The Last Adieu - Ryan Cole

“Memories of the Revolution have come back to life…”In the summer of 1824, the aging Marquis de Lafayette, defeated politically and distraught over the fate of liberty in Europe, set sail one last time from France for America after an absence of forty years.Across the sea waited a nation transformed: Thirteen colonies were now twenty-four states, stretching from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River. The number of Americans had more than tripled; their industry and creativity had ushered in a new era of individual prosperity and civic improvements. But progress brought worries. Shocks—an economic collapse, a crisis over the westward creep of slavery—foreshadowed a new political age, increasingly democratic and impassioned. The presidential election of 1824 was a precursor to this era. It was fought among four men, and was so bitter and divisive some observers wondered if it heralded the end of the Union. All while the Declaration of Independence neared its fiftieth anniversary and the first generation of Americans passed on, leaving a second to lead their great experiment in liberty into the uncertain future and stirring tender nostalgia for the Revolution and its quickly vanishing stars. Chief among them was Lafayette, the last living major general of the Continental Army.When he arrived at last in August 1824, the old hero met once more with the young republic. One of the greatest celebrations in American history followed. Citizens put aside their difference
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