SS 30 GENERAL LAFAYETTE

REPESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 10, 1824.

Speaker of the House of Representatis 2te was presented to that body, it devoly the nation's guest; and the following is. eech on that interesting occasion. For. »nce General Lafayette had left our her, “ ae, had enacted a prominent part in th Carough which his own country had passe once in captivity for his country's canse.

to assist America in her struggle for fre anion in arms of Washington, and coptin close of the Revolutionary War. Gratef

, the American people, through their representton, had invited Lafayette to visit this county the nation's guest, and sent a pubiic ship to

to our shores. This invitation was accepted, and 1k tre had made his tour of the States, everywhere ben gelb, an uninterrupted ovation, before Congress ass mbled. It was reodiarly fit, that the most prominent and most influenAnnican statesman in the war of 1812, should welcome to

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this volunteer soldier of the war of 1776, who left his atry to fight our battles in corapany with Washington, never let the field till our independence was achieved. ia, crowned with a civic laurel, stood in the presence of 23, who, a foreigner, had staked his fortune and drawn his r American Liberty, when it hung doubtful in the scales orure, and whose brow was covered with military chap

own soil, and on that of his own country. en bronght together as speakers on this occass the gratitu le of a nation, and the other to : riced of praise for services, long past, in behalf now for the most part in their graves. Bat, istory lives, and imparts unfading renown to

those who have justly earned it. It is rare, in the history of the world, that such an occasion occurs as that on which the following address was delivered; and still more rare, that speakers occupying a like relative position should grace it and make it memorable.]

GENERAL, The House of Representatives of the United States, impelled alike by its own feelings, and by those of the whole American people, could not have assigned to me a more gratifying duty than that of presenting to you cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival in the United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress, and to assure you of the very high satisfaction which your presence affords on this early theater of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members who compose this body shared with you in the war of our Revolution, all have, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, a knowledge of the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you voluntarily encountered, and the signal services, in America and in Europe, which you performed for an infant, a distant, and an alien people; and all feel and own the very great extent of the obligations under which you have placed our country. But the relations in which you have ever stood to the United States, interesting and important as they have been, do not constitute the only motive of the respect and admiration which the House of Representatives entertain for you. Your consistency of character, your uniform devotion to regulated liberty, in all the vicissitudes of a long and arduous life, also commands its admiration. During all the recent convulsions of Europe, amid, as after the dispersion of, every political storm, the people of the United States have beheld you, true to your old principles, firm and erect, cheering and animating with your well-known voice, the votaries of liberty, its faithful and fearless champion, ready to shed the last drop of that blood which here you so freely and nobly spilled, in the same holy cause.

The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and to contemplate the intermediate changes which had taken place; to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains leveled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population. General, your present visit to the United States is a realization of the consoling object of that wish. You are in the midst. of posterity. Everywhere, you must have been struck with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since you left us. Even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest which then covered its site. In one respect you behold us unaltered, and this is in the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to your