Lafayette's Liberty Speech: Bond Between France and America
Lafayette was 67 years old and hadn't seen America in 40 years when Congress invited him back for a grand farewell tour. He'd left as a young aristocrat chasing glory. He returned to find a country of 24 states that barely existed when he bled for it. Buffalo was barely a city — incorporated just two years earlier. But thousands showed up anyway. And when he spoke at what's now Lafayette Square, they named the square after him before he even left town. The man outlived the Revolution and became its living monument.
June 4, 1825
201 years ago
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