The war was over. Lafayette returned to France, and although the people hailed him as a hero, he served time in prison for his disrespectful actions against the King and for the words he said. Fast forward to 1824; Lafayette was invited by President James Monroe to visit the United States. What was supposed to be a simple reunion, turned into a thirteen month long toured all of the states (at the time). News had spread through New York so fast that by the time Lafayette was there, over eighty thousand people were there to greet him. To put it in perspective, the population of the city was about one hundred and twenty thousand. During the age of Beatlemania, approximately four thousand out of a seven million people were screaming. Lafayette…show more content… His reputation in France would as be seen as a kid with a thirst for glory, but in America he is seen as a freedom fighter. Lafayette is an American hero and one of the very few people who did something unprecedented. John Quincy Adams explained in a three-hour eulogy in Congress, “The name of Lafayette shall stand enrolled upon the annals of our racehigh on the list of the pure and disinterested benefactors of mankind.” If Lafayette is hailed as this great American hero and many claim that the Revolution could not have been won without him, it begs the question of why isn’t he considered a founding father? Perhaps it is because he is not from America, or maybe it is because Lafayette is more recognizable as a place rather than the magnificent person he is. America may have forgotten about Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, but he did not forget about America. Lafayette truly embodied everything America had stood for. To answer Washington’s question, “Are these the men with which I am to defend America?” Maybe the soldiers weren’t the men with which he was to defend America; but one thing is for certain: Lafayette was the man with which he was to defend America, and America the thing with which the Marquis was to
