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Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Journal of a Voyage to the United States
Originally published in French in 1829, this is a journal of General Lafayette's tour of all 24 United States in 1824-1825. Lafayette's secretary, Auguste Levasseur, describes how the 67-year-old hero of the American Revolution and apostle of liberty in Europe was welcomed and adored by Americans. Details Lafayette's visits with Founding Fathers and addresses slavery and Native American issues. This is the only unabridged English translation. The volume includes a fold-out map tracing Lafayette's travels by land and water.
Hardcover
First published July 15, 2007
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October 20, 2014
This book chronicles the journey that Lafayette made to the United States in 1824-1825 at the invitation of Congress, President Monroe, and the American people. The people never forgot their French general from the American Revolution that fought and shed his own blood for their cause. Even after the war, and after he had returned to France, he continued to speak up for the values that he had fought for on distant soil.
Lafayette visited every state in the Union at the time (which was 24). He saw firsthand what the country had become in almost 50-years of independence. He visited old friends and old comrades... both from the US and those that had fled France. His visit to Washington's tomb was a very poignant stop on his journey. He laid cornerstones for various monuments to fallen friends and to the Battle of Bunker Hill... which he would take soil from so that his son could put it over his grave once he had died so he would be buried under both French and American soil.
He was our adopted son and his name rang through every American heart both young and old. Festivals and fetes were held wherever he went. Each town and city (even on the frontier) displayed only the best for the Nation's Guest. The book can get a bit tedious with some of this but the information is invaluable when the author (Lafayette's personal secretary) describes certain aspects of the states. It does allow the reader to be transported back to the beginning.
We were always in his heart and his mind. The people wanted him to stay instead of returning to despotic France, but he could not. He had to return home to his family and to try to help his own nation.
Lafayette visited every state in the Union at the time (which was 24). He saw firsthand what the country had become in almost 50-years of independence. He visited old friends and old comrades... both from the US and those that had fled France. His visit to Washington's tomb was a very poignant stop on his journey. He laid cornerstones for various monuments to fallen friends and to the Battle of Bunker Hill... which he would take soil from so that his son could put it over his grave once he had died so he would be buried under both French and American soil.
He was our adopted son and his name rang through every American heart both young and old. Festivals and fetes were held wherever he went. Each town and city (even on the frontier) displayed only the best for the Nation's Guest. The book can get a bit tedious with some of this but the information is invaluable when the author (Lafayette's personal secretary) describes certain aspects of the states. It does allow the reader to be transported back to the beginning.
We were always in his heart and his mind. The people wanted him to stay instead of returning to despotic France, but he could not. He had to return home to his family and to try to help his own nation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review