The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-06-27


0SA0 In its observance. But whatever the
manner of its observance in the years to come,
ue Fourth of July will presumably have much
of France in it. that the ties between the
nations formed In the Revolution have been
strengthened and cemented anew. And the
personification of France stands Lafayette
Lafayette. we have Gomez said Pershing at
the Great Frenchmans tomb. And in sentence
ne told the whole story of debt to France
and gave our promise of its payment What
was that debt to France that have paid? The
story of Lafayette is the answer.
Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier.
Marquis de Lafayette, born September 8,
1857, in the chateau of Chavaniac, 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 enticement to
remain in his native France He 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 polished witty
and luxurious court at his feet
On the other hand were the certainty of hard
ship, the risk of death and the prospect of
reward save perhaps the grateful memory of
people who had nothing but gratitude to bestow.
In America there nothing to beckon him
but people whose ill-fed and ill-supplied troops
had sustained defeat. whose chief cities in
the possession of the enemy. whose treasury
bankrupt and whose prospects that their
leaders would ascend the scaffold and their
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
high-born French nobleman sentiment which
ltc aorIia
cere profound and inspiring love of liberty.
deep respect for the rights of men, a compelling
admiration for people who, in spite of the
formidable odds possessed the hardihood and the
valor to take up arms in defense of their free
dom.
The voices of and of luxury and of amb-
ton that tempted Lafayette to remain in his
native land 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
and f1sher-folk who were waging 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
Eyading the officers sent to arrest nlln ne en-
capped in disguise and in company with De kalb
and number of French officers embarked from
A Spanish port on a vessel which he had pur
chased, and after stormy voyage landed on the
shores of South Carolina. journey of 80 miles
on horsebac'r occupying month. brought tne
young crusader to the city of Philadelphia, where
he presented his request to the American con-
pr,ass there assembled. AT first he met with
cool reception. In consideration however, OF the
Importance of his rank and family connexions
and because Of his modest offer to serve as
eolunteer at his own charges, he was looked
spon with more favor, and by a resolution OF
congress- he was granted the complimentary rank
of major general In the army. Washington re-
cetyed him with the greatest Kindness gave MIN
a place on his staff and from that time forth
treated him as son. The friendship then began
.uos treasured by the young Frenchman as the
most precious memory of his public ire
There were giants in those days; examines
Washington Hamilton, Franklin. But q |a
fayette his friend De Val said:
.rrhere is the most wonderful man of this or
sny other age lie graduated from coiiese' nAs