LAFAYETTE SAID WHEN OFFERING HIS SERVICES TO CONGRESS

After the sacrifices I have made, I have the right to exact two favours. One is to serve at my own expense—the other is, to serve at first as volunteer.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, TO LAFAYETTE
On Bidding Him Farewell, in 1825

Our children, in life and after death, shall claim you for our own. You are ours by that more than patriotic devotion with which you flew to the aid of our Fathers at the crisis of their fate.... Ours by that tie of love, stronger than death, which has linked your name, for endless ages to come, with the name of Washington.

Lafayette was born in France, September 6, 1757

He came to the rescue of America, 1777

He made his triumphal tour, 1824-25

He died in France, May 20, 1834

His full name was Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Marquis de Lafayette. He preferred to be called plain “Citizen Gilbert Motier.”