The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-07-03


manner of its observance in the wears to come
e ourth Of July will presumably have much
- rance IN 1t, now that the ties between the
nations formed in the Revolution have been
strengthened and cemented anew And as the
pefSonlfcation of France stands LAFAYETTE
lafayette we have Gomez said Pershing at
tne Great Frenchman's tomb And in a sentence
hS toid 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
Nnarqu1s de Lafayette was born September g.
1907, IN the chateau of Chavaniac Auyergne
france He married in 1774 and entered the
french army. In 1776, in Metz he heard the
duke OF Gloucester, brother of George III tell
the story of the Declaration of Independence and
me struggle of the Americans Then and there
ne determined to go to the assistance of the
Americans in their fight for freedom.
10 Lafayette there every enticement to
remain in his native France. He was the DOS
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 at his feet.
On the other hand the certainty of hard
ship the risk of death and the prospect of no
reward save perhaps the grateful memory of a
people who had nothing but gratitude to bestow
In America there nothing to beckon him
out people whose ill-fed and iI-suppled troops
mad sustained defeat, whose chief cities were in
bankrupt and whose prospects were that their
leaders would ascend the scaffold and their
masses be subjected to the brutal control of a
king who knew little of and sympathized less
with those conceptions of freedom and those i'm
memorial rights which the colonists had inherited
from their English ancestors
But there was in the heart of this young and
h1gh-Dorn French nObleman q sentiment which
had ruled him from his earliest boyhood-a sin
cere, profound and inspiring love of liberty. a
for no riO1fS of,v,
admiration for people who In spite of the most
formidable odds, possessed the hardihood and the
valor to take up in defense of their free
dom.
The voices of ease and of luxury and of ambi-
ton that tempted Lafayette to remain in his own
native land were drowned IN his ears by the
voice of Liberty, calling from far-of shore So
he voluntarily left all the delights and the honors
of the most luxurious and the polished
capital in the civilized world to cast in his lot
with the handful of merchants farmers, hunters
and hsher-folk who were wagfng war for the
rights and the liberties which had been guaran-
teed to their forefathers and to them by the
Great Charter. and which had been denied to
them by the German king who then sat on the
throne of Great Britain.
He offered his services to America His king
forbade his going and the American commission
ers were not able to furnish him transportation
EEading the officers sent to arrest him, he es-
capped In disguise, and in company with De KaIh
and number of French officers embarked from
4 Spanish port a vessel which he had pur-
chased, and after a stormy voyage landed on the
shores of South Carolina. A journey Of 900 miles
On horseback, occupying a month brought the
young crusader to the city Of Philadelphia. where
ne presented his request to the American con-
gress there assembled. At first he met with q
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 at his own charges, he was looked
IpOn with more favor and by a resolution of
congress he was granted the complimentary rank
If major general in the army. Washington re-
,eived him with the greatest kindness gave him
place his staff, and from that time forth
reated him The friendship then began
vas treasured by the young Frenchman the
most precious memory OF his public life.
There were giants in those days; examples
Washington, Hamilton, Franklin. But of La
ayette his friend De Val said
There is the most wonderful of this or
my other age. He graduated from college, has