Lafayette’s Grand Farewell Tour Across America: A Revolutionary Hero’s Celebrated Return

Marquis de Lafayette landed in Manhattan from Paris on August 16, 1824, accompanied by a festive flotilla powered by steam and sail. An honor guard of elderly veterans saluted the last living Continental Army general as he disembarked. And a crowd of 80,000 people—two-thirds of the city’s population—waved flags, welcoming “The Nation’s Guest” as he paraded up Broadway past buildings festooned with patriotic banners.

Lafayette's Triumphant Farewell Tour of the United States | HISTORY

Marquis de Lafayette’s arrival in New York City for a tour of the United States, August 15, 1824. A paddle steamer brought him from his vessel to Governor’s Island.

President James Monroe had invited the French Revolutionary War hero on behalf of the U.S. Congress for an all-expenses-paid return to the United States.

Lafayette had first come to America’s shores in 1777 as a teenaged aristocrat who convinced the Continental Army to commission him as a major general despite his lack of battle experience and fluent English. The American public still fondly recalled Lafayette for the role he played in securing French troops, money and ships to support the rebels.

American Revolution History

Lafayette and the Spirit of 1776

Nearly a half-century after the war, however, memories of the American Revolution were shifting from the personal to the historic as the number of veterans dwindled. “The Era of Good Feelings” had dissolved into divisions over slavery and tariffs amid the contentious 1824 presidential election. Lafayette’s return promised to rekindle the Spirit of ’76 as the United States faced its first presidential election without a Founding Father on the ballot.

“Lafayette is this living, circulating exhibit of the revolutionary spirit,” says Julien Icher, founder and president of The Lafayette Trail, a nonprofit that documents and marks stops on the Frenchman’s historic visit. “His job is to make sure the spirit of the Revolutionary War and the republican principles upon which America are established are not lost because there is a change in generation.”

Lafayette hoped the tour would not only give him a chance to renew old friendships but revive republican ideals stifled in France by the Bourbon Restoration. Although Lafayette was a divisive figure in his home country, the reception he received after his four-week crossing of the Atlantic showed he remained universally beloved in America.

A map of the east coast of the United States, highlighting the route...  News Photo - Getty Images

A map of the east coast of the United States, highlighting the route taken by the Marquis de Lafayette from 1824 to 1825.

Both Lafayette and the United States had undergone considerable physical transformations since their prior meeting 41 years earlier. The Frenchman had left a country in its infancy that had now come of age and quadrupled in population and territory. Friends noticed that the 67-year-old widower had also grown bulkier with time and now limped with the help of a cane and sported a brown wig to conceal his balding pate.

After a week in New York, Lafayette began a 13-month journey that took him to all 24 states. His arduous itinerary, which included 170 stops in New England alone, required occasional nighttime travel to stay on schedule. In addition to being honored at balls, banquets and parades, Lafayette visited landmarks such as West Point, Independence Hall and historic battlefields from Yorktown to Brandywine, where he had been shot in the calf.

The Norwich Historical Society - CT - 🇫🇷Exciting News, Norwich! 🇺🇸 The  legendary Marquis de Lafayette's epic 13-month tour across 24 states is  making its way to our city! Step back in
Lafayette wounded at Brandywine.

He met presidents both past (Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Adams), present (Monroe and John Quincy Adams) and future (Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison). At Mount Vernon, Lafayette made a tearful visit to the tomb of the country’s only late president and a man he considered to be a surrogate father, George Washington.

Lafayette spent most of the fall and winter in and around Washington, D.C., which had been mere wilderness during his first trip to America. In December he addressed Congress, which granted him $200,000 and land in Florida to ease his strained finances.

He also witnessed the conclusion of the tempestuous presidential race when the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams on February 9, 1825, after no candidate received an electoral majority. Lafayette couldn’t help but be struck by America’s democratic spirit when the runner-up, Jackson, offered the victor, Adams, a handshake and congratulations at a White House dinner that evening.

Lafayette Visits the Slaveholding South

In February 1825, Lafayette began a swing through the South where he came face-to-face with slavery, which he fervently opposed. “Lafayette was an abolitionist, but during the tour he becomes the embodiment of national unity,” Icher says. “Lafayette is a national guest, and he doesn’t want to offend his hosts.”

While he minded his words in public, Lafayette didn’t shy away from denouncing slavery in private conversations during his extensive stays at the Virginia estates of slaveholders Madison and Jefferson, with whom he had drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Following riverboat voyages up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and a visit to Niagara Falls, Lafayette traveled the nearly completed Erie Canal en route to laying the cornerstone for a monument at Bunker Hill on the battle’s 50th anniversary.

Six-Year-Old Walt Whitman Meets Lafayette

Spending the Fourth of July at a library dedication in Brooklyn, the Revolutionary War hero picked up a six-year-old boy and carried him down into the excavation site for the groundbreaking ceremony. “I remember that he pressed my cheek with a kiss as he sat me down—the childish wonder and nonchalance during the whole affair at the time—contrasting with the indescribable preciousness of the reminiscence since,” future poet Walt Whitman later recalled.

On September 7, 1825, a day after President Adams hosted a state dinner in honor of Lafayette’s 68th birthday, “The Nation’s Guest” bid a final goodbye to his hosts at a White House ceremony: “God bless the American people, each of their states, and the federal government. Accept this patriotic farewell of an overflowing heart; such will be its last throb when it ceases to beat.” After tearfully embracing Adams, Lafayette boarded a coach that paraded to the Potomac River where the newly christened frigate USS Brandywine awaited to take him home after his 6,000-mile journey.

The Legacy of Lafayette’s Tour

Although Lafayette never returned to America, his name has endured on cities, streets and public spaces including the one across the street from the White House that was renamed Lafayette Square during the general’s visit.

Icher says Lafayette’s trip also left another legacy. “He confirmed to Americans that they were a great people and that they had a great revolutionary experiment at a time when they really needed it,” he says. “An endorsement from Lafayette in 1824 went a long way to reassure Americans about the viability of their country.”

Lafayette returned to France with numerous gifts, renewed memories and a bag full of earth shoveled from Bunker Hill. When the 76-year-old Marquis died in 1834, his son scattered that dirt atop his coffin in a Paris cemetery so that “The Hero of Two Worlds” could be laid to rest in both American and French soil as he had requested.

Related Posts

Pressure Mounts on Travis Kelce to Propose to Taylor Swift After Josh Allen’s Engagement to Hailee Steinfeld

Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, NFL-star tight end Travis Kelce, is positioned to be the quarterback’s best asset, not competition.  But that all changed over the weekend, when Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen announced his engagement to pop star and actress …

Read more

Bernie Sanders admits ‘Elon Musk is right,’ backs DOGE if it makes major cuts in this department

Apparently, you can teach an old DOGE new tricks. Lefty Sen. Bernie Sanders turned heads Sunday with his support for President-elect Donald Trump’s planned new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)…

Read more

Patrick Mahomes Has Priceless Josh Allen’s Surprising Trick Play vs. 49ers

The Buffalo Bills led the San Francisco 49ers late in their Sunday Night Football game as Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes watched from afar. Mahomes and the Chiefs have…

Read more

Joe Biden Shocks Nation by Pardoning Son Hunter, Calls Prosecution ‘Unfair’ as His Term Nears End

President Biden signed a pardon for his son Hunter Sunday after the younger Biden was convicted of federal gun charges and federal tax evasion charges earlier this year, the outgoing Democrat announced….

Read more

Dunkin’ Donuts Faces $1 Billion Loss After Embracing Woke Policies: “Our Biggest Mistake Yet”

Dunkin’ Donuts has reported a staggering financial loss of nearly $1 billion following its decision to adopt a more “woke” corporate stance. The company, which once enjoyed an unshakable foothold…

Read more

Joe Theismann: Trump’s Dance Moves Are the New Highlight of Football

Former NFL Most Valuable Player Joe Theismann told Newsmax that the “Trump Dance” being replicated by pro and college football players has evolved into an indelible part of the game….

Read more

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *