Note 60 — Chapter XXIII

De Noailles was a young French nobleman, who married a sister of Madame Lafayette, and served with distinction at the siege of Yorktown, in 1781. Like his brother-in-law, the marquis, he had engaged warmly in the French Revolution, in its earlier stages, but, like him, found himself in a proscribed party, and obliged to fly for safety. He came to the United States by way of England, and early in May he was in Philadelphia with his friend Talon, seeking an audience with Washington. The latter, with his usual circumspection, declined any direct communication with him until the object of his visit should be known. In a note to Hamilton, Washington remarked, “I pray you intimate to him [Viscount de Noailles], gently and delicately, that if the letters or papers which he has to present are, knowingly to him, of a nature which relates to public matters, and not particularly addressed to me, or if he has any verbal communications to make of a similar kind, I had rather they should come through a proper channel. Add thereto, generally, that the peculiar situation of European affairs at this moment, my good wishes for his nation aggregately, my regard for those of it, in particular, with whom I have had the honor of an acquaintance, my anxious desire to keep this country in peace, and the delicacy of my situation, render a circumspect conduct indispensably necessary on my part. I do not, however, mean by this that I am to withhold from him such civilities as are common to others. Those more marked, notwithstanding our former acquaintance, would excite speculations, which had better be avoided.”