CHAPTER XII

JOHN LAURENS

The Bayard of the Revolution.-England's Sir Philip Sidney and France's Chevalier Bayard are not nobler figures in history than America's John Laurens, yet Sidney and Bayard are names known to the intelligent of the whole world, while the name of Laurens is not known to one-twentieth of the people of his own State.

There is nothing more remarkable or deplorable than the systematic neglect of this superb character. The facts in his life are easily ascertained, and in several well known books, of an earlier day, they were set forth with sufficient fulness, and yet school history after school history of the United States has ignored him

entirely and no school history of South Carolina has given him even-handed justice. He is dismissed in one of the best known State histories for schools with a notice of four lines. He is mentioned in Bancroft's sixvolume history of the United States only to be disparaged, yet it is an undeniable fact that he was one of the most brilliant and accomplished men of his age or of any age. He was taken on the staff of Washington with Hamilton, and soon won Washington's deepest affection. On the field of battle he was always foremost, displaying what Hamilton declared was "unapproachable courage." In all the social relations of life he was modest and retiring. Though intensely zealous in every good cause in which he enlisted, and especially as a military officer, yet when Congress sought to promote him for gallant conduct on the field, he declined promotion in a letter which has been summarized as follows:

"Colonel Laurens expressed his gratitude for the unexpected honor which Congress were pleased to confer on him by the resolutions passed the day before, and the high satisfaction it would have afforded him could he have accepted it without injuring the rights of the officers in the line of the army, and there is an evident injustice to his colleagues in the family of the Commanderin-Chief; that, having been a spectator of the convulsions occasioned in the army by disputes of rank, he held the tranquillity of it too dear to be instrumental in disturbing it, and, therefore, entreated Congress to suppress the resolve of yesterday, ordering him a commis

sion of Lieutenant-Colonel, and to accept his sincere thanks for the intended honor."

Promoted by Congress.-Nevertheless, his promotion was sustained. On other occasions he exhibited the same unwillingness to be advanced at the cost of the great cause in which he was enlisted; yet General Greene declared that he was inordinately ambitious.

It was said of him that he was a born courtier. He had polished manners and a figure that would have graced the courts of kings. He spoke several European languages with fluency, and his literary attainments were such that he was called the "all-accomplished Laurens." He was so handsome that his presence possessed a dominating power, made stronger by his conscientious

ness and his fearless self-reliance. Besides his physical attractions, he had a heart of sterling honesty and worth and a singleness of purpose in all his high undertakings.

Capture and Exchange of John Laurens.-Laurens was among the prisoners taken by the British at the surrender of Charleston, and was exchanged at Haddril's Point.

Special Envoy to France. When it was decided that a special envoy should be sent to France, at the most critical time in the Revolutionary War, to solicit a loan of money, and to place the navy and army of France in more active service in aid of the United States, Washington favored Laurens for the important mission. The occasion was one of such exigency that Washington declared to his Council of War and in a letter to Congress, that unless aid came quickly, the end of the American struggle was in full view, saying, "We are at the end of our tether, unless France sends aid at once." The fidelity of many of America's truest sons was wavering, and many that had been among the firmest were now inclined to seek British protection, or had actually obtained it. It was in this darkest hour that Washington, looked to by Congress for the selection of the person best fitted for this most difficult and delicate work of diplomacy, passed over Alexander Hamilton, whose selection was pressed upon him, and favored Laurens as the man for the task. Never was a judgment more fully justified by the event. Within six months from the time that he was sent, he

was back in America with his mission successfully discharged, both as to money and men to aid the American cause. There never was, as has been said by the historian Barnes, “as important a mission sent by America to Europe before or since, and yet the hero of this incident is almost unknown to the casual reader"; and almost equally so now to students in schools and colleges of American history. This is the man who was said by John Adams to have done more for the United States in the short time of his being in Europe as their special envoy, than all the rest of their diplomatic corps put together; and of whom the historian Elkanah Watson wrote:

"Although a youth of only twenty-six years, he achieved, by his consummate tact and extraordinary abilities, what the powerful influence of Franklin failed to effect."

At a social function, in disregard of French court etiquette, Laurens offered Louis XVI a paper containing a statement of conditions in America and requesting an audience for a fuller account. The King seemed disposed to refuse the paper, and Marie Antoinette moved forward and received it. The next day the desired audience was granted, and the money and men needed were at once furnished.

Services at Yorktown.-It was Laurens who arranged for co-operative action by the French and Americans in the battle at Yorktown. It was he who led the charge on the most formidable of the British redoubts and