A TRIUMPHAL TOUR
For some years events did not shape themselves so that Lafayette could
return to Paris. That he, in 1799, was considering the possibility of
a voyage to America is shown by a letter written in that year to his
"deliverer," Francis Kinloch Huger, which his descendant of the same
name has kindly allowed to be printed here. It was sent from Vianen in
Holland, and introduces his fellow-prisoner, M. Bureaux-de-Pusy, who
was seeking a home in the United States.
VIANEN, 17th April, 1799.
MY DEAR HUGER:
Here is one of my companions in captivity, Bureaux Pusy,
an Olmütz prisoner, and at these sounds my heart vibrates
with the sentiments of love, gratitude, admiration, which
forever bind and devote me to you! How I envy the
happiness he is going to enjoy! How I long, my dear and
noble friend, to fold you in my arms! Pusy will relate to
you the circumstances which hitherto have kept me on this
side of the Atlantic--even now the illness of my wife,
and the necessity of her having been a few weeks in France
before I set out, prevent me from embarking with Pusy and
his amiable family. But in the course of the summer I
shall look over to you and with inexpressible delight I
shall be welcomed by my beloved deliverer. No answer from
you has yet come to me. We are expecting every day my
friend McHenry's nephew--perhaps I may be blessed with a
letter from you!
I need not recommend to you Bureaux Pusy. The conspicuous
and honorable part he has acted in the French Revolution,
his sufferings during our imprisonment--you but too well
know what it is--are sufficient introductions to your
great and good heart. He is one of the most accomplished
men that can do honour to the country where he is born,
and to the country where he wishes to become a citizen. He
is my excellent friend. Every service, every mark of
affection he can receive from you and your friends, I am
happily authorized to depend upon.
My son is gone to Paris. My wife and my two daughters, who
love you as a brother, present you with the sincere,
grateful expressions of their friendship. The last word
George told me at his setting out was not to forget him in
my letter to you. He will accompany me to America.
Adieu, my dear Huger, I shall to the last moment of my
life be wholly
Yours,
LAFAYETTE.
The wish to revisit the land of his adoption was strong, but many
years were to pass before it could be carried out. He was forty years
old when he was liberated from Olmütz, and he was sixty-seven when he
paid his last visit to our shores.
He little dreamed of the reception he was to find, for the whole
American people were waiting to greet, with heart and soul, the man who,
in his youth, had taken so noble a part in their struggle for freedom.
He reached New York on the 16th of August, 1824. He came with modest
expectation of some honorable attentions--nothing more. On the _Cadmus_
he asked a fellow-traveler about the cost of stopping at American hotels
and of traveling in steamboats and by stage; of this his secretary, M.
Levasseur, made exact note. He came to visit the interesting scenes of
his youth and to enjoy a reunion with a few surviving friends and
compatriots. Instead, he found a whole country arising with one vast
impulse to do him honor. It was not mere formality; it was a burst of
whole-souled welcome from an entire nation. So astonished was he, so
overcome, to find a great demonstration awaiting him, where he had
expected to land quietly and to engage private lodgings, that his eyes
overflowed with tears.
The harbor of New York was entered on a Sunday. He was asked to accept
a sumptuous entertainment on Staten Island till Monday, when he could
be received by the city with more honor. On that day citizens and
officers, together with old Revolutionary veterans, attended him. Amid
the shouting of two hundred thousand voices he reached the Battery.
The band played "See the Conquering Hero Comes," the "Marseillaise,"
and "Hail, Columbia." Lafayette had never dreamed of such a reception
or of such sweeps of applause. The simple-hearted loyalty of the
American people had a chance to show itself, and their enthusiasm knew
no bounds. Lafayette's face beamed with joy. Four white horses bore
him to the City Hall, while his son, George Washington Lafayette, his
secretary, M. Levasseur (who wrote an account of the whole journey of
1824), and the official committee followed in carriages. The mayor
addressed the city's guest; and Lafayette's reply was the first of
many hundred appropriate and graceful speeches made by him during the
journey. There were many ceremonies; school children threw garlands of
flowers in his way; corner stones were laid by him; squares were
renamed for "General Lafayette" (as he assured everybody he preferred
to be called by that title), and societies made him and his son
honorary members for life.
Hundreds of invitations to visit different cities poured in. The whole
country must be traveled over to satisfy the eagerness of a grateful
nation. Are republics ungrateful? That can never be said of our own
republic after Lafayette's visit to the United States in 1824.
He set out for Boston by way of New Haven, New London, and Providence.
All along the way the farmers ran out from the fields, shouting
welcomes to the cavalcade, and children stood by the roadside decked
with ribbons on which the picture of Lafayette was printed. Always a
barouche with four white horses was provided to carry him from point
to point. It was not a bit of vanity on the part of Lafayette that he
was ever seen behind these steeds of snowy white. President Washington
had set the fashion. His fine carriage-horses he caused to be covered
with a white paste on Saturday nights and the next morning to be
smoothed down till they shone like silver. It was a wonderful sight
when that majestic man was driven to church--the prancing horses, the
outriders, and all. And when Lafayette came, nothing was too good for
him! The towns sent out the whitest horses harnessed to the best
coaches procurable,--cream color, canary color, or claret color,--for
the hero to be brought into town or sped upon his way departing.
Returning to New York by way of the Connecticut River and the Sound,
he found again a series of dinners and toasts, as well as a ball held
in Castle Garden, the like of which, in splendor and display, had
never before been thought of in this New World.
Lafayette left the festivity before it was ever in order to take the
boat, at two in the morning, to go up the Hudson River. He arose at
six to show his son and his secretary the place where André was
captured. As soon as the fog lifted, he described, in the most
enthusiastic manner, the Revolutionary events which he had seen.
At West Point there was a grand banquet. One of the speakers alluded
to the fact that at Valley Forge, when the soldiers were going
barefooted, Lafayette provided them with shoes from his own resources,
and then proposed this toast:
"To the noble Frenchman who placed the Army of the Revolution on a new
and better footing!"
At the review of the cadets, Generals Scott and Brown, in full
uniform, with tall plumes in their hats, stood by General Lafayette.
The three, each towering nearly six feet in height, made a magnificent
tableau, declares one record of the day.
Returning from the Hudson River excursion, the party went southward,
visiting Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. With ceremonies of
great dignity Congress received Lafayette, and later voted him a
present of two hundred thousand dollars, together with a whole
township anywhere he might choose in the unappropriated lands of the
country.
Among other places visited was Yorktown, where the party attended a
brilliant celebration. The marks of battle were still to be seen on
many houses, and broken shells and various implements of war were
found scattered about. An arch had been built where Lafayette stormed
the redoubt, and on it were inscribed the names of Lafayette,
Hamilton, and Laurens. Some British candles were discovered in the
corner of a cellar, and these were burned to the sockets while the old
soldiers told tales of the surrender of Yorktown.
The party visited other places connected with the campaign in
Virginia. Lafayette called on ex-President Jefferson at Monticello,
his stately home near Charlottesville, Virginia, and was conducted by
Jefferson to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Charleston was the next stopping-place; this was the home of the Huger
family. Here were more combinations of "Yankee Doodle" and the
"Marseillaise," more laying of corner stones, more deputations, more
dinners, more public balls. It is not difficult to understand how it
happened that, in the last half of the nineteenth century, there were
so many old ladies living who could boast of having danced with
Lafayette in their youth.
Proceeding on their way by boat and carriage, the company came to
Savannah, and thence moved across Georgia and Alabama, down the river to
the Gulf of Mexico, along the shore to the mouth of the Mississippi, and
up the "grand rivière" to St. Louis. "Vive Lafayette" was the universal
cry all the way.
All the cities vied with each other in doing honor to the nation's
guest. At Pittsburg, for instance, a bedroom was prepared for the
distinguished visitor in a hall that had been a Masonic lodge room. The
ceiling was arched, and the sun, moon, and stars were painted upon it.
The bed prepared for Lafayette was a vast "four-poster" of mahogany, on
whose posts were inscribed the names of Revolutionary heroes. Above the
canopy a large gilt eagle spread its wings and waved a streamer on which
were written the names of Washington and Lafayette. In this city, as
everywhere, Lafayette was shown everything notable, including all the
foundries and factories.
As usual, the hero left the city in a coach shining with the freshest
paint, and drawn by four white steeds.
[Illustration: A CARRIAGE IN WHICH LAFAYETTE RODE.
This interesting relic is now in Cooperstown, New York.
The picture shows it being used in a present-day pageant,
filled with boys and girls in colonial costumes. (See page 187.)]
At Buffalo, after a visit to Niagara, they embarked on the newly-built
Erie Canal. Then followed a part of the journey that was much enjoyed
by Lafayette--the beautiful country of central New York. He was
charmed with this bit of travel after the long distances between towns
in the western region.
Syracuse was the next stopping-place. The carriage in which Lafayette
traveled into that City of Sixty Hills was kept for many decades as a
precious treasure. Not many years ago it was in a barn back of one of
the houses on James Street in that city. Now, however, after wandering
from place to place and taking part in various pageants, it may be
seen in the celebrated village of Cooperstown, where the young folks,
when they attire themselves in Revolutionary costume, may ride as
bride or coachman, as shown in the picture.
Lafayette reached the "Village of Syracuse" at six o'clock in the
morning. The people had been watching all night for the arrival of the
illustrious guest and were still watching when the colors of the
illuminations were melting into those of sunrise. The guest of honor
had been in his carriage all night and must have been weary, but he
gayly asserted that the splendid supper that had been prepared the
night before made an excellent breakfast, and he spent the three
hours allotted to that "village" in shaking hands with the hundreds of
people whose desire to see him had kept them waiting all night.
At nine o'clock he bade good-by to his friends of a day and embarked
upon the packet boat of the canal, while the air resounded with good
wishes for his voyage. Through Rome they passed by night in an
illumination that turned darkness into daylight, and at every place
they received deputations from the city just ahead of the one where
they were. There were cannon to welcome and cannon to bid farewell. At
Utica three Oneida chiefs demanded an interview on the score of having
been Lafayette's helpers in 1778. They were very old but still
remarkably energetic. Lafayette begged them to accept certain gifts of
silver, and they went away happy.
The traveling was now hastened in order that General Lafayette might
reach Boston by the Fourth of July, 1825, and take part in laying the
corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument. This event in our national
history has been described by Josiah Quincy in his "Figures of the
Past" and by many others. It was a great national celebration, and a
general meeting of Revolutionary comrades, one of whom wore the same
coat he had worn at the battle of Bunker Hill, almost half a century
before, and could point to nine bullet-holes in its texture. Daniel
Webster delivered his grand oration. All Boston was on the alert.
There were a thousand tents on the Common, and a dinner to which
twelve hundred persons sat down. General Lafayette gave a reception to
the ladies of the city. Then there was a ball--with the usual honor
bestowed. Everybody was proud and happy to have General Lafayette as a
national guest on that great day.
One more incident must be related. In July of 1825 the people of
Brooklyn were erecting an Apprentices' Free Library Building at the
corner of Cranberry and Henry streets, later incorporated in the
Brooklyn Institute, and they wished Lafayette to assist in laying the
corner stone. He was brought to Brooklyn in great state, riding in a
canary-colored coach drawn by four snow-white horses. The streets were
crammed with people. Among them were many citizens and their wives, some
old Revolutionary veterans, troops of Brooklyn children, and a number of
negroes who had been freed by the recent New York Emancipation Acts.
Through the closely packed masses of people the carriage of the noble
Frenchman was slowly driven, the antics of the impatient horses
attracting the attention of the small boy as much as the illustrious
visitor himself. As they came near the stand where the ceremony was to
take place, Lafayette saw that various gentlemen were carefully
lifting some little children over the rough places where soil from
excavations and piles of cut stone had been heaped, and were helping
them to safe places where they could see and hear. He at once alighted
from the carriage and came forward to assist in this work.
Without suspecting it in the least, he was making another historic
minute; for one of the boys he was thus to lift over a hard spot was a
five-year-old child who afterwards became known to the world as Walt
Whitman. Lafayette pressed the boy to his heart as he passed him along
and affectionately kissed his cheek. Thus a champion of liberty from
the Old World and one from the New were linked in this little act of
helpfulness. When he was an old man, Whitman still treasured the
reminiscence as one of indescribable preciousness.
"I remember Lafayette's looks quite well," he said; "tall, brown, not
handsome in the face, but of fine figure, and the pattern of
good-nature, health, manliness, and human attraction."
Through nearly all of this long and exciting journey, Lafayette was
accompanied by Colonel Francis Kinloch Huger, by his secretary, and by
his son, George Washington Lafayette, then a man full grown. The
latter was almost overcome by the warmth of his father's reception.
Writing to a friend at home, after having been in America but twenty
days, he said:
"Ever since we have been here my father has been the hero, and we the
spectators, of the most imposing, beautiful, and affecting sights; the
most majestic population in the world welcoming a man with common
accord and conducting him in triumph throughout a journey of two
hundred leagues. Women wept with joy on seeing him, and children
risked being crushed to get near to a man whom their fathers kept
pointing out to them as one of those who contributed the most in
procuring them their happiness and independence. This is what it has
been reserved to us to see. I am knocked off my feet--excuse the
expression--by the emotions of all kinds that I experience."
Lafayette has been accused of being a spoiled hero. In a moment of
asperity Jefferson had alluded to Lafayette's love of approbation. If,
indeed, Lafayette did yield to that always imminent human frailty, and
if Olmütz had not been able to eradicate or subdue it, the itinerary
of 1824 must have been to him a period of torture. He must have
suffered from satiety to an unbearable degree, for praise and
admiration were poured out by a grateful people to an extent not
easily imagined. To keep up a fiction is the most wearying thing in
the world. The only refreshing and vivifying thing is to be absolutely
sincere. This it must be believed Lafayette was. His simple attitude
toward the land of his adoption was shown in a letter to President
Monroe in which he bade farewell to a nation where "in every man,
woman, and child of a population of twelve million I have found a
loving, indeed an enthusiastic, friend."
It did as much good to the American people as it did to Lafayette to
take part in this great tide of gratitude and devotion. A vast,
swelling emotion is unifying and it is strengthening. Our people made
a great stride toward nationalization when Lafayette came to let us,
as a people, throw our heart at his feet.