Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States (1824-25)

From July 1824 to September 1825, the last surviving French general of the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette, made a tour of the 24 states in the United States. At many stops on this tour he was received by the populace with a hero's welcome, and many honors and monuments were presented to commemorate and memorialize the Marquis de Lafayette's visit.

The Marquis de Lafayette led troops alongside George Washington in the American Revolution over 40 years earlier. He fought in several crucial battles, including the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania and the Siege of Yorktown in Virginia.

The Marquis had returned to France and pursued a political career championing the ideals of liberty that the fledgling U.S. republic represented. While the Bourbon constitutional monarchy had been in place in France for at least ten years, in the spring of 1824, King Louis XVIII was wheelchair bound and suffering from severe health issues that would prove fatal by late summer. Further, Lafayette was being monitored by the dying King. After the Marquis left the French legislature in 1824, President James Monroe invited him to tour the United States, partly to instill the "spirit of 1776" in the next generation of Americans and partly to celebrate the nation's 50th anniversary.

During his trip, he visited all of the American states and travelled more than 6,000 miles (9,656 km). Lafayette was accompanied by, among others, his son Georges Washington de La Fayette. For part of the journey, Lafayette was also accompanied by social reformer Fanny Wright. The main means of transportation for the party were stagecoach, horseback, canal barge, and steamboat.

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