#du ponceau x von steuben | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

floatyteabag · 3 years

Note

amrev :)

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character:

Richard Kidder Meade

Least Favorite character:

Charles Cornwallis

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

Milde (it’s so chaotic i just want a reality tv show)

Lams

George and Martha (dk if there’s a ship name but oh. my. goodness. it’s so cute)

Von Steuben x Whoever (Du Ponceau was a tad dodgy because he was 19 but.... it’s Von Steuben)

Washington being a PLATONIC father figure to anyone

Character I find most attractive:

... none of them because portraits petrify me so i refuse to look at them

this one especially (i will literally hide from it)

john ily mate but sue the painter

Character I would be best friends with:

MEADE AND TILGHMAN

A random thought:

how fast did meade ride his horse? did he ride it consistently fast throughout the journey? did he trot his way from pennsylvania to new jersey or wherever he headed? did he do half and half? like he was fast which is why they used him. but how fast?

An unpopular opinion:

Hamilton was a shitty person, but the drama he created makes me love him

My Canon OTP:

Lams.

My Non-canon OTP:

Milde.

Most Badass Character:

John Motherfucking Laurens

Most Epic Villain:

I know it’s not plural but I love Clinton, Howe and Burgoyne

Pairing I am not a fan of:

sorry anyone who ships this but Washington with literally anyone who isn’t Martha

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

The writers in fate FUCKED OVER LAURENS AND TILGHMAN SO BAD (also mchenry and meade but they lived to see 1800+)

but certain writers *cough cough* Lin Manuel Miranda screwed over Laurens and Lafayette

Favourite Friendship:

You’ll never guess!!

It’s Meade and Tilghman!

Character I most identify with:

Meade, Tilghman, Hamilton and Laurens

Character I wish I could be:

Meade just so I could know what he looked like (man seriously couldn’t sit still for a few hours for a portrait or even a sketch??!)

thank youuu!! 💜💜

#amrev #john laurens #alexander hamilton #richard kidder meade #tench tilghman

18 notes · View notes

sonofhistory · 6 years

Text

James Monroe and Pierre Stephen Du Ponceau

“ . . . I soon formed a friendship with Laurens, and Hamilton, as well as with Major Monroe, then Aid de Camp to Lord Stirling, and since President of the United States . . . With Monroe I corresponded almost daily, although our quarters were little distant from each other.

The friendship between James Monroe and Pierre DuPonceau began in February of 1778 while Monroe had been serving as aide-de-camp to General Stirling. The first account of a letter between them is from May 7th, 1777 concerning books [x]. Numbering numerous friends during his time at Valley Forge, of the foreign officers he became close with the Marquis de Lafayette and DuPonceau. Closest, was DuPonceau whom Monroe built a lifelong relationship with. Two years his junior, DuPonceau was contrasting to Lafayette. His nearsightedness and weak lungs ill qualified him for military service but he showed himself through his many abilities. He was fluent in English and had been brought over to America as the secretary of Baron Von Steuben, on whose staff he was serving.

Their friendship brought not only combradiery but gave Monroe the chance to work on his French (which he'd stopped studying since dropping out of college) and gave him insight in the philosophes. An enthusiastic supporter of the revolution, the Frenchman viewed it in terms of the liberal theories of the Enlightenment rather than simply a quarrel between mother England and her child colonies. For DuPonceau, the American conflict was a large step in a great movement that would liberate other peoples into inspiration to combat tyranny. The two young men shared many of the common tastes in reading. When camp duties were not pressing, they would visit each other every single day and write to one another on the days that they did not. Comically, as DuPonceau stated this in his autobiography, they wrote letters to one another despite having “quarters [that] were little distant from each other . . . “

They discussed and lent books on one another. April of 1778, while at Valley Forge, Monroe borrowed the plays of Nicholas Rowe. DuPonceau also lent Monroe James Watson’s sermons which presented Christianity with deistic principles. The two also shared an appreciation for another writer’s deist views, Mark Akenside. These religious studies would lead Monroe on a path that caused him not to shape his opinions, judgment, focus or advice upon the nature of religion but rather (taking from his ideals on family and friendship) wished others to find comfort in themselves or the people they loved rather than religion.

In a long poem, “Pleasures of the Imagination”, Akenside expression deistic concepts and defended superior virtues of ancient Stoic philosophy. It was a point of view of great appeal for young Monroe. Monroe was hypersensitive to criticism in a downfall with his shy ambition and was overly concerned that failure to achieve his goals may be his lack of ability. Stoicism offered him refuge from self-doubts and built a habit of reserve in Monroe that became more marked as he grew older.

From his reading and correspondence with DuPonceau, it is evident that Monroe no longer thought of the American Revolution in the petty, narrow terms of a family conflict between the King and his subjects. He now viewed the war as the first step to a global struggle to free mankind from effects of baneful despotism. This sense of commitment to a movement for political freedom had a profound effect upon Monroe. Thus Monroe, for the rest of his life, worked to convert the ideals of the Revolution into a basic reality of American life. In a letter of April 11th, 1778 Monroe wrote to DuPonceau of his fondness for Akenside and was pleased that he enjoyed him as well. He also hoped that DuPonceau recovered from his illness and urged him to avoid “despondency” (a state of low spirits caused by loss of hope or courage). To help him in his boredom, he sent him books by Rowe and Foster with religious sentiments.

Pleasant hours spent with DuPonceau and his books gave Monroe a brief repost from the duties of an aide-de-camp. At a party given by Baron Von Steuben coined a “No-Pants Flaming Shot Party” now it is mentioned not only the attendance of Monroe but of DuPonceau. The Frenchman wrote of his sixty years later and recalled vividly the moments:

“Once with the Baron’s permission, his aides invited a number of young officers ,to dine at our quarters; on condition that none should be admitted, that had on a whole pair of breeches. This was of course, understood as pars pro toto; but torn clothes were in indispensable requisite for admission; and in this the guests were sure not to fail . . . the guests clubbed their rations, and we feasted sumptuously on tough beef-steaks and potatoes, with hickory its for our dessert. In lieu of wine, we had some kind of spirits, with which was made salamanders; that is to say, after filling our glasses, we set the liquor on fire, and drank it up, flame and all. Such a set of ragged, and at the same time merry fellows, were never brought together. The Baron loved to speak of that dinner, and of his Sans-Coulottes, as he called us.”

After a banquet held to celebrate the treaty between France and the United States, Monroe staggered back to his hut and scribbled a letter to his French friend to answer DuPonceau’s request for some books:

“Affection, gratitude and every motive which can weigh on the feeling mind induce me to write you a long letter; extreme fatigue, the stubborn labor of yesterday, the real inability interposed powerful obstacles. They are insuperable. I rely on your candor, let my unfeigned congratulations on the joyful cause which produced yesterday’s event plead my pardon. I cannot answer each part of your letter, such a practical or rather prosaic flight. ‘for each seems either;” the language is prose but the thoughts are poetry. I have only to commit you to the guidance of your favorite she-saint; hand in hand walk thro the celestial bowers of happy Paradise; fondest pair! most desirable state!

but pure eloquence is more sublime than the parade and rhapsody of language; then in plain language so towering are your thoughts, so great your expectations that I fear sending you any of our books. A plain and simple collection only well adapted to a retir’d clergyman; come in when at leasure and you shall chuse for yourself; they are all at your service.“

Despite the short interlude of their time spent together, the effects their relationship produced upon Monroe were profound as not only have the great company of a close friend but the intellectual challenges to keep him preoccupied. In a letter to President James Monroe decades later under date of June 5th, 1822, DuPonceau spoke of "the quiet & retired life which choice & inclination have long made me prefer to the bustle of this intriguing world." [x] He sums up his feelings in referring to a long letter which Monroe wrote him on the basis of their youthful friendship as comrades in arms: "Had I been ambitious of places here was a fine opportunity afforded me to obtain that end, but I preferred my Independence. . . ." [x] Of this long letter, DuPonceau mentioned in his autobiography, “After his elevation to the Presidency, he [Monroe] wrote me a long letter, expressive of his remembrance of our former friendship.” [x] When Robert Vaux desired autographs of such men as Monroe and Jefferson, he wrote to Du Ponceau [x].

#du ponceau #pressles musing #us history #history #american history #james monroe #American revolution

151 notes · View notes