The Lafayette Welcoming Parade of 1824 was a parade held in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in September 1824 to welcome the arrival of the

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revoluti ...

on the occasion of his visit to the United States for a sixteen-month tour., pp. 443-444

Background

In 1824 the Marquis de Lafayette, a Frenchman, was the last surviving general of the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. That year, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

issued a formal invitation for him to visit the United States. Penned by President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

, it informed the marquis that "the whole nation ardently desire to see you again among them". News that Lafayette had responded favorably to the congressional invitation prompted a flurry of articles in the leading newspapers of the nation issuing increasingly hysterical appeals for the organization of lavish celebrations, including one popular suggestion that every town from "Maine to Louisiana" fire simultaneous artillery salutes once word had arrived Lafayette had set foot on American territory. Lafayette was called "the greatest man in the world" in some press reports.

Parade

Lafayette and his entourage arrived on the outskirts of Philadelphia on September 27, 1824 and were entertained with an evening ball in

Holmesburg, Pennsylvania Holmesburg began as a Village within Lower Dublin Township, Pennsylvania. It is now a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Holmesburg was named in Honor of Surveyor General of Pennsylvania Thomas Holme, who was a c ...

. They spent the night at the

Frankford Arsenal The Frankford Arsenal is a former United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek. History Opened in 1816 on of land pu ...

. The next day an enormous, 6,000-man military escort drawn from the Pennsylvania militia was assembled. At 8:00 a.m. a 100-gun salute was fired to Lafayette who was, thereafter, driven at the head of the troops into the city in a carriage drawn by six white horses. The marquis' secretary,

Auguste Levasseur André-Nicolas Levasseur (also known as Auguste Levasseur) was a 19th-century French writer and diplomat known in the United States for accompanying the Marquis de La Fayette during his last trip to the Americas and in the Caribbean and Mexico fo ...

, described the scene in a journal he kept of the tour: The three-mile-long procession that accompanied Lafayette into the city wound through a dozen temporary

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...

es that had been constructed for the occasion. Aging veterans of the Revolution had assembled outside the

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ac ...

to cheer Lafayette as his coach passed; seeing them he stood and "saluted them most respectfully with three low bows". The parade ultimately terminated at

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Fa ...

, where a reception was held in his honor.

Aftermath and significance

The Philadelphia welcoming parade for Lafayette has been described as the "most sumptuous pageantry" of all such events held during his tour.

References

{{Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Parades in the United States History of Philadelphia 1824 in Pennsylvania September 1824 events

Background

Parade

Aftermath and significance

See also

References