FISHKILL – It is 125 years since a monument to Marquis de Lafayette was dedicated in 1898 at Rombout Rural Cemetery in the Town of Fishkill. The tribute to the French aristocrat who played a pivotal role in the American and French revolutions was rededicated on Sunday in an event that included Monsieur Damien Laban, French Deputy Consul General in New York.
Lafayette, who sailed to the New World to support the colonies, would become a major general in the Continental Army of General George Washington.
After the American Revolution, Lafayette returned to France, which was in the infancy of its revolution.
He carried with him the principles found in the American Declaration of Independence and penned a similar document for the French – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
That paved the way for the overthrow of the monarchy and paved the way for the modern Republic of France, America’s ally since then.
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