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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, the LaGrange Daily News will be publishing a series of columns by Richard Ingram, a longtime resident of LaGrange and Chair of Friends of Lafayette.

Week of April 7-14, 1825

The Farewell Tour

The New York Times Book Review found its beginning on September 18, 1851.  Two books which received no mention, though published that year, were Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “House of Seven Gables,” which is to say sometimes singular events do not get their due.  Lafayette’s manner, his resilient smile and his genuine interest in people, despite the wear of incessant receptions, banquets, and balls, never flagged.  This Southern and Western leg of the Farewell Tour, taxing though it was, never found Lafayette dispirited, save the one instance when his boat sank and “Quiz,” his little dog drowned.

Mobile, today a port city of 200,000, then an uncongested 1800, loomed across the bay on April 7.  Lafayette was there only one day, but he attended a public dinner, a ball, and a Masonic ceremony.  A five-year-old little girl wanted to give him a kiss.  “Why kiss me,” he asked.  “Because my papa and mama say you are good and because my schoolbook calls you the good General Lafayette.”

The “Natchez” had been dispatched by the City of New Orleans to transport Lafayette from Mobile to New Orleans.  Lafayette slept that night aboard the “Natchez,” tied to the wharf, and launched into the Gulf of Mexico next morning, steered by the competent Captain Davis.  The “Natchez” could have skirted the Mississippi coast, along Dauphin, Horn, Dog, Ship, and Cat Islands, across Lakes Borgue and Pontchartrain, and up the Mississippi River; the alternate route was into the Gulf of Mexico, then up the Mississippi, which was shorter by a day, and this was the chosen path.  A storm threatened to dismantle the “Natchez,” waves battering the boat for two days.  Lafayette was seasick; he had always been sick at sea, even in the days of La Victoire.  Finally, at midnight, two nights after leaving Mobile, “Natchez” entered the mouth of the Mississippi.  The “Natchez” was given a thirteen-gun salute as it passed Fort Plaquemine at noon.  At midnight, in their berths, anchored near Mr. Morgan’s plantation, they could hear a one-hundred-gun salute.  The following morning, April 10, several steamboats surrounded the “Natchez” and escorted her into the harbor at New Orleans.  Lafayette stood on deck in the rain, his gesture of respect and thanks.

At 2 PM the “Natchez” approached the Plain of Chalmette where the Battle of New Orleans was fought January 8, 1815.  Lafayette landed at the levee at 4 PM to a “thunder of artillery.”  He was escorted to the house of Mr. William Montgomery, where Andrew Jackson had headquartered during the battle.

A procession, past crowds rain-soaked, stopped at the Place d ’Armes, between the Mississippi River and the Cabildo, or City Hall.  Lafayette passed through a spectacular triumphal arch 68 feet tall, 58 feet wide, with an arcade 25 feet long and 20 feet wide, the largest he had seen.  Governor Johnson and Mayor Roffignac were there, as was Father Antonio de Sedella, a monk of the Capuchin Order, founded by St. Francis of Assisi in its original incarnation.  The Capuchin Order was known for its earthy brown frock, for which the “cappuccino” is named.  Father Antoine became pastor of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, its first; he chose to live sparsely, behind the Cathedral in a hut under a date-palm tree.

The Cabildo still stands on Jackson Square, next to St. Louis Cathedral, and around the corner from 624 Pirates’ Alley where William Faulkner lived for a time.  It was the site of the Louisiana Purchase ceremonies and is now part of the Louisiana State Museum.  The Cabildo served as Lafayette’s headquarters and the people referred to it as “La Maison Lafayette.”

It rained every day, but it didn’t matter.  Lafayette would exit his carriage to greet and shake hands.  On Day Two in New Orleans, he attended James H. Caldwell’s American Theater for a performance of “Prisoner of Olmutz,” then hustled to the French Orlean Theater for “L’Ecole des Vieillards.”

Lafayette received a delegation of free Blacks who fought under General Jackson.  He greeted them enthusiastically and thanked them for their patriotic service.

A disagreement arose between two military factions, the New Orleans based “Louisiana Legion” and the state militia as to which should have precedence in greeting Lafayette.  Passions were high and at least three duels were in the offing.  Lafayette called both factions to his quarters at the Cabildo, talked them down for half-an-hour, smoothed agitations, called them his “children,” and had them embrace, and served each a glass of wine.  The three duels were averted.

The day before leaving, Lafayette met with the Medical Society and attended a Grand Masonic Reception and banquet at the home of Mr. John Davis.  That night he attended the Orlean Theater to see “Lafayette in New Orleans.”