Loe Aristocratic Encounters European Travelers and North American Indians Harry Liebersohn CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS1 4 > Indians in the French Enlightenment [A.178ts guide ro comumes from around the world included achapter on the ‘manners and customs of Canadian “savages.”" The compiler, Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, made the Iroquois polity a political reproach to his cour- ‘rymen, “The form of their government,” he wrote, “has a simplicity and at the same time a wisdom that our profound legislators have not yet been able toachieveintheir sophisticated codes.” Each trie chese a military leader for his valor, a civilian leader for his eloquence. One representative from each family served the two chiefs, who were in turn but the general expression of the assembled nation. The paterfamilias kept unchallenged control over his household. “Is it necessary then te go tothe Iroquois,” Grasset asked in con- clusion, “to find a model of legsletion?”? 1. Montigne ud aeady questioned the pra connotations ofthe term avagein hissy Se causal bat his ecunaynen conaued thee n-a-constious usally contempt Saeed Germans used an equally comtemptucts ter, il, to describe indigenes peoples SF North Amerie andor fur ofthe world, Unes the contat ocervise mabe tle ied eter quoction mre orth French or German woe in order to sign its histor TE'aaso Sec Mc! de Mensgne, san, of Aleradee Mca (Par 1969), 1: 254 ‘Momsign, Ess ts aned } M, Cohem London and New York, 1958), 108-109. is pally slevant to tne concerns of tis book that Montaigne wed to make the Tupinanba {euines Zdmurable to his conemporais ss the uphollers f+ chvate ethos. Cl, David Guise “A Recomideation f Montagne’ Des canbe,” ie Karen O. Kupperman, aly Brneice bn European Consconsnes, 193-1730 (Chapel Hill N&Cx and London, 19%), {Gocbts anc the dscssion ef he chic code in the plendic editors rodtion to ene ot hantaign’s probate souren Jean de Léxy, try of Vayageto the Land of raz, Oc roe Called Aerie ad nto. ane Whately (Berkeley and Los Angels, 190}, 7p. 2 frequen Graset de Sint Soover with Sylsir Maré, Costes ici act de tom es ‘ont mas dessins dapat grees coord, accompagnés de noi birt “ee cue, nears regions, sare, as, commerce, monnois Sc 174 Pas, ‘508, Mla counts te oxvags du Catads” 6 Cree hse was bors a Cale See, Habu, "Grae de Saint Suuveur” in Dictionnaire de bographe fangase Pais, 1953), 7 cbs 1076-1077 34 From Neodassiciom to Romanticism Perhaps our first impulse today is o smile at Grasset’s question. His praise of the Iroquois belonged to a broader stream of eighteenth-century novels, Stories, poetry, phys, aad art that praised non-Europeans in order to point ‘out the shortcomings of European society and government.’ Despite his question he did not seem to be traveling at all, just dealizing European cual- ities and wrapping ther: up in native costume In hisillustretions :he Iroquois man fits heroic or even godlike conventions of European srt, and the ‘woman’s dress and raised hand suggest the delicacy of a middle-class matron. ‘These “Indians” !ook at first sight like Frenchmen in drag’ (Figs. 1 and 2). Enlightenment fables, like myths from other times and places, may have a surface implausibility that disguises deeper layers of meaning. And soit is ‘with Grassers remarks. His book does not just impose Europeanconvensions dn alien peoples. Rather, it gives indirect expression o the challenge posed by patve forms of authority. French visitors came from an absolure monarchy attempting to impose its authority oa society; they encowatered peoples like the Iroquois whe conducted war and peacemaking on the basis of consensus, permitted divorce, and raised their children without beating them. We need fo consider more closely the historical shaping of hierarchy in Europe in border to understand how Grasset’s contemporaries, even ifthey did nothave to go to the Iroquois, found it worthwhile to talk about them. Liberal societies of theninetceath and twentieth centuries, beneficiaries of the age of revolutior, are founded on the idea of legal equality. Vast differences in 5. See Giller Chine, Amérique etl do exotique dans a iteratare frase a1 at SE hub (Dare 1913, Geolfoy Atkinson, The Exraordiary Voyege i Pench Lieatare Blac rbot Yorks 1920, cpsly te Gscnton of Fengions Aventis de Télonague ideo ads Atamnons The Exhnordiny Voyage French Literate fom 17001 1720 (eee sy Beam Basel, The Ameren Induct Eni Lteratare the igatenth eaten (Nee Hoven, Conn 1955p Hose Neale Faicht, The Noble Sanage: A Sad in Rootes Nata {New York 1928); Lois Whincy, Prntvismand the [dee of Pores sth Pople Leraere of te Eihienth Contry (Baltimoe, 194); Hen Sau ae, eemtSonseThougha on Enpenn Image of Non-Ewrpeam Man rans Elza” SeitAteathle ew Faven and London 1965 lye White, “The Note Saage Theme esa sel Chappell cas ede, For Ieges of Americ: The linac of te New Held be Ob. 2 volo eskey ad Las Angel, 1976) 121-135; Robert Berber J Foie, Manon Images f the America Indian frm Golub tobe Present (New Jean v9) 98 oe avean Hodoroy OnFYuman Dives: Nationals, Recon ard Esti- wens rch Trough aes, Cherine Porter (Cambridge, Mas 1998), 370-277 {FR Medel foc th le Hur isthe Apllo Betvedere 2 Roman sulci: probaly going ram Cicck original which was ound at he beginning ofthe sateenth semury and ele Uke scesher stan ccmplar of malebeswty. Se Luce Leoncin, “Apolo Belvedere” ia Tis aonary of er (ncn 196). 2: le227- Tere va perre ofthe culpare i Ey aie rtd ar {Londons 7): p83. | bank eaag Lars Mana Lava eerste ar iory senate Insts for Advanced Study for posing out the Fesemlance. Indians in the French Enlightenment 15 1. Sausage du Cansda, From Jacques Grasset de Sait-Sauveur with Sylvain Maréchals*Mocure ercourumes der auvages hs Canada,” in Costumes evils actuels de tou les peuples connas, dessinés Dapres nature, gravés et colorés, acompagnés ‘Prme notice Historique de lens contuenes, moents, religions science, arts, commerce, Imonneies cbc, (178; Pars 1788)- Courtesy of Art and Architecture Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Phctographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.16 From Neoslassicsm to Romaniicism 2. Femme sauvage du Canada, Prom Grasset, “Mocurs et coutumes des sauvages du Canada in Contemes civil». Coureey of Art and Architectire Clleetion, Miriare fad [ra D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, nd Tilden Foundations Indians in the French Enlightenment 7 ‘wealth may separate rich and poor, butall are supposed to enjoy one set of laws and rights. Pre-Revolutionary European societies worked on the oppo- site principle of legal inequality. Each individual belonged to a corporate body (or several overlapping bedies), and membership determined one’s place in society: as part of a houschold, follower of a religious confession, noble, bourgeois, peasant, practitioner of a trade, inhabitant of a region, oF citizen of a town. To each of these groups artached privileges, particular advancages jealously guarded from outsiders. twas not just the elite that had status and privileges; lesser groups toc enjoyed freedoms specific to their rank. The peasants who took part in a village council, the artsans entitled to practice their craft, the bourgeois licensed to trade, the judges who owned their court seats ~ groups lke these vied for advantage in a werld where some ‘walked with the pride of commard, others with the humility of obedience* “The divisions between aobility and nonnobility ran deep but were perme- able. Whoever was lucky enough to havea title enjoyed substantial material privileges, ke freedom from taxation, as well as honorific privileges like Jhunting rights that dramatized sccial superiority. While the legal distinction ‘was substantial and visible, che nobility was never a caste closed of from the rest of society. Despite an ideology propagated by extreme defenders of texclusiveness that the true nobility wasa separate race descended from Ger~ ‘manic conquerors, oly a minority ofall noble families by the eighteenth cen- tury were descended from the medieval warrior estate. In sorial practice, the ‘upper reaches of ncnnoble society — in particular wealthy firanciers and dis- tinguished members of learned professions - could gain noble status for themselves and their descendants. Revising the Marxian image of a radical conflict of economic interest between the two groups, historians have in recent decades emphasized their interpenetration, and indeed the consolida- tion of noble and nonnotle elites in th: decades leading up to 1789.* 5. Fora dscsion of pivilegein cghtaoth-ertaryFratce, se Gail Bostnga, The Plt of Drilege Old Regi and volun LileCambridge and New York 1991) 48, Selo the valuable comparcveinurpretten of CB. A. Baens, Sone Goverment, andthe Enightenment. Phe Experioncs of fighteenb-Centary France and Pras (New York, {Dian ie dscuson of Germany Werner Conse Sand Klasse," pat i2 Oto Bran ter Wernes Conse nd Renbart Reslec eds, Gecbicelcbe Grandbegife Surear, 1550), € 200.217. Fors European-wide survo, ae Jerome Blum, The End of he Old Onder In karad Beep rnin 1979 CL Nan We oma and Satya Oni of InuarpretorSctology. ed. Gusther Roth ant Claus Witch was, Ephraim Fischol a {Berkeley aad Lon Ageen 978, 95293), 1097, 115, Weber antipated the current prec Caption wih cals history by emphasing thet honor ws the pete ehuracteris of SER wn ous thos wa keds pcs OD 6 Fortis sual lity ef abi the old regime ee Goy Chausinand:Nogars, The Toland de Eight Comme: Prom Penlsn to Enlightenment, one. Willa ‘ori (Canbidge and New Yor, 185) ae WilamDoyle Onis ofthe Proch Reve tion (Oxford, 198), 116-12.18 From Neoclassicism to Romanticism “Nobility was more than just a form of social advantage, however. It signi- fied a culture as much as a social rank. It was not justa way of ordering soci- 0y, efficient or inefficient, but also a way of life manifest inthe maa with the right to duel, the wife who led a salon, the child reared to public prominence. It looked back to ancien: traditions of military service, which eighteenth- century nobles chung to as their proper calling; it included the social grace and conversational skills perfected at court;it demanded honorable and dignified behavior of the judges and administrators whose offices conferred noble rank; it announced itself inthe dress and comportment of social ladersh. Moreover, cobility was never just a synonym for ancient linsage; those born into noble families had to prove their noble qualities through personal actsof merit. The most recent round of scholarship suggests a deep ambivalence of nonnoble public opinion toward sociery’s designated superiors. In the twi- light years of the ld regime, radical pamphleteers eroded its legitimacy by accusing it of corruption and sexual profligacy, while members of the middle ‘lass developed their own distinctive iceology of domesticity and stiity. Yet the qualities of an idealized nobility entranced the imagination of sonnobles 100. Ambitious nonnobles who felt themselves to be within reach of it mide strenuous efforts to lift themselves into its ranks” Court and counselors in Paris took it for granted that they would transplant their privileged order wken they colonized across the sea. By the late seven- teenth century, France had successfully established a colonial society in present-day Canaca with a rich fur trade, setlers firmly established on New ‘World soil, a weakhy and aristocratic merchant elite, and a cultivated and energetic church ~a distinctively French society, though with opportunices ‘greater thaa those in the metropolis for social mobility. Tkis was a colonial ‘modification of the kind of seigneurial system that existed in France.* From 7. Onthenollity’s understanding ofthe relationship berween bth and mrt, sec Jay M. Sth, Phe Culture of Mert: Nobility, Royel Sere, end ibe Mating of Absolute Monarchy im France 100-189 (ann Arbo Mich, 1996} and Eller Schall From Valor to Pedigree: eas of Nobaly in Prone in the Sixteenth and Sevencenth Ceruaries(Pncetoe, NJ 186) Sra war angio cece ttt of Chun Nope, whch eo ‘xptions of meri ara foreign import into the nobility mn che old rep’ legrimation ei, ee Sarah Naza, Private Lives end Public Afi ‘Canes Célebrs of Pre Revolutionary race (Berkeley snd Los Angeles, 1993). Ox the ‘Heology ef the mice clas sce David Cartoch, The Formation of the Parson Bourges 1630-1830 (Cambridge Mate and London, 1996), expecially the discision of middle-class “clogy, 291. See dso the delineate of tht exploron of bared agsinst the nobility inthe OF gages ofthe Revolution in Timothy Tacket, Becoming « Revolutionary: The i, Pike Fron Naonal Avembly id the Emergerce of hevolutimary Cotare (1749°1780) Prinetton, NI. 1986). 8. See Guy Prtquule La Cilisation de le Nowoelle France, 1713-1744 (Montreal 1969), 150-189 and WJ Eccles, Camade Under Louis XIV, 1663-1701 (Toronto an New York, i Indians in the French Enlightenment 9 the beginning, it was difficult to make the colonial reality fit the ideal. French explorers and settlers moved westward and began filtering down the Mississippi Valley in the late seventeenth century. The French gov- ernment only sporadically supported the new outposts. It was afraid that the toureur: de bois, the “runners through the woods” who actually hunted, trapped, and traded with Native Americans, would corrode the whole social order ifthey were allowed to run fre the length of the Mississippi. But by the beginning of the eighteenth century these men had forced the government ro secognize them as a free and independent force, and the ministers in Paris fol- lowed tier tals into the interior of the continent.’ They were also unavoid- able alis if the French wished to have any chance of competing witk British settlement and trade. One of the costs of empire was this tension between imposed hierarchy and freedom on the ground. ‘The economy and diplomacy of New France depended on French partner- ship with native peoples. Without Indiansthere could be none ofthe furs that were the chief source of surplus wealth, Indians were invaluable alles against the English and fearsome foes of soldiers and settlers. Yet Indians were not just strangers; they were also neighbors and relatives. During the first half of the eighteentt: century, the Lower Great Lakes region was the center of a new culture emerging from French and Indian encourters: French military gover rors encouraged it with gifts and dispensation of justice, Indian leaders accepted it tobolster their own power, and the region’s villages housed métit families and ablend of European aad native cultural practices. Tndian ways of dcing things were different enough to resist any simple application of European categories to them. If we turn to our opening exam- ple of Grasse’s Iroquois, for example, we find societies in which there were households, but not of a kind co appeal toa would-be French paterfamilias, ‘The Iroquois traditionally inhabited so-called longhouses, structures that might be forty-two meters long and hold five pars of nuclear families facing fone another scross a central isle of hearths. Husbands lived in their wives! household, within which the dominant authority figures were the respected senior women of a lineage. As for Iroquois political organization, in con- trast to European decision-making structures it rested on persuasion. At both the village level and in the great council that united members of the different 1964, 48-52 For general background see also Denys Delige, Biter Feast Amerindians anid Europeans ix Norheaters North Americ, 160-6, tans. Jane Brierley Wancouves, 1993) 9, See ess, Canada Under Lous XIV, 246-248, 10: The rmation ofa Franco-ndian worlds described ia ichard White, The Middle Ground dans Eves and Repablesin whe Great Lakes Repay 16800015 (Cambridge and New ‘York 1991, 11, Deas R. Snow, The Iroquois (Cambridge, Mas and Oxford, 194), 43-44, 1292 From Neoclassicism to Romanticism proplescomprsing the Iroquois leader worked through his cloguence, his Fepatation for good judgment, and hs generosity.not coercion. Flement of Tetharhrocratie and democratic rule entered into government. [roquois peo ples henored personal achievement and were impatint with claims to Eithoriry that were rot backed up by it. Those who did live up to euleural models of heroism in hunting, warfare, ard spiritual quest were. venerated. ‘The sachems who fulilled this ideal displayed the kind of self-confidence that uropeans associated with their tied elites, Whether Europeans discovered Troguos to be aristceratic or dencocratc deperded on the cbserver’s per- spective And this pespectiv, in tun, usually emerged from a traveler's ren fas for going to North America “One widely read group of cightzenth-century writings was the reports of niselonares. Ia particular tbe Jesuits, with their commitment to understand: ing non-Christian esltures and thir willingness vo wander far beyond the Fits of European settlement, were in aa unusually favorable posiion t feporton native peoples. The missonaries who worked beyond the security ME Quucbec and Montreal endured lives of unremitting hardship, After thirty sear in Canadian missions, Frangois de Crepiet| suramed up his lifen 1697 TES long and slow marcyrdom” of exposure tothe col and sleeping on th: Rozen ground, of contending wit dogs, vermin, and smoke-filed Indian aehion af drinking dirty water and eating half-cooked meat. “Holy but ardu- sap he called the missions ~as ifthe test were almost too severe for even the oes dedicated servant to bea.” Five years late, Etienae de Carheil wroea Tong ker complaining about the two evils of trade in alcohol end sex between French and Indians. “Both,” he commented, are cated on i an equally public maaner, without our beingable to remedy the ev, Teese Ne are noc supported by th: Comrrandants, They ~ far from attempeing, sac undertake w remonstrate with them to check these trales ~ themselves TAT hem on wth gatr freedom than do ter Subordinates and so sanction chen 1) har example tha on winessng it a general permission and an assurance of i pusty ae assumed, that cause them to become Common to all the french who come xere to trade."* 12 Seni Richer, The Orel of Lanne: Te Fol of raga Lene it Se Pani FivopeunCaloizaion (Chapel Hil N.C. and Londoe, 192), 39-49. a eerie Grepeue The Lie of 4 Montagnax Missionary, Presented eae ea spre Mason for Tei Insruction and Grete Cosslaion” Ap cesors ine Mono nrand Atiod Docaments:Tacel and Exploration of the Je aoe ne eee Fron, 1610-1791 ~~ val. Lower Canada, Msisippr Valey Mgetad| of, Reben G. Toaites (Cleveland, 1900), 43,49. 10 ETO LSSS Mr de Callees,governor August 9, 1702 ibid 193-195 eeepc Indians in the French Enlightenment n ‘Trappers and traders imported alcohol as one of the most sought-after com- rmodities. Women, as Carheil himself admitted, performed crucial Lousehold tasks for chair French partners, pounding com and cooking, cutting their ‘wood, washing thei clothes, and making shoesand other garments, and their physi Drcrmity lo oneal elation a jesuit views on Indians were arything but uniform. They ranged from sat infection wil the modest and fend characer of some peoples t rust on ver other seul morals wicherae ad willl, Thee Chrs- tianity provided them with a firm standard of judgment; they sized Tndiasbccording to how closely they nel tothe own gous principles and their need for successful conversion work. "This point of view is highly evident in the writing of the most able Jesuit ethnographer, Jean-Frangois Lafitau, He went ;o New France after receiving a thorough humanist education and speat nearly six years, from 1712 t0 17:7, a8 missionary among the Iroquois. Leftau believed that all mankind origi nally had hed one religion, and he drew parallels between Greco-Roman and Troquois religious practices. The classical analogies did no: preciude close observation of Iroquois mores (including prescient insight into Iroquois kin~ Ship “elations, late: a chief theme of modern anthropology developed by Lewis Henry Morgan from the Iroquois example). They also permitted him to drive home to European readers Fis conviction that Indians were not merely repositories of superstition, but were receptive to Christian doctrine and moral precept." Atfist sight, he wzote, Europeans might not get a favor able impression of Indiaas. They lacked letters, science, laws, temples, the external apparatus of religion, and the comforts of European materal culture; travelers hal gone on to paint them as stupid, crude, ignorart, and lacking in religious orhumane sensbbility. But this was false portrait. He thought they 15, id, 231 16. See the eto indus oJosph-Frangis Lat, Com oft Ameion Inds Sst ee OF Rte tics cl an ran, Wika N Femton an Firsbetht, Moore 2 vols CToront 1974) 1 ep stint vrai hich prases aus foane of oer pcg Aoyagi, Enrepean Emu ib tie New Wold (New Flaven, 193) comes the shepticalconclsion that "Laas com uate ethou subsumes two or mre sawlatl cures bent gle, ella SR hal Cough afin we pnd deo aa bl Scence"~ on ta sb ram ts sabes sr hry, Ser De Cena, dein Tune: History and Asivpolop ince Wore lata in Yale ren Sid 42s59 (9803 37-64 cop. 0-98, 59-0 An eer dfererated appraisal o! Lalita so icfound in ain acCo-macy “Limits of Undersanding:Pereepons of Greco-Roman nd Amenndlan Pugin Early Noders2uropesin Karen. Kupeean ed Ameria ipo Comm 00 Cua ik yond Landon 1) OE ‘hich soulancouyrecpsnce Laas wening of mai religions into aaa ok nls grin cononty about Nave Areca iis an socal pais2 From Neoclassiism to Romanticism hed good minds, were more judicious in managiag their lives shan ordinary Europeans, were sober and pztient in reaching their goals had their owa form of civility toward one another, and, though not demonstrative, were affable and showed a hospitility toward srangers and charity toward the unfortu- nate that put Europezns to shame.” “The nissionary propaganca of Lafitau and others fed into Enlightenment discussions. Reformmindeé social critics reacily secularized the clerical ‘message and declared that Indians reeded cnly the benefits of calonization or education (or both) :o be the cultural equals o: the French." Philosophes took the same admiration a step further and declared Indians to be a model o ratural reason. In either case there was a straightforward transition from reli ‘gous to secular admiration of indigenous models of natural virtue. "A coatrasting group of writings came f-om the men who went abroad to administer and defend the new colony. From the early seventeenth c:ntury, the great explorer Samuel de Champlain and his successors were keen cbservers of their surroundings, with their eyes on very different problems from the ones that preoccupied missionaries —th: resources for trade, the dif- ficulties facing new settlements, the military uses and dangers of native peo- ples.” Governors and soldiers were not sentimentalsts, but they appreciated fxrly on the importance of cooperation with their native neighbors and the reed tc gain some understarding of their culture. “The military memoir most chershed by the Enlightenment was the travel sccount of Baton Lahontan, He taught his contempors:ies to look to Indian Societies for the freedom that absolute goverament had squeezed out of France. Mishaps at home and abrcad taught this querulous adventurer that a state infested with bureaucrats and lawyers was not tke best of all possible ‘worlds, Creditors took away his patrimony after he went as 2 soldier to 17, Josegh Frangois Lafeaw, La Vie et kes moenrs der saroagesancxiguin, compares ax Imocurs des promiers tom.» (Amsercatn and Faris, 1714-1732), 97-98 18, On he Jens and thet inluence on Srlightesment thinker, se Catherine M, Norcheas, Phe Parson fants end the Enlghtoment, 1700-1762 (Onfore, 191), 171-175 Cl. Chi ree Taine gue ee ve exctique, 17, 314-938. On he relatcaship beoween elight otis of s Golonising mission and the thinking of French oolcymakes, sez Michie usher, Anulropologie et hustre au ice des teres Buffon, Vota, Rovsieat, Hele thus Diderot Pais 70. oligtcrment writers cosld also secslarae anole corpus of clgious wetings the “comrnents of itcenh-century Huguenots onthe European conquest of the New Word See rank Lenringare,“The Pilosopners Brevary: Jean de Liryn the Enlghteament,"in Stephen Gretblatc ed, New World Encounter (Berkley and Los Angles, 1993) 127-138 19, See Samuel de Charplain, Voyage of Samuel de Champlain, wns. Chrls P, Oi 3 vl SSR eet the tatheniony of Champls wets is court: They my fine Geos authored eete in some deprceby Jerats See R LeBlany, “Champlin, Sail (be in Dictionnaire de bingrapbe rags (Pais 195), 8: 60s 43-348, | | Indiansin the French Enlightenment 2 Canada in 1683, and he found it impossible to get bac’ to France i time to straighten ou: his affairs. While overseas he also found it difficult to follow what he claimed were the cruel and stupid orders of his superiors ard ended up acctsed of insubordination. His experiences transformed him into a kind of homespun philosophe who turned his quarrels wth authority into the stuff ofa generalized critique of French society and state. ‘What a contrast there was between Montreal and the forest! Cored up in town, Lahortan sulfered the tyranny of priests who watched over the women, expected everyone to take the sscrament once a month, and tore up his copy of Petronius2” Out huating with his Indian friends, Lahontan savored a nobleman’s paracise, filled with game and enlivened by male cama- raderie. When he finally sat down to write, he wanted his audience to know that chere was a world not yet monitored. His preface prays forthe reader's prosperity “in preserving him from having any business to adjust with most Of the Ministers of Sate, and Priests; for let them be never so faulty, they'll still besaid to bein the right, till such time as Anarchy be introduc’damongst tus, as well asthe Americans, among whom the sorryest fellow thinks himse'f a better Man, than a Chancellour of France." Lahortan reports that when dela Barre, the govemor-general of New France, tried to demand reparations for damages to French traders from an Iroquois leader the latter replied: “We are born Fresmen. ... We have a power to go where we please, to conduct ‘who we will o the places we rescrt to, and to buy and sell where we think fit The Indian pats his European contemporaries to shame, reminding them of howa free man behaves in the face of authority. ‘The contrasts between Jesuit and soldier are a reminder ofthe diversity of cighteenth-century traditions of writing about Indians. Lafitau emphasized their quasi-Christiaa, Lahontan their quasi-noble qualities. These two wri ers, in turn, were part of aarger numberof reports that made their way back to the home country, some published, others memoranda thit circulated in ‘court and governing circles. “Neble savage” is a shorthand term that too ightly compresses the perspectives of witnesses with diverging occupations 2 Thee inno eis bev ii pinieman a Paes a ant eaten ese ngspe ape penn Enc Se ean et eer iarodrdenta hows Orr Sompben 2 vk Pe cet ttc an bs Desd ljee Lon Shee ‘Lahontan, Louis-Armand de,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vo. 2 (1701 to 1740) Fear ea an tr acon Give Chou Lamas tle Se oS gest woman easly ibe ar SEY Ao Gaps penne ay or toy yo a ee a pete a Nor mez... vol (london 1723) 2 rea eee24 From Neoclassicism to Romanticism anv experiences. Enlightenment writers needed tomake selections from these ‘Rousseau did not mace more than incidental mention in this work of ‘North American Indians. For his contemporaries, though, they readily came to mnd as test case of his argument that at an earlier stage of development hhuman beings had lived together without birtk-ordered ranks. Native Amer~ jcans were supposedly anarchic, or at least lacked te higher form of social 25, Jeamfacgues Rouen, Oowores comptes, od. Bererd Gagnebin and Mare! Raymond, Xe Du Contra waa Cents polgues Cari, 1964); see he valuabeintroduction by Jean Surobinss which discwse the saturof Rousseau’ origina state of nature ia regultive “en hs veductiv philesophical method rv Se alsodhe editors introduction tothe feds, A Diontse on Inequality tan. and el. Mauice Cranston (1755; London, 10, he oil sept oh Sond Doren Maes Granta er: The arty a ork o eee, Rese, 112-174 (New ark {ed London. 1985, especilly his observation on 308-309 that Rowscau's prime target was ete oll artoseey wih whoo ae fel ater at home, Bethe newly ih f his cermury id teiraliance withthe monarchy, Se so the classic critique of the inerpretation of Rousseavasglorifer ofthe state of atureby Arthur O. Lovejoy, "The Supposed Psimi- tim of Roussen's Discs on Tnequaiy™ in Eseys in toe History of Ider Baltimore, See eee Se alum Romsnand sh Repub f Vrae- The Language of Polit the Pend Revobuion (ithaca NX, and Lendon, 1986), emphasizes he destoctive tone of ‘he Discourse om Inequality sd Ronstesssidalzation of Ganev, 50-562% From Neodassicion to Romantxism “organization that Europeans called the “state.” They were wandering hunter- gatherers withoutsettled forms of agriculture. And their lives hac an appeal~ ing freedom from chains of subordination and command. Rousseau’s defense of indigenous societies had an effect on intellectuals comparable to the effect fof Marx's defense of the industrial working class: it gave them en unprece- ‘dented dignity by endowing them with philosophical significance inthe high intellectual language of the time. Subsequent writers could aot seriously erit- icize “savages” without taking on ther philosophical deferder. "North Americcn Indians figure more directly ir the Abbé Reynal’s cele- brated Philosophical and Political History oj the Establishments and Com- merce of Europeans in tre Two Indies: Diderot and other philosophes colab- rated with Rayral on this ten-volume work, which was a compendium of the late, redical phase of the Enlightenment and its reckoning with European colonialism. With ther natural reason intact, according to Raynal, Incians governed themselves without compulsion; reason guided their counciss of government and permitted them to cooperate without submission to author- ity. At their somber assemblies one was never interrupted; publicaffairs were managed with a disinterest unknown in Europe; they never quarreled over ownership of land, but only against external enemis; they took good care of ‘orphans, widows, and the infirm; they shared the litte they had and won esteem by giving it away.” The encounter with incigenous societies revealed thar Eurcpean social institutions were not rooted in nature and that many people lived without any need for organized religion. Raynal’s assertions ae a good illustration ofthe mixture of truthful report- ingand tendentiousness that entered into Enlightenment writing on Indians. Some of the qualities that he mentioned — for example, the high regard for gererosity and care ofthe weak — were indeed features of Indian societies. He ‘Worked them up into absolute virtues, however, and surrounded them with ‘an Enlightenmert ideology of natural reason that divested them of theirlocal ‘meaning: for example, a virtue like generosity wes not necessarily disinter- tested, but instead satisfied a sachem’s dependents and advanced his political ambitions. The impactof the Canadian expesience was ambiguous: it dic help Raynal snake off his European assumptions about society, and he distorted ‘what he learned in order to seore devating points. All sorts of late Enlightenment writings took up the raise of Indians. A 26, Gullae-Thomas Raynal Histsrephibsopbigue tpolitqne des itablisemens td com Sparc des Europtens dans les dene fades 10 vol. (Geneva, 1780) On the compostion of Rapnas works ne Miele Ducks, Diderot et Loire des Dew Indes, 1 Varta Frag Imcuuare (Pars, 1978), According to Dache, Diderot was involved inthe Histone from round 17701 178, a7 Raynal, Miso 828-92 Indians in the French Enlightenment 2 universal history ticked off the standard philanthropic wisdom about Cana- dian Indians: they had no criminal laws, but few people committed crimes; they thought chat man was born free and no one dared take away thei free- dom; with the exception of their cruel behavior in war, they were always happy and wise. A dictionary of dance praised the Irocuois fo: their courage, love of freedom, and self-discipline as manifest in their war dances. A satirist "used the persona of an Indian spy in England to denounce English hardness and cunning one year after France's defeat in theSeven Years’ Wat.*Iroquo’s and Harons were at times subjects of genuine curiosity, at times figures for enlightened fables, ther stories retold to satisfy a French audience's need for centertéinment and instruction. “Travelers carried Enlightenment commonplaces back to North Americt Declaring that he was but s simple soldier and sailor who strove only to write a straightforward account of whzt he kad observed, Pierre de Pagés, naval captain and correspondent of the Académie des Sciences of Paris, claimed 10 hhave set out from New Orieans in 1767 on a voyage that took aim across Asia and the Middle East before his arzval in Marseille in 1771.2” He confessed 10 his readers his hope of finding a better sort of human being among savages ~ “the simpler and cruder people ae, the less they are bad” was his belief.” He found just the serene and civil beings he was looking for among the atives of Louisiana. “Savage” was a misnomer fo: these people, he wrote, and contin~ ued, “We have only named them thus because of heir manner of living hardier than we: I admired aboveall the phlegmand serenity that they always maintained, without the lively interest or disquictude that we feel rowacd good or bad consequences." Jean-Bernard Bossu, an army captain who served in Louisiana from 1750 to 1757 and again from 1758 to 1762, pro- claimed a philosophy of enlightened ptilanthropy: “Man is che same every- where; he is equally prone to good and evil; educatioa corrects his vices, but cannot give him virtues; the same author has created civil and savage man homme peice et Uhomme Saicoege), and has endowed thems with ike qual- 28, Ane Guilaume Comant ¢ Orville Histoire de difienspesples du monde contenant Tes Corimonicsreligienses et cies, Vargine dt religions, lenrs veces & supertons & les smorury © sues de hegue tation.» (Paris 1771), 5495, 4; Charks Compan, Dicton- see dae contenant hor, et rps & es prnpsdeser a, avec des» fleions Tignes & desconcdaes ewes concernant ls dame encienne & moderve,. (Pais, 177), TSe15tcfAnonymauss Ltspon ds Sauvage en Angleterre (London, 1764), sp. 6 29, Tor Paps sera se “Papin, Phere Masie-Prangos, Vieomte de” in Biographies tenellancienne et moder (Michaol), nourele atin Pars 183-1365) 31 612. Forks [STScerpion, see Piere Marie Frangois de Pag, Voges autour monde et verses ‘Geexpolel par tevreer pr mn pena lev wunces 17, 1908 120, 1770, 179, 1778, 778 cr i7he (Pas 1782) 127 sob. 31. Thi 2828 From Neoclassicism to Romanticism ities... The irontspiece of his book showed Indians in the first days of French colonization, when their happy innozence had notyet been corrupted and theirchief hid only contempt for the cre spilling from the box beneath his feet (Fig. 3). On his own romps through Louisiana, Bosss still found plenty of bons sauvages. The Arkansas Indians, who according to Bossu resembled al other Indians, were “big and well made, brave, good swimmers, very skilled at hanting and fishing, and highly devoted to the French...” Since the arrival of the French, they had given up their obscene dances* As for their eligion, they believed in a Great Spirit, whom they worshiped in the form of a serpert or a crocodile." As one reviewer notec: “Everything here is tee, and yet the truth sometimes appears here to have the airof fiction.””” “The truths ofa Lafitawand theteuisms of the philosophes descended here into parody. Not all French raveless were constructing fables for the amusement of salon guests. There were also travecers to North America who developed serious programs of scientific study. The American Philosophical Society in Philadel- phia served as the institutional partner for exchange between such French sci- entists and their American counterparts. With Benjamin Franklin as is first prasident and ‘Thomas Jefferson as one ofits leading members, the Society twas in the hands of men pissionstely incerested in cooperation beween French and American scientists. It chose the French naturalist André Michaus to serve as leader of a scientific expedition that was to cross North ‘America “from the Mississippi along the Missouri, and Westwardly to the Pacific ccean.” So wrote Thomas Jefferson in his preamble to & subscription lise written in his ows hand, which included pledges from George Washing- ton, Joha Adan, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, as well as Jffer- son himself2* Ia the end the expedition did not materialize, but the Society continued to turn to foreigners for their scientific expense. Franklin's suc- cessor, Peter Duponceau, was a naturalized American of Frerch birth who 22 osm omnes opme as de dee Cnt on rion Lier pe pis gu btn os ond rd ewe Sts Lov appl algarenen se ‘ear Rigi ear gncocment lens mnt; er gure & le commerce Pari 1768) 11s, 34 Mbidewv-avi, M. Hid, 109, 35. Tid, HO-UN, 36. bid 121 37. “Touey evra, et eepondan a ézté ya parit quelque fois avecTair dela tion” Tran seripton of an ace a Avan Coureer March 2, 1768, Folios 2-276, handwriten Sip of Mo 12362, Archives ce [a Bale, Bibiothéqee de VAnenaly Paris. Alfie de le Eouisaney 1765-1778 267 spy id Library of Congres 38 Thoma Jefferson, Autograph subscription li or Michaux Expedition, 1793, American Philosophical Society. Ti Soca sso aomessesa manusrpt of four pages of insrstion: to Michaus forexploriag the American West. Indians inthe French Enlightenment 29 3, Un Roi Savoage ... From Jean-BaptisteBossu, Nowveaux voyages aux Indes osi- ddentles; contenant ane relation des differens peuples qni babitent les environs du (grand flenve Saint-Lonis, ppelé vsigairement le Missi; leur religion; ler gox- ‘oemement:ieurs moeurs: lars gueres & leur commerce (Paris, 1768), frontispiece ‘Courtesy of Universty of Ilinots Libraries, Urbam-Chanpaign,30 From Neodassicim to Romanticism hhad a deep interest in the languages of American Indians” Reaching back. into the eighteenth century and contnuing in the early decades of the rine- teerth, the Society’s philological tradition was an important starting point for further linguistic and ethnological studies.” Tess sympathetic views of American Indians circulated too among the leamed. While French culture included an unusual strand of curiosity about native peoples, the word savage connoted contempt. Disdain was not ‘unusual among the colonial administrators and officers who tolerated them {salle As forthe philpsophes, many repudiated the fuzz humanitarianism of: Raynal. Theorists of history assigned American Indians a lowly place as Ihunters and gatherers on a scale ascending to the commercial societiss of modern Europe. If some commentators commended Native Americans in order to eritieize European society, others responded by putting them far down on the human hierarchy. Voltaire made ingenious use of noble savage imagery to counter the despair that underlies Rousseau’s critique of inequality. The Huron hero of his tale, Llngénu, diseupts polite expectations in eighteenth-century France with his direct expressions of feeling, is insistence on justice, and is indiffererce to 49, Duponcns played an importan ol in api he missionary John Heckewelder wit his eee tat of hs yas among the Daawae Idan, ee Heckewldeo Peter Dupon- carr asce sie 822, Amertan Phiosoptcl Society Seen partial: Hckewelder’s SU Deponceasedng ofthe manure in Heckeweler to Dyponees, Ost ber, 118, Octber 19,1818, and Octter 13,1818 40.806 Ante Mc, “Journal of Teves nt Kentackys july 15, 799-Apel 1,179" in Rabon Gs Tec Barly Wester Tanlr 1748-1846. (Clevela 193) 327 108 ‘Duc rig ofthe Ameria Pilsopbcal ore ee Brooke inde, Te Pat of Scion Reveitnay Ameria, 17391089 (Clap Fil, Ny 1956. Se ao Janes E Sei Since Reagent Scena Saceis me Eighteenth Cena (New eA bis), 114 which emphasizes the modes plate of she America Philosophical See ice cighaenth:cemary word of sete voces Rea at fer comact between European ane Amercin sins was Pele’ Mush Oa es his scum and fis sootate ith Europeans se Chars Wiles Pele Rested Paper of Chars Willan Pale end is Fay, vol. par | ad 2: The Att TP incon Keto 1051-180, illan B. Mir with Sidney Har apd David C. Ward Fern OE cocon, 1968 Sea Lilian. Mile and DrvidC. Ward, New Per (Nein Chars Win Peale 423th Annormary Celebration Pitbrgh 19M and EASA Sikcman Seles, Chere Willan Peale 2 vo Philadelphia, 197). On de nex Gere tes ian By Miler sal, Te Pee Fea: Creation of« Legacy, 170-1870 itor, 19%). No ectcenth cemury French iets szempd a straw ethnographic eudy of an Avera alan people Plot de Beasvoe made an exe ay amvng te Cie and Gueaee Ulta yer obrervaions earely went beyond the cliches thacone coll gather eer erat Tess onary al mene erste of tae period See the moder ceprit Foe ne raed aroluconty Cllrs China Palo de Besos, Odéraht Fest aneshine Une sony ane dnt (17%, 1801s Paris 195, Pats esa the Grech and Chores eprimed 21-23 44, Resa L Monk, Sos Sconce nd the fgnoble Seoage (Cambridge and New York, 1976) Indians in the French Enlightenment a titles. The royal government reples to his request for an audience with the king by throwing him into che Bestille. When his beloved tries to help him, she can do so only by submitting to the advances of a bureaucrat. While her cynical friend prostitutes herself to further her husband’s career and advises hher todo the same, she dies of shame after her self-sacrifice. What begins asa ‘mocking fable turns by the end into a rather uneasy tale of corruption.” Yet Voltaie does not write to condemn French sceiety. During his stay in the Bastille the hero receives z snap course in world civilization from a Jansenist fellow prisoner. Reading changes the urformed savage into an idea. blend of nature and culture, a frank character bred to civilized restraint. Voltaire’s tale reveals that while natural man has goodness and strength, heis in reed of an education. ‘Other writers were more vehement. A so-called degenerationist school of European writers give the notion of hierarchy abiological turn, assigning tae Amercan environment and its inhabitants a degraded place in the world “order.” A celebrated catalogue of the arguments for the inferiority of Amer- ican aad Native Americars was Cornelius De Pauw’s Philosephical Research On the Americas." De Pauw was following the leed of Buffon, who had applied a hierarchical imagination to the study of nature and had catalogued the inferiority of the American climate and the flora and fauna it produced. Buffon did not, however, draw racialist conclusions about the peoples of the ‘Americans. De Peuw was less cautious. He imagined a place of such utter 42, Voki, Lng Hise rable Wiliam R, Jones (157; Geneva and Paris 1957.1 fave sso consulted the ntodaction wo Voir, [nen a Histo de Jere JH. Brum and M1, Gerard Davis (Onford 170, Jobe. Cosson, Var’ Binary Mes tepece LIngénn Recsdeed (Berne, Eran am Nain and New Yrk, 980 brings ot {Reco betmen spot nein athe 45, See Amon Gerby Ee Lge of the New Word The History of «Poem 1750-1900, fev ens Jeremy Moyle Pitsburg 197) Ror an over of the degenerations on- troery te lo Cibery Chaar “Eightcrh- Century Theories on Ameren se 2 Human Hibiat® ceedings of the American Phlorophieal Society (1947) 27-37. 44, Carnelian De Pau Recherces popu lesan on memoie intrest ponrserina Ubatave de tape bavtine Nowell fion,cugmentie dine diseraion Siaguc pa: Dom Pemety& te le dsense delete ses vechrches one cee disertaton, Sole Bein 171) 45. Blfontsiged the luman species te rol niin withthe hiraschy ofatre: “Son port maltsucan,sedémarce ine ct hard, annonces noblesse sn rng” Gee Ea lon, ere cmp ri) 9:18 Bllondid eon gly ‘of paage’ Ile erred oem rte opreson ol womea while pang popes poe? See ee es caret inag own icen mes placed recauan of ben. Nontbless, Buffon oned making ial dstactions between fe ie reopnsng dlzenes caused by climate nourment, sd mora he insted Sete nal ig i tp Sa nr Ane Sy had grated fom older nan bebe (13). An adonspeicaly apposed De laws dgecratone views (957-48). » peste orn32 From Neoclassicism to Romanticism depravity that his book read like a piece of secularized Calvinist theology. ‘American Indians were stunted, vitiated, and enervated. Venereal disease was natural among them, and their daughters commuricated “a kind of virus that eventually perverts the quality of blood.” Their men wee poor, sickly erea- tures with feeble sexual desire and ro hair on their chests, Their women had too much milk and nourished their children until the age of sevea, while men- struating rarely. This, plus the presence of milk inthe male breast, were fur thor signs of “a vice manifest in the blood.”"” Pederasty was “very fashion- able” (fort en vogue) in Ameica, human sacrifice to the gods was universal, and cannibalism was widespread.** De Panw’s climatological views shaded ‘over into 2 conviction of the racial inferiority of the Americans. In a section tentitled “Concerning :he Brusal Character of the Americans” (Du géni abruti ides Amérieains) he wrote: *Srupefaction (ane insensbilité stupide) forms the basic character of all the Americans... Higher than the animals because they have theuse of their hinds and of language, they are really inferor to the least of the Europeans."”” De Pauw wrote as a cxitic of European colonialism —an isolationist who urged Europeans to shun the toxic fruit of cistant shores. ‘According to De Pauw, contact between the two worlds, Old and New, had resulted in mutual disaster, massacre of the natives and venereal disease for the conquerors. Europe had abused its superior strength and been punished for its invasion of the other side ofthe Atlantic. If disaster on sis scale hap- pened again, it would lead to extinction of the human species. De Pauw twamned the princes of Europe to leave the recently explored lands of the South Pacific ‘the “Australian” lands) in peace and cultivate their own gardens After the outbreak of the French Revolution, tke circumstances for writing about Americachanged..! No longer was America the testing ground for the- On Bulfor, De Phun, and Amerisn Indians see Duchet, Anthropologie et histoire, 2460248, 265 466 and Durand Echeveria, Manage i she West: A History of the Fence Tage of American Soety 9115 (Pincezon, NJ 1957) 7. 4h. De bauw, Recherche 1008.) 47, Thid, 38." 48. Thi, 214 50 Ibid, Ise 5I. The alder view of America as «republican utopia pessted Marquis de barbéNatbots,“Dicous sur ls FiatsUnis D Américue,” in Compl D'Atnold et de Sir Henry Clinton contre Ter Bts-Unis D'Amirigue e contre ke genre Washington, Septemye 1780 (Pass, 186, On Bu-bé Marois se René Résond, Les Faust dewont Popnion Jranaite, 1915-1852 (Pars, 1962) 1318, Lafayete and hs ‘Sires uphill the mame ide the 1820s. See Lalas, Mémoires, correspondance «t mans (as 18), 1821, Ct. Cara Barbro nd. A. Laie Vege de (fontal aeyete ane Easel rmriqns on 82, 3 vole (Searels 1874) Pathan {icernamed tis son Charles Jan-Washngeon. See E. Franceschini, "Batbaroux (Chaser Ogos Dictionnaire de biographie ramps, 8s 20-227 Trench nataraissscontinuet to come and wer, wit litle regard forthe soca snd poli= 49. id, 2154 some wrters. See Francois Indians in the French Enlightenment 3 ories unrealizable at home: suddenly the ancient society of orders had col lapsed in Europe and given way to ever more radical forms of democratic social organization. America took on new significance as the Revolution ‘expelled wave after wave of political opponents ~ families in fight ‘rom the spontaieous urban and rural violence that beganin the summer of 1789, sup- porters of the king, iberals in flight from Jacobin terror, settlers endangered by the revolution in Sint Domingue, and later, critics of Napcleon.” Cut off from home and often impoverished, they now scrutinized the United States for clues to the movement of modzrn history that had upset theit lives. In this new political context, the meaning of American Indians changed too. Critics began tearing down received images of the Indian as emblem of natural equality. Lovis-Narcisse Baudry des Lozitres illustrates the kind of counter- revolutionary career that resulted in a hatred of Rousseauist admiration for indigenous peoples. Baudry (his real name ~_he made tae noble addition hims- self during the Restoration) went to Saint Domingue in 1777, served asa mil- itary and politcal lesder of the colony, defended it against the revolutionaries ‘until hs was wounded in late 1792, and afer briefly returning to France left for the United States in November 173." A man of scientific aspirations, in 1784 he was one of the founders of the Cercle des Philadelphes, which constituted itself in Saint Domingue as learneé academy for natural science (“la physique”), natural history, and literature." His address of the following week :0 the Cercle was « passionate defense of scientific knowledge that il stan tng pac in th Ue St Se Prod Mita Tul Woe gh Menai yea the Ys 82 Unde Auf Exley Chap Mintzer ofthe terion 2nd endo, 188) eprint in Ren GTherstcy, Ean Wester Travels 1748-1846 (Cleveland 190), 3 107-30. Frangoa ‘Rac was the son of Andre Micha, dacused eae, ‘uae Alwandc Loe who lad tava withthe Badia expedition to the Pace of 100-184, stayed inthe United Sues rom 1816 to 187, He was willy adied in Ms SSwatne fr hs sci svt be proved vluble seches and panings gathered St eormogs amour of infermationsboot Nowth American fora and tuna, and coleed speamons for museums. On Lecurte Adrien Loi, Carle Alexandie Lemewr arte et ‘Sa rate en Amérgn de 8161839 Havre, 1920): R. W.G Va Te American ‘Secchbooksof Chae Alsandve Lenenr 1816-1837 Worester, Mats 1938) and Wallo G aang, “Phe LevacorCalleson of Armesean Skeches inte Museum of Naural Hi tooyat Fre, Sine nferiure= Msp! Valley ical Review, 16 (1923) 33-78 52, Sctl Foruton Hate gestaledecngéspondet le evouatan fans, Svs. (Pasi 18st) and Rémond ev Eee, 131 453, See-Baury des Lesores” n None brgraphiepétrle (Hoefer) (ais, 1852-186) fale 29696 and "Baudry des Loren Lain Nandns” in Dictonsare de bigrapbie Fears 5 cols 95.908 4, Se Ecrle Ses Phladepis, Cap- Francois, 74-87, nos 1 atd 2, American Pilosop Sovery "Of the Cerle ds Piles se James E. McClellan 1, Colonialiom ard Sie: “Sais Dommgue inte Old Regine Eskimo and London, 198), 181-297o From Neoclasscism to Romanticism might have been applauded by any philosophe. Itis hard to recognize the same ‘writer in his works on Louisiana of 1802 and 1803. There he raged agaiast the philosophes’ nation ofthe Native American as natural egalitarian: ‘These men of nature, whom they [the philosophes] don’t know, and whom they raise ‘sc high, looked to me, despite the resemblance I find between them znd our sages of [the Revolutionary] year Two, looked t me, who knows them, like the dullesebeings, ‘vith whom only our impious philosophes could live, all oar atheist intellecuals Geants), who would like, imititing Rousseau, that we go on all fours nibbling lt While the ideas were abstract, the passions of men like this were directed against equality as areal and present danger. ‘One of the most influential observers of American Indians after 1789 was Constant-Frangois Chassebeuf de Volney. Already a prominent figure in French letters and politics on the eve of the Revolution, in touch with the rad- ical philosophes Holbach and Helvétiu, he turned into a dedicated revolu- tionary but also a corciliatorand defender of freedom ofthe press. In :793 he ‘was imprisoned for ten months. After his release, he was elected to the chair in history at the Ecole No-male in 1795 and visited the United States in 1795-1798. Volney planned a work on the United State: that would build up from environmental conditions to the study of Americen society. While that work never materialized, he did publish a volume on American climate and soil that included a lengthy appendix on American Indians. He had origi- rally hoped to spend time among them, he wrote, but when he discovered that they had no hierarchy or government, “thatin a werd ther social condi- tion wes one of anarchy and of a wild and brutal nature,” he gave up the pro|- cect.” They seem to have activated traumatic memories of the Jacobin France 15, Lois Nacse Baud des Loves, Second oopage 3 Lows fast nt a premio (lente de7244 79,2 ve Pain 80D, 81-212. Cl Bray ds Lon, Voge Futons cele contin de még sepenrionae ft das es anne Y78 1798. Pars 12. 56, Sethe src "oly" in Nowoele biogapie glaéale, 4: 47-81, and “Volo, Cooma Panois Chsabal din Eda Hind Lemay el, Disonaie des cons ‘han 179-171 Pan 19911298298, “or cree of Voluey's importance for sbsequer traveler and commentzors se] Milter Tamtavepoiregne defense Budun of dy partes ital: de PAmoigne dx ‘Non dap les desns eign ps oes teas (Pt 182) 1 a vac Ma Inilen af Wet Ree datanere deca den Jebren 1832 bs 1834 \Coblers, Ta39y 2, 108 133-946 Sd, “Vorede des Ucbercaers” i Jotann Heckel, acini ender Corbi den Sten wed Gbranchon de ndichn Volcan, ‘le shemch Pennsyloancn sad de benacarten Staaten bebe ans. Fr, Hee Reet na alee Torque, Dos Damasrtcon Amoague vol 1 part fn Guyane conpltn Bas, 161), 335 383, 57. €, 8 olny, Dees vo halen cate dis des tans Amerie. 2d Sepan H9,975, Indians in the French Enlightenment 35 he had left behind, as if the Revolutionary anarchy had its counterpart in the supposed anarchy of American Indians. They looked weird, and their drinking bovts disgusted him.®* Hearirg from an icformane that Indians were capable of envy, he could not resst scoring a point against thinkers Tike Rousseau who maintained that social evolation bred competitiveness: “What! I resgonded with zn air of astonishment, sit the case that ehese mea of nature know jealousy, hatred, base motives of vengefulnest? At home we have brilliant minds who assure us that these passions can only arise in our civilized socisties.”®" Removed from France by thousands of miles, he could not distance himself from the errors that had led to the revolutionary cat2- strophe and appeared to have nothing more important do than to sound off against his former conversation partners in Paris salons. Volney was doing ‘more than just lashing out at the philosophes, however. His account helped to clear away eighteenth-century truism that had lost their relationship any realty, European or American. “The Duke de la Rochefcucauld-Liancourt was also singed by the violence of the early Revolutionary years but was better able to maintain a dispas- sionate view of American affairs. From a famous family with close connee- tions tothe court, he supported political reform in the early stages ofthe Rev- ‘olution but fele himself endangered by the summer of 1792 and lef first for England, then in the fll of 1794 for the United Sates, where he stayed until 1797 One emotional trial after another preceded his arrival. The intrigues of the other émigrés made England an uncomfortable place of refuge; at the beginring of September he learned of relatives massacred at home; the news of Louis XVI's deats hit him as the loss of a bdoved monarch.*" He arrived in the United State: saddened and homesick. Nevertheless he showed sn ‘unusual determination to make something out of his exile. Imbued with the philanthropic ethos ofthe late eighteenth century, he worked to gather obser- ‘ations useful for hamaniry, turning his particular impressions into the evi~ dence for general reflections. He met with high and low, founding fathers and backwoods farmers, and commented on government, agriculrure, education, slavery, and the condition of roads and towns.” His experience foreshal- owed the liberating effect of America on Tocqueville, who similarly used bis trip to break out of his social confinement. He also anticipated Tocqueville's S58, Volaey, able du dimat, 372-374. 59. Iki 408. 62. See Feloand Dreyfus Un Pllanthrops d'antrfobe La Rochefowcanld-Lisncoun, 1742-1827 (Ghats, 1903), and Divid J Brandenburg and Milicem Hi. Brandenburg, "The Due De La RoukcioventeLianeourds Visto th Federal Ciry 1797: ANew Tarslation?” in Recoxs oft Columbia Hisoical Society of Hashington, D.C (1973-1974), 35-0. 61, Dreyfus, 201-208, 62 Mba, 222.63. Ibid, 211,213-218,36 From Neoclassicism to Romanticism careful questioning of informants inthe interest of accurate empirical rport- ing ‘Liancourt was a critical observer who achieved fine balance between sym- pithetic understanding of a new society and its underlying principles, and frankness about its shortcomings. Anglo-American behavior toward Indians provoked his indignation: [All that I have been able to learn of these Indians inierests me in their favour. The ‘Americans are waging war against them, in order to drive them out of acountry, which belongs to them and the Americans, who inhabit the frontiers, are greater robbers, ad more eruel tian the Indians against whomit is alleged asx crime, that they exer ‘ce the right of retaliation.” Liancourt’s perspective was that of liberal aristocrat detached from tke logic of commercial success. The special sympatay of Indians ‘or the French added to his liking for them, while the hypocrisy of American justice left himaston- ished and angry. When an American soldier murdered two natives, the mnan’s captain setcled the incident by paying a hundred dollars 2er head to the party that came in search of justice. Inthe reverse case, noted Liancourt — if an Indian had killed a white man he would have been anged. Such aneven treatment was a disgrace to a sociery that claimed to honor justice and equal- ity!” The greed of the settles, he added, had led them to degrade the indians “to the lowest rank inthe scile of Euman beings," ruining them with whiskey and money in order to advance their own interes's. "As long asthey were sut- fered to remain in their savage state, they were warlike and independert, wil, perhaps, yet humane’; it was their contact with whites that had brutalized them. Reflecting on the odious meins thatles na:ionspolicées wsed to advance their interests, he concluded that one had little reason to appreciate their sup- posed superiority. This was a remarkable revaluation of native and settler Societies, uncompromising in is critique of civilized amorality and symp:- thetic o native claims on humanity. When it came to a conflict between the ‘warrior and commercial ethos, Liancourt sided with the vancuished Indians against the vulgar eenqueror. ‘Equally remarkable were the mature reflections of Miche] Guillaume St. Jean de Crévecocur. This famous observer of American life frst came to the 14 See Francis de La Rochefowsaud-Liancour, Vayage dans les Eau-Unis Amérique ft 1795, 1796011797 (Paris, 099), 1a 5. Feangols de La Rocheloucaud-Ciancoury, Trvele Through she United States of Nomb “Amesca, the Sonny of the Irgucin sd Upper Canad in tbe Years 198, 1796,and 179 {Wn an Authentic Aron of Loner Canada ans. 11 Neumac (London, 1799) 1:48. Cf Liareoure, Vepage, 1 76 6, Lancours Travels 17850, Lianeourt, Voyage 1: 305 , Liancour, Frvels 1 149.) 8 Toid Cf, Lintoure, Veyage, 1254-255. Indians in the French Enlightenment 37 New World with Montcalm’s army, leaving his No-man home to serve in ‘Canada from 1755 to 1758, Staying on and developing an intimate knowledge of frontier life he married and setted down as a gentleman farmer in Orange ‘County, New York, in 1759. Crévecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer were an instant literary suecess after their publication in 1782 and enjoyed a second success when Crévecocur published < revised French edition two years later. He was intensely aware of the need to capture the novelty of the “American experience. His famous letter, “What is an American?,” describes hhow the Europeans who made the passage to America become new men as they go from a state of dependence to one of individual freedom.” Even in this work Crévecceur writes with krowledgeable anger bout the back- woodsmen's fraud, drink ng, and use of force in their dealings with Indians, which in turn lead to Indian acts of antisettler violence.” These remarks are but an aside, however, to the Letters’ purpose of portraying an idyllic repub- lic, Dissent becomes the dominant note of a lesser-known work of 1801, Crévecoeur’s Journey into Northern Pennsyloasia and the State of New York. Gone is the concise and direct style of the Letters instead, a rambling, dis- jointed narrative conveys the experience of travel through a troubled laad. ‘The narrator's persona shifts toct instead of the plain-spoken farmer of the Letters, Crévecoeut assumes the role of an Indian ~ "an adopted member of Oneida” (one of the Iroquois trites). Inthe form of adialogue among the cif- feren: characters, Crévecoeur records his contemperaries’ dispute over the destiny of Native Amerizans. A: one point his narrator recalls the violence and stupidity of savage life and repudiates the ilusiors of sentimenval writers: "They assumed a type of primitive man, whom they didn’t know at all ~ in order to satrize their contemporaries.””” When the illusions are discarded, however, more admirable being emerges, onesuperior to Europeans: “What a gap there is between the noble pride, independencs, stead‘astness, courage ‘of these warlike hunters, and the baseress and vice of most ofthe inhabitants of the froniers!"” Ie was a striking sign of the changing mood of the times that of all people Crévecoeus, the famous eelebrator of the American farmer, now contrasted Indian aristocrats to plebeian pioneers. Liancourt and tie later Crévecoeur wrote as nobles in « post-noble age. Unlike Volney, they were no longer fixated on old battles with the philesophes. Rather, they had landed in the new world of democretic politics (69, J, Hector St. John Miche! Guillaume St Jean de Civecoeut, Letts from an American Farmer (London, 1782), 53 70. 1d, 68-0, 71 Michel Guile Jeu de Crevenas fancy into Northern Penmylvaniaand the State (of Now York rans Clarins Spencer Bostlnann (Ann Arbor, 1968), 9. 72. ted 638 From Neodassiciom to Romanticism and saw familiar objects in a new light. Even thoug they accepted the poit- ical revolution of their simes, they sought to preserve the aristocratic values nurtured by the old privileged order and endangered by democracy, whether in the capitals of Europe or on the American frontier. American Indians ow took on new interest as fellow victims of historical tragedy and fellow upholders of an aristocratic ethos. 2 > Chateaubriand and the Fiction of Native Aristocrats Year IX of the Revolution (Christian calendar year 1801): Frangois-René, Chevalier de Chateaubriand, publishes the tale Atala, The author kas barely returned to France after years of poverty, obscurity, and exile. But with this ‘work he reverses his fortunes; he createsa new Romantic style, enduring fame for himself ~ and a vision of aristocracy to enchant a post-Revolutionary world, Chateaubriaad’s story fulills the promise of authors like Liancourt and Crevecoeur: it creates a new world of estrangement from Europe, ardor for honor, and kinship with Indians. Like Liancourt and Crévecocu:, Chateaubriand came from the old nobil- ity. Born in 1768 into a Brettanesefamily witha seafaring tradition, he became a second lieutenant in the royal army in 1786. Three years later he was made a Knight of Malta, an office that included a sizable income. During the early months of the Revolution, Chateaubriand was listless onlooker, dissf- fected from the old regime but unwilling to join its atiackers. As the Revolu: tionary mood spresd from the populace to the troops in Rouen, where regiment was stationed in 179, the commander and senior officer decided to emigrate, and Chateaubriand was left to decide for himself how to shape his future? 1. On the historical significance of Atal for the Romani era, se Hugh Honous, The New Golden Lav: Exropuan Image of America fom the Discovers tothe Present Tie (New York, 1973), 20. 2, The preceding Biographical desripion stakes from Rehard Switzer, Chateaubriand (New Yor 1971) 1 teat, Gilber Chinurd, LExotie amercain dans Usewore de Chase Tiled (ears: 1918), stl pence reading fr mtyoneinerested in Chateaubviar’s {elavooship fo Ameri, thotgh fneas o be supplewented with Switzer’ revsed con Sions about ‘he legit and rte of Chatesubeand’s Auerican journey 38