Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-10-04

has been continued triumph. A con-
slant burst of admiration and attach.
ment has met you in every quarter.
The West has wed with the East and
the South with the North. 1t has been
the spontaneous ou.pouring of the
hearts of freemen to liberty and virtue.
"You, brother, in your youth battled
by the side of our gallant fathers in
their glorious cause; stranger in
strange land, you freely offered your
life and shed your blood in our defence,
because you knew and felt that our
cause was the cause of mankind.
"Could you in the dark and trying
scenes of that evcntful contest, when
sometimes all seemed lost, save hope,
could you have had prophetic glance
at all the glories which this Republic in
the short space of so years has already
realized, how would it have nerved
your arm in the perilous fight and how
greatly would the tolls and trials of
that awful conflict have been lessened.
"But, brother, higher reward has
been decreed you. You have lived to
sec the object of that war fully achieved;
to see this country, then weak and dis
tracted, assume a form of government
which guarantees to every one all the
freedom consistent with our duties to
civil society; you have lived to see, to
see with your own eyes, the immense
progress of our beloved country in
everything calculated to promote human
happiness; you have lived to see your
youthful visions of the glory and high
destinies of this mighty republic more
than realized; you have lived to see that
you did not fight and bleed in vain.
"Your name, brother, will be tran
smitted to our latest posterity as one of
the earliest, ablest and most devoted
defenders of our liberties; your high and
ardent devotion to the cause of rational
liberty will be held up as an example to
our sons to stimulate them to deeds of
noble daring, and our children and
children's children will lisp the name of
Washington and Lafayette with love
and veneration.
"Many Of us, brother, fondly enter
cain the hope that the remnant OF time
allotted TO you to sojourn in this world,
would have been spent in your adopted
country-but, your duties forbid
and you will shortly return to
your native land. As this is the last
time, brother, we shall probably ever
meet in this world, accept our most ar.
dent wishes for safe and pleasant
voyage, and may He, whom tue winds
and waves obey, take you into His most
holy keeping, while on the bosom of the
perilous deep, and return you safely, TO
the embraces of your atfectionate
family, long to bless them with your
presence and paternal care"
To which Brother Lafayette replied:
'Of all the high qualifications | have
experienced, in this my progress through
my adopted country, my receptions by
the "a grand lodges of the United States
have afforded me the greatest, because
beheld in them new and beautiful eX-
hibition of that union on which the
prosperity of this great republic is based
and sure pledge of its continuance.
accept Most Worshipful Grand
Lodge my thanks for the honor you
have conferred by enrolling me among
your members-with gratitude accept
this certificate, and with pride will
preserve it,
Venerable oak of Brandywine! that
will lend Dough to enclose it, long
may you shade descendants of the pa
triots who fought and bled beneath
your foliage, virtuous and brave may
they ever be as their sires, my compan-
ions in arms.
81 thank you, Most Worshipful Grand
Master, heartily thank you for the
prayer you have so fervently offered to
the Great Architect of the Universe to
protect me on the Atlantic, and restore
me in safety to my beloved family, and
my native France-but, l cannot divest
myself of the hope that Providence will
permit me to revisit the shores of my
adopted country. My reception by the
Grand Lodge of Delaware will be indel-
libby engraven on my heart"
The grand officers and all the breth-
rem present were then severally pre-
scented to Brother Lafayette.