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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 June 30, 1825

The Farewell Tour

After spending the night at Waterford, Lafayette had breakfast at Troy and arrived at Albany at 2 PM.  He wanted to spend more time at “The Pastures,” General Philip Schuyler’s home where Elizabeth Schuyler married then twenty-three-year -old Alexander Hamilton in 1780, and where British General John Burgoyne gave his sword to General Horatio Gates at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, but his schedule was not elastic.  That evening he saw George Horton Barrett play the “Duke of Ananza” in “Honey Moon,” followed by a banquet at Cruttendon’s.  He boarded “SS Bolivar” that night, joined by economist Fredrich List who is today considered an early version of John Maynard Keynes.

Expected in New York City for the Fourth, Lafayette spent July 2nd at Schenectady before steaming on to West Point, where he arrived at 1 AM, disembarked “Bolivar” and boarded the “SS James Kent” to float the rest of the way down the Hudson.  He arrived in New York City early morning July 3rd. 

John Adams thought America would celebrate July 2nd as Independence Day, the Second Continental Congress having on that day voted for independence; the written Declaration of Independence was approved, however, on July 4th and public sentiment chose the Fourth to celebrate.

After a reception at City Hall, Lafayette crossed Old Ferry to Brooklyn, drawn in a yellow barouche and four white horses to lay the cornerstone of the Brooklyn Apprentice’ Library, also know as “Mechanics’ Library,” as it was intended for rank and file working people.  Lafayette picked up one child, five or six years old and too short to get a good view and kissed him on the cheek; it was a young Walt Whitman.

Back to New York for a church service and a reading of the Declaration of Independence.  Levasseur in his journal was impressed that every year on July 4th the Declaration was read from pulpits all over the country and read again in homes afterward and, he said, “Nearly all children know it by heart.”

At City Hall the governor introduced Lafayette to the Senate.  Mr. Talmadge, President of the Senate, gave the welcoming speech.  Dinner was followed by performances at Park Theater and Castle Garden Theater.  He used the Mansion House as his base for the next ten days.

President John Quincy Adams notified Lafayette that the newly minted “USS Brandywine” would be ready to transport him back to France at the conclusion of his Farewell Tour.  Adams had the ship christened “Brandywine” in commemoration of Lafayette’s first battlefield engagement.  Lafayette had planned to return August 18 the way he came, aboard the “Cadmus,” commanded by Captain Allyn.  The “Brandywine” was a 44-gun frigate designed by William Doughty who was appointed head carpenter at the Washington Navy Yard in 1804; he was well-liked and much valued with an annual salary of $1900.  The “Brandywine” would be ready for service in two months.  Lafayette had accumulated souvenirs and mementos which would require considerable space, and he could not well refuse transport aboard a vessel specifically named in his honor; therefore, he wrote Adams on July 5th to accept.  Adams asked Lafayette to provide the name of the port to which he, Lafayette, was to be transported; Le Havre it was.  The commander of “Brandywine” would be Captain Charles Morris who had distinguished himself at Tripoli.  Interestingly, one of the officers aboard would be David “Damn the torpedoes!” Glasgow Farragut, who would achieve fame at the Battle of Mobile, 1864.