In 2025, Alabama will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de la Lafayette’s visit to the state. At the time, Lafayette was the last surviving general of the Revolutionary War, and he was touring the United States in honor of the nation’s 50th anniversary. Lafayette accepted an invitation from U.S. president James Monroe in 1824 to make a grand tour of what were then the 24 U.S. states. The invitation was extended not only to honor Lafayette’s service to America but also to expose a new generation of Americans to the “Spirit of 1776.”  With the approval of the Alabama General Assembly, Gov. Israel Pickens issued a formal invitation to Lafayette in late December 1824.  The excitement the celebrated Revolutionary War hero’s visit prompted numerous inhabitants of isolated areas of the state to travel hundreds of miles to Montgomery, Selma, Cahaba, Claiborne, and Mobile to see America’s most prominent foreign dignitary.