ABSTRACT
In August 1824 Marquis de Lafayette, invited by President Monroe to become "the Nation's Guest," began a memorable visit that lasted until September 1825. Hardly had he left than Americans cheered the opening of the Erie Canal, the all-water route between New York City and Lake Erie that soon rivaled the Ohio as the nation's main path west. Andrew Jackson dominated American politics in the 1820s. Although the hero of New Orleans lost a contested election to John Quincy Adams, he remained the man to watch. Thomas Sully evidently established a cordial relationship with the general, for when in Washington to paint Lafayette in December 1824 Jackson invited him to dine. In 1826, the year he completed Lafayette and Carroll and began Biddle and Byron, Sully executed a portrait of Napoleon. Painting it would have made him conscious of that famous face, its much-admired physiognomy often compared to Byron's.
