Marquis de Lafayette

<p><span class="deck">Washington was his idol, but he could not apply his American ideals to a France sliding into the Terror</span></p>

<p>Rakehells, men of good will, adventurers, and bunglers were all in the glittering pageant when the Old World came to help out the New</p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> and how, a decade after the Revolution, a melodramatic rescue attempt, involving a grateful young American, went awry</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">Everything depended on a French fleet leaving the Indies on time; two American armies meeting in Virginia on time; a French fleet beating a British fleet; a French army getting along with an American one; and a British general staying put.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">The French helped us win our revolution. A few years later, we were at war with Napoleon’s navy. The two countries have been falling in and out of love ever since. Why?</span></p>

<p>Both our Constitution and our historic monuments were trashed during recent protests.</p>

<p>Now closed to the public as part of the enlarged White House security zone, the Square has witnessed many historic moments over the last two centuries.</p>

<p>No figure in the Revolutionary era inspired as much affection and reverence as Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette</p>

<p>Starting this August, events over 13 months will commemorate the Marquis de Lafayette’s triumphant return to America 50 years after the Revolution.</p>

<p>Enormous crowds greeted the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, during his visit to all 24 states nearly 40 years after the war ended.</p>