Bastille Key
March 17, 1790
Marquis de Lafayette to GW
"Give me leave, my dear General to present you with a picture of the Bastille, just as it looked a few days after I had ordered its demolition,- with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute, which I owe, as a son to my adoptive father, as an Aide - de - Camp to my General, as a Missionary of liberty to its Patriarch." –Marquis de Lafayette
This historic symbol of liberty still hangs in the hall of Mount Vernon where George Washington placed it. It is the key to the west portal of the Bastille, long used as a political prison, in France. When the Paris prison was stormed, it marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The Marquis de Lafayette, who had served under Washington in the Revolutionary War, sent the key to Washington in 1790.