PREFACE.

In a series devoted to telling the true stories of great Americans or of those whose lives had a direct bearing upon the splendid story of the United States of America, no man has better rights to a place that the Marquis de Lafayette, the young and gallant Frenchman whose love for liberty led to a love for America that outlasted even the romantic story of the way in which he fought for her independence. For the whole life of Lafayette, was a long struggle for constitutional liberty, the freedom he had seen America secure and which he so ardently desired for France.

Had it not been for Lafayette, American independence would not have been so speedily secured; had it not been for America, the liberation of France from her long bondage in tyranny would scarcely have come so soon. Thus Lafayette and America are inseparably connected, and it is most fitting that, in a series devoted to the makers and defenders of America, Lafayette, as the Friend of America, should have an honored place.

But this book aims to do more. At a time when interest in Lafayette has been revived by the erection of a monument to his memory in the Paris he loved so well, by the boys and girls of the America he helped to make great, it seeks to show how his entire life was devoted to the cause of freedom and the glory of France, and to tell, in the whole story of his eventful life, what one man has done for the progress of humanity and the bettering of the world. If, from these pages, young Americans may learn not only to revere the memory of the noble Frenchman, but to learn lessons of persistence, fidelity, unshaken loyalty to conviction, to truth, to honor, and to manly endeavor, then the story of Lafayette will not have been retold in vain, and Americans may learn anew to honor, respect, and remember him, as not only the friend of America, but the benefactor of his race.

E.S.B.

From the book