NO event in the early history of the United States stirred such depths of popular affection as the famous visit of General Lafayette-for, was he not the friend of the first President, the adopted son of America, as well as, in many minds, the savior of the country? His life had been tilled with stirring romance -the years of early manhood spent in defense of the freedom of the American colonies, in forwarding the cause of liberty in his own land and as a prisoner of state in the dungeons of Austria. Then, at the age of sixty-seven, after an absence of nearly half a century, upon the invitation of the young republic of the United States he crossed the ocean once more to look upon the land of his youthful affection.
From one limit of our territory to another he went, passing through each of the twenty-four States. He visited all of the principal cities; he was the guest of two presidents in the White House; he took part in three anniversaries of the Revolutionary War, in every place such crowds thronging to see him that few persons failed to catch a glimpse of his face.
Many souvenirs in honor of Lafayette’s visit made their appearance--the ladies wearing Lafayette buckles upon their slippers and his portrait upon their scarfs and their gloves; his features also appeared upon buttons and upon the material of which men’s waistcoats were made. And, as blue china decorated with American views was then at the height of its popularity, numerous dinner and tea sets bearing the pictured story of his visit came to America from over the sea. “W elcome, Lafayette, the Nation’s Guest and our Country’s Glory" and “As Brave and Disinterested as Washington” were among the sentiments printed upon china with which the English potters honored their one-time foe. Lafayette’s visit was coincident with the completion of the Erie Canal, therefore his portrait (as the following chapter relates) graced also the pottery produced in honor of that occasion.
The first illustration is of the Cadmus, the sailing vessel in which Lafayette, accompanied by his son George Washington Lafayette, and his secretary, came to America. This picture is of special value, for it preserves a sketch of an American merchantman, a type of vessel in common use upon the seas for many years after the colonies had become a republic. The Cadmus was placed at the disposal of General Lafayette and his party by its New York owners after the offer of President Monroe to send a Government vessel to fetch them had been refused. No other passengers were allowed on board, no cargo was shipped, nor would the owners accept any reward for their services, deeming the honor of conveying the distinguished guest a sumcient return. As it appears in the illustration, framed in an appropriate border of sea shells and mosses, the little vessel seems to float upon as calm and sunlit a sea as that which bore the hero to our shores.
After fifteen days’ sail the Cadmus reached New York harbor, and, welcomed by the booming of cannon from Fort Lafayette, she put into port at Staten Island. It was Sabbath day, and, in compliance with the wishes of the citizens of New York, the guests were quietly received at the home of vice-President Daniel D. Tompkins on Staten Island. Upon the following moming the formal entry into the United States took place, and from the beautiful blue platter inscribed: “Landing of General Lafayette at Castle Garden, August 16, 1824,” may be read the story of that famous landing scene. The old fort, or Castle Garden (other views of which may be found in a former chapter), is separated from the Battery by a bridge 300 feet long; the harbor is thronged with gayly trimmed vessels; the Battery guns are booming forth a welcome; and heralds are galloping excitedly to and fro. Three of the newly invented steamboats, “Boating palaces,” Lafayette called them, may be seen--the one in the center being the Fulton, and the large boat at the left the Chancellor Livingston, with the honored guest on board—the Chancellor Livingston at that time being considered the most beautiful and luxurious vessel in the world. Following in the train of the steamboats, as the naval procession makes its way to the landing at the Battery, comes the Cadmus "borne in triumph rather than towed" by the new vessels. Looking upon this scene, in fancy one hears the welcoming huzzas of two hundred thousand people as Lafayette steps upon the shore; strains of the French song, "Where can one better be than in the bosom of his family," fill the air; and listen, do you not catch the broken voice of the battle-scarred warrior of the Revolution as he grasps his hero's hand:—"I saw you in the heat of battle. You were but a boy, but you were a serious and sedate lad."
To the City Hall (the beautiful building pictured in a former chapter), Lafayette's carriage is drawn, and the illustrious guest listens to the Mayor's speech of welcome, the popular sentiments of gratitude which he voices being later echoed throughout every State in the Union:
"Posterity will never forget the young and gallant Frenchman who consecrated his youth, his talents, his fortune and his exertions to their cause, who exposed his life, who shed his blood, that they might become free and happy. They will recollect that you came to them in the darkest period of their struggle, that you linked your fortune with theirs when it seemed almost hopeless—that you shared in the dangers, privations and suffer[...] that bitter struggle, nor quitted them for a mor[...] it was consummated in the glorious field of Yo[...] The people of the United States look up to you as their most honored parents."
In preceding chapters many of New York's buil[...] streets and squares that met the eyes of the distingui[...] guests have been pictured, among them the City [...] on Broadway, the famous hostelry in which they lo[...] Saint Paul's Chapel, then out in the fields, in w[...] Lafayette attended a concert of sacred music, remar[...] upon the beauty of the ladies of the audience; Colu[...] College, Scudder's Museum, the Hospital and A[...] house. The French guests went to see a play at i Park Theater, and such a tumult arose upon Lafayett[...] entrance that the actors were obliged to stop the performance and to sing verses bearing the refrains, "The Companion of Washington," "The Captive of Olmutz," "The Guest of the Nation."
At a banquet tendered by the French residents of New York to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the Battle of the Brandywine, Lafayette found the table carved in imitation of the Erie Canal, then nearing completion. For a distance of seventy feet, the length of the table, a slender stream of water found its way between banks lined with trees, under miniature bridges and through meadows dotted with tiny houses and cattle. The Grand Fete, for which the city had been preparing for many weeks, eclipsed all other entertainments. It took place in Castle Garden, the guests passing from the Battery over the long bridge, now laid with rich carpets, lined with evergreens and adorned with statues of Washington and Hamilton. From the center of the bridge rose a pyramid seventy-five feet high, illumined with colored lamps and crowned with a star blazing the name Lafayette. In the interior of the Hall stood thirteen columns, each one decorated with the Coat of Arms of one of the original thirteen States. Lafayette entered the vaulted building through a triumphal arch, and as he took his seat the familiar refrain, "Where can one better be than in the bosom of his family," filled the hall, up rolled the curtains which formed the sides, and a huge transparency of Lafayette's French chateau La Grange, entitled "Here is his Home," was flashed before him, to the accompaniment of rousing cheers.
Lafayette and his party, together with an escort of New York citizens, set out for a visit to Boston, traveling by coach, as it was several years before the days of railroads. At every village and hamlet in their five days' journey they were greeted with banquets, speeches, fireworks and processions; they passed under triumphal arches inscribed with the names of Lafayette and Washington, or with the dates of the Battles of the Brandywine and Yorktown; torch-bearing horsemen escorted them from village to village; and their passage was lighted with bonfires kindled on the hilltops and cheered with bugle calls echoing through the valleys. The approach to Boston was lined for two miles with militia, among the escort being a company of sixty boys drawing a cannon, which, in their eagerness to salute the guest, they stopped now and then and fired. Upon Boston Common, Lafayette made his way through a long double line of boys and girls from the public schools, each one decorated with a Lafayette ribbon; a little girl stepped forward and was raised to the General's carriage, she placed a crown of evergreen upon his head, embraced him and called him "Father."
The Boston which greeted General Lafayette has already been studied in illustrations—the State House and the homes of the city's prominent citizens, fronting upon the Common; the churches, Library, Hospital, and places of business and amusement. In the Halls of Harvard College, Lafayette attended the exercises of Commencement, and was greeted with especial honor as one who had "founded a democratic government under which education best flourishes." Commodore Bainbridge, one of the naval heroes of the War of 1812, received Lafayette at the Charlestown Navy Yard. At Bunker Hill, Lafayette paused at the grave of General Warren; and he went quietly out to Quincy and gladdened the heart of his old friend, ex-President John Adams, then a man of eighty-nine. At Lexington, the militia defiled before Lafayette as he stood beside the pyramid which still marks the place where the first martyrs of American liberty fell, the French hero himself, as the speaker said in his address, "A second and living monument of the Revolution." Boston's farewell banquet was served under an immense tent on the Common, to twelve hundred guests, the center of the table being graced with a silver dish filled with arms, shot, military buttons, etc., collected on Bunker Hill.
A pleasant incident of the return journey to New York is suggested by the illustration of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum of Hartford, Connecticut, the first institution of its kind in the United States, having been opened but seven years before Lafayette's visit by Thomas H. Gallaudet. The unfortunate children who were drawn up in line to greet Lafayette pointed to a banner which they held over their hearts, inscribed with the words, "What others express, we feel." In this city a comrade of Revolutionary days presented to Lafayette the very epaulettes and scarf which he wore upon the field of Brandywine; they still retained traces of his blood. The party made a short stop at New Haven in order to pay a visit to Yale College, before returning to New York.
Lafayette's sail up the Hudson River in the steamboat James Kent, accompanied by a number of ladies and gentlemen of New York, was one long gala jaunt. A group of Revolutionary veterans attended the General, and together they spent many hours on deck in enjoyment of the beautiful scenery—the Passes in the Highlands, the mountains, the fertile shores, and the boats of many kinds plying up and down the river. As their vessel passed historic points on the river banks, the company reviewed the events of fifty years before: approaching Tarrytown, they pronounced the names of the three militiamen, John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wert, who near that spot had taken Major Andre prisoner, as he was attempting to pass to the English lines with treasonable papers concealed in his boots; a little farther up the river, all eyes turned in the direction of a house standing alone, not far from the river bank—in that house Benedict Arnold had trafficked for the ruin of his country.
At West Point, the party went ashore and were driven in carriages up the hill to the Military Academy, where Lafayette reviewed the cadets, two hundred in number, and partook of their entertainment. Upon the platter pictured in a former chapter is a view of the river bank, the hills and the small group of buildings as they appeared to the guests in 1824. The James Kent was four hours late in arriving at Newburgh, and the thousands of people who had gathered to greet Lafayette had become impatient and beyond the control of the officers. At last, while the General was at dinner, the tumult became so loud that the mayor of the town took Lafayette by the hand, and, preceded by torches, they made their way to an upper balcony of the hotel which overlooked the street.
"Gentlemen," called the mayor to the crowds below, "Do you wish to distress the Nation's Guest ?" "No! No! No!"
"Do you wish that Lafayette should be deprived of his liberty in a country indebted to him for its freedom?" "No! No! No!"
The people became silent and respectful.
Poughkeepsie, the next landing place, was at that time a town of nearly five thousand inhabitants, and Lafayette was entertained in the very house where Washington, Hamilton, Chancellor Livingston and Mr. Jay had met to discuss the Constitution which afterwards was adopted by the United States. Continuing their voyage, the party spent the night at Clermont, the country residence of Chancellor Livingston, the name of which Robert Fulton gave to the first boat to make the trip by steam upon the Hudson.
As the vessel wound its slow way up the river, glimpses of the Catskill Mountains, which have been presented in the "Tour of the Land," called forth exclamations of delight from the passengers. When, at the village of Catskill, Lafayette was greeted by a soldier who had fought with him on the field of Brandywine, and at Hudson, another veteran handed him a sword which he had once received from Lafayette, with the words: "After my death this sword will change owners, but its destination shall never be changed: it shall always serve in defense of liberty," the General's joy was expressed in tears.
Albany awaited the Guest of the Nation with elaborate festivities, "those who shared with you the toils of the Revolution and still live," as the speaker said, paying him tribute. Lafayette noted important changes in the city which, as a village upon the frontier of a vast wilderness half a century before, had served him for army headquarters. Now it was rich and powerful, the seat of government of New York State, with a population of 16,000 people. Ex-Governor DeWitt Clinton, of Erie Canal fame, accompanied Lafayette to Troy, where the citizens bore the General upon their shoulders, and the fair members of the Troy Female Seminary wept tears of joy over him.
Shortly after his return to New York, Lafayette set out upon his third excursion, this time through the States of the South and the West. Like the New England and the Hudson River journeys, this, too, was marked by a succession of festivities and of reunions of old companions-in-arms, at many places memories of the Revolution and of his friend Washington crowding upon him. At Bergen, in New Jersey, a cane made from a branch of the apple tree under which he had once breakfasted with Washington was presented to him: Princeton University made him a member of one of its societies: and at Trenton, an elaborate entertainment befitting the historic character of the place was in waiting.
Upon his approach to Philadelphia, it seemed to Lafayette that the entire population of the city had come out to meet him. He drove past several groups of men representing the different trades, in the center of each corps being a workshop in which the workmen were busy at their employments, each shop bearing a banner decorated with portraits of Washington and Lafayette, and the legend, "To their wisdom and courage we owe the free exercise of our industry." As Lafayette passed the shop of the printers, a freshly printed "Ode to Lafayette" was tossed into his coach and copies were scattered among the crowd. After driving through thirteen triumphal arches, Lafayette found himself in front of Independence Hall, where, at the foot of the statue of Washington, he received a welcome to the city of Penn —the city in which, in the year 1777, he had pledged himself to devote his life and his fortune to a cause then almost desperate.
With his usual eagerness to look upon the changes which nearly half a century had brought to the American cities, Lafayette spent much time apart from the gayeties prepared for him in visits to the public institutions of Philadelphia. He was interested in the Library building, in the Pennsylvania Hospital and the United States Bank, all of which we have already looked upon in the illustrations of a former chapter. The pictures of the Dam and Waterworks on the Schuylkill River present the identical sight which Lafayette drove out to see, and over the mechanical skill of which he marveled. Remembering Lafayette's affection for Benjamin Franklin, the English potters printed sets of dishes with a fanciful scene supposed to represent the French hero mourning at the tomb of his old Philadelphia friend.
Upon the battlefield of Brandywine, Lafayette pointed out to his son the exact spot where the British army crossed the river in 1777, and the principal places where the patriot army had maneuvered and fought and where, when wounded, his own blood had been shed. The picture of Gilpin's Mills, in another chapter, was taken upon the estate of Gideon Gilpin, at whose home Lafayette was cared for when wounded, and where upon this visit he found Mr. Gilpin, his former host, an aged and invalid man.
Baltimore greeted her distinguished guest by sending out to meet him at Fort McHenry a company of her soldiers who, in the War of 1812, had gallantly defended that fortress from the British guns. As Lafayette approached the gates of Baltimore, twenty-four young women, armed with lances inscribed with the names of the twenty-four States, crowned him with laurel. Views of early Baltimore which have been shown include the Battle Monument, the Exchange, the University, Almshouse, etc. While in Baltimore, Lafayette attended the annual Fair of the Farmers of Maryland, and distributed the prizes for the best livestock, he himself being presented with a young bull, some heifers, wild turkeys and hogs for his estate in France. At the Society's banquet Lafayette proposed the following suggestive toast: "To the seed of American liberty transplanted to other shores—choked until now, but not destroyed, by European weeds; may it germinate and spring up anew, more vigorous, and less degenerate, and cover the soil of the two hemispheres."
From Baltimore to Washington the Nation's Guest traveled by carriage, and entered the capital city accompanied with a long escort. They proceeded at once to the Capitol, where Congress formally welcomed them, then to the President's House, where President Monroe presented them to the members of his official and domestic families. In his wanderings about the city Lafayette found many evidences of the disastrous British occupation in the War of 1812, the President's House and the Capitol having been since rebuilt. The remainder of the winter of 1824-5, with the exception of an excursion to Yorktown, saw the nation's guests in Washington, feted and honored. The scene in the House of Representatives upon the occasion of Lafayette's introduction was one long remembered—the members of the Senate were also assembled in the House, and as Lafayette entered and passed to the center of the Hall, all rose and listened to Henry Clay's words of greeting. The line "Republicans are not always ungrateful," which appears on one old jug, has reference to the act of Congress in presenting Lafayette, in recognition of his services to the cause of liberty, the sum of $20,000 and an estate of 240,000 acres of our public lands. The famous Monroe Doctrine was discussed in Congress that winter, and the French guests were interested listeners to the debates.
Lafayette sailed down the Potomac to pay a visit to Mount Vernon, the former home of Washington. Three nephews of Washington greeted the French party and welcomed them to the estate, at the same time presenting Lafayette with a ring containing locks of the hair of their illustrious uncle and his wife, and engraved with the words, "Pater Patriae, Mount Vernon, 1776 and 1824." George Washington Lafayette was much affected as he strolled about the estate which twentyeight years before had been his home for two years, while terror reigned in France and while his father was a prisoner of state in Austria. A visit to the Tomb of Washington ended their stay at Mount Vernon. Can we not picture to ourselves the little procession as it wound its slow way from the mansion to the cypress grove not far away, where stood the Tomb so sacred to their eyes? Lafayette entered the enclosure alone and returned with his face wet with tears; then he took his son by the hand, and together they passed through the gate and laid wreaths upon the last resting places of their old friends, George and Martha Washington. Slowly, thoughtfully, the little band found its way down to the river bank, each with a branch of cypress in his hand, and in silence they boarded the waiting vessel. The fanciful view with which the English potters commemorated this solemn scene, a man in foreign dress seated before a tomb marked "Washington," is quite out of keeping with the setting of the original occurrence.
Yorktown awaited its hero with banners flying and streets thronged with people gathered from all the countryside. Under an arch erected upon the site of the English redoubt which he had formerly carried at the head of the American troops, Lafayette, crowned with laurel, addressed the assemblage in the name of the "Sons of the Mountains." He reviewed Revolutionary days and talked over old campaigns with former companions-in-arms, one of whom affectionately entreated him not to return to Europe, but to remain in America where "in every heart you have a friend." By chance, Lafayette was lodged in Yorktown in the very house which Cornwallis had occupied forty-three years before, and, while rummaging in the cellar, one of his men came upon a large chest of candles which had been left there since the English officer's time. The candles were carried to the camp upon the Common and arranged in a large circle, and to the light of their burning dancing went on all the evening—a ball in Yorktown in 1824 by the light of Cornwallis' candles being so unique an occurrence that the old soldiers were unwilling to retire until the candles were all consumed. Small English cream jugs of copper luster ware picture the hero of Yorktown with two angels about to place a crown upon his brow, the reverse of the jug (shown in a previous chapter) bearing the scene of the surrender of the English sword.
Two ex-presidents of the United States were at the time of Lafayette's visit upon their estates in Virginia —Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, and James Madison at Montpelier. Can we not picture to ourselves the welcome which awaited their old French friend at these homes, and the long visits, far into the night, when bygone issues of the nation were recalled, and the newly arisen problem of slavery was debated ?
In response to the urgent appeal of the people of the South and the West, Lafayette set out from Washington upon a tour of those sections of the country. His party traveled by carriage and horses, often, when the roads were impassable, by horses alone, and at times they were obliged to cross swollen streams over trunks of fallen trees, in this way making a slow and difficult passage through the pine forests and sandy plains of North and South Carolina; upon the larger rivers and the lakes they took advantage of the newly inaugurated steamboat travel. At Camden, South Carolina, Lafayette assisted in dedicating a monument to Baron de Kalb, he who, like Lafayette, had come from Europe to America in the cause of liberty. At Savannah, Georgia, the citizens were awaiting Lafayette's arrival to unveil monuments to General Greene, a Revolutionary hero of the South, and to General Pulaski, a Polander who had given his life for the freedom of the nation. After a night spent at an Indian Agency in the heart of the Georgia forest, where the Indians called Lafayette the "White Father" and "A Messenger from the Great Spirit," the party pressed on to the Alabama River, where they exchanged carriages for a steamboat which carried them to New Orleans. In New Orleans, originally settled by French people, the greetings, "Vive la liberte, Vive l'ami de l'Amerique, Vive Lafayette," were pleasant and familiar sounds.
Up the Mississippi River, bordered with plantations and thick forests and bristling with dangerous snags, they sailed to St. Louis, the western limit of our territory. Thence, turning their faces eastward, they took a steamer bound up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the village of Erie, on Lake Erie, memories of Commodore Perry's victory awaited them in a banquet spread under a tent made of sails of English ships which Perry had captured in the Battle of Lake Erie. At Buffalo, Lafayette met the Indian chief Red Jacket, whom he had known in 1784. "Time has changed us much," said Lafayette. "Oh," cried Red Jacket, "time has not been so severe with you as with me: he has left you a smooth face and a head well covered with hair, while I—look!" And, taking off his handkerchief, he showed a forehead entirely bald. Lafayette, to soften the feelings of the aged chief, then removed his blond wig and exhibited to the astonished Indian a poll as bare as his own.
After a short visit to Niagara Falls, Lafayette hastened his journey through New York State by the Erie Canal, so as to reach Boston in time to assist in the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.1 He was the honored guest upon that famous 17th day of June, 1825. Never had the old city seen such a procession, 17,000 men in line! Two hundred officers and soldiers of the Revolution and forty veterans of the Battle of Bunker Hill were among those who filed from the Common across the river to the site of the historic battle. Lafayette was the hero of the day.
1 A view of the Monument which he helped to dedicate has been presented in a previous chapter.
"Fortunate, fortunate man," said Daniel Webster in that immortal address which every school boys knows, "Heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of liberty should be conducted, through you, from the Old World to the New."
Lafayette reached New York in time to celebrate the forty-ninth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, then he went to Washington, to sail thence for home. Upon September 8, 1825, the ship Brandywine with the French guests on board, sailed out from the mouth of the Potomac River towards the center of a brilliant rainbow, one end of which rested upon the shore of Maryland and the other upon that of Virginia—the last triumphal arch raised in America in honor of the great Frenchman.
Lafayette returned to La Grange, his estate near Paris, and there, surrounded with his children and his grandchildren, he passed in peace and quiet the remaining ten years of his life. La Grange, as the illustrations show, is a feudal chateau of stone, three stories high and flanked with five round towers. The entrance was once over a drawbridge spanning a deep moat, but the moat has been filled in on two sides. The estate is beautifully laid out with ancient woodlands, ponds and gardens, broad roadways winding through avenues of apple and chestnut trees. Lafayette's library is in the tower, and there visitors are shown the mementoes which he carried home from his famous visit to America.
"The vain wish has sometimes been indulged," said Henry Clay in his speech of welcome to Lafayette "that Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his country and to contemplate the changes which had taken place—to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains leveled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, the increase of population."
To General Lafayette in this visit was given the rare fortune to realize the full measure of this prayer.
It is of interest to add that at the time of the present writing, the great European conflict being at its height, the memory of General Lafayette and of the services which he rendered to the patriot cause in time of its greatest need is honored by the establishment of a "Lafayette Fund" by the people of the United States, with which to contribute supplies for the soldiers of France fighting, in their turn, for the existence of their Republic.
(From The Blue-China Book by Ada Walker Camehl, 1916.)
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