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Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States

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Portrait of General Lafayette (by Matthew Harris) in 1825

From July 1824 to September 1825, the last surviving French general of the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette, made a tour of the 24 states in the United States. At many stops on this tour he was received by the populace with a hero's welcome, and many honors and monuments were presented to commemorate and memorialize the Marquis de Lafayette's visit.

Reason for the visit

The Marquis de Lafayette led troops alongside George Washington in the American Revolution over 40 years earlier. He fought in several crucial battles including the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania, and the Siege of Yorktown in Virginia.

The Marquis had returned to France and pursued a political career championing the ideals of liberty that the fledgling U.S. republic represented. While the Bourbon constitutional monarchy had been in place in France for at least ten years, in the spring of 1824, King Louis XVIII was wheelchair bound and suffering from severe health issues that would prove fatal by late summer.[1] Further, Lafayette was being monitored by the dying King.[2] After the Marquis left the French legislature in 1824, President James Monroe invited him to tour the United States, partly to instill the "spirit of 1776" in the next generation of Americans[3] and partly to celebrate the nation's 50th anniversary.[4]

The traveling party

During his trip, he visited all of the American states and travelled more than 6,000 miles (9,656 km).[5][6] Lafayette was accompanied by, among others, his son Georges Washington de La Fayette.[3] For part of the journey, Lafayette was also accompanied by social reformer Fanny Wright.[7] The main means of transportation for the party were stagecoach, horseback, canal barge and steamboat.[8]

Welcoming celebrations

Landing of General Lafayette at Castle Garden, New York, 16 August 1824

Different cities celebrated in different ways. Some held parades or conducted an artillery salute. In some places schoolchildren were brought to welcome the Marquis. Veterans from the war, some of whom were in their sixties and seventies, welcomed the Marquis, and some dined with him. While touring Yorktown, he recognized and embraced James Armistead Lafayette, a free negro who adopted his last name to honour the Marquis (he was the first US double agent spy); the story of the event was reported by the Richmond Enquirer.[9]

General timeline

He left France on an American merchant vessel, the Cadmus, on July 13, 1824. Lafayette's extended tour began on August 15, 1824, when he arrived at Staten Island, New York. Lafayette toured the northern and eastern states in the fall of 1824, including stops at Monticello to visit Thomas Jefferson and Washington, D.C., where he was received at the White House by President James Monroe. Lafayette began his tour of the Southern United States in March 1825, arriving at the Fort Mitchell crossing of the Chattahoochee River on March 31.[3]

Detailed timeline

A lighthouse clock made by Simon Willard to commemorate the visit of the Marquis to the U. S. White House library

1824

1825

January 1825

  • January 1 – Attends a banquet hosted by Congress.[14]
  • January 19 – Visits Baltimore and leaves January 20 on a steamboat bound for Norfolk, on his way to visit the legislature of Virginia at Richmond.[23]

February 1825

March 1825

April 1825

May 1825

June 1825

July 1825

August 1825

September 1825

  • September 6 – Lafayette arrives in Washington, D.C., where he meets the new U.S. President John Quincy Adams, addresses a joint session of Congress and celebrates his 68th birthday at a White House banquet with President Adams.[12]
  • September 7 – Lafayette leaves Washington and returns to France on the frigate USS Brandywine.[5]

Honors received during the trip

Fayetteville, North Carolina, was named after him. The College of William and Mary on October 20, 1824, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Late in the trip, he again received honorary citizenship of Maryland.[a] He was voted, by the U.S. Congress, the sum of $200,000 and a township of land in Tallahassee, Florida, to be known as the Lafayette Land Grant.[62][63]

1825: Conveying Marquis de Lafayette back to France

The Marquis had expressed his intention of sailing for home sometime in the late summer or early autumn of 1825. President John Quincy Adams decided to have an American warship carry the Marquis de Lafayette back to Europe. Adams chose a recently built 44-gun frigate (originally named Susquehanna) for this honor, and accordingly, as a gesture of the nation's affection for Lafayette, the frigate was renamed Brandywine to commemorate the battle in which the Frenchman had shed his blood for American freedom. Launched on June 16, 1825, and christened by Sailing Master Marmaduke Dove, Brandywine was commissioned on August 25, 1825, Capt. Charles Morris in command.

Lafayette enjoyed a last state dinner to celebrate his 68th birthday on the evening of September 6, and then embarked in the steamboat Mount Vernon on the 7th for the trip downriver to join Brandywine. On the 8th, the frigate stood out of the Potomac River and sailed down Chesapeake Bay toward the open ocean.

As he sat on the Brandywine ready to depart, General Isaac Fletcher conveyed Revolutionary War compatriot General William Barton's greetings as well as Barton's situation with respect to being in debtor's prison in Danville, Vermont, for 14 years. Lafayette promptly paid Barton's fine and thus allowed him to return to his family in Rhode Island.[64]

After a stormy three weeks at sea, the warship arrived off Le Havre, France, early in October, and, following some initial trepidation about the government's attitude toward Lafayette's return to a France now ruled by King Charles X, Brandywine's honored passenger returned home.

Notes

  1. ^ Lafayette was already a "natural born" American citizen via his pre-Constitution Maryland citizenship.[61]

References

  1. ^ "1824." The People's Chronology. Ed. Jason M. Everett. Vol. 1. Gale Cengage, 2006. eNotes.com. 12 December 2012.
  2. ^ Kent, Emerson. "The Man With 'Great Zeal to the Cause of Liberty'". Emerson Kent. Retrieved 12 December 2012. Lafayette was very much against the Bourbon Restoration, including their excessive spending, and began to plot against the King, who in turn tried to monitor him closely.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Lafayette's Visit to Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2012-05-18. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  4. ^ Glatthaar, Joseph T.; James Kirby Martin (2007). Forgotten Allies, The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8090-4600-3., p.3
  5. ^ a b Clary, David (2007). Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution. New York, New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-80435-5., pp. 443-444
  6. ^ Loveland, Anne (1971). Emblem of Liberty: The Image of Lafayette in the American Mind. LSU Press. ISBN 0-8071-2462-1., p. 3
  7. ^ "Frances Wright". Monticello.org. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Barcousky, Len (March 9, 2008). "Eyewitness 1825: Pittsburgh honors 'The Nation's Guest'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  9. ^ Kimball, Gregg D. (2000). "4. The Shaping of Black Memory in Antebellum Virginia 1790-1860". In William Fitzhugh Brundage (ed.). "Richmond+Enquirer"&source=bl&ots=Ux15ekQeWl&sig=7yG3WwLB-33l1-KewUf10UqAI3A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NRRGU-GxE4PZigfXl4GICw&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=James Lafayette "Richmond Enquirer"&f=false Where These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity. UNC Press Books. p. 60. Retrieved April 2014. {{cite book}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Levasseur, Auguste. Alan R. Hoffman (trans.) Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825. Lafayette Press, Manchester, NH (2006).
  11. ^ An Officer in the Late Army A Complete History of Marquis de Lafayette Major-General in the American Army in the War of the Revolution. Columbus: J. & H. Miller, Publishers, 1858.
  12. ^ a b c d e William Jones (November 2007). "Rekindling the Spark of Liberty: Lafayette's Visit to the United States, 1824-1825". Retrieved September 13, 2011.
  13. ^ a b "Gould's History of Freemasonry Throughout the World - Volume 5". Phoenixmasonry.org. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  14. ^ a b Clark, Allen C. (1919). "General Roger Chew Weightman". In John B. Larner (ed.). Records of the Columbia Historical Society. pp. 67–75.
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  19. ^ "Newspaper Article: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe - Part 2". Richmondthenandnow.com. 1935-01-13. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
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  21. ^ "Lafayette Hall - GWUEncyc". Encyclopedia.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  22. ^ Niles' Register Dec. 25, 1824, 27:259.
  23. ^ Niles' Register Jan. 22, 1825, 27:386.
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  29. ^ http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=E-68
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  34. ^ Murray, Elizabeth Reid (1983). Wake. Vol. Vol. 1. Raleigh, North Carolina: Capital County Publishing Company. pp. Pages 222–226. ASIN B000M0ZYF4. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  35. ^ Levasseur, Auguste Reid (1829). Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825. Vol. Vol. 2. Philadelphia, PA: Carey and Lea. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  36. ^ Beaufort: A History. The History Press. Retrieved 2013-02-24.
  37. ^ a b "Georgia History Timeline / Chronology 1825". Ourgeorgiahistory.com. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
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  46. ^ a b c d "Lafayette in Louisiana | Entries | KnowLA, Encyclopedia of Louisiana". Knowla.org. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  47. ^ Fortier, Alcée (1904). A History of Louisiana. New York: Manzi, Joyant & Co., vol. 3, p. 207.
  48. ^ "General Lafayette's 1825 Visit to Baton Rouge". Historical Baton Rouge blog. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  49. ^ [2]
  50. ^ Lloyd's Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters, Cincinnati, Ohio; James T. Lloyd & Co, 1856, pages 260-261; cited by gendisasters.com, "Cannelton (Lafayette Spring), IN Steamer MECHANIC Sinking, May 1825". Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  51. ^ Rietveld, Ronald D. (2006). "Abraham Lincoln's Thomas Jefferson". In Pederson, William D. and Williams, Frank J. (ed.). The Great Presidential Triumvirate at Home and Abroad: Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. New York, NY: Nova Science Publ. p. 42. ISBN 1600213189.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
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  57. ^ Frank Esposito, The Madison Heritage Trail (1985)
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  64. ^ Jay Read Pember, A Day with Lafayette in Vermont (1911) http://books.google.com/books?id=tLhAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+Day+with+Lafayette+in+Vermont++By+Jay+Read+Pember&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IKK8Ud6uOYi-9QSy6YHgAg&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA pp 17-18

Sources