thing to detain him
at home, who had heard of our struggle, at Metz, you remember, in a
conversation with the Duke of Gloucester, in whom the purpose was there
formed, in a flash, to identify himself with the fortunes of the remote,
poor, unfriended, and almost unknown colonists; who came, against every
opposition, in a ship which he had bought and fitted for the purpose,
and whose name, as has well been said in the sentiment in which we have
already united, will be joined imperishably with that of Washington, as
long as the history of our country continues. [Applause.]

With him came John DeKalb, the intrepid Alsatian, who, after fighting
gallantly through the war, up to the point of his death, fell at Camden,
pierced at last by many wounds. [Cheers.] With them, or after them, came
others, Gouvion, Duportail--some of their names are hardly now familiar
to us--Duplessis, Duponceau, afterward distinguished in literature and
in law, in the country in which he made his residence. There came great
supplies of military equipment, important, we may say indispensable,
aids of money, clothing, and of all the apparatus of war; and, finally,
came the organized naval and military force, with great captains at the
head, Rochambeau [loud cheers], Chastellux, De Choisy, De Lauzun, St.
Simon, De Grasse--all this force brilliantly representative, as we know,
of our foreign allies, in the victory at Yorktown. [Applause.]

I suppose there has never been a stranger contrast on any field of
victory, than that which was presented, between the worn clothing of the
American troops, soiled with mud, rusted with storm, wet with blood, and
the fresh white uniforms of the French troops, ornamented with colored
trimmings; the poor, plain battle-flags of the Colonists, stained with
smoke and rent with shot, compared with the shining and lofty standards
of the French army, bearing on a ground of brilliant white silk
emblazoned in gold embroidery the Bourbon lilies. [Applause.] Indeed
such a contrast went into everything. The American troops were made up
of men who had been, six years before, mechanics, farmers, merchants,
fishermen, lawyers, teachers, with no more thought of any exploits to be
accomplished by them on fields of battle than they had of being elected
Czars of all the Russias. They had a few victories to look back to;
Bennington, Stillwater, Cowpens, Kings Mountain, and the one great
triumph of Saratoga. They had many defeats to remembe