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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 May 19, 1825

The Farewell Tour

At sunrise on his second day in Cincinnati Lafayette was greeted by 1200 Sunday School children with a resounding “Welcome, Lafayette!”  Dr. Martin Ruter, minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church who received his elder’s orders from Bishop Francis Asbury in 1805, addressed Lafayette:  “Our new generations know and cherish our political institutions; they have learned of your history in studying that of the nation, and they will transmit to posterity the grateful memory of what you endured for the sacred cause of liberty.”

At 11 AM Lafayette reviewed the militia, decked out in battle array on the Public Square; followed by a procession of artisans with trade banners fluttering, and a detachment of Revolutionary War Veterans.  At the Public Grounds, beneath a pavilion where the parade ended, Samuel M. Lee “sang an ode adapted to the Marseillaise air,” followed by greetings from Joseph Bentham, whom James Monroe had appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Ohio in 1823.  Bentham’s voice was melodious, and his delivery such that his audience had no desire to leave once he finished.  Levasseur at the close of his account of Bentham’s speech makes this remarkable observation:  “The eloquence of the people is one of the distinctive characteristics of the Americans of the United States; the ability to speak well in public is given there to all citizens by the universality and the excellence of education; and this faculty is developed there to a high degree by the nature of the institutions that call each citizen to exercise that power in the discussion of public affairs.”  Levasseur is genuinely taken with America’s talent for public speaking.  “In each town, in each village,” he goes on to say, “the number of individuals capable of speaking before a multitudinous assembly is truly stupendous. . .”

Lafayette took time to visit Morgan Neville, son of Colonel Presley Neville who had been an aide-de-camp for two years to Lafayette during the Revolutionary War; Presley married Nancy Morgan, daughter of General Daniel Morgan, making Morgan Neville grandson to the Morgan of “Morgan’s Riflemen.”  Morgan Neville was ill and destitute, having spent his fortune to satisfy his father’s debts.  Lafayette slipped under his pillow $4000 in United States bonds, part of the gift to him from Congress.

A banquet at Colonel Mack’s Hotel, followed by a ball attended by 500, including Governor Morrow of Ohio, Governor Desha of Kentucky, and Governor Duval of Florida.

At midnight Lafayette boarded the “Herald” to ascend the Ohio to Wheeling.  Lafayette in a letter to Nelly Custis called Cincinnati “one of the most delightful places I ever knew.”

The “Herald” stopped at Maysville for two hours; a procession hastily arranged up Fish Street to Captain Langhorne’s Hotel for a reception before reboarding.  A stop at Portsmouth that night for fuel, followed by a short visit at Gallipolis for libation at Cushing’s Tavern; and one hour at Marietta to visit with Nahum Ward, whom Lafayette had known in Paris and who now owned the handsomest house in Marietta.

Lafayette arrived at Wheeling on May 24th.  Wheeling was still part of the State of Virginia; West Virginia did not become a state until 1863.  Three hundred miles from Cincinnati over three days.  At Wheeling, up Main Street from Beymer’s Landing to Simm’s Hotel where Lafayette rested and wrote letters until 2 PM when he attended a reception; dinner at 4 PM followed by a visit with the Mason’s; and concluding the day with a ball at Graham’s Inn.

At 8 AM next morning he was escorted by Governor Morrow onto the new National Road and into western Pennsylvania.  Technically, this ended his Southern and Western Tour.  He lunched at West Alexander at a no-name inn which “at once became the Lafayette Inn.”  On to Washington, Pennsylvania, where he attended a banquet at Morris’ Hotel on South Main Street and Strawberry Alley.  He spent the night at the Globe Inn on Monongahela Street.

Up at six.  Ten miles out, breakfast at Hill Tavern, Hillsborough; another thirteen miles and a banquet at Brashear Inn, Brownsville.  He was seated, preparing for the festivities when a messenger galloped up to inform him nearby Uniontown was waiting breathlessly for him to arrive and would he hurry it up.  Lafayette made profuse apologies to his Brownsville hosts, off to Uniontown.