MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE 



His passion for liberty enkindled by the heroic struggle of the American colonies, Marie 

 Jean Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier Lafayette, a youth of 19, determined to cast his 

 fortunes with the followers of Washington. Arrested by order of his sovereign when he 

 attempted to sail from Bordeaux, the dauntless boy escaped from France in disguise and 

 embarked with eleven companions from a port in Spain. Landing in x\merica in April, 1779, 

 he went at once to Philadelphia, where Congress hesitated to give him a commission as 

 major general, which had been promised by the American agent in Paris. 



Immediately Lafayette waived all claim to military rank and asked to be allowed to serve 

 in the Continental Army "as a volunteer and without pay." Happily, Congress proved no 

 less magnanimous; his commission was issued at once. The day following he met Washing- 

 ton, and there began a lifelong friendship between the two great patriots and lovers of 

 liberty, epitomizing the mutual devotion and admiration which the people of France and of 

 the United States were henceforth to entertain toward each other for all time. It was largely 

 through Lafayette's influence that Rochambeau came to America with a division of French 

 soldiers which turned the tide of defeat into victory for the colonies. 



Returning to his native France, Lafayette played a distinguished role in the events of 

 the French Revolution, his devotion to the cause of liberty ever remaining unsullied by 

 wanton deeds of bloodshed or vainglorious striving for power. Having been made com- 

 mander-in-chief of the National Guard of Paris on the day following the storming of the 

 Bastille, he sent the key of that grim stronghold to General Washington as a symbol of the 

 overthrow of despotism and the triumph of free government in France. That symbol is 

 today one of America's most treasured mementos, carefully guarded in the nation's shrine — 

 Mt. Vernon. 



S23 



