“Amidst all my obligations to the general government, and particularly to you, sir, its respected chief magistrate, I have most thankfully to acknowledge the opportunity given me, at this solemn and painful moment, to present the people of the United States with a parting tribute of profound, inexpressible gratitude.
“To have been, in the infant and critical days of these states, adopted by them as a favourite son, to have participated in the toils and perils of our unspotted struggle for independence, freedom and equal rights, and in the foundation of the American era of a new social order, which has already pervaded this, and must, for the dignity and happiness of mankind, successively pervade every part of the other hemisphere, to have received at every stage of the revolution, and during forty years after that period, from the people of the United States, and their representatives at home and abroad, continual marks of their confidence and kindness, has been the pride, the encouragement, the support of a long and eventful life.
“But how could I find words to acknowledge that series of welcomes, those unbounded and universal displays of public affection, which have marked each step, each hour, of a twelve-months’ progress through the twenty-four states, and which, while they overwhelm my heart with grateful delight, have most satisfactorily evinced the concurrence of the people in the kind testimonies, in the immense favours bestowed on me by the several branches of their representatives, in every part and at the central seat of the confederacy?
“Yet, gratifications still higher await me; in the wonders of creation and improvement that have met my enchanted eye, in the unparalleled and self-felt happiness of the people, in their rapid prosperity and insured security, public and private, in a practice of good order, the appendage of true freedom, and a national good sense, the final arbiter of all difficulties, I have had proudly to recognise a result of the republican principles for which we have fought, and a glorious demonstration to the most timid and prejudiced minds, of the superiority, over degrading aristocracy or despotism, of popular institutions founded on the plain rights of man, and where the local rights of every section are preserved under a constitutional bond of union. The cherishing of that union between the states, as it has been the farewell entreaty of our great paternal Washington, and will ever have the dying prayer of every American patriot, so it has become the sacred pledge of the emancipation of the world, an object in which I am happy to observe that the American people, while they give the animating example of successful free institutions, in return for an evil entailed upon them by Europe, and of which a liberal and enlightened sense is every where more and more generally felt, show themselves every day more anxiously interested.
“And now, sir, how can I do justice to my deep and lively feelings for the assurances, most peculiarly valued, of your esteem and friendship, for your so very kind references to old times, to my beloved associates, to the vicissitudes of my life, for your affecting picture of the blessings poured by the several generations of the American people on the remaining days of a delighted veteran, for your affectionate remarks on this sad hour of separation, on the country of my birth, full, I can say, of American sympathies, on the hope so necessary to me of my seeing again the country that has designed, near a half century ago, to call me hers? I shall content myself, refraining from superfluous repetitions, at once, before you, sir, and this respected circle, to proclaim my cordial confirmation of every one of the sentiments which I have had daily opportunities publicly to utter, from the time when your venerable predecessor, my old brother in arms and friend, transmitted to me the honourable invitation of congress, to this day, when you, my dear sir, whose friendly connection with me dates from your earliest youth, are going to consign me to the protection, across the Atlantic, of the heroic national flag, on board the splendid ship, the name of which has been not the least flattering and kind among the numberless favours conferred upon me.
“God bless you, sir, and all who surround us. 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.”
In pronouncing these last words, General Lafayette felt his emotion to be rapidly increasing, and threw himself into the arms of the president, who mingled his tears with those of the national guest, in repeating those heart-rending words, Adieu! Adieu! The spectators, overcome by the same feelings, also shed tears and surrounded their friend, once more to take him by the hand. To abridge this scene, which could not be suffered much longer, the general retired for a short time into his own apartment, where Mrs. Adams surrounded by her daughters and nieces came to express their wishes and regrets. On the evening before, this lady, whose cultivated mind and amenity of character had greatly contributed to the pleasure of our visit to the president’s house, had presented him with a fine bust of her husband, and had added to this present a copy of verses in French, whose charm and elegance proved that this was not the first occasion in which her muse had spoken in our language.
Detained as if by a magic spell, General Lafayette could not make up his mind to leave his friends; a thousand pretexts seemed to retard the definitive moment of separation, but at last the first of the twenty-four guns, which announced his departure, having been heard, he again threw himself into Mr. Adams’s arms, expressed to him his last good wishes for the American nation, and retired to his carriage. The president repeated the signal of adieu from the top of the steps, and at this sign the colours of the troops which were drawn up before the president’s house were bowed to the earth.
Accompanied by the secretaries of state, treasury, and navy, the general proceeded to the banks of the Potomac, where the steam-boat Mount Vernon was waiting for him. On a level above the river, were all the militia of Alexandria, Georgetown, and Washington, drawn up in solid columns, waiting to defile before the general. In advance of the troops were the magistrates of the three cities, at the head of their fellow citizens, to whom numbers of strangers had joined themselves. When the general arrived at a point from whence he could embrace this scene at a glance, the family of General Washington and the principal officers of government, ranged themselves around him, when all the different masses of men who had hitherto been so motionless, moved on to the sound of artillery, and advanced melancholy and silent to receive his last adieu. When the different corps had passed, the general took leave of all the friends that surrounded him, and went on board of the Mount Vernon, with the secretary of the navy and those officers of government who were to accompany him on board of the Brandywine.
During this time, the innumerable crowd which lined the shores of the Potomac for a great distance, governed by a painful feeling of sorrow produced by his departure, remained in the most profound silence; but when the steam-boat had pushed off with the object of their affections, they gave vent to a mournful cry, which, repeated from echo to echo, was finally mingled with the deep sound of the artillery of fort Washington. A few moments afterwards we passed Alexandria, and the general received the same marks of regret from the population of that city. But it was when he came in view of Mount Vernon, that he felt most deeply affected, and experienced the great sacrifice he made to his country in leaving the American soil, that hospitable, land, where every step he made was accompanied with heartfelt recollections.