that part of France, he learns, as an incident of intelligence
received that morning by the English Prince from London, that the
congress of rebels at Philadelphia had issued a Declaration of
Independence. A conversation ensues upon the causes which have
contributed to produce this event, and upon the consequences which
may be expected to flow from it. The imagination of Lafayette has
caught across the Atlantic tide the spark emitted from the
Declaration of Independence; his heart has kindled at the shock,
and, before he slumbers upon his pillow, he has resolved to devote
his life and fortune to the cause.

You have before you the cause and the man. The self-devotion of
Lafayette was twofold. First to the people, maintaining a bold and
seemingly desperate struggle against oppression, and for national
existence. Secondly, and chiefly, to the principles of their
declaration, which then first unfurled before his eyes the
consecrated standard of human rights. To that standard, without an
instant of hesitation, he repaired. Where it would lead him, it is
scarcely probable that he himself then foresaw. It was then
identical with the Stars and Stripes of the American Union, floating
to the breeze from the Hall of Independence, at Philadelphia. Nor
sordid avarice, nor vulgar ambition, could point his footsteps to
the pathway leading to that banner. To the love of ease or pleasure
nothing could be more repulsive. Something may be allowed to the
beatings of the youthful breast, which make ambition virtue, and
something to the spirit of military adventure, imbibed from his
profession, and which he felt in common with many others. France,
Germany, Poland, furnished to the armies of this Union, in our
revolutionary struggle, no inconsiderable number of officers of high
rank and distinguished merit. The names of Pulaski and De Kalb are
numbered among the martyrs of our freedom, and their ashes repose in
our soil side by side with the canonized bones of Warren and of
Montgomery. To the virtues of Lafayette, a more protracted career
and happier earthly destinies were reserved. To the moral principle
of political action, the sacrifices of no other man were comparable
to his. Youth, health, fortune; the favor of his king; the
enjoyment of ease and pleasure; even the choicest blessings of
domestic felicity--he gave them all for toil and danger in a
distant land, and an almost hopeless cause; but it was the cause of
just