A complete history of the Marquis de Lafayette, major-general in the American army in the war of the revolution. Embracing an account of his tour through the United States, to the time of his departure, September, 1825. By an officer in the late army.

486 THE TOUR OF
States, impelled alike by its own feelings, and by those of the
whole American people, could not have assigned to me a more
gratifying duty, than that of beingits organ to present to you
cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival
in the United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress, and to assure you of the very high satisfaction wh;ch
your presence affords on this early theatre of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members who compose this
body, shared with you in the war of the Revolution, all have a
knowledge, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, of the
perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you have voluntarily encountered, and the signal services in America and in
Europe, which you performed for an infant, a distant, and an
alien people; and all feel and own the very great extent of the
obligatiojns under which you have placed our country. But
the relations in which you have ever stood to the United States,
interesting and important as they have been, do not constitute
the only motive of the respect and admiration which this House
entertains for you. Your consistency of character, your uniform devotion to regulated liberty, in all the vicissitudes of a
long and arduous life, also commands its highest admiration.
During all the recent convulsions of Europe, amidst, as after the
dispersion of, every political storm, the people of the United
States have ever beheld you true to your old principles, firm
and erect, cheering and animating, with your well known voice,
the votaries of liberty, its faithful and fearless champion, ready
to shed the last drop of that blood, which here you so freely
and nobly spilt in the same holy cause.
"The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence would allow the Patriot, after death, to return to'his
country, and to contemplate the intermediate changes which had
taken place-to view the forests felled, the cities built, the
mountains levelled, the canals cut, the highways constructed,
the progress of the arts,: the advancement of learning, and the
increase of population. General, your present visit to the United
States is the realization of the consoling object of that wish.
You are in the midst of posterity! Every where you must
have been struck with the great changes, physical and moral,
which have occurred since you left us. Even this very city
bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you -and to us, has
since emerged from the forest which then covered its site. In
one respect, yoll behold us unaltered, and that is in this:senti