"The Road to Yorktown" Topic

Received this yesterday.

The Road to Yorktown: The French Campaigns in the American Revolution, 1780-1783 by Louis-Francois-Bertrand du Pont d'Aubevoye, Comte de Lauberdiere edited and annotated by Norman Desmarais.

I'm going through it now and it is an interested and valuable account of the adventures of Rochambeau's Expeditionary Corps in North America.

Keep us posted. There was a lot more to the French "adventures" than just Yorktown.
Plus I want to finish my Lauzun's Legion for more than just Gloucester Point.
From the title I thought it might have been by Buchanan.

The following is from the above volume's Introduction and is not part of d'Aubevoye's Diary:

'The French enlightenment thinkers, called the philosophes, laid the ideological foundations for both the American and French revolutions. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) developed the idea of the separation of powers and the need to divide power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, particularly in his book The Spirit of the Laws, which went through eighteen printings in less than two years of its original printing in 1748.' Page x.

'Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) remains the most celebrated of the French political philosophers. His works, particularly The Social Contract (1762) developed the principles of general will and the importance of a social contract between people and government.' Page xi.

'Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, used sarcasm and irony to advocate intelligent political authority based on the rule of law. During his entire literary and professional life, Voltaire advocated freedom of thought in all of its forms and the ability to ensure social and political organizations do not silence voices-particularly those of dissent. Most of his political views were based on the ideas of John Locke (1632-1704) and Isaac Newton (1642-1726/7). Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses and was very critical about other people's ideas. Only an enlightened monarch or an enlightened absolutist, advised by philosophers like himself, could bring about change. It was in the king's interest to improve the power and wealth of his subjects and kingdom. He considered the French bourgeoisie to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy parasitic and corrupt, the commoners ignorant and superstitious, and the church as a static force useful only as a counterbalance since its 'religious tax,' or the tithe, helped to create a strong backing for revolutionaries. Voltaire was a firm advocate of secular rule.' Page x.

Rousseau was a heavy-weight thinker, though a sorry excuse for a human being. (He fathered a succession of bastards and abandoned each in turn. Morality is for lesser beings.) And his central idea, the General Will, enables totalitarians.

Voltaire was an intellectual light-weight who thought making jokes about ideas refuted them. He was a journalists rather than a philosopher. Were he alive today he'd be host comedian on a late night show.

Well, that certainly doesn't enlighten me about Lauzun's Legion in Rhode Island, nor is it putting the book into my cart either.

But, carry on.

Eureka sells a pair of 28mm figures showing Frederick the Great debating Voltaire. Everyone should own this set.

Dragging this back to discussion of miniatures.

Miniatures. Yes, that was it, wasn't it.

And his central idea, the General Will, enables totalitarians.

Perhaps could you explain this with a couple of examples?

What is interesting about the philosophes is that their ideas could be taken and used individually, not as a block or monolith. Some could be accepted, as the Founders did, and reject others, again as the Founders did.

Politically, it's more of a shopping list instead of doctrine or a mandatory dictate.

The bottom line is that the philosophes, along with the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment produced a framework that the Founders adapted for their use and produced the founding documents and the republic. As a matter of fact, Rome was also used as an example, not completely, but parts of the old Roman Republic.

If you condemn the ideas of the philosophes, then you are condemning the Founders and what they created.

Well, that certainly doesn't enlighten me about Lauzun's Legion in Rhode Island, nor is it putting the book into my cart either.

The unit and its commander are certainly referred to in the diary more than once, along with a portrait of Biron.

I think John Locke played a role in guiding the thoughts of the founders, perhaps more so than the philosophes. His writings influenced them, Rousseau and Voltaire, to name a few.

Washington's Partisans briefly discusses Lauzun's Legion when it came out of RI and into NY. Involved in some skirmishes around Eastern Connecticut and West Chester County.

The best definition of "philosopher" comes from "History of the World Part 1".
Mel Brooks is signing up for unemployment. Bea Arthur asks him his profession.
"I'm a stand up philosopher!"
"Oh. You mean a artist."

That scene with Mel Brooks and Bea Arthur was classic.

What year the did the Age of Reason begin? And how long was the Enlightenment?

The Age of Reason and The Enlightenment are sometimes viewed as either happening simultaneously and being the same 'event.' Years I have seen for the two are 1685-1815.