“You Stand in the Midst of Posterity”: The 1824–25 Tour in Our Times

Historian Sylvia Neely wrote in 1986 about the Tour, “The trip was much more than a return to old haunts for Lafayette, much more than a chance to greet old friends and reminisce about youthful adventures.” First, I will briefly review previous major research on the Tour (especially by Fred Somkin, Anne Loveland, and Neely) and then will note the new scholarship during the bicentennial that suggests a more expansive view of the Tour’s impact, both as to Lafayette’s intentions and to its effects. Accounts of the events, even speeches, were circulated in French, British, Dutch, German, Italian, and Hispanic American periodicals/media—wherever censorship permitted. The Tour would even become a topic for public discourse leading to the Revolutions of 1830.

Second, I will briefly examine to what extent the 2024-25 celebrations reflect Lafayette’s own aims (beyond mere ceremony). This paper will concentrate on governmental participations, especially those of the United States and France.

Third, I will suggest new directions about how the Tour’s themes can relate to current events: how historians engage in such commemorations, and how issues raised by the Tour reflect continuing themes in our contemporary world. These issues include: autocracy versus democracy; voting rights; the role/s of women; racism; education in a democracy; freedoms of speech, press, and religion; social safety networks; historic preservation; the role of technology and science in improving the life of the individual; and, seeking meaningful consensus in contentious times. As Lafayette proclaimed about America during the Tour, “Such a government deserves to be perpetuated to all future time. May all nations profit by it, may its example have no other limit than the globe itself.”