Our Debt To France Author:Various FRANE quot We have been, contemporaries and fellow workers in the cause of liberty, and we have lived together as brothers should do in harmonious friendship. quot Quotation from letter of Washington to RocJiambeau, February i, 1784, PUBLISHED BY THE WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE INSTITUTION 17 BATTERY IJLACE NEW YORK CITY 1926 Printed in the United Stat... more »es of Aijierica PREFACE FRANCE Courageous, indomitable, chivalrous 1 The ever-living France I What is our debt to her This question is answered ably in the following pages. In what measure is France indebted to the United States That also is discussed. The being of the United States as a free and independent nation is due largely to the men and substance sent by France, in the darkest hour of our struggle for liberty. This is beyond cavil. France sent her Lafayette, de Rochambeau, de Grasse they came with her armies, her ships, and money. Without them there could have been no Yorktown. What did France demand of the young republic in return for her participation That also is answered in this book. From 1914 to 1917, heroic France, tenaciously fighting against seemingly overwhelming odds, draining herself of her blood and wealth to save not only herself but the civilized world from an odious and intolerable autocracy, looked hopefully Iv PEEFACE to the United States for the assistance we were slow to recognize as an obligation. During the first three years we sent munitions, materials, machinery, food sacrifices we made, but on the whole we profited fabulously in wealth and prosperity through these exportations. After three years we sent our armies and our navy, but our losses in men, though frightful, were negligible in comparison with those of France who saw one million seven hundred thousand of her sons killed. What do we now demand of France It is almost unbelievable that in the United States there are men some of them in high places who demand the pound of flesh from our prostrated friend. We find some comfort in the firm belief that the utterances of these men do not represent the opinion of our people. The fact that France appears to be recovering from the mighty blow it has sustained is not to be mistaken for prosperity as prosperity is understood here. It is her indomitable, courageous spirit ris ing again as it has risen before, again and again passing through depression, the horrors of revo lution, the payment of heavy indemnities, through PEEFACE v confusion and debt, fighting and working her way upward through a maze of complexities and bur dens that well might have conquered the spirit of a less gifted nation. France is proud. She does not ask for cancel lation of her so-called debt of money, but she does ask and rightfully so that the terms of repay ment be softened that she may meet them without impairing her integrity and without oppressing unduly her unborn sons of the future generations. That the United States, recognized as the most beneficent nation of the world, should so far forget its early debt to France as to consider collection of the present financial obligation, if such it may be deemed, seems incredible. The bond of friendship that existed between Washington and Lafayette, their mutual interest and life service in the cause of liberty, stand as an everlasting monument to the close brotherhood of the people of the two nations. For the sake of our unborn sons, for our sake when judgment of us will be formulated by them, let us hope that we will dispose of the present vex ing problem in a manner that will neither mar nor vi PREFACE weaken the glorious edifice left in our keeping by our forefathers. quot Am I my brother s keeper quot is a question that has been answered by a divinity overshadowing all earthly greatness. W, LANIER WASHINGTON, Hereditary Representative of George Washington in the Society of the Cincinnati...« less
