, in Boston, to the Veterans of
the Revolution]

Not a field officer or a staff officer of the battle was living.
Captain Clark, the highest surviving officer, came tottering along
under the weight of ninety-five years, to shake hands with the French
nobleman.

The young man who introduced the veterans, and who in after years
became one of the most honored citizens and mayors of Boston, said of
this occasion, "If there were dry eyes in the room, mine were not
among them."

{214} What a scene it was for an historical picture, when the brave
old minister, the Reverend Joseph Thaxter, who was chaplain of
Colonel Prescott's regiment, rose to offer prayer and to give the
benediction! As his feeble voice was lifted to ask for the blessing
of God, it did not seem possible that fifty years before, on the same
spot, this man had stood and prayed for the patriot cause.

Daniel Webster was the orator of the day. A famous Englishman once
said that no man could be as great as Webster looked, and on this day
the majestic orator seemed to tower above all other men.

[Illustration: Daniel Webster]

Every American schoolboy who has had "to speak his piece" knows by
heart the famous passage from this oration, beginning, "Venerable
men! you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has
bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this
joyous day."

Mr. Webster's voice was in such good order that fifteen thousand
people are said to have been able to hear him.

At the banquet during the same evening, the great orator said, "I
shall never desire to behold again the {215} awful spectacle of so
many human faces all turned towards me."

Near the end, Lafayette visited Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. The
veteran statesman, now eighty-one years old, drove his old-time
friend and guest over to a grand banquet at the University of
Virginia. James Madison was present. When the students and the great
crowd of people saw Washington's friend seated between the two aged
statesmen, a shout went up, the like of which, it was said, was never
before heard in the Old Dominion.

When Lafayette arrived in America, in August, 1824, he first visited
the national capital, and was formally received at the White House by
President Monroe and by many of the great men of the country. On his
return to Washington in 1825, he was told that Congress had voted him
two hundred thousand dollars and two large tracts of land, for his