With Lafayette, Jefferson, and Madison in a single carriage, the large entourage — the Committee of Arrangements, cavalry, and “a numerous body of citizens” — left Monticello at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 5, 1824, for Charlottesville, about five miles distant. The population of Albemarle County (which did not include the City of Charlottesville) in 1820 was 20,000, 11,000 of whom were enslaved, and a few hundred people of color.[1] The city, founded in 1762, had about 600 residents.[2]

Jefferson’s enslaved man Peter Fossett described the departure from Monticello for Charlottesville:

There was a grand procession that day and the slaves had a holiday. First came the Jefferson Guards, then the carriage bearing Mr. Jefferson, with Gen. Lafayette on his right, with ex-President Monroe and Mr. Madison sitting opposite them. In the second carriage was Gen. Chestin Cox, President of the University Faculty. On his right sat George Washington Lafayette, son of the General, and opposite them were Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the grandson of Mr. Jefferson, and Gen. Lavassor. Surrounding these two carriages were the Virginia Militia.

At the steps of the Central Hotel (according to the National Register, the only building in town other than a courthouse, a half-finished church, and three or four taverns[3]), the chairman of the committee, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, addressed Lafayette, published verbatim. Lafayette replied and people entered the hotel for a reception.[4]

At noon the crowd moved on to the site of Jefferson’s “academical village,” the University of Virginia. The cornerstone for the University had been laid in 1817. Its first students arrived in March 1825, just months after Lafayette’s visit. The procession from Charlottesville to the University included “Visitors to the University, in a carriage—Standing Committees—Magistrate—Cavalry—Junior Volunteers—Citizens on horseback—Citizens on foot.” Moving slowly, with decorum, they went.

As the University came suddenly in view, a thousand of the daughters of the mountains, ranged aloft on the terraces, waived their white kerchiefs in the air… His escort…winded around the eastern street of the University, and came to the bottom of the lawn. The procession dismounted and were formed on foot. The first objects that struck the view, were three flags floating on the top of the Rotunda. On the largest, in broad letters, the words, “Welcome our Country’s Guest.” …the procession moved slowly up the lawn to the steps of the Rotunda, the General gracefully bowing to the ladies as he passed…

In preparation for the gala dinner to be held in the Rotunda, Col. Thomas Wood had presented the “elegant flag of his regiment” to the Committee of Arrangements to be “hoisted on the rotunda.” The tables in the large circular room having a circumference of 200 feet would accommodate several hundred people, men that is. “The ladies are to have accommodations and refreshments prepared for them [outside of the Rotunda] in the pavilions and on the terraces” (or colonnades) of the Lawn.[5]

William F. Gordon made a formal address to Lafayette in which he hailed Lafayette, Jefferson, and the University.[6] Lafayette replied briefly honoring “the venerable friend, whom, if there was but one university in the world, the enlightened men of both hemispheres would in common elect to preside…”[7] Lafayette then “walked on the terraces among the ladies, to many of whom he was introduced, and with whom he shook hands in the most courteous, and graceful manner.”

At 3 o’clock, the invited guests went to the upper room where 400 were seated. Following dinner, there was the customary series of toasts. In order this day were: the American Revolution; Washington; Lafayette. This toast “was received with enthusiastic cheering—the lofty dome of the Rotunda reechoed back the sound—it rolled in billowy volumes around the spacious hall, and sunk in the deep stillness of enthusiasm. Lafayette stood and replied briefly.” There followed toasts to: the Sages and Heroes of the Revolution; the President of the United States; and Jefferson. At this point Jefferson handed his speech to Mr. Southall who then “read in a loud and audible voice” which was fully captured by the press. He spoke of Lafayette’s deeds in the war and his

deeds, in the peace which followed that are perhaps not known to you, but I can attest to them. When I was stationed in his country for the purpose of cementing his friendship with ours, and of advancing our mutual interests, this friend of both, was my most powerful auxiliary and advocate. He made our cause his own, as in truth it was that of his native country also. His influence and connections there were great. All doors of all departments, were open to him at all times to me, only formally and at appointed times. In truth, I only held the nail, he drove it. Honor him then, as your benefactor in peace as well as in war.

My friends, I am old, long in the disuse of making speeches, and without voice to utter them. In this feeble state [I hope to see the University] enjoy the patronage and cherishment of our public authorities with undivided voice, [and I] would die without a doubt of the future fortunes of my native State, and in the consoling contemplation of the happy influence of this institution on the character, its virtue, its prosperity and safety.

To these effusions for the cradle and land of my birth, I add, for our nation at large, the aspirations of a heart warm with the love of country whose invocations to Heaven for its indissoluble union, will be fervent and unremitting while the pulse of life continues to beat, and, when that ceases, it will expire in prayers for the eternal duration of its freedom and property.

It was reported, “When Mr. Jefferson’s speech was read the General was moved to tears; he grasped the hand of the venerable friend who penned it, and sobbed aloud.”

More toasts followed: to Madison, and he briefly replied with “Liberty, which has virtue for its guest and gratitude for its feast”[8]; the Constitution (calling it “The Rubicon of Federal Power: May the Caesar who dares to pass it, meet the dagger of a Brutus”); Greece (versus the Ottoman Empire); “the last war” (referring to the War of 1812); the liberty of the press (“Error ceases to be dangerous, when reason is left free to combat it”); the Bill of Rights; and “the American fair” (referring to women). There were six more toasts.[9]

Lafayette and others left the Rotunda to return to Monticello at 6 p.m.[10]

Part 6 will cover the remaining days Lafayette spent at Monticello.

[A link to Part 4 is here.]

[1] President’s Commission on Slavery and the University (2013).

[2] Charlottesville and Albemarle County Historic District, Amendment, National Register of Historic Places, Nomination Form, 1980, Sec. 8 amended 1995.

[3] Id.

[4] There is an historical marker in Charlottesville: Central Hotel Historical Marker, 414 E. Market St. It erroneously states that the dinner was Nov. 12. It also reads “Stone Tavern and Central Hotel: George Nicholas, Albemarle County’s Virginia General Assembly delegate in 1783 built a stone house here in 1784. James Monroe occupied it 1789-1790, while improving the dwelling at his nearby farm, later the site of the University of Virginia. Here on 15 Dec. 1806, while the house was being operated as the Stone Tavern, the return of Meriwether Lewis [a native of the area] from his expedition to the Pacific with William Clark [also a native of the area and brother of George Rogers Clark] was celebrated with a dinner…While serving as a hospital during the Civil War, the building burned with no fatalities in 1862.”

[5] “Arrangements at Charlottesville,” Richmond Enquirer, Nov. 5, 1824, p. 2, col. 4 (quoting an undated Central Gazette).

[6] Recorded verbatim in Brandon, vol. 3, p. 129.

[7] Ward, p. 92.

[8] Ward, p. 94.

[9] W.S. Shields, pp. 113-25.

[10] Brandon, p. 131.