News that Lafayette had accepted Congress' invitation prompted a flurry of articles in the leading newspapers of the nation issuing increasingly hysterical appeals for the organization of lavish celebrations, including one popular suggestion that every town from "Maine to Louisiana" fire simultaneous artillery salutes once word had arrived Lafayette had set foot on American territory.

His arrival was greeted with a thirteen-gun salute from the batteries of Fort Diamond, accompanied by numerous additional cannon volleys from U.S. Navy and merchant ships in harbor.

As the marquis' entourage prepared to make the short trip to Manhattan, it was intercepted by one of the sons of Vice-President of the United States Daniel D. Tompkins who arrived in a steamboat as an emissary of the city government.

[2] The marquis' secretary, Auguste Levasseur, described the landing ceremony and parade in a journal he kept of the tour:[3] The general, attended by a numerous and brilliant staff, marched along the front; as he advanced, each corps presented arms and saluted him with its colours; all were decorated with a riband bearing his portrait.

The New York Mirror, meanwhile, wrote of New Yorkers response to the entrance of Lafayette into the city:[4] Gentlemen are ready to throw by their business to shake him by the hand, and ladies forget their lovers to dream of him.

As Robinson sailed over the crowd he delivered a gallant salute in Lafayette's direction and then produced American and French flags which he dropped from the balloon, allowing them to float gently to earth.