A senate RESOLUTION honoring the marquis de lafayette, for whom the city of fayetteville is named.
Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette, born on September 6, 1757, in Chavaniac in the Auvergne region of France, is considered the "Hero of Two Worlds" because of his participation in the American and French Revolutions as a military leader, diplomat, negotiator, and fierce advocate of freedom for all men; and
Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette is one of only seven foreigners, since the founding of this nation, to be awarded honorary citizenship and his full‑length portrait hangs in the United States House of Representatives along with that of our first president, George Washington; and 
Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette came to these shores as a young man of only 19 and travelled to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where he offered his services as an unpaid volunteer embracing our young country and becoming like an adopted son to General Washington; and
Whereas, the Marquis de Lafayette's first battle of the American Revolution was at Brandywine, where he fought courageously and was wounded. He also served with distinction in various other engagements, including the surrender of the British Army at Yorktown, where the Virginia army under his command cornered British General Cornwallis; and
Whereas, because of the Marquis de Lafayette's influence with the French government, a naval force from France was dispatched to Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, to block General Cornwallis's escape by sea. The surrender of General Cornwallis assured America its victory in the Revolutionary War; and
Whereas, although a nobleman, the Marquis de Lafayette readily embraced the ideals of democracy, liberty, and equality of men, ideals that he deemed worthy of fighting and dying for. He argued forcefully that these ideals should include all men and that slavery should be abolished. Due to his influence, General Washington willed that his slaves would be set free upon his wife Martha's death; and 
Whereas, in 1783, the two colonial villages of Cross Creek and Campbellton were merged and named Fayetteville – the first city in the United States named for Lafayette and the only one named for him that he actually visited; and
Whereas, in 1789, the General Assembly and constitutional convention met in Fayetteville, North Carolina, then the State capital, where delegates ratified the United States Constitution, chartered the University of North Carolina, and ceded the State's western lands to form the state of Tennessee; and
Whereas, during Lafeyette's tour of the United States as "The Guest of the Nation," he was entertained in Fayetteville on March 4‑5, 1825, by the leading citizens of the State and community, including Governor Hutchins G. Burton; and 
Whereas, upon the death of Lafayette in 1834, the City of Fayetteville held a large memorial service and eloquent eulogium on his character and services; and
Whereas, upon the bicentennial of the naming of Fayetteville in 1983, the Lafayette Society and the great‑great grandson of the Marquis de Lafayette, Count Rene de Chambrun, unveiled a statue of General Lafayette in the Downtown Historic District; and
Whereas, in 2007, the City of Fayetteville honored the 250th birthday of its namesake, the Marquis de Lafayette, with three days of celebration and was recognized for this by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate with a proclamation stating that Fayetteville is "Where North Carolina Celebrates Lafayette's Birthday," and said proclamation was officially recorded in the Congressional Record of July 26, 2007; and
Whereas, since 2007, Fayetteville has held an annual Lafayette Birthday Celebration on the first Saturday in September that follows Labor Day; Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate:
SECTION 1.  The Senate honors the memory of the Marquis de Lafayette and proposes that this body proclaim the celebration held every September in Fayetteville as North Carolina's official Lafayette Birthday Celebration.
SECTION 2.  The Principal Clerk shall transmit a certified copy of this resolution to the Mayor of the City of Fayetteville.
SECTION 3.  This resolution is effective upon adoption.