_The First Proclamation for Public Thanksgiving--Pennsylvania Whiskey
Rebellion--John Marshall and the Supreme Court--Religious Liberty--The
Monroe Doctrine--Seven Presidents--Clarke Saves the Great
Northwest--The Northwest Explored--Louisiana Purchase--Texas
Acquired--Mexico Adds to Our Territory--The Oceans Measured, Sounded
and Mapped--The Ladies' Memorial Association--The Mary Washington
Monument, &c._
This chapter is taken up with a continuation and conclusion of the
subjects of the last two chapters--that is, a brief reference to what has
been accomplished for the country by the giant minds, and through the
dangerous and daring exploits of the men who lived in Fredericksburg and
within a radius of seventy-five miles of Fredericksburg; therefore no
farther introduction to the chapter is necessary.
FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION.
It was Richard Henry Lee, of Westmoreland county, a Virginian, styled the
Cicero of America, who wrote the first proclamation for public
thanksgiving in this country. Congress, with the government, had moved
from Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, where it had gone for safety, to York, in
the same State, then containing about 1,500 inhabitants. At that time the
chief cities in the country were in the hands of the enemy, except
Richmond and Savannah, and the American army--again defeated at
Germantown--retreating before a victorious enemy. Congress had been in
session for nine months in York in the years 1777 and 1778, and while
there heard the news of the surrender of Burgoyne, adopted the Articles of
Confederation, received the news from Benjamin Franklin at Paris of the
decision of the French government to aid the Americans in their struggle
for liberty, and issued the first national thanksgiving proclamation.
The President of Congress appointed Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, with
Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, and Gen. Roberdeau, of Pennsylvania, to
draft the proclamation. It was written by Mr. Lee, and for its beauty and
comprehensiveness, and being the first paper of the kind ever prepared and
issued by authority in this country, it will, we are sure, be regarded
with interest and veneration. It is as follows:
"For inasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the
superintending providence of Almighty God, to acknowledge, with
gratitude, their obligations for benefits received, and to implore
such further blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased
him, in his abundant mercy, not only to continue to us the many
blessings of his common providence, but also to smile upon us in the
prosecution of just and necessary war, for the defence and
establishment of our rights and liberties; particularly that he has
been pleased, in so great a measure, to prosper the means used for the
support of our troops and to crown our arms with signal success.
"It is, therefore, recommended to the legislatures, or executives,
powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th of
December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart
and one voice the people of this country may express their grateful
reverence, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine
benefactor, and that together, with their sincere acknowledgments,
they may join in a penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby
they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest
supplication may be that it may please God, through the merits of
Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance;
that it may please him graciously to shower his blessings on the
government of these States, respectively, and to prosper the public
council of the whole United States; to inspire our commanders, both by
land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which
may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God,
to secure for these United States the greatest of all
blessings--independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper
the trade and manufactures of the people, and the labor of the
husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to protect schools
and seminaries of learning, so necessary for cultivating the
principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing
hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and
enlargement of the kingdom which consists of righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost.
"It is further recommended that all servile labor and such recreation
as at other times innocent may be unbecoming the purpose of this
appointment on so solemn an occasion."
This historic document was adopted by Congress on the 30th of October,
1777, and sent to the governors of the respective States on the 1st of
November by the President of the Congress, Henry Lawrens, of South
Carolina, who had just been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the
resignation of John Hancock, of Massachusetts.
THE WHISKEY REBELLION.
It was Henry Lee, of Westmoreland county, a Virginian, known through the
war for independence as "Light Horse Harry," who, in 1792, crushed out the
Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania and restored order to the four counties
in rebellion. He was at the time Governor of Virginia, and was in command
of 15,000 troops, raised by special requisition of President Washington
from the States of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. It was
this Henry Lee who delivered the funeral oration in Congress on
Washington, in which he used those words which will last in history as
long as the memory of Washington shall be revered, "He was first in war,
first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL AND SUPREME COURT.
It was John Marshall, of Fauquier county, a Virginian, who, by his great
ability and firmness of character, brought the Supreme Court up from a
tribunal of little importance and consequence to one of great dignity and
to one equal in power and importance with the executive and legislative
branches of the government. He did more--he established not only the fact
that the Supreme Court was the proper tribunal to declare what was and
what was not law, under the Constitution, but it was to set limits to the
powers and prerogatives of the chief executive himself.
In an address on the Supreme Court by Justice Brown in 1896, he said: "The
Constitution had been adopted by the vote of the thirteen States of the
Union, but its construction was a work scarcely less important than its
original creation. With a large liberty of choice, guided by no
precedents, and generally unhampered by his colleagues upon the bench, the
great Chief Justice (Marshall) determined what was law by what he thought
it ought to be, evolved from his own experience of the defects of the
Articles of Confederation and from an innate consciousness of what the
country required, a theory of construction which time has vindicated and
the popular sentiment of succeeding generations has approved. In the case
of Marbury against Madison, which arose at his very first term, he
declared the judicial power to extend to the annulment of an act of
Congress in conflict with the Constitution, a doctrine peculiar to this
country, but so commending itself to the common sense of justice as to
have been incorporated in the jurisprudence of every State in the Union.
The lack of this check upon the action of the Legislature has wrecked the
constitution of many a foreign State, and it is safe to say that our own
would not have long survived a contrary decision. Had Marshall rendered no
other service to the country, this of itself would have been sufficient to
entitle him to its gratitude." And Judge A. W. Wallace, writing of Justice
Marshall, said: "By his canons of construction he fortified the
foundations of the Constitution and builded thereon the jurisprudence of
the United States--whose opinions, nearly a century old, stand, like a
great sea-wall, breasting every billow of political frenzy that has
threatened to engulf the safety, permanence and perpetuity of our
institutions."
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
It was Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle county, a Virginian, who wrote the
act of the General Assembly of Virginia, passed on the 26th day of
December, 1785, establishing religious liberty in Virginia, which has been
adopted, or a law of similar import, by every State in the United States,
and made a part of the Constitution of the United States, by the first
amendment made to that instrument. It is one of the grandest achievements
of Mr. Jefferson, and stamps him as a patriot who could and did rise
superior to his environments and surroundings, and even his predilections
and life-long attachments, and secure to the people, by a law which he
expressed the hope would never be repealed, their rights in matters of
conscience as to religion and the worship of their God. It has permeated
this whole country, and its influence is felt more or less throughout
Christendom, and as a little leaven will leaven the whole lump, so its
influence is still at work and time only can tell what it shall
accomplish.
The act was written in Fredericksburg, and, omitting the long preamble,
which is written in Mr. Jefferson's best and most vigorous style, is as
follows: "That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any
religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be inforced,
restrained, molested or burthened, in his body or goods, nor shall
otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that
all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their
opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise
diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities."
THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
It was James Monroe, a native of Westmoreland county, but for years a
citizen of Fredericksburg, a Virginian, who announced the American
principle, known as the "Monroe Doctrine" that declared that no foreign
power should acquire territory on this continent, which has been the
guiding principle of the United States government since its enunciation,
and which has been the safeguard to all the governments of this
hemisphere.
The Monroe doctrine and the causes that called it forth, are succinctly
stated in volume 10 of the "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," and
are as follows: "After the overthrow of Napoleon, France, Russia, Prussia
and Austria formed the so-called Holy Alliance in September, 1815, for the
suppression of revolutions within each other's dominions and for
perpetuating peace. The Spanish colonies in America having revolted, it
was rumored that this alliance contemplated their subjugation, although
the United States had acknowledged their independence. George Canning,
English Secretary of State, proposed that England and America unite to
oppose such intervention. On consultation with Jefferson, Madison, John
Quincy Adams and Calhoun, Monroe, in his annual message to Congress in
1823, embodied the conclusions of these deliberations in what has since
been known as the Monroe Doctrine. Referring to the threatened
intervention of the powers, the message declares: 'We owe it, therefore,
to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States
and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their
part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous
to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any
European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with
the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it,
and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just
principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the
purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their
destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.'"
ESTABLISHED THE YOUNG REPUBLIC.
And furthermore: Not only did Fredericksburg and vicinity furnish the
leader of the American armies to victory and independence, and the leading
spirit in the navy; not only did they furnish the author of the
Declaration of Independence and the Father of the Constitution, but they
furnished the Presidents of the United States for thirty-two years of the
most trying and difficult part of the history of the Republic,--it being
the formative period of an experiment,--except the four years of John
Adams's administration, during which but little, if any, progress was
made. Washington was the first President, serving eight years; Jefferson
succeeding Adams, who served eight years; then Madison eight years,
followed by James Monroe for eight years, thus making the thirty-two
years. Besides these four Presidents, Virginia furnished three others,
who lived or were born within the circle of seventy-five miles of
Fredericksburg, namely, Wm. Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Zachary Taylor.
It is rather remarkable that both Harrison and Tyler should have been born
in Charles City county, Virginia, elected on the same ticket, Harrison,
who had moved to Ohio, as President, and Tyler as Vice-President, the
death of the former just one month after his inauguration, elevating Tyler
to the Presidency. President Taylor was born in Orange county.
THE GREAT NORTHWEST RECLAIMED.
It was George Rodgers Clarke,[85] of Albemarle county, a Virginian and a
Fredericksburg man, by the authority of Virginia's Governor, Patrick
Henry, with volunteers from Virginia and Kentucky, explored and conquered
the great Northwest Territory. This territory belonged to Virginia under
original grant in her charter, but the British at this time held it,
established strong posts there and encouraged the Indians to make war on
the white settlements. The Continental Congress could spare no troops to
reclaim this territory, though appealed to by Virginia to do so. For this
dangerous task Geo. R. Clarke proffered his services, which were accepted
by the Governor. Enlisting volunteers, he marched into that region, and by
real ability, rare skill, heroic courage and patience in bearing every
hardship and privation, captured Forts Kaskaskia and Vincennes and other
posts, and floated the flag of Virginia over the whole of the Northwest
Territory, it being designated Illinois county, Virginia.
This campaign cleared that entire country of the British, and secured to
Virginia a clear title to that vast territory, out of which the States of
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and a part of Minnesota were
afterwards carved, and which Virginia gave to the Union as a free-will
offering, the most imperial gift that State or nation ever laid on the
altar of country.[86]
[Illustration: R., F. & P. Railroad Company's Iron Bridge over the
Rappahannock River. (See page 328)]
Senator Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana, in his defence of Cook, at
Charlestown, now West Virginia, in 1859, one of the John Brown raiders,
said in his opening remarks:
"The very soil on which I live, in my western home, was once owned by this
venerable Commonwealth, as much as the soil on which I now stand. Her laws
there once prevailed, and all her institutions were there established as
they are here. Not only my own State of Indiana, but also four other great
States in the Northwest, stand as enduring and lofty monuments of
Virginia's magnanimity and princely liberality. Her donation to the
general government made them sovereign States; and since God gave the
fruitful land of Canaan to Moses and Israel, such a gift of present or
future empire has never been made to any people."
THE WEST EXPLORED.
It was Meriwether Lewis, of Albemarle, and Wm. Clarke,[87] of
Fredericksburg, both Virginians, who explored that great stretch of
country from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, and made it less
difficult for John C. Fremont, who afterwards explored the same territory
and received the proud appellation of the "Great Path Finder," which
appellation rightly belonged to Lewis and Clarke.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
It was Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle county, a Virginian, who, while
President of the United States, made the "Louisiana Purchase," which
brought to the possession of the United States more than one million
square miles of territory. This immense territory belonged to the French
government. It embraced the present States of Louisiana, Arkansas,
Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Indian Territory, North and South Dakota,
Montana, and parts of Kansas, Minnesota, Wyoming and Colorado. The price
paid was $11,250,000 in money and the assumption by the government of
debts due our citizens by France, amounting to $3,750,000, making in all
$15,000,000.
The purchase of this vast territory was bitterly opposed,--as all
acquisitions of territory by the United States have been--especially in
New England, where they threatened to secede from the Union, if it was
consummated, and the legislation of Massachusetts passed and sent to the
President and Speaker of the House a resolution to the effect that they
would consider the adding of the Louisiana territory, to the domain of the
United States, just cause for exercising their right of secession.[88]
THE FLORIDA PURCHASE.
It was James Monroe, of Fredericksburg, a Virginian, who purchased Florida
from the Spanish government for $5,000,000, a land of "Fruits and
Flowers," and a favorite health resort for winter tourists from all parts
of the country. Its Spanish name Pascua Florida, translated, means Flowery
Easter, which indicates that in Florida the flower season is perpetual.
ACQUISITION OF TEXAS.
It was Sam Houston, of Rockbridge county, a Virginian, who wrested the
great State of Texas from Mexico and afterwards ceded it to the United
States, John Tyler, of Charles City county, a Virginian, signing the bills
for its admission three days before his presidential term ended. By this
acquisition the government added to its possessions territory sufficient,
it is said, to furnish comfortable homes for the present population of the
United States, which would then be less crowded than many of the States of
Europe.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
It was Gen. Winfield Scott, of Dinwiddie county, a Virginian, and Gen.
Zachary Taylor (Rough and Ready), of Orange county, also a Virginian, who
subdued Mexico, by which there were added to the territory of the United
States the great States of California, Arizona and New Mexico.
And thus it will be seen, that all of the territory acquired by the United
States Government, from the union of the colonies for the common defence
to the purchase of Alaska, except the Gadsden purchase, was secured
through Virginians, who were born and raised, and many of them at the time
lived, in or near Fredericksburg.
COMMODORE F. M. MAURY.
It was Matthew Fontaine Maury, of Spotsylvania county, and later a
resident of Fredericksburg, a Virginian, who marked out the tracks of
speed and safety for mariners of every clime over the ocean's bosom, and
showed the beds on the bottom of the seas, where the cable lines now
safely lie, of whom all the officers of the maritime nations came to
learn, on whom kings and emperors bestowed orders, medals and decorations,
and of whom the great Humboldt said he had created a new science.[89]
The following paper, on this great man's life, character and achievements,
to whom the world is so greatly indebted, was prepared by Rev. J. S. Dill,
D. D., then a resident of this place, and pastor of the Baptist church,
for this volume:
"On the 14th of January, 1806, only ten miles from the city of
Fredericksburg, in the county of Spotsylvania, was born Matthew
Fontaine Maury. He came of goodly stock, for there mingled in his
nature, in equal parts, the sturdy religious life of the French
Huguenots and the gallantry of the English Cavalier. On his mother's
side he belonged to the Minor family, of Virginia, while his name
testifies that his paternal ancestors were among those who, from the
persecutions of France, stretched their arms to the New World.
"When Maury was five years old, his parents emigrated to Tennessee and
settled near the present town of Franklin. Thus, in the primeval
forests of Tennessee, far away from the ocean's tuneful chant, there
grew up the lad, who was to become 'The Pathfinder of the Seas.'
"The early educational advantages of young Maury were but scant. An
accident, disqualifying him for farm service, gave him his best
opportunity at an academy, and this he did not fail to use. Maury
looked to the army for a profession, but his parents denied him. When,
without their knowledge, he then secured his appointment to the navy,
they again objected, and he left home without his father's blessing.
In 1825, an inland lad of nineteen years, Maury was assigned to duty
as a midshipman on the Brandywine. It became evident that he had
resolved to master his profession, and his promotion was rapid. In
1831 he was appointed master of the sloop of war Falmouth, which was
ordered to Pacific waters. Diligently he sought information as to the
best track for his vessel. Finding no reliable chart for his guidance,
he realized the need of such help and his mind began at once to
grapple with that problem, the solution of which afterwards
immortalized him."
WONDERFUL WORKS ON NAVIGATION.
"At home for a time in 1834, he was married to Miss Ann Herndon, of
Fredericksburg, and from this time on we find much of his family life
woven into the history of our city. On Charlotte street, between Princess
Ann and Prince Edward, still stands the house[90] where he lived and his
children were born. At this time he published his first book--a 'Treatise
on Navigation'--which for many years, even after the Civil war, was made a
text book in the naval academy at Annapolis. His pen now became active in
newspaper articles that startled the country, and there even arose a
sentiment to elevate him to the portfolio of Secretary of the Navy.
"In the fall of 1839, by the upsetting of the stage in which he was
travelling, his knee was severely fractured. But this untoward accident,
under the guiding hand of God, put him into the very position in which he
was to perform his life-work. His lame leg being unseaworthy, he was
placed in charge of the 'Depot of Charts and Instruments,' at Washington.
Here he grasped his great opportunity. Here, at the capital of the nation,
he wrought for twenty years, and these two decades, from 1841 to 1861,
mark the high tide of his service to the world.
"At Washington Maury found the vast accumulation of the 'log books' of the
United States warships, stored away as mere rubbish. This he utilized as
valuable data. He also set in operation plans for still more complete and
accurate collections of all kinds of hydrographic and meteorologic
observations. With all this before him, with pains-taking toil, he
prepared his wonderful 'charts and sailing directions.' His work took
ultimate form in a series of six 'charts' and eight large folio volumes of
'sailing directions,' and these comprehended all waters, in every clime,
where fly the white sails of civilized commerce.
"The charts exhibit, with wonderful accuracy, the winds and currents,
their force and direction, at different seasons, the temperature of the
surface waters, the calm belts and trade winds, the rains and the storms.
The eight volumes of 'sailing directions,' are brim full of the most
valuable nautical information, and are perfect treasures to the
intelligent seaman. This effected a revolution in the art of navigation.
The practical result was that the most difficult of all sea voyages--that
from New York to San Francisco, around Cape Horn--has been shortened by
forty days; and it has been estimated, that in shortening the time and
lessening the dangers of sea voyages, there has been a saving to the
world's commerce of not less than $40,000,000 annually.
"In writing about these sea routes he has mapped out, Maury has this to
say: 'So to shape the course on voyages as to make the most of winds and
currents at sea, is the perfection of the navigator's art. How the winds
blow and the currents flow along this route or that, is no longer matter
of opinion or speculation. The wind and the weather, daily encountered by
hundreds, who have sailed the same voyage before him, have been tabulated
for the mariner; nay, his path has been literally blazed for him on the
sea; mile posts have been set upon the waves, and finger-boards planted
and time-tables furnished for the trackless waste.'
"The simple 'Depot of Charts and Instruments,' over which Maury was
placed, soon became the 'National Observatory,' with this man of genius as
its superintendent. The vast work was international and, in 1853, brought
about the great Brussels conference. On his return from this conference,
ladened with honors, Maury stood before the world as the founder of the
twin sciences of hydrography and meteorology. No less a man than
Alexander von Humboldt declared him the founder of a new science."
FOUNDER OF WEATHER BUREAU.
"The limits of this sketch forbid more than a bare mention of the many
other directions in which the genius of this wonderful man blessed the
world. The great Atlantic cable, that flashes the news from continent to
continent, is one of the radiant sparks that flew from his anvil as he
wrought. Cyrus Field declared, at its completion, 'Maury furnished the
brains, England gave the money, I did the work.' He established the river
gauges of the Mississippi and the daily observations that give our best
knowledge of that great river. He established the great circle routes for
ocean steamship travel, and the 'steam laws' now used in ocean travel are
his. He applied his system of meteorology to land as well as sea, and
outlined the work of the 'signal service' and 'weather bureau' of to-day.
"The 'National Observatory,' under Maury, comprehended in all essential
particulars what now is divided into no less than four departments at
Washington. In 1855 Maury published his popular work 'The Physical
Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.' The work has passed through
twenty editions, and has found its way into the languages of Continental
Europe. It is the very poetry of his great science, analyzing and
tabulating millions of observations of the sea--its currents and its
climates, its winds and rains and storms, its myriads of animal life, and
marvellous formations of shore-lines and bottoms--he found his way to the
heart of nature and laid before us, like an open book, her majestic laws.
And never did scientific man touch nature in more devout spirit. In all he
saw the handiwork of God. Investigations into the broad-spreading circle
of phenomena, connected with the winds of heaven and the waves of the sea,
never failed to lift his mind to the Creator. As he pondered these things,
he heard a voice in every wave that chipped its hand, he felt a pressure
in every breeze that blew, he knelt and worshipped God."
STOOD WITH THE SOUTH.
"The life of Maury fell on times when there were at work other currents
than those of sea and river. Political passions blew to a gale and the
nation drifted to Civil war. His supreme sense of duty, and loyalty to his
own State, was the current that bore him away from Washington and stranded
him in the final wreck of the Southern Confederacy. In those unhappy times
no man sacrificed more than Maury. He not only resigned his high position
at Washington, but turned his back upon tempting offers from Russia and
France, in order to suffer affliction with his own people. In the Civil
war he rendered most valuable service by introducing submarine torpedo
warfare, and inventing a sure method of explosion by electricity. Much of
his time was spent in England purchasing navy supplies and perfecting
inventions in navy warfare.
"After the war, Maury turned to Mexico and joined his fortunes to the
Emperor Maximilian; but the tragic end of this friend and patron, again
left him stranded. When, in 1868, the enactment of a general amnesty
removed his political disabilities, Maury accepted the Chair of
Meteorology in the Virginia Military Institute, and there spent the
closing years of his life. He greatly rejoiced in this return to old
friends and scenes, and addressed himself with ardor to congenial
pursuits. But a constitution, not the strongest, gave way to the storms of
the last years. The middle of October, 1872, on his return from a
fatiguing lecture tour, as he crossed his threshold he said 'I am come
home to die.' For four long months he lay weak and suffering. The end came
on the 1st of February. 1873. A heavenly breeze bore him to the anchorage
beyond the sea, and the trusting child of nature rested with his God.
"Than Matthew Fontaine Maury no American has received higher honors from
foreign countries. Orders of Knighthood were bestowed upon him by the
Emperor of Russia, King of Denmark, King of Portugal, King of Belgium, and
the Emperor of France; while Prussia, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Sardinia,
Bremen and France, struck gold medals in his honor The Pope sent him a
full set of all the medals struck during his pontificate; Maximilian
decorated him with 'The Cross of Our Lady Guadaloupe;' while Germany
bestowed upon him the great 'Cosmos Medal,' struck in honor of Von
Humboldt. It is the only duplicate of that medal in existence. He became
corresponding member of more literary and scientific circles, and received
more honorary diplomas, at home and abroad, than any other man known to
history.
"Our own National Government has failed to honor his memory by appropriate
memorial, yet his name is so woven with his great science that it must
live. The Hon. Mellin Chamberlain, late Librarian of Congress, in calm
judicial tone, has declared, 'I do not suppose there is the least doubt
that Maury was the greatest man America has ever produced.'
"A bill to honor Commodore Maury, with an appropriate monument, lies
mouldering in the archives of Congress. It will some day see the light.
During the last years of Maury's life the smoke of a great conflict
gathered about him and hid his face from the National Government; but the
smoke is fast lifting, and the healthy breezes of a great national
fraternity will soon blow it far away. Then his nation will look upon his
face and see the clear outlines of his character--then will he take his
own proper place in America's galaxy of the great."
THE LADIES' MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION.
It was in Fredericksburg, and by the ladies of Fredericksburg, Virginians,
that the first memorial association was organized and chartered for
looking after the dead soldiers, for providing them a final resting place
in some convenient cemetery laid out for the purpose, and strewing their
graves with the first flowers of spring as the years pass by. This was
their second care after their return to their homes at the close of the
Civil war, their first being their own homes, which were almost in ruins;
and since the organization of that memorial association no season of
flowers has passed that these graves have not been piously remembered.
MARY WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
It was the ladies of Fredericksburg, Virginians, who inaugurated the move,
and carried it on to complete success, to raise a monument to a woman,
the tallest and most imposing of its kind that is to be found on this
continent. It towers over fifty feet high, the shaft is solid granite, and
it marks the grave of the greatest of American women--Mary, the mother of
Washington. It is true, that after the work was commenced, the plans laid,
and some money raised, the ladies were assisted by the National Mary
Washington Monument Association, which did good service, but even that
association, brought into being through the local association at
Fredericksburg, was made more active and efficient by the energy and
persistence of the pioneers in the movement. That monument is grand and
beautiful, and reaches high into the heavens, and while it marks the last
resting place of that sainted woman, it reflects great honor upon all the
ladies who assisted in its erection.
[Illustration: Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, the "Path Finder of the
Seas." (See page 315)]
These are some of the things in which Virginians took the lead and which
were accomplished by them. There may be omissions of noble acts and brave
deeds that might have been mentioned of whose existence we are in
ignorance, but these we have mentioned will suffice to show that they were
the leading spirits in throwing off the British yoke of oppression, in
uniting the colonies for common defence, in proclaiming to the world our
grievances and declaring for freedom, in waging a long and bloody war and
securing independence, in forming and conducting the government from its
infancy through its experimental period, in extending its territorial
limits and in contributing to its national greatness. If for all this--if
for what has been achieved by their ancestors in field and forum, on land
and sea, an honest pride should well up in the breast of the Virginians of
the living present, that should find expression in words, where is the
individual that can rise up and charge them with vain boasting?