America answers France and her answer is clear and dauntless. It is as ringing as the Declaration of Independence, the rock upon which America built her house. The power of Prussia, the power of the Hun, the power of tyrants, must be utterly crushed before the world can be free. Germany sought this war in all wickedness and greed; to satisfy her ambition she has pulled down all the piers that support the house of civilization that men have been building for ages; she would destroy the world in her purpose to dominate it. And America intends that Germany shall have war until all the devils are driven out of her. America can do it. America came to this conflict with clean hands and a clean soul; no selfishness was in her; she fights for no ends of her own save the highest end to make the world safe for democracy. And as she has truth and justice on her side she fights with a spirit unknown to the servile bondsmen of autocracy. She is young and immensely strong, she is still the land of freedom. And when she rises in full, relentless might, thrice armed in that she has a just cause, she will destroy the serpent and cast him from the earth. The greatest page in our history is being written; we shall write it so that the better world to come shall call us blessed. “We are coming, Lafayette!” What a call to victory is that! We have already come. We have joined with the descendants of that youth of France who came to us in our hour of need. The spirit of Washington must glory in that fact. The great Father of our country loved the Frenchman as his son. To what nobler end could Washington’s children dedicate themselves than to help their brethren? And the spirit of Lafayette must rejoice to see his dreams fulfilled, his dreams of the great republic and of the dawn of the brotherhood of men! Lover of liberty and justice, we salute you! The time has come for us to show that what you hoped of us we now are, and to show it to the end that liberty shall not perish from the earth, that all men be free, and that in truth man was endowed by his Creator with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below. Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected. Illustration notation has been moved to below any enclosing paragraph. Text in italics in the original work is represented herein as _text_. Small capitals in the original work are represented herein as all capitals. End of Project Gutenberg's Lafayette, We Come!, by Rupert S. Holland