The Clio messenger., 1919-07-03

SvS larity and has radical changes
0 In its observance. But whatever the
niahher of its observance in the years to come
tle fourth of July will presumably have much
VI france In 1t, now that the ties between the
hatlons formed In the Revolution have been
strengthened and cemented anew. And the
Pers0nlncation of France stands Lafayette.
Lafayette we have come." said Pershng at
the Great Frenchman's tomb. And in sentence
ne told the whole story of our debt to France
ana gave our promise Of its payment. What
was that debt to France that we have paid? The
story Of Lafayette is the answer.
Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier.
marquis de Lafayette was born September 6,
lIo7, In the chateau of Chavanac Auvergne,
France. He married In 1774 and entered the
French army. In 1776, in Metz, he heard the
duke of Gloucester, brother OF George ILL., tell
the story of the Declaration of Independence and
the struggle of the Americans. Then and there
he determined to go to the assistance of the
Americans in their fight for freedom.
To Lafayette there was every enticcment to
remain In his native France. He was the pos
SCISSOR of high rank. He had wealth. No military
or civic post within the gift of the French throne
was beyond his reasonable ambition. And all the
pleasures and the delights of a polished, witty
and luxurious court were at his feet.
On the other hand were the certainty of hard
ship, the risk of death and the prospect of no
reward save perhaps the grateful memory Of
people who had nothing but gratitude to bestow.
In America there was nothing to beckon him
but people whose ifed and -supplied troops
had sustained defeat, whose chief cities were in
the possession of the enemy, whose treasury was
bankrupt and whose prospects were that their
leaders would ascend the scaffod and their
masses be subjected to the brutal control of q
king who knew little Of and sympathized less
with those conceptions of freedom and those i'm
memorial rights which the coonists had inherited
from their English ancestors.
But there in the heart Of this young and
high-born French nobleman sentiment which
had ruled him from his earliest boyhood-a sim
cere profound and inspiring love of liberty a
deep respect for the rights of men, q compelling
admiration for people who, in spite of the most
formidable Odds possessed the hardhood and the
valor to take up arms In defense of their free
DOM
The voices of ease and of luxury and of amb-
tion that tempted Lafayette to remain in his own
native land were drowned in his ears by the
voice of Liberty, calling from far-off shore. So
he voluntarily left all the delights and the honors
of the most luxurious and the most polished
capital in the civilized world to cast in his lot
with the handful of merchants, farmers, hunters
md tisher-folk who were wagng war for the
rights and the liberties which had been guaran-
teed to their forefathers and to them by the
Greot Charter and which had been denied to
them by the German king who then sat on the
throne of Great Britain.
IIo offered his services to America. His king
forbade his going and the American commissions
ers were not able to furnish him transportation.
Eyading the officers sent to arrest him. he es-
caped I'm disguise, and In company with De Kalb
and n number of French officers embarked from
q Spansh port on vessel which he had pur-
chased and after stormy voyage landed on the
shores of South Carolina. A journey of 300 miles
on horseback, occupying a month, brought the
Young crusader to the city of Philadelphia, where
he presented his request to the American con-
press there assembled. AT first he met with
cool reception. In consideration, however, OF the
importance of his rank and family connections,
and because of his modest offer to serve as a
volunteer Mt his own charges, he was looked
upon with more favor, and by resolution OF
congress he was granted the complimentary rank
of major general In the army. washington re-
ceived him with the greatest Kindness gave him
q Mace ON his staff and from that time forth
treated him as n son. The friendship then began
was treasured by the young Frenchman as the
most nrecious memory of his public life.
There were giants In those days examples:
Washington. Hamilton, Franklin. But OF La
favette his friend De.val said:
.yTbere is the most wonderful man OF this OF
anv other age. He graduated from college, has