Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/471

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LAFAYETTE COLLEGE 395 LAFONTAINE hatred of the Jacobins increased, and at length Lafayette, who had gone from the army to Paris publicly to denounce the Jacobin Club, finding on his return to the camp that he could not persuade his soldiers to march to Paris to save the constitution, rode over into the neu- tral territory of Liega He was seized by the Austrians and imprisoned at 01- miitz till Bonaparte obtained his libera- tion in 1797; but he took no part in public affairs during the ascendency of Bonaparte. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies from 1818 to 1824 as one of the extreme Left, and from 1825 to 1830 he was again a leader of the opposition. In 1830 he took an active part in the revolution, and commanded the National Guards. In 1824 he revisited the United States, by invitation of Congress, which voted him a grant of $200,000 and a township of land. He died in Paris, May 20, 1834. In 1898 the public school children in the United States contributed in small sums the funds for a statue of Lafayette, which was erected in Paris, LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, an educa- tional institution in Easton, Pa. ; founded in 1826 under the auspices of the Pres- byterian Church; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 48; students, 695; volumes in the library, 60,000; productive funds, $961,988; in- come, $173,990; president, J. H. Mc- Cracken, Ph.D., LL.D. LA FERE, a town in France, in the Aisne department, on an island in the Oise, near its confluence with the Serre, 14 miles N. W. of Laon. It is a fortress of the second class, and has a school of artillery. During the Allied offensives of 1917 La Fere formed a point in the Hindenburg line and was the scene of much fighting. Pog. about 5,000. LAFITTE, JEAN (la-fef), an Ameri- can buccaneer; born in France, 1780. He is first authentically known as the chief of an organized and formidable body of desperadoes, having their head- quarters on an island in Barataria Bay, in the Gulf of Mexico. Committing vari- ous piratical acts, the United States Government sent out an expedition against them in 1814, which captured their stronghold and all vessels lying there at the time, Lafitte and his com- panions escaping. At the commence- ment of the war with the United States in 1812, Lafitte was offered by the Brit- ish Government $30,000, and a naval commission, to co-operate in their ex- pedition against New Orleans. This offer he spurned, and communicating its nature to Governor Claiborne of Louisi- ana, he offered the services of himself and men against the enemy, on the sole condition of pardon for their past offenses. His offer was accepted, and Lafitte kept his word by rendering effi- cient aid to the Americans in the battle of Jan. 8, 1815. Lafitte later settled in Galveston, then removed to Yucatan, where he died in 1826. LA FOLLETTE, ROBERT MARION, a United States Senator from Wisconsin ; born in Primrose, Wis., in 1855. He graduated, University of Wisconsin, in 1879. The following year he was ad- mitted to the bar. From 1880 to 1884 R. M. LA FOLLETTE he was District Attorney for Dane co. From 1885 to 1891 he was a member of Congress and took a prominent part in framing the McKinley Bill. He was elected governor of Wisconsin in 1903 and 1905. In the latter year he was elected United States Senator, and was re-elected in 1910 and 1916. From his earliest entry in political life he was an advocate of liberal, and at times, radical policies, both in the State and National government. He was a candidate for the presidency in 1908 and in 1912. He refused the nomination of the Farmer- Labor Party in 1920. LAFONTAINE, AUGUST HEIN- RICH JULIUS (la-f67ifif-tan'), a German novelist; born in Brunswick, Oct. 5, 1758. He wrote more than 150 novels,