republican justice and of social equality took possession of his
heart and mind, as if by inspiration from above. He devoted
himself, his life, his fortune, his hereditary honors, his towering
ambition, his splendid hopes, all to the cause of liberty. He came
to another hemisphere to defend her. He became one of the most
effective champions of our independence; but, that once achieved, he
returned to his own country, and thenceforward took no part in the
controversies which have divided us. In the events of our
revolution, and in the forms of policy which we have adopted for the
establishment and perpetuation of our freedom, Lafayette found the
most perfect form of government. He wished to add nothing to it.
He would gladly have abstracted nothing from it. Instead of the
imaginary republic of Plato, or the Utopia of Sir Thomas Moore, he
took a practical existing model, in actual operation here, and never
attempted or wished more than to apply it faithfully to his own
country.

It was not given to Moses to enter the promised land; but he saw it
from the summit of Pisgah. It was not given to Lafayette to witness
the consummation of his wishes in the establishment of a republic
and the extinction of all hereditary rule in France. His principles
were in advance of the age and hemisphere in which he lived. A
Bourbon still reigns on the throne of France, and it is not for us
to scrutinize the title by which he reigns. The principles of
elective and hereditary power, blended in reluctant union in his
person, like the red and white roses of York and Lancaster, may
postpone to aftertime the last conflict to which they must
ultimately come. The life of the patriarch was not long enough for
the development of his whole political system. Its final
accomplishment is in the womb of time.