One of the great compelling figures in the history of the country, one of the founding

fathers, was the Marquis de Lafayette.

And Lafayette was in command at Yorktown.

And when the British surrendered, Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, Lafayette said,

humanity has its victory. liberty has its country. And the

Marquis came back to the United States for a tour in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of

the country. And he was only 19 in the revolution. He was the last surviving commanding general of the revolutionary war.

And Marquita Lafayette traveled to all 26 states, and there was a time of great and growing

bitterness in the country. There had just been a presidential election between John Quincy Adams,

who narrowly defeated Andrew Jackson. It was an open question that Jackson would concede to John Quincy Adams,

and he did it at a dinner in New York in front of the Marquis de Lafayette.

And as his tour went on, it brought about a real renewal of gratitude for the accomplishment

heading to the 50th anniversary of the country. And on that day, of course, both Jefferson and

Adams died. But what Lafayette believed in the moment of the birth of America is that it ruptured history.

And what he believed is because such a country now existed, that one day, inexorably, slavery would be abolished.

And he accurately predicted that the last holdout of slavery would be the deep south of the United States.

But he believed the event that would precipitate the ending of slavery everywhere was the

American Revolution. As he predicted, it would be the end of colonialism. And what he believed

is that inexorably we would be put on a path that would lead to the place that Martin Luther

King talked about in his final speech where he prophesied the mountaintop from which he could see

a just society and was assassinated the next morning. But if you listen to that speech and you

read that speech during this month, during this month, an important

...