A Grand Tour for Lafayette
So much of my writing these past few months has been circling around the 250th anniversary of events from the Revolutionary War. So much so that I was marching around with a military piccolo (a smaller version of a wooden fife) piping while my toddler followed me around while I told him the story of how his 6th-great grandfather fought at Bunker Hill. (If you need a re-hash of that story, that’s here.)
But 250 years ago is not the only anniversary upon us. There is also 200 years ago. And that, my friends, would be the grand tour of the Marquis de Lafayette.
In 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette was invited to tour the United States as the last surviving general of the Continental Army by President James Munroe. “This seemingly simple reunion morphed into a euphoric thirteen-month victory lap in which Lafayette toured all of the then twenty-four states.”1
At every stop on his itinerary Lafayette was serenaded by music composed in his honor: “Hail! Lafayette!,” “Lafayette’s March,” The Lafayette Waltz,” “The Lafayette Rondo,” “Lafayette’s Welcome to North America,” “Lafayette’s Welcome to the United States,” “Lafayette’s Welcome to New York,” and “Lafayette’s Welcome to Philadelphia.”
Cashing in on the hoopla, the souvenir trade cranked out an unprecedented pile of Lafayette-themed merch. Considering he attended a party in his honor just about every night for over a year, how many times must he have reached for a cookie and seen his own eyes staring back at him from a commemorative plate?2
Starting in August of last year (2024), the American Friends of Lafayette started a 200th Anniversary tour tracing Lafayette’s step during those 13 months. Which is why this is coming up now. This coming weekend, there will be events in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, mid-week in Maine and New Hampshire, and the following weekend in Vermont. You can learn more about those events here: Lafayette 200 – Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour 2024–2025 the Nation’s Guest
But who was the Marquis de Lafayette?
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born in 1757. By 1775, he had joined the Freemasons and adopted a new family motto: “Cur Non?”3
And then, in 1777 at 19 years old, he crossed the ocean to join the American cause. He bought his own ship, sailed to America, and volunteered for the Continental Army under Gen. George Washington. “What I’m hearing from you about this,” Heather Cox Richardson said to Joanne Freeman, during a conversation about Lafayette, “is if I’m looking at this as a colonial, I would look at this as sort of the son of a noble aristocracy from France has seen the brilliant light of America and has come and sort of apprenticed himself to this older father figure to learn how to be a democrat.”4
He had “[bucked] the king’s orders and his father-in-laws’ admonitions”, planning to fight in America and purchasing a 22-ton ship he named La Victoire. He covered his tracks well, making sure that none of his family were aware that he still had plans to fight in America after they rebuked him. “Perhaps his most bratty act of misdirection was to bop over to London for a previously scheduled visit to his father-in-law’s uncle, the French ambassador to Great Britain. Ambassador Noailles trotted out Lafayette at various parties and social functions, including the opera, where the boy bumped into Sir Henry Clinton, future commander in chief of the British army in America. […] A clueless Ambassador Noailles even presented Lafayette to King George III”.5
But for all that gumption and pig-headed-ness, Lafayette really believed in the American cause. He convinced the Americans to let him fight, and then he proved himself at the Battle of Brandywine. It’s no wonder that when the only 50-year-old country was struggling in 1824, President Monroe’s idea to invite him back for a tour would have caused such celebration that we’d still be talking about him 200 years later. Or, you know, watching Daveed Diggs portray him as “America’s favorite fightin’ Frenchman” in Hamilton: An American Musical.
More from Joanne Freeman on Now and Then:
(You can listen to the full episode from March 8, 2022, “Avatars of Democracy: Zelensky & More”, on the Cafe website.)
And President James Monroe, given that the United States at this point is… I don’t want to say it’s in crisis, but lot going on though. Missouri compromise of 1820, a financial panic. He invites Lafayette back and says, “Why don’t you come back and just go on a tour and celebrate the coming anniversary of the fighting of the American revolution.” Which he does. And the outpouring of love for Lafayette would be hard to exaggerate. He’s met by thousands and thousands of people. People in some places take the horses off of his carriage so they themselves can drag a carriage that he’s in because he’s the beloved Lafayette. And what’s interesting about this, and the reason why it ties into what we want to talk about today is, some of that emotion and joy is absolutely bound up with the fact that he appears to be justifying and ratifying and celebrating, and proving the power and nobility of what’s going on in the United States.
He’s kind of a model Patriot. He’s a kind of servant of the United States. He becomes an agent of what some would’ve seen as the American mission to France and the world, spreading Liberty. He does all of these things and becomes to a lot of Americans, a kind of embodiment of republican virtue, an apostle of Liberty who’s loved and celebrated.6
Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (New York: Riverhead Books, 2015), 3.
Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (New York: Riverhead Books, 2015), 5.
Heather Cox Richardson, Now and Then, Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network, 8 March 2022.
Avatars of Democracy: Zelensky & More - CAFE
Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (New York: Riverhead Books, 2015), 65.
Joanne Freeman, Now and Then, Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network, 8 March 2022.
Avatars of Democracy: Zelensky & More - CAFE