“PRESIDENT LIBERATOR: My religious and filial devotion to the memory of General Washington could not be better appreciated in his family than by the honorable charge now bestowed upon me. While I recognize the perfect likeness of the portrait, I am happy to think that among all existing characters, and all those recorded in history, General Bolivar is the one to whom my paternal friend would have preferred to offer it. What shall I say more to the great citizen whom South America has hailed by the name of liberator, a name confirmed by both worlds, and who, possessing an influence equal to his disinterestedness, carries in his heart the love of liberty, without any exception, and of the republic, without any alloy? However, I feel authorized by the public and recent testimonies of your kindness and esteem to present you with the personal congratulation of a veteran of our common cause, who, on the eve of his departure for another hemisphere, shall follow with his best wishes the glorious complement of your labors, and that solemn congress at Panama where will be consolidated and completed all the principles and all the interests of American independence, freedom, and policy. “Accept, President Liberator, the homage of my deep and respectful attachment. “LA FAYETTE.” To which letter La Fayette subsequently received the following reply:— “LIMA, March 16, 1826. “GENERAL: For the first time I behold the characters traced by the hand of the benefactor of the New World. I owe that happiness to Colonel Mesh, who has just handed me your honorable of the 13th October last. “It is with inexpressible pleasure that I learned from the public papers that you had had the goodness to honor me with a treasure from Mount Vernon. The likeness of Washington, and one of the monuments of his glory, are, it is said, to be presented to me by you in the name of the illustrious citizen’s eldest son of liberty in the New World. How shall I express the value which my heart attaches to a testimony of esteem so glorious for me? The family of Mount Vernon honor me beyond my hopes; for Washington, from the hands of La Fayette, is the most sublime recompense that man could desire. “Washington was the courageous protector of social reform, and you, sir, you are the heroic citizen, the champion of liberty, who served America with the one hand, and the Old World with the other. What mortal could suppose himself worthy of the honor with which you deign to overwhelm me? Hence my confusion is in proportion with the extent of gratitude, which I offer to you with the respect and veneration which every man owes to the Nestor of liberty. “I am, with the greatest consideration, your respectful admirer, “BOLIVAR.” The _Niles Register_ of September 3, 1825, says:—