Over the next year and a half, the American Friends of Lafayette will be commemorating
the Bicentennial of Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824-1825 Farewell Tour of the United
States. Lafayette’s 1 1/2-year Farewell Tour took him to 190 towns and cities, including
Dedham, in 24 states, where he was honored for his military service in the 1775-1783
Revolutionary War. As most of us learned in middle school U.S. history, Gilbert de
Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a young idealistic French aristocrat, set sail in 1777 for
America because he believed that the American struggle for liberty and independence
from Great Britain was a just cause. In the ensuing years, Lafayette proved himself to be
a brave and resourceful soldier in several battles, which urged George Washington to
promote him to general. Lafayette’s military accomplishments were influential in
persuading King Louis XVI to send munitions, 6000 French soldiers, and a 26-ship
French fleet to America and it can be argued that these forces provided the margin for
the American victory at Yorktown. When he returned to France in 1781, Lafayette
continued to campaign for democracy and human rights by writing the Declaration of
the Rights of Man, campaigning for the abolition of slavery, supporting female suffrage, and
opposing the regimes of kings and emperors. Lafayette’s 1824-25 return to the United
States was especially celebrated, not only because of his past heroic deeds but also
because 40 years after the Revolutionary War’s conclusion, he was the Continental
Army’s last living general.

Dedham’s commemorations of Lafayette’s short stay in Dedham in 1824 have already
been kicked off at the Dedham Museum and Archive with the installation of an exhibit
of displays that focus on Lafayette’s contributions to American independence, along
with artifacts from his visit. Moreover, DMA Director Johanna McBrien will hold a
Lafayette presentation by noted lecturer Peter Reilly at the DMA on June 19th with free
admission for First Church members. Then, on August 23rd, the 200th anniversary of
Lafayette’s visit to Dedham, First Church will honor the “Hero of Two Nations” with a
reading of Herman Mann’s diary entry about the event and a Lafayette-themed play
derived from a 1909 short story by local writer Elinor Ramsay on the church green. We
at the DMA and First Church hope you will be able to attend our commemorative local history events that honor Lafayette as a partisan of liberty, an anti-racist, a supporter of
women’s rights, and a diehard opponent of tyrants.