Mr. Reid to Mr. Blaine.

No. 477.]

Sir: Some time last spring or summer Count Octave d’Assailly mentioned to me that he had a little relic of Washington which had come to him by inheritance from his great-grandfather, Gen. Lafayette. He asked me if I thought the Government or people of the United States would attach any value to it, to which I replied that they certainly would.

Late this winter Count d’Assailly returned from his country residence to Paris, and again mentioned the subject. He modestly described the object as small and unimportant, but said that while it had for him a personal interest, since it was given to his grandfather by the illustrious American with whom the name of Lafayette was indissolubly associated, he thought that if it possessed any interest for us, its proper place was in America.

In reply, I again assured him that in the United States it would be highly valued, both as coming from the Lafayettes and as having been given to the head of their family by the Father of his Country.

Count d’Assailly then brought me the object he had been describing, which I now have the pleasure of forwarding herewith. It is, as you will see, a pair of eyeglasses, of the fashion of the time, mounted in silver, with an ivory handle by which they could be held to the eyes, and into which, when not in use, they could be folded for the pocket. On the flat side of this ivory handle has been inserted a small silver shield, on which is engraved the name Washington. The eyeglasses have been put by the Lafayettes into a small leather box, evidently made at a much later period, for convenient preservation among their family relics.

Count d’Assailly said that he took great pleasure in returning this object to America. He only asked that it should be known that it was sent back by a great-grandson of Lafayette, whose veneration for the character of Washington and regard for all belonging to him was such as to inspire the hope that this might be added to the other relics of that great man which have been sacredly guarded by the Government of the United States for nearly a century.

In answer to his questions I suggested that probably it would be thought best to place it with other objects personally used by Washington, [Page 165] which have been kept in the Patent Office, but proposed to ask your opinion. He then authorized me to transmit it at once, saying he would be perfectly content with any disposition of it you might direct.

Count d’Assailly, to whose spontaneous impulse we owe this interesting little gift, is the grandson of Gen. Lafayette’s third and last child, Marie Antoinette Virginie de Lafayette, Marquise de Lasteyrie du Saillant. Her third child became the Countess d’Assailly, whose son is the present Count d’Assailly. Like every other descendant of Lafayette I have known (including among them warm Republicans, warm Monarchists, and men indifferent to public affairs) he is an ardent friend of the United States and considers it almost a second fatherland.

I have, etc.,

Whitelaw Reid.