The reading of this resolution was hailed with loud applause, after which
M. Delcassé, minister for foreign affairs, said that the French
Government had already sent to Washington the expression of its
gratitude and associated itself with the resolution. The Government, he
added, was only too happy to see the national representation of the
country manifest its convictions that this monument, which is intended
to recall to the people of France and of the United States remembrances
equally dear and glorious, will also in the future be a token of
fruitful understanding for the mutual interests of both countries,
interests which are in perfect harmony on so many points, and which
happily are not irreconcilable.
The resolution was carried unanimously. The president of the Chamber said
he was happy to see this unanimity of sentiment, and that he would
transmit the resolution through the diplomatic channel.
MM. Chaumié, D’Aunay, Morellet, and Maxime Lecomte introduced in the
Senate the following resolutions:
The keeper of the seals and minister of justice, M. Monies, said he was
happy to see two French Chambers associate themselves with the
sentiments of gratitude expressed by the French Government to the United
States. The memories, a hundred years old, which we are about to
commemorate, he added, are the living ties which united the French and
the American people.”
The resolution was carried unanimously.
The statue was inaugurated yesterday on a square of the Place du
Carrousel, which is hereafter to bear the name of Square Lafayette, in
the presence of M. Loubet, President of the French Republic; the
presidents of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, MM. Fallieres
and Deschanel; the minister of foreign affairs, M. Delcassé, and of
other members of the cabinet and high officials of the French
Government. The ceremony was a brilliant one, the number of persons
present being estimated at between 5,000 and 6,000, the majority being
Americans. I had the honor of presiding at the ceremony, making the
opening address. Commissioner General Ferdinand W. Peck,
[Page 459]
president of the Lafayette Memorial
Committee, formally presented the statue to France, and the President of
the Republic accepted it in the following terms:
After various other speeches the ceremony was closed by Archbishop
Ireland, whose oration, delivered in French, was prefaced by the reading
of a letter the President had addressed him on this occasion.
I inclose herewith an extract from the Daily Messenger of this day,
giving a full account of this imposing ceremony, the most memorable one
ever held abroad for the celebration of our Day of Independence.
[Inclosure 2.]
[Extract from Daily Messenger, Paris,
July 5, 1900.]
Lafayette’s statue—the gift of American
children to the Republic of France the unveiling
yesterday—grandiose ceremony—greatest gathering of Americans
ever held in France—some interesting speeches—President Loubet
present—his address—magnificent company.
Yesterday morning at 10 o’clock the unveiling of the monument to
General Lafayette, presented to the French Republic by the school
youth of the United States through the Lafayette Memorial
Commission, took place on the Square Lafayette, Carrousal du Louvre,
the ceremony proving one of the greatest functions which has ever
marked the celebration of the American Fourth of July abroad.
Nothing was lacking to make the occasion notable. The President of
the French Republic was present. The President of the United States
sent a message of congratulation, and there were present a greater
number of American officials and dignitaries than have ever before
assembled outside the confines of the United States.
The statue is erected in the courtyard of the Louvre in one of the
charming green spots which nestle between the two main wings of the
great museum. In this charming enceinte tribunes had been erected
around the statue, at present in plaster while awaiting the
permanent bronze, sufficient to seat several thousand persons. The
statue itself was covered with a huge tricolor flag at the beginning
of the ceremony, later to be uncovered by two little boys chosen for
the occasion. A huge wreath of white roses was, on behalf of the
Daughters of the American Revolution, placed at the bottom of the
statue by the charming little daughter of Maj. Ben. Truman, of
California.
At 10 o’clock the guests swarmed in. Brilliant toilettes and uniforms
began to fill the stands. In the buttonholes of the frock coats were
borne miniature “Stars and Stripes.”
And “still they came”—the spectators. The crowded stands could
contain no more, and many specially interested in the ceremony were
compelled to take their places around the square, where they were
joined by numerous sightseers, attracted by the presence of the
Republican Guard and the American soldiers. On the surrounding roofs
of the Louvre one noticed a number of privileged visitors
comfortably seated in the shadow of the great chimney stacks, for
the sun shone brilliantly.
Half past 10. There was a rattle of drums; Sousa’s band struck up
“The Marseillaise.” It was the President of the Republic arriving.
He was accompanied by M. Delcassé, minister for foreign affairs,
General Bailloud, and M. Combarieu.
Amid cries of “Vive Loubet!” “Vive la République!” “Viva la France!”
General Porter, the United States ambassador, received the President
and conducted him to the seat reserved for him. The enthusiasm of
the spectators was tremendous. Loud hurrahs rent the air. Scarcely
had the notes of “The Marseillaise” died away than the strains of
“The Star Spangled Banner” were heard. The scene then “beggared
description.” On every side men waved their hats and flags in the
air.
The distinguished visitors had soon taken up their places on the
special stand reserved for them. The President of the Republic was
seated between Gen. Horace Porter and Mr. Ferdinand W. Peck, United
States Commissioner-General to the exhibition. There were by their
side M. Failéres, president of the Senate; M. Deschanel, president
of the Chamber of Deputies; M. Delcassé, minister of foreign
affairs; M. Georges Leygues, minister of education, M. Caillaux,
minister of finances; General André, minister of war; M. Millerand,
minister of commerce; M. Baudin, minister of public works; General
Brugére, Col. Meaux Saint-Marc; M. de Selves, prefect of police; M.
Bourgeois, and several other members of Parliament. Among the
literary notabilities present we noticed M. Brunettére, M. Jules
Claretie, and M. Gaston Deschamps.
The American colony was present in force, with Mr. Gowdy,
consul-general, and all the members of the embassy and the
consulate.
Lafayette’s family was represented by MM. G. de Sahune Lafayette,
councilor-general of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lieut. Gilbert de Pusy,
Comte de Beaumont, Comte de Braza, Marquis de Chambrun, deputy of
the Loire, and M. Pierre de Rémusat, former deputy.
The unveiling ceremony at once began. At the foot of the monument sat
two children; on one side Gustave Hennocque, great-grandson of
Lafayette, on the other, the son of Mr. Thompson, secretary of the
Lafayette Statue Committee, both dressed in white with a wide
tricolored ribbon.
General Porter said: “In the name of the school children of the
United States, whose generous contributions made possible the
erection of the imposing statue which
[Page 461]
is about to be unveiled, and in the name of
our Government, which added so liberal a donation to the fund, I
extend to all here present a cordial welcome upon this day, the
anniversary of our country’s birth, within sight of yonder memorable
concourse of the nations, in the presence of this vast assemblage of
the representatives and citizens of the Old World and the New, and
in memory of a struggle in which French and American blood moistened
the same soil in battles fought for a common cause, it is a fitting
occasion upon which to solemnly dedicate a monument in honor of a
hero of two continents, the immortal Lafayette. This statue is a
gift from the land of his adoption to the land of his birth. Its
purpose is to recall the record of his imperishable deeds, to
testify that his name is not a dead memory, but a living reality; to
quicken our sense of appreciation and emphasize the fidelity of our
affection. A recital of his deeds inspires us with the grandeur of
events and the majesty of achievement. He needs no eulogist. His
services attest his worth. He honored the age in which he lived, and
future generations will be illumined by the brightness of his
fame.”
In French the ambassador said: “I extend a cordial greeting to all
who have gathered with us to-day to take part in an event of
international importance. Americans do not fail to appreciate
profoundly this evidence of sympathy, especially on the part of the
high officials of the French Republic and the eminent
representatives of foreign powers whose presence here honors the
occasion and adds distinction to the ceremonies. We assemble here
upon the anniversary of the birthday of the American union to
inaugurate a statue which the school children of the United States
present to the country which generously cast its strength with us in
battling for our national independence. This monument is the tribute
paid by grateful hearts to the memory of a man who had the rare good
fortune to be the hero of two countries and who was the highest
personification 6th the great principle of liberty secured by law, a
man who, in America as well as in France, at all times and in all
places, was ever ready to make the most heroic sacrifices whenever
liberty needed aid or weakness called for help, the friend and pupil
of Washington, the chivalrous Lafayette.
“During the sanguinary struggle which resulted in securing liberty to
the American colonies, there were some who gave to the cause their
sympathies, others a part of their means, but Lafayette shed his
blood; he gave a part of himself. Living, he was honored by the
affection of his American comrades; dead, he is enshrined in the
hearts of their posterity. In erecting this statue to this great
representative soldier America has, at the same time, raised a
monument to the memory of every Frenchman who fought for the cause
of our national independence. May the presentation of this gift and
the good wishes which accompany it strengthen between the two great
sister Republics the bonds of friendship which have so long united
them and which nothing should be permitted to weaken.”
Ferdinand W. Peck, the American commissioner-general to the
exhibition, and honorary president of the Lafayette Memorial
Commission, then was introduced by General Porter. Mr. Peck’s speech
was as follows:
“Mr. Ambassador, Mr. President of the Republic, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen: France, a great nation across the sea salutes
thee to-day. Her children, bowed in gratitude, pay the homage for
the heroic deeds of thy countryman, who came with sword and treasure
to succor a struggling people. On this, the Independence Day of the
United States of America, our youth plant a tribute upon thy soil to
the memory of our knight of liberty, our champion of freedom, the
immortal son of France, the rescuer of the oppressed—your Lafayette,
our Lafayette. The spirit of liberty moved him to leave home,
comforts, fortune; moved him to cross boisterous seas during weeks
of peril in order to battle beside our ancestry for that freedom
which underlies the development of the great Western empire, an
empire which has since contributed so much in men, in thought, in
achievement to advance the civilization of the world during the
century now about to close.
“That love for freedom, that friendship, that sacrifice, that
patience, that heroism which brought General Lafayette to the snores
of the new continent to stand side by side with our Washington when
a nation was in the throes of its birth, when our forefathers saw no
light through an almost hopeless gloom, will give an undying
incentive to patriotism and live in grateful memory so long as our
institutions shall endure. He came that we might live; he prayed for
the perpetuity of the nation for which he fought. These are his
words: ‘May this immense temple of freedom ever stand as a lesson to
oppressors, an example to the oppressed, and a sanctuary for the
rights of mankind; and may these happy United States attain that
complete splendor and prosperity which shall illustrate the
blessings of our government and for ages to come rejoice the
departed souls of its founders.’ The prayer, by the grace of God,
has proven a prophetic invocation.
“In thus eulogizing thy son, we do not forget, 0 France, thy generous
gift in our hour
[Page 462]
of need.
We do not forget that out of thy treasury came timely support to our
impoverished young country when our struggle of the Revolution was
done. We do not forget these words you uttered: ‘Keep one-third of
what we have loaned you as a gift of friendship, and when with the
years there comes prosperity you can pay the rest without interest.’
For this our country to-day pays thee homage with tears of
gratitude. We also thank thee for the hallowed ground where a
nation’s children lovingly place this offering; for the beautiful
site in thy historic Garden of the Tuileries, made sacred by a
thousand memories of thy past. Here, surrounded by great palaces
filled with the works of the grandest masters, will stand forever
this memorial. But we thank thee above all for Lafayette. From thy
soil he came with his banner of freedom to lift the yoke of
oppression which our forefathers endured in the eighteenth century.
When in our struggling colonies the altar fires of liberty were
burning low our hero fanned with his enthusiasm the slumbering
embers into an undying flame; and after this noble work was done he
caught up a spark that, when carried back to his country, burned
into the stones of Paris that trinity of words so dear to the French
heart, ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.’
“And now, in behalf of our great Republic, the representatives of
which in Congress assembled supplemented the gift of our youth in
placing here this tribute to the memory of a nation’s defender, and
in behalf of the Lafayette Memorial Commission organized to execute
the thought of our children, it is our duty and our great privilege
to present to thee, France, this monument to the memory of our
knight, whose noble deeds a nation will never forget. His ashes lie
in a tomb which needs no fragrant floral offerings, for
‘The actions of the just
Smell sweet to Heaven and blossom in the dust.
“In this hour we gather around the shrine of the richest, purest
sentiment. It stirs the soul and moistens the eye to think of the
thousands of little hearts from whose impulse came the sacred fund
that has builded this tribute to the intrepid apostle of freedom.
Legends of liberty learned at the knees of American mothers have
found their holiest expression in this gift, and the puritan boys
and girls, who read the story of freedom as they read the story of
Christ, have been watching and waiting with us for this sublime
moment.
“May the lovers of liberty from the uttermost parts of the earth seek
this sanctuary as an inspiration for the oppressed and a promise of
the redemption of mankind throughout all the ages to come.”
President Loubet was greeted heartily when he rose to accept the
monument on behalf of France. The President said:
“Gentlemen: This magnificent monument consecrates the century-old
friendship and the union of the two great nations.
“Moved by a generous impulse, the Government of the United States,
the House of Representatives, and the Senate have associated
themselves with the ceremony which brings us together before the
image of this common ancestor; but the credit of originating this
festival is due to school children fed with the noblest traditions
and the best examples of history. I am happy to join in the cordial
thanks which the Chambers have already sent to the people of the
United States, and which I repeat in the name of the whole of
France.
“The spectacle of these two Republics, penetrated at this moment by
the same emotion and animated by the same thoughts, is not less a
lesson than a fete. It shows that with nations, as with individuals,
the calculations of selfishness are often more hurtful to one’s
interests than generous impulses to the heart.
“When Lafayette crossed the sea to help a distant people to win its
independence he was not the victim of a Quixotic folly; he had a
deep political design. He went to found the friendship of two
peoples on the common religion of patriotism and liberty.
“This friendship, born in the comradeship of arms, has developed and
grown stronger during the century which is ending. The generations
which succeed us will not suffer it to grow weak; they will rather
endeavor to multiply friendly relations and intercourse between the
two sides of the Atlantic, and by so doing give a precious pledge of
peace to the world and of progress to humanity.”
Robert J. Thompson, the secretary of the Lafayette Memorial
Commission, spoke on behalf of the school children of the United
States. He said:
“It is my great privilege and honor to speak here a few words for the
millions of builders of this memorial—for the children of America
who, assembled in their various study rooms, gave in a single day
the funds necessary to insure the success of this monument, long
deferred, but inevitable from the very logic of history.
“On that day a tribute was paid to Lafayette unparalleled in the
annals of civilization. From the great universities and colleges of
the cities to the remote schools of the forests and plains, in every
dwelling of education in our broad land, songs of
[Page 463]
gratitude and praise were offered up,
a memorial to the youthful and generous friend of our fathers,
finding lodgment, we doubt not, as ideals in the minds of those who
in the future years must shape the destiny of their country.
“There were schools for the blind and the deaf, schools for the
Indians of Oklahoma and Alaska, schools for the negroes of the sunny
South, little children of the city kindergartens, and millions from
the regular common schools—all sent up their mites that one who had
in fact offered up his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor that
the Declaration of Independence might become a thing of reality and
life should be singled out more than a century later as the ideal
patriot whose country was the world and whose religion was human
freedom.
“Nations, like men, live largely in hopes for the future and
retrospection of the past. We are a puissant people to-day, but
looking backward to those days when, springing from the womb of the
Revolution, we began the search for progress, we observe a nation of
scarcely 3,000,000 people. To-day we are passing into the twentieth
century, having in a little more than a hundred years multiplied our
population twenty-five fold.
“Let us look forward a century, when, if it please God, our
children’s children may gather again around this spot. It is but a
day in the evolution of man, yet the United States, more youthful
still than her sister nations of the world, shall number over a
billion of people. A thousand million free and independent souls
enjoying the heritage of the blessings of this man’s arms and
sacrifice. We must in the logic of events look forward to that. A
thousand million people filling the plains and valleys of Columbia
as the teeming millions now cover Europe and Asia.
“The impressions of youth are the strongest; they standout in after
years like beckoning friends, drawing us onward to deeds of
greatness or disaster. And it is by this fact that the children of
America will profit greater in this affair than can be measured. The
inspiration of one high ideal implanted in the mind of a boy may
change the map of the world, advance the civilization of man by
gigantic strides, or preserve to him, if need be, the rights and
institutions of liberty purchased in the past by the blood and brain
of the fathers.
“Let the boys and girls of America build for that portentous day, for
come it will. To participate in the shaping for the future of this
great structure shall be the pride, of the twentieth-century youth
of America. And they will be true to the trust we leave them, that
this great Government may stand, as viewed with prophetic eye by
Lafayette, forever as a lesson to oppressors, an example for the
oppressed, and a sanctuary for the rights of mankind.”
Mrs. Daniel Manning, president of the General National Society of
Daughters of the American Revolution, was introduced by General
Porter, and delivered a speech, from which we make the following
extracts:
“We have come tegether in this city of romantic and historic interest
to honor the memory of the illustrious Lafayette, and sunny France
extends a gracious welcome to every guest. In one hand the
brightness of the South, in the other the treasures of the North.
This beautiful city with all its irresistible splendor is fortune’s
favored spot—between extremes, yet where they meet in happy
harmony.
“We are here to-day to render our homage to Lafayette, our admiration
for his character, our gratitude for his help, and our attachment
for the principles of civil and religious liberty which he
encountered ocean, exile, and war to establish. The bells are
ringing to-day throughout America to celebrate the birth of our
Republic, and the names of Lafayette and Washington, for Lafayette’s
name is indissolubly linked in the heart of every American with the
Fourth of July.
“On this day, on lasting foundations, we laid the corner stone of our
Republic, which your compatriot helped us to rear.
“This monument is the loving gift of the young people of America who
have offered of their treasures, and the monument will not only be a
monument to a hero, but the permanent memory of a great life in a
thousand little minds, for one landmark of history written in stone
is worth a hundred written in ink. It is with gratitude the
Daughters of the American Revolution place a tablet upon this
monument.
“It is not, then, as America’s hero alone, nor as the hero of France
alone, that we desire to perpetuate the memory of General de
Lafayette, but as a hero possessing those traits that all mankind
delight to honor wherever worth is valued and great ideals are the
aspiration and hope of the brave and true. The fame of such a
character can be measured only by the limit of a world’s gratitude.
With no spur of future emoluments nor incentive of personal ties, he
came to espouse the cause of the American people according to the
principles of the Declaration, which unfolded before his eyes the
consecrated standard of human rights. He crossed the ocean and
offered his sword to distant unknown fellow-men striving for
liberty. And how completely his sympathy was with America is shown
in a letter to his wife, when he writes: I hope, for my sake, you
will become a good American.’ His was the most tender friendship to
Washington that history records, and to the boy hero was given
[Page 464]
the grateful thanks of a
free people, and the depth of that gratitude was shown when on his
return to America, forty years after, everyone vied in paying him
homage, as expressed in the words of a popular song—
We bow not the neck,
We bend not the knee,
But our hearts, Lafayette,
We surrender to thee.
“He cast his fortunes in with us when we stood alone. He fought for
us when we had no credit, and his hand helped to guard the cradle of
America’s liberty. The name of Lafayette is forever inscribed in
letters of gold upon the tablet of our memories and the history
which commemorates the name America.
“And thus, ‘with hands across the sea,’ America joins in this tribute
to her, to our, to the world’s hero—Lafayette,
The friend of America,
The fellow-soldier of Washington,
The patriot of two countries.”
Miss Tarquinia L. Voss, of Indianapolis, Ind., read the following
dedication poem, written for the occasion by Frank Arthur
Putnam:
Dedication Ode.
I.
To France, as to the sister of her soul,
Columbia sends this wreath of immortelle,
Green for the grave of her immortal son;
Columbia rears this love-engirdled shaft,
The tribute of her children, and a prayer
That never in all the changing after years
Shall night o’ertake the fame of Lafayette.
II.
Our fathers’ father knew him face to face;
They grasped his hand in gladness when he came;
They heard him, wise at council in the hall;
They saw him, like a lion in the field;
A brave heart that was stranger to despair.
A brave heart that was bouyant in the right;
A true heart that in triumph or defeat
Was steadfast to its purpose as the stars.
III.
He did not ask for honors or for gold;
He volunteered to follow, not to lead.
But chivalry was conscious of its kind,
So our great Captain took him to his arms,
And Love has twined the chaplet for his brow.
Where History, cowled and solemn, pens his tale,
Beneath the line that sets his titles forth,
Be this the legend writ across the page:
When Freedom’s feet were weary in the wilds,
He thrust his sword between her and her foes.
IV.
Republic to Republic! Yonder sea
That bore your standards to us in our need,
Shall rise in mist and wander ’mid the worlds
Ere ever the debt we owe you be forgot—
Ere ever the debt Man owes you be repaid.
Yea, on this day to Freedom consecrate,
We pledge anew, beside the Hero’s bier,
Unfaltering faith to that eternal truth
In whose behalf he made our cause his own,
Beneath whose banner he led our ragged hosts
With Washington from darkness to the day.
V.
Come Britain, elder brother of our blood;
Prophetic Slav, and German patriot, come;
Italia, Hellas, peaks in Time’s long range,
Swiss from the heights where Freedom’s holy fires
Through centuries of oppression on the plain,
Blazed beacon-like above a struggling world;
Come, brown men from the emancipated isles,
Our kindmen and copartners that shall be;
Lovers of men in all the wide earth’slands
Columbia bids you kneel with her this day,
And now, above the dust of Lafayette,
In his white name beseech Almighty God
To quicken in us the spirit that was his—
The son of France and brother of all mankind.
[Page 465]
Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, Minn., delivered the oration of the
day. He spoke in French, and received great applause. His address
follows:
“To-day a nation speaks her gratitude to a nation; America proclaims
her remembrance of priceless favors conferred upon her by
France.
“France, America salutes thee; America thanks thee. Great is her
obligation; not unequal to it is her gratitude.
“We speak to France in the name of America, under commission from her
Chief Magistrate, William McKinley, from her Senate and House of
Representatives, from her youths who throng her schools, and from
the tens of millions of her people who rejoice in the rich
inheritance won in years past by the allied armies of France and
America. We are bidden by America to give, in the hearing of the
world, testimony of her gratitude to France.
“Once weak and poor, in sore need of sympathy and succor, to-day the
peer of the mightiest, self-sufficing, asking for naught save the
respect and friendship to which her merits may entitle her, the
Republic of the United States of America holds in loving remembrance
the nation from which in the days of her dire necessity there came
to her powerful and chivalrous support.
“Noble men and noble nations forgive injuries; they never forget
favors.”
The archbishop then sketched at length the history of Lafayette’s
connection with the American revolutionary struggle. In the course
of his remarks he said:
“There is a land which is, above all other lands, the land of
chivalry, of noble impulse and generous sacrifice, the land of
devotion to ideals. At the call of a highborn principle her sons,
with souls attuned by nature to the harmonies of the true and the
beautiful, leap instinctively into the arena, resolved at any cost
to render such principle a reality in the life current of humanity.
The pages of its history are glistening with the names of heroes and
martyrs, of knightly soldiers and saintly missionaries. It is of
France I speak.”
The speaker also paid a magnificent tribute to Lafayette’s mother,
Gilbert Motier. Of Lafayette’s work he said: “Wealth and rank, the
favor of court and King, high distinction in the service of his own
country, the endearments of wife and child—all that ambition could
covet or opportunity promise, the youth of 19 summers put resolutely
aside to cast his lot with a far-off people battling against fearful
odds—and that at a moment when their fortunes were at their lowest
ebb, and hope had well nigh abandoned their standard. When the agent
of America in France sadly confessed that he was even unable to
furnish a ship to carry him and other volunteers, Lafayette said: “I
will buy a ship and take your men with me.”
Continuing, he said: “France first stood sponsor for our nationhood.
We entered into the great family of nations leaning on her arm,
radiant with the reflection of her historic splendor, and strong in
the protection of her titanic stature. When Franklin stood in the
palace of Versailles an acknowledged envoy of America, and General
de Rayneval, as the minister of France, saluted the Congress of
America at Philadelphia, the young Republic thrilled with new life
and leaped at once into a full sense of security and a true
consciousness of her dignity.”
The concluding clause of the archbishop’s speech was as follows:
“And who more fittingly than Lafayette could stand forth before the
world as the representative of the principles of civil and political
liberty for which he and Washington fought? The passion of his soul,
the inspiration of his thoughts and acts, was liberty. Liberty drew
him to America; liberty put words of fire upon his lips in the
States General; liberty led him to the prison of Olmutz. He
understood—no one ever understood better—what true liberty is, and
as he understood it so he loved it and defended it unto death.
Liberty he loved as the fullness of enjoyment of one’s own natural
rights, with proper regard to the natural rights of others, the
fullest play of one’s own powers of mind and heart consistent with
public welfare and public order. The enemies of liberty he
hated—absolutism in its arbitary authority and anarchy in its
chaotic rioting. He stood the strenuous defender of the rights of
man and of the citizen which absolutism would fain destroy, and
championed them in the name of manhood, in the name of citizenship,
in the name of conscience. He championed them beneath the frown of
the potentate and in defiance of bribe and threat. He stood the
strenuous defender of law and order, which are the conditions of
liberty, and which anarchy would fain subvert. When the struggle in
France for liberty degenerated into mad riot he cast aside the
leadership which he had taken in the name of liberty, and which he
could have retained if he bore it in the name of lawlessness, and he
sought the exile which ended for him in the prison of Olmutz. He
suffered persecution from the extremists on both sides. He strove
for the golden mean, and for this we respect and revere his name.
Absolutism and anarchy alike hate Lafayette as they alike hate
liberty; the friends of liberty love Lafayette as they hate
absolutism and anarchy.
[Page 466]
“And now, Lafayette, thy task is given thee. Speak, we charge thee,
the gratitude of America to France. Speak of the liberty for which
America and France once fought together, and which to-day they
together cherish and uphold. Speak, we charge thee, through endless
years. Through endless years America’s gratitude shall last and
liberty shall reign in America and France.”
