Sidney J. French Gull Harbor.. Aot. . 401 17105 Gulf Boulevard North Redington Beach, FL 33708
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The du Ponts and the Lavoisiers A bit of untold history, with an accent on America
Most hooks dealing with the revolutionary period in France, include some such statement as the following: "The great French Scientist, Lavoisier, taught young Irenee du Pont how to make gunpowder." There is even an imaginative painting showing Lavoisier holding a test tube of liquid to the light, while young Irenee peers intently a t it. This depiction is far from the truth. Irenee du Pont learned to make gunpowder, believe it or not, because of a beautiful girl. The du Pont and Lavoisier families were close friends. In the summers thev exchanged visits of several days each hetween their resp&tive f a r k which were ahout a dny's d r i w awart. T h e du I'ont farm. Roii-des-Fosws in the I'rovincr of Nemours, was a working farm, supervised by the very capable Mme. Pierre du Pont. The Lavoisier farm, Freschines, was an experimental farm, where various new crops were tried out under Lavoisier's supervision. Although the two men had very different backgrounds, they had many similar interests, especially in the new economic philosophy of Physiocracy, developed largely by Pierre du Pont and Jacques Turgot. Pierre du Pont, horn to a Parisian Hugenot family, was supposed, as a Hugenot, to limit his life to trades or crafts. His father, a successful watchmaker, expected Pierre to follow this craft. Pierre's mother, however, had a different outlook on life, coming, as she did, from a noble, but impoverished, family. When his mother died, Pierre, in his late teens, completed the fine watch he was making, presented it to his father, and left home to do what he had to do. When Pierre married, the great Quesnay is supposed to have quipped, "Behold, this fellow wants a bed, and is not yet sure of a chair."' Antoine Lavoisier came from a family which had risen, over two centuries, from peasant to professional. There was now, through frugal past handling, some wealth in the family. Noting Antoine's great interest in science as a young man, his father turned over part of Antoine's eventual inheritance for investment, to provide income, thus freeing Antoine to pursue his interest in science. This money, Antoine invested in the Ferme Generale, a company which paid the Royal Treasury an agreed upon sum each year, to collect and keep all indirect taxes. 1 All quotations by Pierre or Ir&e duPont used here are from the privately printed volume, Correspondence of Pierre and IrPnPe du Pont, by B. G. du Pant, University of Delaware Press, 1926.This book contains all available correspondence between the two men, translated into English. "he other principle source used is Torch and Crucible; The Life nndDeath of AntoineLauoi.kr, Sidney J. French, Princeton Press, 1941.
As a member of the Tobacco Committee, Antoine, going often for meetings to the home of Jacques Paulze, Chairman of the ~ o m m i t t ec~ d~ d , not help hut notice the lovely ).omg Marie Paulze, u,ho had returned from C'mvent schw)l t o take the place of her recently deceased mother as hostess. Marie's uncle, the wiley Ahhe Terray, wanted to match Marie with a fifty-year-old dissolute, penniless, Count in order to raise the family to the nobility. Antoine was a welcome solution to this dilemma. The two were married in 1771. Marie was fourteen; Antoine was twenty-eight. Even with this disparity of age it was one of the most compatible marriages of its day. Early in the 1780's, Mme. Pierre du Pont died. Pierre was left with two sons, Victor, 19, serving in America with the French Diplomatic Service, and Irenee, 14. The childless Lavoisiers now heean to take a s ~ e c i a interest l in this Dersonable, motherless young lad. ~ e . w a soften invited, with his father, to dinner a t the Lavoisier's charming apartment in the Arsenal. Why an apartment in the Paris Arsenal for the Lavoisiers? With their wealth they could live anywhere, but they chose to live here. Lavoisier i t that time h a s Director i f Powders for France. Manufacturing gunpowder, in France, had earlier been farmed out to a mono~oly,the Ferme de Poudre. With no competition, this company had become lax, the powder hecame less in quantity, and poorer in quality. Indeed, French soldiers complained bitterly about the fact that English bullets carried twice as far as theirs. (Two decades earlier, France actually had to surrender ignominously in the middle of a war she was winning, because she ran out of gunpowder.) When Louis XVI came to the throne in 1775, he had liberal ideas-at first. He appointed "Honest" Jacques Turgot, Minister of Finance. Tureot. in turn. a o ~ o i n t e dhis vouna friend, Pierre du Pont, as hys deputy. ~ h i & a s the chance both du Pont and Lavoisier were h o.~ i n efor. No doubt they had discussed the matter previously. They quickly prevailed on Tureot to recommend to the King the abolishment of the of the New ~ a t i o i a Commission, l and ~ i r & t o rof Powders for France. Lavoisier was not interested in the modest salary for the position, but he felt that both the quality and the quantity of French gunpowder could be greatly increased using scientific methods. How right he was! Taking office in 1775, Lavoisier had, by 1778, improved French gunpowder until it was the best in the world, and he had increased the quantity to provide virtually the entire American revolutionary army with French
Volume 56. Number 12, December 1979 / 791
gunpowder. This was a turning point toward final victory for the Colonies. Pierre hoped to place his .younger . son, Elenthere Ir6nBe. in 3 placeot'jireafer wrurity and pmmiic than he had enioyed. N,,doul,t ht: had discussed this with 1.avoisier. On 1rPni.e'~ sixteenth birthday, Lavoisier offered the lad a job as an apprentice bookkeeper for the Powder Commission a t the Arsenal. The salary of 1200 francs a year was not much, but after four years, IrBn6e would be eligible for promotion. He accepted gladly. All went well for three years or more, but then something hannened. The most beautiful -eirl in the world-at least Ir.. knee thought so-crossed his horizon. I t was love, deep and abidine. hut how could he suunort . . a wife on 1200 francs a year? There were two vacancies for provincial powder inspectors, and he asked Lavoisier for one of these jobs. He wrote to his father, "That is one of the best ways to get into the Powder administration, and my marriage could in no way hurt my future if I could get the inspection of Alsace-."' Lavoisier was sympathetic, but Irenee knew nothing yet about powdet quality. He did, however, offer Irenee a job in the powder factory a t Essonne near Paris. The pay was good, as it should have been; this work was dangerous, even though the workers were protected behind heavy wooden barricades. In mite of Pierre's fears-he wrote to IrBnBe. "I would a thousand times rather have you keeping hooks a t the Arsenal-."' Irenee took the ioh and married his sweetheart. Sophie Dalmas. It was a t th:ls factory that Irenee learned how to make gunpowder to Lavoisier's high standards. France was moving into difficult times for men like du Pont and Lavoisier. Pierre, seeing no opportunity for a government post, decided to start a private press. With little money available, he called on his good friends, the Lavoisiers, for financial hacking. He wrote to Mme. Dalmas, that he had "borrowed 710,000 francs from Mme. Lavoisier for purchase of the printing house, to be repaid in twelve years with interest a t four per cent."' For a while, the du Pont Press flourished. Lavoisier, through his connection with the French Academy of Science, sent much work to the Press, including the Annual Reports of the Academy. For Lavoisier, however, things were not going well. When a mob threatened to assault the Arsenal, Lavoisier had had enough. He resigned from the Commission and moved out of the Arsenal. For a short time the moderates gained control of the government, and Lavoisier was invited to become Minister of Finance. This doubtful honor, be quickly declined. Then the Terror came. Pierre du Pont was in hiding. With his little hand of National Guards, he had stood with the Swiss Guards to protect the King and the palace. He was recognized, hidden hy son, Victor, now hack from America, and smuggled out to Bois-des-Fosses. Irenee, who reslgned his powder-making job a t Essonne, soon after Lavoisier left the Commission, to help his father a t the Press, suddenly found himself in full charge. Remembering Pierre's role in defense of the King, a mob broke the windows and damaged the presses, hut Irenee carried on. Lavoisier had been stripped of most of his private and public posts. The Ferme Generale had been eliminated, the Academy of Science was closed. Lavoisier was even stripped of his r81e as Chairman of the Commission on Weights and Measures (-which gave the world the now universal Metric Svstem). '1n ~ o v e m h e 1793, r the order went out to m e s t all available members of the former Ferme Generale. Learning this. Lavoisier went into hiding in Paris. Hearing, however, th& his verv good friend and father-in-law.. Jacques . Panlze, had been arrested, he surrendered. The farmers were told that they were in prison to settle their accounts with the government. When this was done, they would be released. They expected to he strimed of their fortunes. Lavoisier, h a v i n ~inherited his fathe;'; wealth, as well as gaining considerable of his own, stood to lose heavily, as did Jacques Paulze. 792 1 Journal of Chemical Education
Learnine of Lavoisier's arrest from Ir6nBe. Pierre was distraught. ~ e f e lthat t he must go to Paris a t once to help get his friend out of prison. It was all that IrBnBe, in Paris, and Sophie a t the farm, could do, to restrain him. They had to remind him constantly that he was proscribed in Paris and would be arrested as soon as recognized there. Time moved slowlv for the farmers. Thev had been stripued of their wealth hut not released. On ~ a y 6 t b1974, , somesix months after their arrest, they were advised that all twentythree would appear before the Revolutionary Tribunal on May 8th. They knew that this meant death under the guillotine. Young Judge Coffinhall, who later met the same fate these men were now to meet, was presiding. Many earlier historical accounts had it that Coffinhall uttered some such words as "France has no need for scientists, let Justice take its course." It is auite clear that he never made such a statement. He did The "trial" was over in less than three hours. All werecondemned to death. So auicklv was "iustice" carried out, that on that same afternoon these men mounted the tumbrils for the short ride to Revolutionarv Square where the guillotine stood waiting. The restless crdwd jostled each other, trying to get a good view of the show, wondering who these new ones might be. Heads and torsos of the twenty-three were dumped into a prepared trench in nearby Madeleine Cemetery. It was the brilliant, young Biologist, LaGrange, who uttered Lavoisier's lasting obituary, "It took but a moment to sever that head. hut France will not nroduce another like in a century." Marie Lavoisier had lost the two men she loved most. her husband, and her father; her childless brother had died earlier. In mid-May she drove down to Bois-des-Fosses with Iri.ni.e, to "forget." She was soon hack in Paris, and was arrested, June 14th, 1794. Now that the Committee on General Security had obtained the fortunes of the farmers so easily, why not get those of the spouses and other close relatives? The order went out. Pierre, a t the Farm, was greatly disturbed. He felt a sense of responsibility for Marie now. He complained in a letter to Irenee that, "You give us news of one of the women I admire (Mme. Poivre, widow of his good friend Pierre Poivre), but none of her who most interests my intelligence, my chivalry, and my heart."' Was that flowery statement just sympathy for his friend's widow? Indeed, no. It was more, much more. Pierre was courtine. Soon the rales of these two were reversed. Marie was freed, but penniless. She was taken in hv the husband-wife team who hadserved the Lavoisiers for many years. Pierre, on a secret mission to Paris, was recognized and iailed. His courtiua continued through prison walls. He wrotk to Irenee, "Tell the Citizen (Jailer) whether the news you sent me related to my cousin who lives on the Boulevard (Marie). For news of her is what I most want."' The next day. .. August .. 4th. 1794. Pierre repeated the request to IrBnBe. Things were again changing rapidly in France; the Terror was virtually over. Pierre wrote to IrBnBe, August 8th, "I do not believe that I will be free in less than a fortnight-though I expect freedom as confidently as a fortnight ago I expected death. I am looking forward to two or three days in Paris seeing-. and mv cousin on the Boulevard."' Aeain on Aumst " 12th, he wrote, "Give many messages for me to my cousin-."' Evidently, Marie was not responding to his messages, since Pierre also wrote, "I do not wish either to tire or distress her, but she knows what I think and what I feel for her."' Then the blow fell. Whatever Marie wrote to Pierre must have been cutting and caustic. Pierre wrote angrily to Irenee and Sophie, "She has embittered my life:I owe her, we all owe her, all we can do for her. It seems impossible to give her my friendship again, and it was my delight to give her my unreserved affection. I wish I could forget her, hut her hushand, who was my friend, entrusted her to my care-."' Marie's letter to Pierre has never come to light.
\Vhy did Marie trwt t h k (11d family friend i n r ~ w ha mullner? ~.'nd
