Saket Vora

I found myself catching up on This American Life episodes today as I went about my day, and I was struck by a Sarah Vowell segment on General Marquis de Lafayette. The episode was Reunited, where Vowell discusses the triumphant return of Lafayette to America in 1824 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United States. As anyone who’s endured several long, meandering conversations with me knows, I am quite fond of American history, particularly the Founding Fathers and the astounding result of the Revolutionary War.

Lafayette, a wealthy nobleman inspired by the independence movement in the Colonies, left his native France at the age of 19 to enlist in the ragtag army commanded by General George Washington, who would later consider Lafayette the son he never had. Dashing and courageous, Lafayette was adored by his men and was a trusted right hand man to Washington during the war. He was instrumental in bolstering French support for the colonials, and after the war returned to France with hopes of a democratic revolution in France. Instead, he witnessed the Reign of Terror and was imprisoned for five years when he tried to escape to America.

As Vowell describes, 80,000 people came out to greet Lafayette in New York’s harbor when he returned in 1824 (note: the population of New York at the time was 120,000). He was feted everywhere he went, with public parks, squares, roads, and cities named in his honor (Fayetteville, NC). Vowell writes about this visit in the context of the growing political unrest that would ultimately lead the Civil War:  “…Lafayette, belonging to neither North nor South, to no political party or faction, was a walking talking reminder of the sacrifices and bravery of the revolutionary generation and what they wanted this country to be. His return was not just a reunion with his beloved Americans, it was a reunion with Americans with their astonishing singular past.”

During the visit, Henry Clay toasted him calling him an ‘Apostle of Liberty’, and in response Lafayette said “To the perpetual union of the United States, it has always served us in times of storm — one day, it will save the world.”

He was the first honorary citizen of the United States, and when he died in 1834 President Andrew Jackson ordered the same funeral honors for Lafayette that was accorded to John Adams and George Washington. The people of America were asked to wear black for thirty days. When Americans returned Lafayette’s favor by helping to liberate French soil in World War I, Vowell says “General Pershing marched his troops to [Lafayette's] Paris grave, where the old soldier had been buried under soil from Bunker Hill. They placed an American flag into that American dirt. “Lafayette,” one of them said, “we are here.”

Vowell’s voice breaks as she says those last words, and I feel goosebumps up my arms. So on this Bastille Day, I choose not to celebrate the act that set in motion a period of turmoil for France, but to a Frenchman who was one of the greatest friends this country of ours has ever had.