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Show Jean Baptiste Rochambeau. BY the end of next month the city of Washington will have a statue of Jean Baptiste Rochambeau. When that statue is unveiled the American nation, acting through its government, will be present to acknowledge its obligations ob-ligations to the gallant French general and to pay part of its debt of gratitude. grati-tude. It is a most commendable characteristic char-acteristic of the people of this country, coun-try, says the Chicago Tribune, that they have always been willing to acknowledge ac-knowledge such obligations and to pay such debts to their last farthing. Seldom Sel-dom does one hear any attempts to de? predate the services of those Euro peans, aliens by blood but kindred by sentiment, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the continentals. Steuben. Steu-ben. Kosiusko, De Kalb, Lafayette, Rochambeau, and the rest of that glorious glor-ious company of strangers have had no reason to complain of the forgetful-ness forgetful-ness of republics. The United States will never cease to bear it clearly in mind that there were Frenchmen under Rochambeau as well as Americans under Washington at the BUtrcnder of Yorktown in 17S1, and that Cornwallls yielded to the allied al-lied arms of France and the revolted colonies. In fact, the history of the whole Yorktown campaign is bound up inextricably with the exploits of the foreign commanders. It was Lafayette, Lafay-ette, "that boy," as Cornwallia called him, who lead the British general a merry dance across the rivers and through the marshes of Virginia till the invading troops were ready to rest thPlr weary virtue on that tongue of land which they left only as prisoners. It was Rochambeau whose troops J made it possible for Washington to j keep Cornwallls cooped up. Finally, it was De Grasse who beat off the British Brit-ish fleet under Graves and prevented the escape of the British army by water. It is true of course, that what De Grasse did he did in the ordinary execution of his ordinary duties. He was not a volunteer. He was ordered by his government to proceed to America Amer-ica and to assist the armies of Washington Wash-ington and Rochambeau in every way possible. It may be said, therefore, that with him it was all in the day's work. It must not be forgotten, how-, ever, that it was a move of his w hich perhaps made Yorktown inevitable. While Washington and Rochambeau were sparring with Clinton in the country coun-try about New York, he sent them a letter in which he said he was going down to the Chesapeake, and hoped that they would be able to use him at once. After this letter the march to Yorktown could hardly be deferred. It began immediately. Its result was independence. If, therefore, there is to be a monument monu-ment to Rochambeau, might it not be well to honor De Grasse In the same way? It was the French army and the French navy together that assisted assist-ed Washinc-tnn. Tha one without the other might have been ' useless. Their commanders deserve an equal measure of praise. And in these days, when in the United States things are so large as to suggest a possible danger of national na-tional hysteria, there could be no better discipline than a glance back upon the days when things were exceedingly small, and when the help of foreign countries was by no means to be de-spised. de-spised. j |
