05/21/2026
192 years ago today, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, passed away in Paris.
Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, was one of the wealthiest men in France (which is to say in the world), when, inspired by the words of the American Declaration of Independence, he left the comfort and security of his home, traveled to America, and offered his service to the cause of American liberty. At age 19, he was commissioned major general, to this day the youngest person ever to hold that rank in the American army.
Lafayette soon became one of General Washington’s most trusted generals, and his contributions to American independence are immeasurable. Having been orphaned at a young age, Lafayette greatly admired Washington, who became a father figure for him. And likewise, Lafayette became like a foster son to Washington, who had no biological children of his own.
To the end of his long and celebrated life, Lafayette remained devoted to his adopted county. He named his only son George Washington, and he named a daughter Virginia.
Having returned to France after the war ended, Lafayette become a key player in the cause of French liberty, and he remains a revered hero in that country as well. He was the principal author of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, modeling it on the American Declaration of Independence.
Lafayette was 67 years old when, in 1824, President James Monroe and Congress invited him to come to the United States in honor of the nation’s 50th birthday. After Washington’s death in 1799, he had given up his dream of someday returning to Virginia and living near Mount Vernon, but Lafayette was delighted at the invitation and welcomed the opportunity to return to the country he had helped create. During his year-long grand tour of the country, the aging hero (one of the last surviving leaders of the Revolution) visited all 24 states and was greeted everywhere he went by cheering enthusiastic crowds. “An old American soldier and adopted son of the United States, two titles dearer to my heart than all the treasures in the world,” he remarked during his visit. When he returned to France in September 1825, he took back with him some soil from Bunker Hill.
At age 76, Lafayette died at his home in Paris. At his request, his son George Washington Lafayette sprinkled the soil from Bunker Hill over his father’s coffin as it was lowered into the ground. An American flag has flown continually over the grave ever since.
When word of Lafayette’s death reached America there was an outpouring of grief that equaled that when Washington died. Flags were lowered to half mast, John Quincy Adams delivered a eulogy in a joint session of Congress attended by the president, the cabinet, the Supreme Court justices, and the American diplomatic corps. Twenty-four-gun salutes were fired by every American naval ship and at every American military post, followed by a single cannon shot every half-hour afterwards until sunset. For six months American officers wore black armbands, and American citizens wore mourning dress for thirty days.
Hundreds of places in America, including at least 36 cities and towns, are named in honor of Lafayette.
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, the “Hero of Two Worlds” died on May 20, 1834, one hundred ninety-two years ago today.
