Lafayette's Later Years

Lafayette became even more outspoken in his championship of liberty in his later years. Revolutionary movements in Europe and in South America had his open sympathy. From August, 1824, to October, 1825, he toured the United States as an official guest of Congress. He was thrilled by the nation's progress—and by the enthusiasm with which he was received.

Debts he had contracted for supplying soldiers in the American Revolution and his losses in the French Revolution had wiped out Lafayette's fortune. Proceeds from land granted him by Congress in 1803 had gone to his creditors. In 1825, Congress made him a gift of $200,000.

As a member of the French Chamber of Deputies, Lafayette denounced reactionary policies of both Louis XVIII and Charles X. In the revolution of 1830 against Charles, it was Lafayette, then nearly 73, who persuaded the people to accept Louis Philippe as “citizen king.” However, Lafayette did not excuse the reactionary policies of Louis Philippe, and he became his critic. “Liberty must always be a living thing, never laid away in the archives,” he said just before his death.