Excerpt from Biography of the Illustrious Citizen, General Lafayette: The Hero, the Statesman, the Philanthropist, the Early and Constant Friend of America, and the Champion of the Equal Rights of Mankinds In the bloom of youth he embarked his fortune, and haz arded his life, in the great cause of the rights of mankind. His attachment, unremitted zeal, distinguished generalship and bravery, as an officer, till the great object of our revolu tionary struggle was attained; his republican principles, the conspicuous part he took for the same cause in the great drama of revolutionary France, his consistency of republi can character and moderation, in aiming at a middle course between the gloomy despotism of tyrants, and the madness, the blood-thirsty fury ofjacobinical mobs, justly entitle him to the immmtal honor of being considered the washington 'of europe. Happy would it be, could the same parallel be drawn as to the result of the struggles in the native coun tries of the heroes of mount vernon and legrange. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.