SOME OF WASHINGTON’S HAIR
Cordial ties bound the land of Washington to the land of Bolivar one hundred years ago.
Then the South American Liberator was held in such high esteem here, that after the death of Washington his family sent Bolivar several relics of the national hero of the United States, including locks of Washington’s hair.
The gift was transmitted through Lafayette, who had it presented to Bolivar by a French officer. And the latter bore back to the noble French comrade of Washington, an eloquent letter of thanks from Bolivar.
The South American Liberator professed throughout his life ardent admiration for the United States, and once in conversation with an American officer in Peru, prophesied that within one hundred years, the land of Washington would stand first in the world.
T. R. Ybarra
WELCOME! FRIEND OF AMERICA!
1824-25
It was twenty-five years after the death of Washington. It was 1824. In New York City, joy bells were ringing, bands playing, cannon saluting, flags waving, and two hundred thousand people wildly cheering.
The Marquis de Lafayette was visiting America. He was landing at the Battery. He was no longer the slender, debonair, young French officer who, afire with ardent courage, had served under Washington, but a man of sixty-seven, large, massive, almost six feet tall, his rugged face expressing a strong noble character, his fine hazel eyes beaming with pleasure and affection. But his manner was the same courtly, gracious one of the young man of nineteen who so long ago had exclaimed, “I will join the Americans—I will help them fight for Freedom!”
Since the American War for Independence, Lafayette had been through the terrible French Revolution, and had spent five years in an Austrian prison. Now, as he landed once more on American soil, he was the honoured and idolized guest of millions of grateful citizens of the United States.