In 2024-2025 the American Friends of Lafayette is supporting events to commemorate the bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour when this true hero of the American Revolution and constant friend of the United States returned after a 40-year absence. During his return, this 67-year-old, last surviving major general of the Continental Army, visited all 24 states and Washington City (as well as Wheeling, Virginia, later part of West Virginia). Lafayette became a household name among roughly 10,000,000 Americans, about a fourth of whom rushed to get a glimpse of him, and if possible, to clasp his hand.
Contemporaries saw Lafayette’s Farewell Tour as a unique event in our history, indeed in world history. Edward Everett, an American politician, educator, college president, and author wrote in the North American Review in 1830 that the Farewell Tour was “an event, taken in all its parts, unparalleled in the history of man.” Hezekiah Niles wrote in Niles Weekly Register in 1824: “the volumes of history furnish no parallel – no one like La Fayette has ever re-appeared in any country.”
Salem Towne Junior of Charlton MA wrote to his wife encouraging her to come to Boston where Lafayette would be greeted with a tremendous parade on August 24, 1824
…there never was nor will be such a meeting in this or any country ……
He could not have known that Lafayette would actually be in Charlton just over a week after the Boston parade. The reception there was smaller than the one in Boston or the reception in Worcester just hours before, but no less enthusiastic. The Rider Tavern where Lafayette stopped has had a display about his visit for many years. In 2018 the Charlton Historical Society partnered with the American Friends of Lafayette to commemorate the visit as a sort of trial run for the bicentennial.
In 2024 The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company sponsored a parade in Boston exactly two hundred years after the parade that Salem Towne was looking forward to and the Charlton Historical Society again received Lafayette along with every other town in Worcester County where he stopped on September 2- 3, 1824.
The American Friends of Lafayette, founded in 1932 at Lafayette College, and its 1,100 members are taking the lead in planning and implementing the Farewell Tour Bicentennial from August 15, 2024 to September 8, 2025. Our goal is to commemorate Lafayette’s return visit by orchestrating events in most if not all of the places that Lafayette visited to coincide with the actual date of his visits there.
Prequel
At some point early in the tour Lafayette decided that he would take America up on its offer of hospitality (He was designated the Nation’s Guest) and visit all of the then 24 states. A big factor in his itinerary was his acceptance of an invitation to lay the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument on June 17, 1825. There was also the difficulty of travel during the winter to consider.
The General had landed in New York on August 15, 1824 and quickly popped up to Boston returning by September 6th for his 67th birthday party with the Society of the Cincinnati. He stayed in New York making some excursion until September 23rd when he started progressing to Washington DC with major receptions along the way in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He arrived in Washington on October 12, 1824 and stayed in that general vicinity until near the end of February 1825, when his Pilgrimage of Liberty commenced from Suffolk VA.
He went through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, arriving in Louisiana in April. Then he started north largely by water touching Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois. His route then became more easterly – Indiana, Kentucky, what is now West Virginia, Ohio – then turned North through western Pennsylvania and western New York visiting Niagara Falls on June 6, 1825. The pressure of the Bunker Hill commitment was now strong, Niagara Falls to Boston is 467 miles today mostly on I-90. Lafayette covered it in 9 days. The recently completed Erie Canal was a big help.
The Bunker Hill Monument was not the only thing of Lafayette’s bucket list that drew him to New England in 1825. At some point early in his tour which began on August 15, 1824, he resolved to visit all of the then 24 states. So after laying the cornerstone, visiting with John Adams and few other things in Boston, he headed north on June 21st. That would allow him to visit the capitol of New Hampshire, which he had missed on September 1, 1824, his one day in New Hampshire in 1824, but also both Maine and Vermont. On June 29th he boarded a boat in Burlington VT to head back to New York City. New England would not see Lafayette again. Lafayette to this day has piece of New England though. Soil from Bunker Hill covered his grave in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, where the American flag has flown continuously since 1917, including during the German occupation during World War II.
Below are some of the stops Lafayette made during his final visit to New England from June 13 to June 29. There will be commemorations in many of the places that he stopped. The highlighted stop will link to a description of what happened there in 1825.
June 13
Pittsfield MA – Dalton MA -Worthington MA (overnight)
June 14
Worthington MA – Chesterfield MA – Northampton MA – Ware MA – West Brookfield MA – Brookfield MA
June 15
Worcester MA – Marlborough MA – Northborough MA – Sudbury MA -Boston MA
June 16
June 17
June 18
Quincy MA – visited John Adams
June 19
June 20
June 21
Reading MA – Andover MA – Methuen MA – Salem NH – Londonderry NH – Derry NH – Suncock NH – Pembroke NH (overnight)
June 22
Pemborke NH – Concord NH – overnight
June 23
Concord NH – Northwood NH – Durham NH – Dover NH (overnight)
June 24
South Berwick ME – Berwick ME – Wells ME – Kennebunk ME – Biddeford ME (overnight)
June 25
Scarborough ME – Portland ME (overnight)
June 26
Biddeford ME – Northwood NH (overnight)
June 27
Chichester NH – Concord NH – Hopkinton NH – Warner NH – Bradford NH – Newport NH – Claremont NH (overnight)
June 28
Windsor VT – Hartland VT – Woodstock VT – Barnard VT – Royalton VT – Randolph Center VT – Brookfield VT – Williamstown VT –
Barre VT – Berlin VT – Montpelier VT (overnight)
June 29
Montpelier VT – Middlesex VT – Waterbury VT – Bolton VT – Richmond VT – Wiliston VT – Burlington VT
For information on the bicentennial of Lafayette’s tour check out Lafayette200.org