de Lafayette and Washington

American Minute from William J. Federer

19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette purchased a ship and sailed to America, arriving JUNE 13, 1777.

Trained in the French Military, he was appointed a major general. Lafayette endured the freezing winter at Valley Forge, and fought at Brandywine, Barren Hill and Monmouth. Lafayette led troops against the traitor Benedict Arnold and commanded at Yorktown, pressuring Cornwallis to surrender.

On May 10, 1786, George Washington wrote from Mount Vernon to Marquis de Lafayette: "Your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country."

On August 15, 1787, in a letter from Philadelphia to the Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington wrote: "I am not less ardent in my wish that you may succeed in your plan of toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship, I am disposed to indulge the professors of Christianity in the church with that road to Heaven which to them shall seem the most direct, plainest and easiest, and the least liable to exception."

William J. Federer is a nationally recognized author, speaker, and president of Amerisearch, Inc, which is dedicated to researching our American heritage. The American Minute radio feature looks back at events in American history on the dates they occurred, is broadcast daily across the country and read by thousand on the internet.