"And be it further Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to ascertain from the Marquis de La Fayette, the time when it will be most agreeable for him to perform his visit; and that he offer to the Marquis a conveyance to this country in one of our national ships."
La Fayette modestly declined this offer of a public ship. He sailed from
Havre in the packet-ship Cadmus, accompanied by his son, George
Washington La Fayette, and arrived in New York on the 15th of August,
1824.
His reception at New York was sublime and brilliant in the extreme. The meeting between La Fayette, Col. Willet, Gen. Van Cortland, Gen. Clarkson, and other revolutionary worthies, was highly affecting. He knew them all. After the ceremony of embracing and congratulations were over, La Fayette sat down by the side of Col. Willet. "Do you remember," said the colonel, "at the battle of Monmouth, I was a volunteer aid to Gen. Scott? I saw you in the heat of battle, you were but a boy, but you were a serious and sedate lad." "Aye, aye," returned La Fayette, "I remember well. And on the Mohawk I sent you fifty Indians, and you wrote me that they set up such a yell that they frightened the British horse, and they ran one way, and the Indians another." Thus these veteran soldiers "fought their battles o'er again."
From New York La Fayette proceeded on a tour throughout the United States. Everywhere he was received and honored, as "THE NATION'S GUEST." For more than a year, his journey was a complete ovation—a perpetual and splendid pageant. The people appeared delirious with joy and with anxiety to hail him, grasp him by the hand, and shower attentions and honors upon him. The gratitude and love of all persons, of every age, sex, and condition, seemed hardly to be restrained within bounds of propriety. As he passed through the country, every city, village, and hamlet, poured out its inhabitants en masse, to meet him. Celebrations, processions, dinners, illuminations, bonfires, parties, balls, serenades, and rejoicings of every description, attended his way, from the moment he set foot on the American soil, until his embarkation to return to his native France.
The hearts of the people in the most distant parts of the Western Hemisphere were warmed and touched with the honors paid him in the United States. A letter written at that time from Buenos Ayres, says—"I have just received newspapers from the United States, informing me of the magnificent reception of Gen. La Fayette. I have never read newspapers with such exquisite delight as these; and I firmly believe there never was so interesting and glorious an event in the civilized world, in which all classes of people participated in the general joy, as on this occasion. There is an association of ideas connected with this event, that produces in my soul emotions I cannot express, and fills my heart with such grateful recollections as I cannot forget but with my existence. That ten millions of souls, actuated by pure sentiments of gratitude and friendship, should with one voice pronounce this individual the 'Guest of the Nation,' and pay him the highest honors the citizens of a free nation can offer, is an event which must excite the astonishment of Europe, and show the inestimable value of liberty."
In June, 1825, La Fayette visited Boston, and on the 17th day of that month, it being the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, he participated in the ceremony of laying the corner stone of the monument in commemoration of that event, on Bunker Hill. During his tour at the east, he visited the venerable ex-President John Adams, at Quincy.
But the time for his departure drew near. His journey had extended as far
south as New Orleans, west to St. Louis, north and east to Massachusetts.
He had passed through, or touched, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
A new frigate, the Brandywine, named in honor of the gallant exploits of Gen. La Fayette at the battle of Brandywine, was provided by Congress to convey him to France. It was deemed appropriate that he should take final leave of the nation at the seat of government in Washington. President Adams invited him to pass a few weeks in the presidential mansion. Mr. Adams had been on intimate terms with La Fayette in his youth, with whom, it is said, he was a marked favorite. During his sojourn at the capitol, he visited ex-Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, at their several places of residence.
Having paid his respects to these venerated sages, "the Nation's Guest" prepared to take his final departure from the midst of a grateful people. The 7th of September, 1825, was the day appointed for taking leave. About 12 o'clock, the officers of the General Government, civil, military, and naval, together with the authorities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, with multitudes of citizens and strangers, assembled in the President's house. La Fayette entered the great hall in silence, leaning on the Marshal of the District, and one of the sons of the President. Mr. Adams then with evident emotion, but with much dignity and firmness, addressed him in the following terms:—
"GENERAL LA FAYETTE: It has been the good fortune of many of my fellow- citizens, during the course of the year now elapsed, upon your arrival at their respective places of abode to greet you with the welcome of the nation. The less pleasing task now devolves upon me, of bidding you, in the name of the nation, ADIEU!