Reviews, Notes and Comments 427
ago entertained Lafayette. In the
failure to adopt and
carry out generally a program for such
celebration of
the anniversary of this remarkable tour
the patriotic
societies of America lost a real
opportunity.
The following editorial of the Cincinnati
Times-Star,
of May 18, reflects the spirit that
this celebration re-
vived in the Queen City of the West.
WHEN LAFAYETTE CAME TO CINCINNATI
The most romantic figure in American
history was not an
American, but a Frenchman, and on
Tuesday Cincinnati will
honor his memory with appropriate
noonday and evening ex-
ercises. Scion of an ancient and noble
family, the Marquis de
Lafavette came to his estates at
thirteen, was married at six-
teen, and at twenty flung himself into
the cause of American in-
dependence, well in advance of the
French court. Instantly
attracted by the spirit and promise of
this ardent youth and im-
pressed by his soldierly conduct at
Brandywine, Washington
gave him command of a division before he
had reached man's
estate. He was intrusted with the
defense of Virginia and took
part in the siege of Yorktown that
decided the war. Then the
young Frenchman returned to his native
land, and sought to
make American ideals of liberty a fact
in the early days of its
great revolution; almost he succeeded.
It was he that intro-
duced the Declaration of Rights, based
on our own Declaration
of Independence. He was put in command
of the National
Guard. and then of the army of the Ardennes,
which he led in a
succession of victories. But the
revolution had entered on bloody
courses and, sick at heart, he quitted
his native land. There
was still another chapter. after the
Bonaparte era was ended.
Lafayette re-entered public life, was a
leader in the revolution
of 1830, and forty years after his first
command of the Na-
tional Guard. he commanded it again.
His visit to this country in 1825 was
memorable in its demon-
stration of America's gratitude and
overflowing good will. On
Tuesday, May 19th, he came to
Cincinnati on his way north from
Lexington, where he had been the guest
of Henry Clay. Cross-
ing the Ohio in an elaborately decorated
barge rowed by six
prominent citizens, and escorted through
our streets in an open
phaeton drawn by six magnificent horses,
he was made the cen-
tral figure of ceremonies which included
speeches of welcome by
Governor Morrow and General William
Henry Harrison, a re-