HELPS, HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS. PROGRAM FOR LA FAYETTE CELEBRATION. Prepared by Margaret W. Sutherland. In regard to the following program there are a few explanations to be made. At the date of the preparation of the program, the proclamations of the President and Governor have been promised but not issued. Teachers will be able to secure them from the newspapers after their publication. The article on La Fayette might not have been arranged and printed as it is, had the MONTHLY not known that many of its most faithful subscribers have not access to an Encyclopedia, and consequently need more than a suggestion as to where to find material. It would be well to share the reading of the article between two pupils. For the essay on "The Battle of Yorktown" the pupil may consult any histories to which he has access. It was thought well considering that our Nation had just passed through a great crisis and had again before it the blessings of peace to give a little notice to that fact. It is advised, therefore, that the teacher select from "Important Dates and Epigrams of the Recent War" in the September number of the OHIO EDUCATIONAL MONTHLY some items to be given by different pupils. It is always good in any school exercises to have as many pupils as possible take part. The song "Hurrah for the Schools of Ohio" may also be found in the September number of the MONTHLY; but if any number of copies are desired, send order to the John Church Co., Cincinnati, O. The remainder of the program needs no explanation. It is arranged for ungraded schools or for grammar grades of town and city schools, altho parts of it may be used in primary grades. However, on such occasions there is so little that is valuable that is very thoroughly adapted to little children that it is much better to assemble all pupils of the building together where possible and have general exercises. PROGRAM FOR OCTOBER 19, 1898. [Adapted from the Encyclopedia Britannica. To be read by one of the older pupils.] Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, Marquis de La Fayette was born at Auvergne, France, September 6, 1757. La Fayette was nineteen years of age and a captain of dragoons when the English colonies in America proclaimed their independence. "At the first news of this quarrel," he afterwards wrote in his memoirs, "my heart was enrolled in it." The Count de Broglie, whom he consulted, discouraged his zeal for the cause of liberty. "I have seen your uncle die in the wars of Italy; I witnessed your father's death at the battle of Minden; and I will not be accessory to the ruin of the only remaining branch of the family." Finding his purpose unchangeable, however, the count presented the young enthusiast to the Baron de Kalb, who was also seeking service in America, and through Deane, an American agent in Paris, an arrangement was concluded, December 7, 1776, by which La Fayette was to enter the American service as major-general. At this critical moment the news arrived of a series of disasters to the American arms, including the evacuation of New York. La Fayette's friends again advised him to abandon his purpose. So far from being discouraged by these difficulties La Fayette proceeded to purchase a ship on his own account, and to invite such of his friends as were willing to share his fortunes. Although an attempt was made by the British to seize his ship and he himself was arrested, La Fayette escaped and set sail for America. He effected a safe landing near Georgetown in South Carolina and hastened to Philadelphia. When this lad of nineteen, with the command of only what little English he had been able to pick up on his voyage, presented himself to the Congress of the Revolution, then sitting in Philadelphia, with Deane's authority to demand a commission of the highest rank after the commander-in-chief, it is not surprising that his reception seemed to him a little chilly. La Fayette appreciated the situation as soon as it was explained to him, and immediately addressed a note to the president of Congress, in which he expressed his desire to be permitted to serve in the American army upon two conditions, that he should. receive no pay, and that he should act as a volunteer. These terms were so different from those made by other foreigners, they had been attended with such substantial sacrifices, and they promised such substantial indirect advantages, that Congress had no hesitation in pass ing a resolution, on the thirty-first of July, 1777, "that his services be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family, and connections, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States." Next day La Fayette met Washington, who invited him to make the quarters of the commander-in-chief his own, and to consider himself at all times as one of his family. This invitation, as useful as it was flattering to the young officer, was joyfully accepted, and thus commenced a friendship which only death terminated. The fall of Philadelphia was one of the immediate results of the battle of Brandywine on the eleventh of September. This was the first battle in which La Fayette was engaged, and in an attempt to rally his troops in their retreat he had the good fortune to receive a musket ball in his leg. We say good fortune, for it doubtless secured him what of all things in the world he most desired, the command of a division. Barely twenty years of age, he found himself invested with a most honorable rank, purchased by his blood in fighting at once to secure the independence of a strange people and to punish the enemies of his own. He had justified the boyish rashness which his friends deplored and his sovereign resented, and had already acquired a place in history. Of La Fayette's military career in the United States there is not much to be said. Though the commander of a division, he never had the command of many troops, and whatever military talents he possessed were not of the kind which appeared to conspicuous advantage on the theatre to which his wealth and family influence rather than his soldierly gifts had called him. He fought at the battle of Monmouth in 1778, and received from Congress a formal recognition of his services in the field, and of his probably more valuable exertions in healing dissensions between the French and the native officers. His retreat from Barren Hill was also commended as masterly. The treaty of commerce and of defensive alliance, signed by the insurgents and France on the sixth of February, 1778, was promptly followed by a declaration of war by England against the latter, and La Fayette felt it to be his duty to ask leave to revisit France and consult his king as to the farther direction of his services. This leave was readily granted; it was not difficult for Washington to replace the majorgeneral, but it was impossible to find another equally competent, influential, and devoted champion. of the American cause near the court of Louis XVI. In fact, he went on a mission rather than a visit. He embarked in January 1779, and on the fourth of March following Franklin wrote to the president of Congress: "The Marquis de La Fayette, who dur ing his stay in France has been extremely zealous on all occasions, returns again to fight for it. He is infinitely esteemed and beloved here, and I am persuaded will do everything in his power to merit a continuance of the same affection from America." La Fayette was absent from America about six months, and his return was the occasion of a complimentary resolution of Congress. From this time until October, 1781, he was charged with the defence of Virginia, in which Washington gave him the credit of doing all that was possible with the forces at his disposal; and he showed his zeal by borrowing money from the bankers in Baltimore on his own account to provide his soldiers with necessaries. The battle of Yorktown, in which La Fayette bore an honorable if not distinguished part, was the last serious trouble of the war, and terminated his military career in the United States. He immediately sought and obtained. leave to return to France, where it was supposed he might be useful in the negotiations looking to a general peace, of which prospects had begun to dawn. Our purpose is not to consider La Fayette's life except in its relation to the United States, so we pass over the period from 1784 to 1824, at which date he again returned to America to be overwhelmed with popular applause and to be voted the sum of $200,000 and a township of land. He died at Paris, May 20. 1834. No citizen of a foreign country has ever had so many and such warm admirers in America, nor does any statesman in France appear to have ever possessed uninter-. ruptedly for so many years so large a measure of popular influence and respect. He was brave even to rashness; his life was one of constant personal peril, and yet he never shrank from any danger or responsibility if he saw the way open to spare life or suffering, to protect the defenceless, to sustain the law and preserve order. THE FATHERLAND. BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. Where is the true man's fatherland? O yes! his fatherland must be Is it alone where freedom is, O yes! his fatherland must be Where'er a human heart doth wear Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrow's gyves, Where'er a human spirit strives After a life more true and fair, There is the true man's birthplace grand, His is a world-wide fatherland! Where'er a single slave doth pine, Where'er one man may help another, Thank God for such a birthright, brother, That spot of earth is thine and mine! There is the true man's birthplace grand, His is a world-wide fatherland! SELECTED STANZAS FROM THE PEACE AUTUMN. BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. Thank God for rest, where none molest, And none can make afraid, For Peace that sits as Plenty's guest Beneath the homestead shade! Alike henceforth our hills of snow, And vales where cotton flowers; All streams that flow, all winds that blow Are Freedom's motive-powers. Build up an altar to the Lord, From earth her goodly roots. There let our banners droop and flow, The stars uprise and fall; Song of our burden and relief, A song of praise to Him who filled A song of faith that trusts the end The hearts of men as one! LA FAYETTE. ] Arranged from an article by Bayard The claims of La Fayette to the respect and admiration of posterity do not rest upon his abilities as a soldier or a statesman, but rather upon his character as a philanthropist. It is in the force, the nobility, and the unselfishness of his character, in the elevation, purity and constancy of his moral nature, that we must look for the qualities which enabled him to accomplish so much. It was not in the carefully measured value of his services to America that lay his claim to her gratitude; it was in the spirit of self-sacrifice, in the example set, in the generous adoption of a rightful, though cause. probably unsuccessful |