Simón Bolívar on George Washington
← Back to George Washington ProfileSimón Bolívar expresses profound gratitude to Lafayette for a gift of Washington memorabilia, symbolizing the shared revolutionary spirit of the Americas.
“I have learned with inexplicable joy that you have had the goodness to honor me with a treasure from Mount Vernon — the portrait of Washington, some of his venerable reliques, and one of the monuments of his glory, which are to be presented me at your hands in the name of the brothers of the Great Citizen, the First-Born Son of the New World. No words can set forth all the value that this gift and its embodying considerations, so glorious for me, hold in my heart.”
Bolívar's effusive gratitude in this 1826 letter reveals his deep admiration for George Washington, fueled by the symbolic gift received via Lafayette and Washington's grandson.
“Today I have touched with my hands this inestimable present. The image of the first benefactor of the continent of Columbus, presented by the hero citizen, General Lafayette, and offered by the noble scion of that immortal family, was all that could reward the most enlightened merit of the first man in the universe. Shall I be worthy of so much glory? No; but I accept it with a joy and gratitude that will go down with the venerable reliques of the father of America to the most remote generations of my country.”