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Historic green reopens with Washington, Lafayette statues

As Francois Dellatre stepped across the outdoor platform at a rededication ceremony Wednesday in Morristown, he looked at the two red, white and blue flags mounted at either side of him.

"As a Frenchman, it is moving to me to be here with you, and to have the French flag side by side with an American flag," said Dellatre, the Consul General of France in New York.

The French diplomat's statement about the two countries' historic and recently mended relationship highlighted the reopening of the Green in Morristown, which served as the site of a historic meeting between the countries 227 years ago that cemented their alliance and was a turning point in the American Revolutionary War.

More than 400 people from Morristown, Morris Township and Morris Plains, and as far away as Minnesota and Puerto Rico, watched as members of the Trustees of the Morristown Green Inc., which owns the 2.5-acre site, and the French diplomat pulled the strings of white sheets covering three bronze sculptures depicting the May 10, 1780, meeting between General George Washington, his wartime aide Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette, a French diplomat.
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