Middletown Is Historical Part IX

Marquis de Lafayette, The Reason for the 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. September 4th 1824 – He Visits Hartford and Middletown, Connecticut. Information From: Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825. Lafayette Press, Manchester, NH (2006).

How Did The Marquis know about Thomas Macdonough?
A Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, on the 14th of February 1815: (It is about the War of 1812) ”The 3d year has been a continued series of victories. To wit of Brown and Scott at Chippeway, of the same at Niagara, of Gaines over Drummond at Fort Erie that of Brown over Drummond at the same place the capture of another fleet on Lake Champlain by McDonough, the entire defeat of their army under Prevost, on the same day by McComb, and now recently their defeats at New Orleans by Jackson, Coffee and Carroll, with the loss of 4000. men out of 9600.” From the National Archives National Historical Publications and Records Commission

Main Street From Today’s View:

The Book Can Be Purchased At The Middlesex County Historical Society!
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