The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 112

THE BALTIMORE SUN 20 OCTOBER 26, 19 3 0 A French Refugee in Old Baltimore LOUIS GIRARDIN STUCK TO CAREER DESPITE HARDSHIPS by CATHERINE SCARBOROUGH again become drudgery, and he returns to the hope of his youth, to gain a livelihood as librarian of a national library. Although so completely identified with the country of his adoption he has not lost interest and pride in the country of his birth and longs especially for the leisure to defend its literary reputation against the deprecations of the English reviews. Personal causes contributed much to -this new discouragement. The prospect of a dreaded break in his family defeated his efforts to establish a reputation in Baltimore. His own health must have added to the depression, for the application to Jefferson for the post of Librarian of Congress was made hardly a year before his death.

His letter to Jefferson requesting the recommendation as Librarian of Congress enumerated the reasons which combined to A that Institution, which they are anxious to revive and place on the high ground of liberality and usefulness. But independently of the want of funds In that establishment, a circumstance which allows the trustees to offer to the Principal merely the use of a large, commodious and handsome building for the use of himself and the school, together with their personal influence among the parents and guardians of the youth of Baltimore, I am informed by Dr. Watkins, who is extremely friendly to me, that the Board of Electors consists chiefly of bigoted sectarians wedded to particular men as well as particular doctrines. A doubtful prospect, surely, but one which Girardin dcterminec to test. Jefferson made "friendly recommendations" in his behalf, and HUNDRED YEARS have come several volumes of the works of Louis Hue Girardin.

But his literary work seems to consist for the most part of beginnings." At this time, also, he began his acquaintance with Thomas Jefferson through "an exchange of books and of opinions in regard to them." Before very long Girardin left William and Mary to become joint proprietor and sole editor of the Richmond Enquirer. The work frustrate his "full success" at Baltimore College. The first was "the total want of funds." Second, "the entire prostration of Baltimore College and its deeply rooted unpopularity" were such that he could not prevail against them. Moreover, he was confronted by "the apathy of most of the trustees who, besides, are not men of predominating influence here." Equally difficult to combat were "the sectarian spirit and exclusive favoritism prevalent here." Finally, he was impotent against "the multiplicity of teachers in this place and the beggarly practices and disgraceful arts, intrigues, of most of them." In July, 1823, he offered his resignation to the trustees. As a counter-offer and to prevent the second prostration of the institution which, he declares, must inevitably have followed, they proposed leaving the college entirely to the management of M.

Girardin, uncontrolled by them, on condition of the payment of an annual rent of $400. Girardin, owing to "the importance of finishing the education of my daughters in music and drawing" (for it was his ambition to fit them to become "female and for other reasons aereed to th. nronosal. hut he Ionced and gone and another century has made considerable progress since Baltimore received the first of a not inconsiderable band of French refugees who fled to this country for political reasons after the Bonaparte regime. Few of them left direct impress on the country of their adoption, for most of them were here merely to wait an opportune moment to return to their own country.

They formed nationalistic groups and made no effort whatever to learn the language or to adapt themselves to the habits and customs of the new world. there were, however, exceptions. Some of them, as Dr. Edith Philips, assistant professor of Romance languages at Goucher College, has discovered in the course of an exhaustive study she is making of French emigration to this country, were poor and were forced to earn a living. "Others," she points out in a sketch which has been published by the Johns Hopkins Tress in this country and by Les Presses Universitaires dc France in Paris, "from a spirit of adventure did not hesitate to plunge into the life around them.

They learned English, married, founded homes, and really settled in the United States. It is among these completely assimilated refugees that we must look to find what intellectual contributions were made to America by the exiled French." Such a one was Louis Hue Girardin, who was born Louis Francois Picot, the name of Girardin having been assumed the better to elude his enemies, and who, according to an 1830 document, was the first president of the Maryland Academy of Science and Literature, although this varies from the academy tradition. "Girardin," says Dr. Philips, "was born in 1771, near Dreux, in Normandy. He was educated at the Lycee of Rouen and was always fond of books and very studious." Voung picot, to give him his real name, is said to have been considered by his teachers the best Latin scholar and poet in the class.

After finishing his work'at the Lycee he went to Paris, on the invitation of M. Philippon de la Madeleine, where he became acquainted with the literary personages of the day and remained until the Revolution "interrupted all work which depended on patronage and favor." The result was the return of M. Picot to Rouen, where he wrote a series of articles defending the theory of constitutional monarchy for the Journal de la Seine Injerieure. These articles resulted in a summons before a Revolutionary tribunal and he was forced to leave Rouen and return to his native Dreux. But, says Dr.

Philips, the times called for action, and even a scholarly poet could not remain long Inactive. His opinions seem to have become more strongly Royalist, and he became LOUIS HUE GIRARDIN First head of the Maryland Academy of Science for the cloisters of the library. ate jefferson cheerfully complied with the request for a letter of indorsement to the President, but the appointment was not forthcoming. There was no vacancy. Girardin's next letter to Jefferson preceded the former's death by only a few months and has to do with the matter of obtaining documents for the Memoirs of Lafayette from Lafayette himself, also through the good offices of Jef-" ferson.

The matter was satisfactorily arranged and at the time of his death, says Ducatel, Girardin was engaged in writing the life of the French general. Another abortive enterprise, comments Dr. Philips, "this time not to be blamed on any varying whims of his own." Girardin died in Baltimore on February 16, 1825. Laudatory comments accompanied the announcement of the event by the Baltimore American, "showing the high esteem and admiration which the citizens of Baltimore felt for this foreigner who had worked so untir-ingly in their interest." Funds were collected by the students of the Baltimore College to raise a monument to his memory. The college itself struggled along for a few years more and finally was merged into the University of Maryland in 1830.

jjfe cirardin's was not a life, Dr. Philips concludes, "of any brilliant accomplishments. Yet he was able to impress a man of Jefferson's brilliance with the value of his character and mind, and all of those who came in contact with him felt that he had something unusual to give them. Perhaps it was because, in a new country where economic struggle was receiving more attention than cultivation of the mind, he steadfastly held to his literary tastes and to his ideals for propagating those tastes in the face of great obstacles." And in the life of Girardin is to be traced the story of the careers of many of those French refugees who came to America, bringing with them, in spite of their royalist affiliations, a cult of freedom and an attitude toward the country of their adoption which did much to offset Ihe impression created by those vagabonds who drifted about the country, teaching music nd drawing and dancing and doing much to discredit their country in the eyes of serious-minded men. Lonely, and in many ways a misfit, Girardin, nevertheless, stuck by his guns to the end, and in the end died with honor to his memory.

seems to have been exceedingly congenial, but in December, 1811, while he was engaged at it, his wife and only son were burned to death in a theater fire a calamity which "crushed his ambition and ruined his health. He went back to teaching in an academy at Staunton, and tried to fill his life with routine work which really was not congenial to him." Here, too, he renewed his acquaintance with Jefferson, which had been allowed to lapse because of Girardin's hesitancy to intrude on the President's time, and began to work on his "Continuation of Burks History of Virginia," an undertaking in which Jefferson assisted him materially with records and documents and friendly advice. This was one of the few literary works which Girardin was able to finish, and Jefferson seems to have held the result in high esteem. cirardin's life at staunton, however, seems to have been a long-drawn-out agony. The depression which settled down upon him with the death of his wife and son in the tragedy at Richmond deepened constantly.

His own health suffered. His sister-in-law, who succeeded his wife as the mistress of the household, also became the victim of a malady which a number of years later caused her death. His daughters suffered from lack of adequate educational facilities and his small farm failed miserably to produce. In a letter to Jefferson, dated August 16, 1820, detailing "the thousand and one insect vexations" which had harassed his days, he announces his proposed removal to Baltimore for a venture whose very existence is probably unknown to all Ballimoreans of today save a few antiquarians Some of the trustees Baltimore College have thought of me as Principal of in a few months the man who had been so hopelessly discouraged at Staunton felt "himself imbued with efficient energy and steadfastness." On April 1, 1821, he wrote to JeffeTson: The college was reopened 15, and we have nearly forty students, not Including about as many who attend the college for Dr. Watkins lectures on modern literature.

We expect six or eight more tomorrow as it is the commencement of a quarter. Further profes-ttorshlps of a high character are In progress while our modest academic basis is daily enlarged. I trust that within a year or two the Baltimore College will have Just claim to a respectable Ktalion among the eminent Institutions of the country. nearly two vears later, however, Dr. Philips has discovered, Girardin was still facing difficulties, though he was still confident of ultimate success.

He had made the acquaintance of the leading literary and scientific men of the city and seems to have joined with them in founding the Maryland Academy of Science and Literature. In a biographical notice, written by J. T. Ducatel and published in the Transactions of the Maryland Academy of Science and Literature shortly after the death of Girardin, in 1830, he is mentioned as having been interested in its foundation as well as having been its first president. The traditions of the society, however, place its organization at a much earlier date, connecting it with a group of men who met at the museum of Charles Wilson Teale.

The spirit of optimism with which Girardin undertook his work at Baltimore College finally faded and died. Three years of struggle to make a college out of nothing have killed his vaunted energy and steadfastness. The work has known as a Girondist, then enlisted under (lie Comte de Puisaye. and fought Willi the Chouans until the failure of the movement. After this adventure even Preux was nut siiflielent refuge, and young l'icot lied to Brent and theilee to America, where he landed at Hamilton Roads, iu company with the Marquis de Cairon.

A Frenchman, who owned a smnU farm in Maryland, received them hotli and the young student with his titled friend began life In America as farm laborers. Picot had rather vague ideas about American customs and the fear that his enemies In France could legally pursue him in this count rr led him to take the name of Louis Hue Girardin. fortunately Girardin had an excellent knowledge of English that, coupled with his education and his aristocratic tastes, made the period of his indenture on the farm of short duration. Archbishop Carroll became interested in him and through his influence Girardin was invited to teach a.t Georgetown College. How long was his stay at Georgetown is unknown.

Some time after 1793, however, he left there to take a professorship in the College of William and Mary. At this time he seems to have been inoculated with the desire to make a place for himself in the literary world. His intentions, like so many others', were admirable, and if all of bis enterprises had been brought to completion, Dr. Philips points out, "we should have.