Marquis de Lafayette hailed as ‘rock star’ of American revolution

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Jane Murphy | Special to Seacoastonline

PORTSMOUTH — The Marquis de Lafayette made a triumphant return to Seacoast New Hampshire communities Sunday, Sept. 1, exactly 200 years after he last visited.

A crowd gathered at the John Langdon House on Pleasant Street to welcome Lafayette, this time portrayed by interpreter Ben Goldman, back to the city as part of his Bicentennial Farewell Tour.

“It’s always important to support the democratic ideals that Lafayette espoused,” said Deirdre Randall of South Berwick, who was waiting for Lafayette to arrive with her son Ethan. Her Portsmouth publishing house, Peter Randall Publishers, has published a popular book on Lafayette. “He was a rock star when he came to the city. Without him, I don’t think we’d be free.”

Lafayette served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, volunteering with no pay and even contributing some of his own wealth to the war effort though he was a native citizen of France. He became a Revolutionary War hero and a national celebrity in the young United States. In 1824, Lafayette returned to the United States for a Farewell Tour, visiting friends he’d made and fought with during the war all around the country. This year, the American Friends of Lafayette has organized Lafayette’s Bicentennial Farewell Tour, which came to the Seacoast on Sunday, Sept. 1, the exact day he visited in 1824. Two hundred years ago, he was greeted with a hero’s welcome of parades and parties everywhere he went just as he was Sunday in Portsmouth.

The Marquis de Lafayette arrived at the John Langdon House after a journey down Pleasant Street in a horse-drawn carriage led by a Portsmouth Police escort and flanked by the color guard of the New Hampshire Sons of the American Revolution. The waiting crowd broke into cheers and applause as the carriage turned into the historic home’s driveway. An honor guard from Portsmouth Boy Scout Troop 164 led the procession onto the home’s grounds.

Re-enactors portraying Gov. John Stark and his wife Molly Stark greeted Lafayette and led him through the Langdon House garden to the gazebo for his welcome ceremony.

Lafayette and others address crowd in Portsmouth Alan Hoffman, president of the Massachusetts Lafayette Society and translator of the book published in Portsmouth by Randall, “Lafayette In America in 1824 and 1825: A Journal Of A Voyage To The United States,” led the ceremony. Peter J. Reilly, a member of the American Friends of Lafayette’s Bicentennial Committee, portrayed Portsmouth Selectman William Ham, who was the city official that welcomed Lafayette in 1824. Reilly read the speech Ham gave 200 years ago at Sunday’s ceremony.

“We beg you to accept our sincere wishes for your health and happiness, and our prayers will be offered that your example may animate the wise and good in every nation to contend manfully and perseveringly to the freedom and happiness of the world,” Ham concluded his welcome address.

After Ham’s speech, it was Lafayette’s turn to speak.

“Members of the board of selectmen, citizens of Portsmouth, it is with great joy and happiness that I find myself surrounded by the patriotic citizens of New Hampshire,” Lafayette said. “And the active part which you played in our revolution, and the scores and sufferings that you endured, I am very well familiar with, indeed, and therefore, it is with great joy and satisfaction that I be so cordially received here.”

Lafayette told the story of his young life in France and how he came to America.

“Whatever my reasons for leaving France, it did not take long for me to understand your quest for liberty within the very fiber of my being,” he said. “I swore an oath to conquer or die for America. The days that I have spent fighting for her, I shall count among the happiest of my entire life.”

Then the New Hampshire Sons of the American Revolution gave Lafayette a three-gun salute after which Lafayette met with those gathered to welcome him, answering questions and taking photos with them.

Lafayette's 2024 tour of Seacoast begins in Hampton Falls Just as he did on Sept. 1, 1824, Lafayette first stopped Sunday in Hampton Falls at the Town Common. Having proclaimed Sept. 1 Lafayette Day, the town dedicated its new Lafayette Trail marker during his visit and held a Tea with the Marquis to commemorate the morning tea Lafayette enjoyed at the historic Governor Weare House during his visit in 1824. Organizers planned to serve Harney & Sons Paris tea on the town’s vintage Grange china along with croissants and jam.

Lafayette next arrived in Hampton at Meetinghouse Green where he circled Founders Park in his horse and carriage. The Hampton Historical Society held a Jubilee of Liberty celebration where they planned to serve French coffee and pastries and present a ceremony to welcome Lafayette.

His third stop Sunday was at the Parade Common where the Greenland Historical Society planned a ceremony and social. In 1824 on his Farewell Tour, Lafayette stopped at the tavern in the center of town.

“I must say that the New Hampshire day today in the three places where we have been before we reached Portsmouth has been superb,” Hoffman said during the ceremony. “All the events they were all different because they were planned by local historical societies and other stakeholders with our cooperation, but they were really spectacular, and this one is going very well so far as well.”

Lafayette was slated to attended a banquet in his honor Sunday evening at the Strawbery Banke Visitors Center. The $100-a-plate dinner gave attendees a chance to meet, mingle with and toast the Marquis, and Reilly was giving a talk entitled “Lafayette as Superhero: The Farewell Tour In Context.”

Lafayette 'played a critical role' in American revolution The American Friends of Lafayette, a society whose mission is to educate the public about Lafayette and commemorate his contributions, organized the Bicentennial Farewell Tour, which began in August in New York City and will visit 24 states over 13 months and cover 6,000 miles. It will run through June 2025 when Lafayette will actually return to New Hampshire, just as he did during his tour 200 years ago. This second New Hampshire leg of the tour from June 21 to 28 will retrace his visits to the state’s southern towns from Salem to Concord and towns east and west of Concord from Dover to Claremont and Cornish. Lafayette’s official 2025 welcome will take place on June 22 in Concord.

About the importance of commemorating Lafayette’s Farewell Tour and contributions, Reilly said Lafayette was considered “second to Washington in terms of the founding fathers.”

“Of course, he had an advantage coming back here. He hadn't been involved in American politics for all those years, and he's not associated with any region of the country. So he's like a pure American. He was more generally American than all the others, because they're associated with a region. And he was very consistent on the Enlightenment principles of equality,” Reilly said. “All the other founding fathers were stuck with slavery. … He had the least baggage in America of any of the founding fathers.”

He said Lafayette was always arguing with Washington encouraging him to set the example and liberate his slaves.

Reilly also noted Lafayette’s Farewell Tour happened during the 1824 election which was a very contentious one. “Lafayette's presence was something that unified people,” Reilly said.

“No only did he play a critical role in our revolution, both militarily and perhaps more importantly diplomatically,” Hoffman said noting how Lafayette persuaded the French Count to send land troops and a fleet of ships to the U.S. “But he was also a human rights advocate for 50 years. I can't think of anyone else, certainly in that era, who did more for human rights.”

For more information about Lafayette and his Bicentennial Farewell Tour, visit the websites of the American Friends of Lafayette at friendsoflafayette.wildapricot.org and the Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour website at lafayette200.org.

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