Mr. Hay to Mr.
Porter.
Department of State,
Washington, March 27,
1902.
No. 1000.]Sir: I inclose herewith an autograph letter
from the President to President Loubet, with an office copy thereof,
tendering an invitation to the Government and people of France to unite
with the Government and people of the United States in a tit and
appropriate dedication of the monument of Marshal de Rochambeau to be
unveiled in the city of Washington on May 24, 1902.
I inclose also, with copies for your tiles, letters addressed to Comte
Rene de Rochambeau and Mr. Gaston de Sahune de Lafayette, through whom,
as prominent representatives of the Rochambeau and Lafayette families, a
like invitation is extended to those families.
These invitations are extended in pursuance of a joint resolution of
Congress of March 21, 1902, copies of which I transmit herewith.
You will deliver the President’s letter to the President of the French
Republic, and will ask for an audience for that purpose. In
communicating the invitations to the President of France and to the
Rochambeau and Lafayette families, you will appropriately express the
grateful feelings which prompted this action, and will express the
President’s hope that the invitations will be accepted.
The visitors who may represent the French Republic on the occasion
referred to, as well as the members of the Rochambeau and Lafayette
families who may come as private citizens, will be entertained as the
guests of the American Government and people.
If the invitations be accepted, I shall be pleased to have you telegraph
the fact and date of acceptance.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1.]
The President of the United
States to the President of
France.
Great and Good Friend: I have the honor to
inform you that the Congress of the United States has adopted a
joint resolution authorizing and requesting me to extend to the
Government and people of France a cordial invitation to unite with
the Government and people of the United States in a fit and
appropriate dedication of the monument of Marshal de Rochambeau, to
be unveiled in the city of Washington on the 24th day of May, 1902.
It becomes, therefore, my agreeable duty to tender, in the name of
the Government and people of the United States, this invitation to
the Government and people of France.
I trust that Your Excellency will see in this action another proof of
the lasting gratitude of the American Government and people for the
inestimable services rendered by France during the war of our
revolution, and that the occasion will serve to join together still
more firmly the ties which since that time have united the two
countries.
I avail myself of this opportunity to assure Your Excellency of my
fervent desire for the prosperity and happiness of yourself and of
the Government and people of France.
Written at Washington this 27th day of March, 1902.
Your good friend,
By the President:
John Hay,
Secretary of State.
[Page 410]
[Inclosure 2.]
Mr. Hay to Mr. de
Lafayette, and, with appropriate changes, to
Count de Rochambeau.
Department of State,
Washington, March 27,
1902.
Sir: Animated by a sense of profound
gratitude for the inestimable services rendered to the United States
during their war of revolution by your renowned ancestor, the
Congress of the United States, by a joint resolutiou of March 21,
1902, authorized and requested the President to extend to the family
of the Marquis de Lafayette a cordial invitation to unite with the
Government and people of the United States in a fit and appropriate
dedication of the monument of Marshal de Rochambeau to be unveiled
in the city of Washington on May 24, 1902.
It is with more than ordinary pleasure that I fulfill the duty of
transmitting this invitation to you and through you to the family of
the Marquis de Lafayette.
I have instructed the ambassador of the United States at Paris to
convey this to you in a fitting manner, and to say that the members
of this illustrious family who may do us the honor to visit the
United States upon this occasion will be welcomed as guests of the
nation.
I have, etc.,
(Inclosure 3.—Public Resolution—No.
11.)
JOINT RESOLUTION authorizing and requesting the
President to extend to the Government and people of France and to
the families of Marshal de Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette an
invitation to join the Government and people of the United States in
the dedication of the monument of Marshal de Rochambeau to be
unveiled in the city of Washington.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
the President be, and is hereby, authorized and requested to extend
to the Government and people of France and the family of Marshal de
Rochambeau, commander in chief of the French forces in America
during the war of independence, and to the family of Marquis de
Lafayette, a cordial invitation to unite with the Government and
people of the United States in a fit and appropriate dedication of
the monument of Marshal de Rochambeau to be unveiled in the city of
Washington on the twenty-fourth day of May, nineteen hundred and
two; and for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this
resolution the sum of ten thousand dollars is hereby appropriated,
out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the
same, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be expended under
the direction of the Secretary of State.
Approved, March 21, 1902.
