George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

Journal.

September 2.—. . . .It was late before we were established in comfortable quarters,. . . . but I was desirous to see old General Laharpe, the governor and tutor of the late Emperor Alexander, and the person to whom that monarch owed, probably, most of the good qualities, and more particularly most of the liberal opinions, for which he was at one period of his life somewhat remarkable; and I therefore sent him my letter of introduction, and received an invitation to visit him. I found him eighty-four years old, with beautifully white hair, and the marks of a fresh and well-preserved, though truly venerable old age. His wife, who is a Russian, seemed younger, and his niece, the daughter of a brother, lives with them. His establishment is such as suits his age and character; not showy, but every way as large, comfortable, and elegant as he can desire. He received me in a suite of rooms forming his library; tea was served, and I talked with him about an hour. He is, and always has been, a consistent republican, and for the last nineteen years—or since 1817— has lived quite retired in his native canton; for which, in the midst of the great changes of 1814-15, he did so much by means of his personal influence with the Russian Emperor, and in whose political affairs and moral improvement he has ever since taken the liveliest interest. His talk was of past times. He remembered the course of our Revolution in America with great distinctness, and told me that he personally knew it to be a fact, that Burr made offers to the French government to divide the United States, and bring the Valley of the Mississippi under French control. Talleyrand told me, in 1818, that the offer was made to himself; and Laharpe was in Paris, and used to see Burr occasionally at the time he was there, but says he was never looked upon with favor or respect. He told me, too,