The Washington times., 1917-04-25
A Republic Not UngratefuI

Those who are fond of finding his.
torical condolences are likely to re-
call the fact that one hundred and
two score years ago, this day, or
which General Joffre arrived in the
Capital of the United States, the
Marquis de Lafayette set sail from
a port in Spain to tender his sword
to the cause of the American Colo
nies. 1t was in the darkest days of
the young Republic of the West, less
than a year after the Declaration of
Independence, that Lafayette arrived
1t is not too much to say that his
coming changed the course of mod
ern history. His presence as valued
officer under Washington commended
the revolutionary cause and our
great revolutionary leader to French
sympathy and French assistance.
Followed the proffer of financial aid
to a bankrupt American treasury
and the sending of the French fleet
to American shores, all eliminating
in the historic event in which Lafay-
ette, Rochambeau, and Washington
took part, which we commemorate as
the siege and surrender of York
town.
From victorious America Lafayette
returned to France filled with repub-
lican ideals, and joined the brilliant
circle of liberal intellectuals who
planned and carried through the
French revolution. Lafayette was
too conservative to have shared in
the excesses of that revolution and
had later himself to escape from the
violence of its leaders. But when
the revolution was won and France
had achieved the proud position of
the first nation of Europe, under Ma
poleon, Lafayette returned to the
United States to prove the falsity of
the proverb that speaks of the in
gratitude of republics.
This historic day, when the Capt.
tai of the Nation is afame with the
spirit of admiration for French
+heroism and French patriotism as
embodied in General Joffre, a hun
dred million hearts proclaim that this
republic is not ungrateful to the ma
tion that helped US into being. No
visitor since the days of Lafayette
could have been received with such
undivided sentiment of loyalty and
affection. The gallant soldier and in
trepid commander who hurled back
the invading Huns from the very en-
virons of Paris itself; who has
watched the slowly receding tide of
that invasion as day by day greater
areas of French soil are freed from
the polluting presence of the enemy;
whose very absence from his post as
chief counselor of military affairs
for France testifies the importance
of his mission to the United States;
received a welcome today that is in
it's utmost manifestations but a
feeble effort to show what the hun
dred million who cannot be here ara
thinking in their hearts. We open
wide those hearts to France. We
place at the disposal of France and
our other allies not only the treas
ures of wealth, which is the least we
can give, but we tender our sons,
numbering them by the million, if
need be. where France could send US
but a few thousand in the days Of
our adversely. to march on French
soil, or on German soil, with the
Stars and Stripes waving beside the
Tricolor of France, until lawless
tyranny has perished from the earth
and democracy, whose feeble cause
Lafayette so gallantly espoused a
hundred and forty years ago, shall
have enveloped the whole world.