The Lafayette Circle

I have a tradition of producing a blog post on the"back story" of most books I write. With the release of The LafayetteCircle, it is time to do it again.

A Friend in Need

About a year ago, a Xavier High School classmate, Peter Reilly,reached out to me with a suggestion that I get involved in helping celebratethe upcoming 200th Anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette'scelebrated tour of America in 1824. Truth be told, I had never read or heard ofthe event, so I was caught off guard. Peter, a CPA who is a contributor toForbes.com and Think Outside The Tax Box, is also chair of the Massachusettscommittee for the Bicentennial of Lafayette's Farewell Tour 2024-2025. Iwondered how to respond.

Lafayette by Bryon Line

Maybe I could repost items about the upcoming celebrationon my social media platforms. Or write a book about life in America in 1824?I knew quite a bit about Marie-Jospeh-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, the Marquisde Lafayette, from my study of the American and French Revolutions but littleof events after the fall of Napoleon in 1815. Most of what I remembered fromthat era came from Peter Neary's American History class when I attended XavierHigh School in New York City—Jacksonian Democracy and all that.

Background

When in doubt, do some research. I started by re-reading twolegacy books on Lafayette from my library and engrossing myself in a recentlyreleased biography. I also took the opportunity to join The Friends ofLafayette, and when I did, I got behind their paywall and found a trove ofinformation on Lafayette's trip and the dynamics behind it. A review quicklydrew me to the conclusion that this was more than a feel-good junket—althoughit certainly was that, too.

A World in Upheaval

Although the Congress of Vienna that convened with NapoleonBonaparte's abdication in 1814 set up a framework for a much-needed fifty yearsof peace among the European powers, the world itself was shaking from the movementof the tectonic plates of liberty. The Spanish colonies in America looked toNorth America and, to some extent, to revolutionary France as examples.Liberation movements, some long-simmering, began to erupt into rebellion andwars of liberation.

Congress of Vienna

Names like Simon Bolivar and Bernardo O'Higgins would becomeexamples equal to George Washington throughout most of the continent to oursouth. In Spain itself, the newly formed Asturian battalion, one of tenorganized to sail to America to suppress the wars of liberation, revolted, ledby its commander, Rafael del Riego y Flórez.

Rafael del Riego y Flórez

Other regiments joined. The soldiers demanded a return tothe 1812 constitution. In March 1820, they surrounded the royal palace, and theking capitulated. A junta ruled Spain for several years until the autocrats ofEurope pushed Royalist France to invade and put the king back in his rightfulplace of rule as an absolute monarch. Now, General de Riego was put on trialand hanged for treason.

Entry into Geopolitics

The long-isolationist United States grew concerned with thepossibility of some European powers stepping into the void of Spanish authorityin the New World. Britain felt the same, especially fearing Russia's incursionsfrom the North and the threats to its holdings in South America and the WestIndies. A suggestion made for a joint declaration of status quo ante in the NewWorld resonated somewhat with President Monroe but not the Secretary of State,John Quincy Adams. After all, two wars were fought against Britain, one quiterecently. America would render its own statement. Adams was the prime drafterof what became, many years later, called The Monroe Doctrine.

James Monroe

A  BirthdayCelebration—and More

Monroe's administration was coming to a close as the nationapproached its 50th Anniversary. He would lawfully be out of officeby April 1825, yet he wanted to do something celebratory prior to hisdeparture. Inviting the last surviving Continental Army general to return tohis adopted land seemed a great way to begin the party on his watch, underscorethe arrival of the young republic on the world stage, and rebuild patrioticfervor. Lafayette was beloved in America and was a world-renowned figure forhis lead role in two revolutionary movements.

Lafayette in Winter

The Plot Thickens

As I learned all this, I realized the tour was more thanjust a feel-good event but a tool to use in both internal and externalpolitics. This was pretty slick. Others thought so, too. Among theothers were the members of the Holy Alliance, a reactionary (and not so holy) pact among the  Empire of Austria, the Kingdom of Prussia,and the Empire of Russia aimed at curbing the spread of democracy andbuttressing autocracy.

Holy Alliance?

Of course, I built on this by creating the fictionalsubcommittee of the Holy Alliance that I named the Aulic Council. Thehistorical Aulic Council was an executive-judicial council for the Holy Roman Empirethat started during the Late Middle Ages and ended when Napoleon dissolved theHoly Roman Empire in 1806. I spin it into a Spectre-like organization run byvillainous barons who harken to Austen Powers's Mr. Evil.

Mister Evil

Protecting the Man

How does a country with no Secret Service or FBI and a smallmilitary scattered in coastal forts and western outposts protect a dignitaryduring a highly publicized series of events? That's the central theme of thetale. An eclectic mix of characters in and out of government come together withjust minimal help from the Federal and state governments. Catholic monks, diplomats, US naval officers, US Marines, the New York militia, and others all play a role in protecting the general.

 They call themselves The Lafayette Circle. 

New York Militia Guarding Lafayette

Boris and Natascha x Three

Three assassin teams, each consisting of one male and onefemale, are dispatched to seek out Lafayette and kill him. This is anothereclectic cast of characters made intentionally evil but like famed "nogoodnik"Boris Badanoff and his sultry sidekick Natasha in the Rocky and BullwinkleShow, not totally unlikeable. Their struggle to "acquire" their target as theyroam early 19th-century America adds to the suspense.

Boris and Natasha

Who's Your President?

The fact that one of the most controversial presidentialcontests in America's history takes place in the middle of all this provided asubplot I could not resist. The events are proof that the more things change,the more they stay the same with backroom deals, fights for votes, and a"rigged election" that was also, curiously, legitimate. The events thatdeprived Andrew Jackson of the White House in the 1824 election are moreobscure to most Americans than Julius Caesar's assassination, which at leastwas celebrated in a play by the Bard himself. 

1824 Election was Controversial

Yet the election took placeduring Lafayette's visit, and he was known by all the principals involved whenthe election was thrown to the House of Representatives for just the secondtime in America's history. Deals were struck, and John Quincy Adams went to the White House. The man with the most electoral votes went home to his estate, The Hermitage, outside Nashville. Lafayette would goout of his way to meet the war hero Jackson while he was home licking hiswounds.

The Hermitage

Companions

Lafayette's journey was captured by his personal secretaryAuguste Levasseur, who penned a personal account of the incredible journey, Lafayetteen Amérique, en 1824 et 1825 ou Journal d'un voyage aux États-Unis. Hisson, Georges Washington Lafayette, also accompanied the general. Both areinvolved in fictionalized scenes meant to move the plot along while exposing usto different sides of the great man. Likewise, Fanny Wright, a socialist activist (and Lafayette's purported mistress) from Scotland and some thirty years younger than Lafayette, accompanies him on part of the trip.

Frances "Fanny" Wright

Glimpses

The novel has several flashback sections—scenes meant to putLafayette back in his youth fighting the American Revolution, leading theFrench Revolution, and dealing with the consequences of both. These areintended to give a bit of historical perspective to those uninformed about hisrole in those earlier significant events that shaped the Western world.

Flashback: Lafayette's wounding at Brandywine 1777

The Ordeal

I also attempted to provide a look at America and the worldin 1824. Travel was by wind, steam, and horse. It was slow and steady andalways an ordeal culminating in hundreds of stops across a vast continent. Meetingswith folks from all walks of life. Reminiscing with old comrades. Shakingthousands and thousands of hands around the clock. Lafayette's prodigiousschedule of events and speeches were like MAGA tours of the day and bound totake a toll on a man approaching seventy. Yet he did it with aplomb andgraciousness. One has to ask why, and the answer is simple. Indeed, he lovedAmerica and what it stood for. But even more than that, he loved its people.

The Lafayette Circle is available now!