New Jersey Prepares for Return of Lafayette, 200 Years After His Farewell Tour Helped Unite a Divided Nation
“America’s favorite fighting Frenchman,” the Marquis de Lafayette, will return to New Jersey in September, exactly 200 years after the French founding father of the United States started his “Grand Farewell Tour” in 1824 as “The Nations’ Guest” to remind a divided nation of its founding values. A reenactor provided by the American Friends of Lafayette will visit Jersey City, Elizabeth, Rahway, Princeton, and Trenton between September 23 and 26, where he will be greeted by New Jerseyans and local officials, as the real Lafayette was greeted 200 years ago.
“Many historians believe Lafayette’s farewell tour was the second most important event in American history in the 1800s, after the Civil War, of course,” said Paul Larson of Lawrence Township, who is managing New Jersey’s commemoration of the Lafayette bicentennial. “Lafayette was the most popular person in America and attracted huge crowds. He was the original rockstar.”
New Jersey is one of 24 states plus the District of Columbia participating in commemorations of the 13-month Farewell Tour of 1824-25. National festivities kicked off August 14 when a sell-out gathering of more than 130 history enthusiasts joined Lafayette reenactor Mark Schnieder and direct descendants of Lafayette for a sunset cruise off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and again in the New York welcome, on August 16, where the reenactor was greeted by citizens and dignitaries.
Major events in New Jersey include visits to Jersey City’s Apple Tree House and Elizabeth’s Boxwood Hall, a public lecture in Princeton, and visits to the New Jersey State House in Trenton and a grand welcome reception at the Historic Trenton Masonic Temple.
Princeton University’s Sean Wilentz, the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History, will give a free public lecture, Lafayette and the Politics of Division, at the Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton at 10 am. “The Grand Farewell Tour of Lafayette in 1824 occurred during a polarizing presidential election that was pulling the country apart,” said Dr. Wilentz. “Two hundred years later, the nation is again deeply divided amid a pivotal election.”
Dr. Wilentz will discuss the Marquis de Lafayette, a strong abolitionist at a time when American politics was increasingly riven over slavery’s future in the new republic. An expert on American history in the 19th century, Professor Wilentz is the author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, which won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
The current list of New Jersey events includes:
- Sept. 23: Lafayette returns to Jersey City’s Bergen neighborhood with a ceremony at the Jersey City Public Library – Five Corners Branch, 678 Newark Ave. from 11 am to noon, followed by a reception at the nearby Museum of Jersey City History at the Van Wagenen (Apple Tree) House at 298 Academy St, until 1pm. The presentation is a collaboration of the American Friends of Lafayette with the Jersey City Museum of History and will involve the unveiling of a Lafayette plaque and a reenactment of the 1824 presentation of an apple tree cane to General Lafayette. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop will also proclaim September 23 to be Lafayette Day in Jersey City. Learn more about this free event at mjchistory.com.
- Sept. 23: Lafayette returns to Elizabeth, NJ, with events at Belcher Ogden Mansion, 1046 E Jersey St., from 3 to 4 pm, and at Boxwood Hall State Historic Site, 1073 E Jersey St. from 4 to 6 pm. Both events free, but advance registration required for Boxwood Hall through the Westfield Chapter of the DAR due to capacity limitations.
- Sept. 24: Lafayette returns to Rahway, NJ, for a commemorative wreath placing at Lafayette Masonic Lodge #27 at 1550 Irving St., from 10 to 11 am.
- Sept. 24: At the Princeton Public Library there will be a free panel discussion and showing of the film Lafayette: The Lost Hero, a PBS documentary, in the Community Room from 7 to 8:30 pm. The film will be introduced by Paul Larson, chair of the New Jersey Lafayette Bicentennial Committee, and Anne de Broca-Hoppenot, Honorary Consul of France in New Jersey. More information via the library website.
- Sept. 25: Public Lecture by Princeton University Professor Sean Wilentz, at Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau St., 10 to 11:30 am. His free lecture, “Lafayette and the Politics of Division,” will follow remarks by the Lafayette reenactor provided by the American Friends of Lafayette, on the anniversary of his receiving an honorary degree from the university, then known as the College of New Jersey.
- Sept. 25: Lafayette returns to the New Jersey State House, the nation’s third oldest capitol building, during the afternoon of September 25, with additional details to come. A Lafayette reenactor will be received in the Assembly Chamber where he appeared 200 years earlier, to the day, he was received by the Mayor of Trenton.
- Sept. 25: Grand Welcome Reception of Lafayette in Trenton at the Historic Trenton Masonic Temple, 100 Barrack St., 6 to 8 pm. Live music of the period will be played and short remarks delivered by dignitaries. Tickets cost $45 per person and are available at through the American Friends of Lafayette.
- In addition to the in-person events, the Princeton University Firestone Library has created a virtual collection of items in its archives available to the public online. Among the items are a printed invitation to a ball in Yorktown, VA in 1824; an invitation to a sword presentation to Lafayette in New York; a badge commemorating Lafayette’s Farewell Tour, and a Lafayette letter to Thomas Jefferson. Additional events may be added to the schedule, available via calendars on the website and Facebook pages of American Friends of Lafayette and at lafayette200.org.
