In 1824-1825, the marquis de Lafayette embarked on a tour of the United States, returning for a final time to the country he helped establish and whose democratic experiment he saw as a model for the rest of the world. Throughout his thirteen-month tour, he visited all twenty-four states of the union, where he was celebrated in each city and town with processions, banquets and receptions, worship services, and visits to important sites. Historian Alan Hoffman, president of the American Friends of Lafayette and the translator of Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825, a first-hand account of Lafayette’s tour, and Chuck Schwam, the executive director of the American Friends of Lafayette, discuss Lafayette’s farewell tour, its significance, and an overview of planned commemorative events celebrating its bicentennial.
This lecture accompanies our current exhibition, Fete Lafayette: A French Hero’s Tour of the American Republic, on view until December 31, 2024.
About the Speakers
Alan Hoffman is an independent historian and the current president of the American Friends of Lafayette, and was a lawyer in Boston for fifty years. From 2003 to 2005, he translated Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825, a first-hand account of Lafayette’s farewell tour of America, written by Auguste Levasseur, Lafayette’s private secretary throughout the tour. Now in its third printing, this translation was published by Peter E. Randall Publisher in 2006. Mr. Hoffman has delivered over two hundred lectures on Lafayette, and has spoken in each of the twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., that Lafayette visited during his tour, as well as in La Grange, Texas, and Lafayette and Denver, Colorado. In addition to his translation of Levasseur’s journal, Mr. Hoffman has published various articles on Lafayette, including “Lafayette: Symbol of Franco-American Friendship” in Symbol of Two Worlds edited by Diane Winham Shaw (American Friends of Lafayette, 2013), and “The Marquis de Lafayette in Savannah” in Slavery and Freedom in Savannah edited by Leslie M. Harris and Daina Ramey Berry (University of George Press, 2004). In addition to serving as the current president of the American Friends of Lafayette, Mr. Hoffman serves as the president of the Massachusetts Lafayette Society and is also the editor of The Gazette, a twice yearly historically rich publication of the American Friends of Lafayette.
Chuck Schwam is the executive director of the American Friends of Lafayette and committee chair of the Lafayette Farewell Tour Bicentennial effort that oversees fifty nation-wide committees dedicated to commemorating the tour. Additionally, he is the publisher of The Gazette of the American Friends of Lafayette.