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Editor’s Note: This year marks the Bicentennial, 2024-2025, of Lafayette and his farewell tour, “Guest of the Nation”, which took place August 15, 1824-September 7, 1825. To commemorate the occasion, this is the second of four contributed columns by Richard Ingram, a longtime resident of LaGrange and Chair of Friends of Lafayette.

August 19-26, 1824

Lafayette never tired of meeting Americans.  The week of August 19-26, two hundred years ago, he traveled from New York City, through New Haven and Providence, to Boston; from 5 AM till midnight and all along the way people turned out to cheer him.  Triumphal arches greeted him along with canon firings, trumpet salutes, and bell peals.  Local militia escorted him from one point to another, and officials would offer up sonorous welcomings, followed by dances, concerts, and toasts, thirteen at minimum.  Lafayette returned the gratitude.  He visited Yale, its president and all four professors, and marveled at its library of 6000 volumes.  Invited to church and not wanting to offend, he attended both the First Congregational Church and the Episcopalian Church for morning worship.  Lafayette was Catholic, but he was comfortable in any pew; he was a champion of religious toleration.  He attended commencement at Harvard with Boston Mayor Quincy.  He was not a member, and nonmembers were usually not welcome, but Phi Beta Kappa honored him with an invitation to a meeting, which he accepted.  Students cheered him with, “Vive Lafayette.”  America loves Lafayette.