liberation movements in Poland 
and South America, including Simon Bolivar. Furthermore, the Lafayette 
papers reveal his private life--the father, husband and farmer.
  Through the process of microfilming, important pieces of the 
Library's collection are protected from extensive and damaging 
handling. Microfilmed presidential papers are used quite often--I have 
found occasion to explore the papers of President Herbert Hoover 
several times myself. I commend the Library of Congress for its 
diligent efforts to see that the Lafayette papers are made available to 
the public where they will join the papers of other prominent founding 
fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, 
and James Madison.
  As a body, the voluminous Lafayette papers promise to shed new light 
on American history and our view of Lafayette--one of those rare 
figures who decisively influenced the affairs of two great nations, the 
United States and France. It is appropriate that we honor Count de 
Chambrun today, and through him the Marquis de Lafayette.


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