his eighty-fifth year), overwhelmed him with emotion. Lafayette received the congratulations of the citizens in the Governor's chamber in the City Hall. He left New York for Boston on the 20th of August, attended by a numerous civil and military escort, and all along the route he was met by a great concourse of people. Every town and village through which he passed was ornamented or illuminated, and every testimony of gratitude and affection was offered to the Nation's guest. Lafayette reached Boston and spent the night at the residence of Governor Eustis at Roxbury, and on the following morning the city proceeded to meet him, accompanied by a cavalcade of twelve hundred horsemen. The sight of the General as he drove up to the line in an open barouche awakened an enthusiasm which only an eye witness could describe. Lafayette had sounded all the depths of honor. He had passed from every enjoyment that wealth and royal favor could bestow to poverty and a dungeon. For just here I will mention in parentheses (he had been seized for the Republican sentiments he was known to profess, and after several vain efforts to maintain the cause of rational liberty, he left Paris for Flanders but was taken prisoner by the Austrians, and conveyed to Olmutz, where he remained for five years, suffering every privation; until Bonaparte obtained his liberation in 1797.) Lafayette passed through immense throngs, with all the noise that bells, cannon, and human lungs were capable of producing. Every countenance beamed with admiration, and every one wore a Lafayette badge stamped upon blue ribbon. An arch was thrown across Washington street inscribed with the stanza, "We bow not the neck, and we bend not the knee, but our hearts, Lafayette, we surrender to thee." It was a complete surrender, and the cultivated classes of that somewhat exclusive city led the wild enthusiasm of the street. When the State House was reached the officers of the militia were presented, and he was welcomed to the Commonwealth by the Governor. Lafayette's reception culminated in a grand military review, which was finer than anything which had taken place in Boston. A few days later Lafayette rode to Cambridge to attend the meeting of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and the ovation was as great as the one at the State House. Mr. Ware gave a beautiful poem with allusions to Lafayette, and Mr. Everitt pronounced an oration (of which nothing more magnificient in the way of oratory could be conceived). When he alluded to the noble conduct of Lafayette in procuring a ship for his own transportation, when all America was too poor to offer him a passage to her shores, the scene was overpowering, every man in the assembly was in tears. When the voice of the orator ceased there was perfect silence, the feeling was too great for immediate applause. When the response came it was never to be forgotten. The fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill was celebrated in a scene of grandeur. The ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the projected monument were performed by the officers of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, assisted by Lafayette and the President of the Association, Daniel Webster. The address of Everitt at Cambridge was a grand display of oratory, but in Webster at Bunker Hill there was combined the magnificent presence of the man, and he seemed to tower above all other men. At the laying of the corner-stone Lafayette refused to take the seat next official personages and distinguished guests, saying, "I belong among survivors of the Revolution," and so he took a seat among the veterans, with no shelter from the rays of a June sun. At the conclusion of the exercises a dinner was given and patriotic toasts abounded. Lafayette made a most graceful speech which his French accent made very touching. Lafayette stood before his audience a fine portly figure, nearly six feet tall, wearing lightly the three score and ten years he had nearly completed, showing no infirmity, save the slight lameness incurred in our defense at the battle of Brandywine. He proclaimed that "Bunker Hill had been the pole star upon which his eye had been fixed." Many of the adjacent towns were visited, and everywhere he received a most cordial welcome. On Sunday, the 5th of September, the General returned to New York, receiving there, of course, the usual acclamations. The anniversary of his birthday came on the 6th, his sixty-seventh year, and it was celebrated at a dinner given to him at Washington Hall. He left New York for Jersey City, and was received by the Governor and many distinguished citizens. In Newark unusual demonstrations were awarded Lafayette. As soon as he arrived near Newark bridge a salute was fired, and he was escorted by the distinguished members of the New Jersey courts, the clergy, and guests from abroad to the residence of Judge Boudinot, then occupied by Mrs. Munn. A civic arch was erected on the common, and two thousand militia escorted the illustrious guest, and as the General passed under the arch a female chorus sang and strewed flowers in his path. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the Attorney General of New Jersey, welcomed him, and he responded in a touching manner. The crowd had so surrounded him that it was impossible for citizens and ladies to be presented as had been planned. A collation was served at his headquarters at the Boudinot House, and a toast was proposed which was drank with rapturous applause. At a recent meeting of one the New Jersey Chapters an able article on Lafayette's visit to Newark was read. As the reader ceased speaking, a voice said, "I was there, and walked through the arch, and saw all the celebrities." Whereupon Miss Eliza Sanford, a daughter of a soldier in the Revolutionary War was asked to rise that all the members might see her. She did so and was enthusiastically acknowledged with waving of flags and clapping of hands. That little incident served to bring that far away time down very close to the present. From Newark Lafayette proceeded to Trenton, and it is stated in one of the papers of that time that the crowd in the streets was so great as to compel the driver of the mail coach to pass around the town. Here were triumphal arches, variegated lamps, and such festivities as his brief sojourn would permit. Members of the Common Council were chosen to meet him, and no one took a greater part in the entertainment than Evan Evans (who by the way is the grandfather of our Chapter Vice-Regent, Mrs. Foster). In Philadelphia a grand ball was given in his honor, which exceeded in all respects any entertainment of the kind before known. The proceedings were similar to what had taken place in other cities, the same universal uproar, the same exultation of heart, the noise of drum and trumpet. During his visit, which lasted a little more than a year, Lafayette traveled through nearly every part of the United States, and at last this grand national jubilee was concluded by the departure of this illustrious hero whose presence had gladdened the hearts of millions of freemen. All business was suspended in the city of Washington. Lafayette appeared in the hall of the President's mansion, and, surrounded by all the civil and military officers, members of Congress, and distinguished citizens, he received the farewell of the Chief Magistrate of the Union. When the President dwelt upon the heartfelt reception which national gratitude had offered to him, and the blessings which he would carry to his native land, Lafayette embraced the President, saluting him on each cheek in the French manner. As a vessel placed at his disposal. moved off, the deepest silence reigned until the artillery thundered its valedictory, and his farewell to America was accompanied by his fatherly benediction upon the whole people. Lafayette died at Paris on the 20th of May, 1834, and was buried in the same tomb in which reposed the body of Madame de Lafayette, who died in 1807. The inscription upon his stone is very simple, and no word reveals the fact that he ever visited America. The name of Lafayette with the present and all future generations will be associated with liberty, freedom, and happiness. MARY HUNT EVANS, Historian, General David Foreman Chapter. 702 N. Park Ave., Chicago, Ill., MRS. MARY S. LOCKWOOD, EDITOR. His son, Robert Washington, of Sulgrave, England, married Elizabeth Light, daughter of Robert Light (I make this correction below and give my authority). She was the daugh ter and heir of Walter Light, of Radway, and not Robert Light, as given in the Supplement. (See will of Walter Light, gentleman, made March 16th, 1596, proven 1597, of Parish of Busshopper, Ichington, buried in church in Parish of Radway, a copy of which I possess.) Mr. Henry F. Waters, researcher in England, who is authority for the above records, makes this statement in connection with his Washington Light records later: "An error slipped into the pedigree of Washington family presented by me in 1889. Robert Washington, of Sulgrave, married Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Light and not Robert as given." The will of Walter Light, of Radway, proved in 1597, proves this: The children of Robert Washington and Elizabeth (Light) were: Lawrence, who married Margaret Butler (as given in Supplement, ancestor of George Washington, of U. S. A.); Robert; Walter, of Radway, died 1597 [namesake of Walter Light, his grandfather], married Alice [Murden] Morden, of Morell, (daughter of John Morden, of Morten, County Warr, whose will was proven 1647.-E. J. H.) She was left a widow and married, secondly, John Woodward, of Stratford-onAvon. See pedigree in Visitations of Warwick, 1619; Christopher-Palmer; Amy. Walter Washington and Alice Morden, whose mother was Katherine (Marston) Morden, daughter and co-heir of Richard Marston, of Draughton, had son, John of Radway, married Mary Danvers, daughter of George Danvers, of Blisworth, County Northumberland, England; and daughter, Katherine Washington, in England. Amy Pargiter was the second wife of Mayor Lawrence Washington. This is my ancestry. Washington, in brief. I have full records of ancestors and descendants of my lineage. I shall be pleased to have you credit to H. F. W. and E. J. H. this correction in AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Yours truly, EVA J. HOPKINS HAMILTON, D. A. R. No. 346, Charter member Chicago Chapter. |