This is part of a series on Lafayette’s visit to New England – June 13 to June 29 1825.
Lafayette arrived in Montpelier around 8:00 PM escorted by the Washington Artillery Company under Captain Joseph Somerby, the Montpelier Light Infantry under Captain Daniel Baldwin and the Berlin Infantry under Captain Taplin. There was also a Company of Montpelier boys of about 14 years of age and Captain E.P. Walton.
They were escorted to the Academy grounds and back to State Street and then to the State House where the General, the Governor and his suite were presented at the balcony. Elijah Paine, United States District Court for the District of Vermont, delivered the address.
“Gen, Lafayette, – The citizens of Montpelier and the vicinity have assembled to bid you welcome to this recently erected village, and it gives me great pleasure that I am made their organ on this joyful occasion.
We can say but little that you have not heard from millions of others. We acknowledge with deep gratitude your toils and your sacrifices in the time of our greatest need. Your contemporaries admired the gallantry of your earlier days in the cause of freedom and of a people contending for the right of self government-and all the friends of liberty have revered your character in more advanced life for your uniform adherence to the principles of rational liberty.
We congratulate you on having nearly completed the tour of the United States in health, and hope you have received great pleasure and satisfaction in witnessing the fruits of your early toils and sacrifices, in the improvement and prosperity of a widely extended Republic. We believe you have seen a great Nation enjoying the blessings of liberty without licentiousness.
When you left this country after the war of revolutions, the State of Vermont had just begun to have a name. At that time almost the whole State was a wilderness – yet we are proud of some of the feats performed in the war by the arms of Vermont. We count upon ourselves as principals in the capture of the whole British army under Burgoyne, the consequence of which are too well known to you to need a rehearsal.
The State of Vermont cannot show to you large towns and cities; but it can show to you what is perhaps of as much consequence: it can show to you a sober, substantial, intelligent and well informed yeomanry.
We most fervently join the prayer of a whole Nation, that you may return in health and safety across the ocean to the bosom of your family, and that the blessing of God may attend you through the remainder of your life.”
Lafayette replied.
“The welcome I receive from the citizens of Montpelier, the great number of friends who at this late hour have been pleased to wait my arrival, and the particular gratification to hear their affectionate feelings expressed by you, my dear sir, fill my heart with the most lively sentiments of pleasure and gratitude.
Well may I, Sir, acknowledge the patriotic titles of this State, not only as having been the theatre of a most important event, the victory of Benningnton, and having largely contributed to the happy turns in the north – but also, as having by her devotion to the general cause, and by the gallantry of her hardy sons, constantly taken a great proportionate share in our revolutionary struggle; nor shall I omit this opportunity to express my early interest in the local feelings and wishes of the State of Vermont.
Sir, I have now accomplished one the greatest object of my life; I have visited the twenty-four states of the Union; I have been the happy witness of the immense, rapid, and ever increasing results of Independence, Republican institutions, and self government; and you, Sir, and all of you whom I have the pleasure to address, I most cordially congratulate on the public and domestic happiness which is enjoyed by the citizens of Vermont, and I beg you to accept my affectionate and respectful thanks.”
The address and the reception in Representative Hall occurred at about ten o’clock in the evening. There was also a review of the military companies and a banquet, with toast etc at the dining hill of the Pavilion then kept by Mr. Solomon Mann.
The dining hall was decked with inscriptions, evergreens at the windows and festoons of roses. Lafayette gave a toast
“Vermont, Montpelier and the Green Mountains, form early echoed and valiantly supported the Republican cry for Independence and Freedom. May its happy results be more and more enjoyed by the sons of the Green Mountains.”
In the morning, Lafayette was again escorted to the Academy where the ladies of Montpelier held a reception. This may have taken place at the Congregational Church. Mrs. Erastus Watrous
“General Lafayette – Permit me, Sir, in behalf of the ladies present, to express to you how highly we are gratified with this visit to our metropolis. To us, born free as the mountain air we breathe, the man whose bosom warmed with the sacred glow of patriotism when beholding an infant nation struggling for liberty, who sacrificed the sweet endearments of domestic society, the splendor of rank, and staked for time and life, to secure to us and ours the blessings we now enjoy; to us, he is welcome. We greet you with a cordial welcome, to our country, our homes, and our hearts.
Great must be your satisfaction, in your progress through the states, to behold in many places the wilderness to have “budded and blossomed as the rose,” the arts of civilized life to have advanced in the scale of perfection to a competition with Europe, while far and wide are diffused the blessings of peace and plenty, and on every side the children of those who were companions in arms, vieing with each other in expressions of gratitude to our country’s benefactor.
Accept, dear General, our united aspirations for your health and long life. With you, may the evening of life be peculiarly pleasant – like the setting sun after a glorious day, sinking gradually, and throwing back increasing beauty and splendor with every expiring beam. May kind hands and affectionate hearts soothe and administer to every want, and smooth the pillow of declining age; and when at length the “vital spark” shall quit its earthly tenement, may the angel of Death open to you the portals of eternal bliss in Heaven.
With us, and with every freeborn child of America, the name, the bravery, the virtues, the disinterested generosity of Lafayette will ever be perpetuated with our beloved Washington.”
Lafayette replied in substance:
“Madan,- I regret very much the late hour of my arrival last evening prevented my having a more particular interview with the ladies. I am happy to see them this morning. I beg you to express to them my thanks for the cordial reception they have given me in this metropolis, which I am very happy to visit.
I am very sensible of the respect and attention which have been shown me in every part of the country I have visited. I thank the people for the gratitude they have manifested. Mrs. Watrous, I am not able to express my feelings on this occasion. I beg you to accept, and assure the ladies, of my good wishes; I wish them happy.
To you, Madam, particularly, I express my thanks for the very kind and affectionate manner in which you have addressed me. The recollection of it will ever be pleasant to me. I have not time to say more.”
There were more greeting between the General and old soldier of the Revolution. The procession passed up the street to the Onion River bridge and down State Street. The left Montpelier amidst the waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies and the repeated adieus of the men.
The account attributes a fairly well known Lafayette anecdote to Julius Y. Dewey by way of his son Admiral George Dewey.
As he was introduced to the old veterans Lafayette would ask them if they were married. To those who said “Yes” he would reply “Ah, happy man.” To those who said “No” he replied “Lucky fellow”.
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For information on the bicentennial of Lafayette’s tour check out Lafayette200.org