This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories.

George Washington didn't have any biological children, but he did have adopted

sons and spoke very highly of a particular Frenchman who helped America win its independence.

Just take his own words for it. Quote, Marquis de Lafayette is a young man of great worth

and abilities. I love him as if he were my own son, end quote.

The odd thing is, it took years for this man, Washington regarded in such high esteem

to return to the country he shed blood for.

Here's Ryan Cole, author of The Last Adieu,

with the story of General Lafayette's triumphant return to the United States.

On a warm spring day in 1817, James Monroe took the oath of office,

and for the last time in America's history, one of its revolutionary generation became president.

Thus began the era of good feelings.

The moniker is not entirely accurate.

Since independence, the size of America had doubled.

The number of its people had tripled.

Thirteen colonies clustered around the Atlantic

were now 24 states reaching the Mississippi River with designs on the Pacific coast.

The steam engine, Thomas Gilpin's paper making machine, the publication of over 600 newspapers,

and the federal government's expansive postal system reduced distances, sped the flow of goods,

and the dissemination of information. But a financial downturn in 1819 sped the flow of goods and the dissemination of information.

...