"May your future life be as tranquil and happy as your past has been useful, uniform, and glorious."
To which the General returned the following answer:
"Amidst the inexpressible enjoyments which press upon my heart, I could not but feel particularly eager and happy to meet my beloved brothers in arms. Many, many, I call in vain; and at the head of them, our matchless paternal Chief, whose love to an adopted son, I am proud to say, you have long witnessed—But while we mourn together, for those we have lost, while I find a consolation, in the sight of their relations and friends, it is to me a delightful gratification, to recognise my surviving companions of our revolutionary army—that army so brave, so virtuous, so united by mutual confidence and affection. That we have been the faithful soldiers of independence, freedom, and equality, those three essential requisites of national and personal dignity and happiness; that we have lived to see those sacred principles secured to this vast Republic, and cherished elsewhere by all generous minds, shall be the pride of our life, the boast of our children, the comfort of our last moments.—Receive, my dear brother soldiers, the grateful thanks, and constant love of your old companion and friend."
On Wednesday was the anniversary of commencement in Harvard University, at Cambridge. The corporation had requested the president, to send a particular invitation to General Lafayette, to be present on the occasion. He had expressed a wish, soon after his arrival at New-York, to attend that literary anniversary. The corporation heard of his intention with great satisfaction. They were sensible of his love of literature, and of his attachment to this ancient seminary. And they remembered, that the governors of the college appreciated his merits forty years before, by conferring upon him the highest honors they could bestow. At a meeting of the corporation on the 21st of August, it was voted—
"That the corporation learn with peculiar satisfaction, the intention of General Lafayette to visit this part of our country, at the period of the approaching commencement, and regard the event as auspicious to that joyous and interesting anniversary; and respectfully request, that he will favor the university with his company on that occasion; and thereby afford to the members of the university, and to those who are candidates for its honors, the opportunity of seeing and honoring the distinguished patriot and soldier, whose willing sacrifices and valuable services were devoted to the cause which has secured to the successive races of American youth, the blessings of education in a land of freedom; and whose virtuous and glorious career holds forth to the rising generation, a bright example of the qualities which ought to adorn those, who aspire to aid in the councils, or maintain the rights and interests of a free people."
General Lafayette was escorted from Boson to Cambridge, on Wednesday morning, by a company of cavalry, and accompanied by the Governor and Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth. In passing through Cambridge Port, he was gratefully cheered by the assembled citizens, and eloquently addressed by one of the most distinguished, in the name of the whole. The reply of Lafayette was characteristic and affectionate. He was met by the Corporation and Professors, on his arriving within the precincts of the college, and thus addressed by the learned President Kirkland—
"We bid you welcome, General Lafayette, to the most ancient of the seminaries of our land. The Overseers and Fellows of the University, the Professors and other officers, the candidates for the academic honors of this day, and the students, tender you their respectful, their affectionate salutations. We greet you with peculiar pleasure, at this literary festival, gratified that, you regard the occasion with interest, and espouse the attachment, which as members of a republic, we cannot fail to cherish to the cause of learning and education.
"As a man, sustaining his part through various scenes, prosperous and adverse, of an eventful life, your character and course, marked by moral dignity, have challenged particular respect and sympathy. As the patron, the champion and benefactor of America, you have a relation to us, by which we call you our own, and join gratitude and affection to exalted esteem. The early and costly pledges you gave of devotion to the principles and spirit of our institutions, your adoption of our perilous and uncertain contest for national existence, your friendship in the hour of our greatest need, have associated your name in the minds and hearts of Americans, with the dearest and most affecting recollections. The fathers teach their children, and the instructors their pupils, to hold you in love and honor; and the history of these states takes charge of your claims to the grateful remembrance of all future generations.
"It is a pleasing reflection attending the progress of these communities, that it justifies our friends and supporters; and that the predilections and hopes in our favor, which you indulged in the ardor of youth, have been followed by good auspices till your advanced age. We are, indeed, happy in presenting you the fruit of your toils and dangers, in the kindly operation of the causes, which you did so much to call into action, and we rejoice in every demonstration we are able to give, that your care for us has not been vain. Knowing how you feel yourself to have a property in our welfare, and sensible of the enjoyment accruing to your generous spirit from our prosperity, we find in these considerations, new motives to maintain liberty with ardor; and in the exercise of our functions, feel bound to endeavour to send out from our care, enlightened and virtuous men, employing their influence to secure to their country the advantages, and prevent and remedy the evils attending the wide diffusion among a people of political power.
"Accept our wishes and prayers for your health and happiness. May the Invisible Hand which has been your safeguard thus far, continue its protecting care. May the Supreme Disposer, the Witness and Judge of character and conduct, having appointed you a long and tranquil evening of days, receive you to the final and glorious reward of the faithful in a perfect state."