When the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolutionary War, returned for a tour of the young United States in 1824–25 — just ahead of the 50th anniversary of independence — he resided in the Washington area at Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac from the nation’s capital (the tavern still stands). There, he often socialized with another guest, Tennessee Sen. Andrew Jackson, as well as Jackson’s protégé, a young congressman from Tennessee named Sam Houston.
During one of their evenings at Gadsby’s, the old French nobleman told his American hosts that the civilized world was forsaking the institution of slavery, and America should follow suit — even though emancipation would come at a high cost, destroying the economy of the South and hobbling the North with the burdens of slavery’s aftermath.
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