Virginia have left the unfinished monument to crumble into dust, and the mother of Washington to remain unhonored. Yet there is a ray of light. A correspondent of the New Hampshire Patriot, writing from Whampoa, in China, under date of December 20, 1858, speaks thus of Mr. Burrows and the monument: "I supposed he was long since dead, and that his monument and memory would perish together. But he still lives; and though his great object is suspended, it is not abandoned, but only adjourned till he can recuperate his fortunes. I met with him in Hong Kong, where, with two sons, he is conducting commercial enterprises, and sails back and forward between China and California with as little thought as you in taking the railroad for Boston. An old man and lame, on the other side of the globe, so far from his monument, and forgotten around the monument, even, as well as at home, it was touching to the heart to find him here, with one object, one thought, one last effort, remembering the 'Mother of Washington,' when he himself had passed from the memory of the living." I visited that unfinished monument near the close of 1848, when the huge obelisk of white marble, ready for the sculptor's hand lay there, broken and defaced. The monument is also of white marble, and even in its unfinished state, had an imposing appearance. The years of more than a quarter of a century have now passed by since that corner-stone was laid, with so much pomp and promise, to the memory of her, of whom it was said by a distingushed gentleman in the city of modern Rome, that she was "the most fortunate of American matrons, in having given to her coun try and to the world, a hero without ambition, and a patriot without reproach;" and yet the monument is unfinished. It stands there silently appealing to national patriotism and local pride to sculpture its ornaments and seat its obelisk. It does more; it rebukes the insensibility of the sons and daughters of Virginia, to the memory of the most honored woman of the land. Year after year the dust of the plain has lodged upon the top of the half-finished pile, and the winds have planted the seeds of flowers and weeds wild there; and upon the base where that noble obelisk should stand, the sun, the rain, and the dew, annually weave green garlands and festoons, as if rebuking the indolence or avarice of insensate man. Even the marble tablet upon which was to be inscribed the simple words, MARY, THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON, is covered with green moss; and there is nothing to tell the stranger that near him lie the mortal remains of her who gave birth to the FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY. A picture of this unfinished monument may be found in Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution. CHAPTER II. WASHINGTON AT MOUNT VERNON. MRS. WASHINGTON'S MINIATURE-WASHINGTON'S LETTER TO HER ON ACCEPTING THE COM FORTY years a husband, General Washington retained an old-fashioned habit of husbands, as he always did the ease and elegance of old-fashioned manners.* From the time of his marriage, until he ceased to live in nature, he wore suspended from his neck, by a gold chain, and resting on his bosom, the miniature portrait of his wife. The letter which he wrote to her, upon his acceptance of the command of the American army,† is a proof, both of his * Washington was married in January 1759, and died in December 1799. The following is a copy of the letter, transcribed from the autograph preserved at Arlington house. It is the only letter from Washington to his wife known to be in existence: "PHILADELPHIA, June 18, 1775. "MY DEAREST: I am now sit down to write you on a subject which fills me with inexpressible concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated and increased when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it will give you. It has been determined in Congress that the whole army raised for the defence of the American cause shall be put under my care, and that it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take upon me the command of it. "You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family conjugal tenderness, and diffidence in receiving so important a commission; also, of the purity of his heart, and of the generous and nobly disinterested motives which governed his life and actions. Soon after his marriage, Colonel Washington became settled at Mount Vernon,* and was elected frequently but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose. You might, and I suppose did perceive, from the tenor of my letters, that I was apprehensive I could not avoid this appointment, as I did not pretend to intimate when I should return. That was the case. It was utterly out of my power to refuse this appointment without exposing my character to such censures as would have reflected dishonor upon myself and given pain to my friends. This I am sure could not, and ought not, to be pleasing to you, and must have lessened me considerably in my own esteem. I shall rely, therefore, confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear it from your own pen. My earnest and ardent desire is, that you would pursue any plan that is most likely to produce content and a tolerable degree of tranquillity; and it must add greatly to my uneasy feelings to hear that you are dissatisfied or complaining at what I really could not avoid. "As life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I came to this place (for I had not time to do it before I left home), got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the directions I gave him, which will I now enclose. The provision made for you in case of my death will, I hope, be agreeable. "I shall add nothing more, as I have several letters to write, but to desire that you will remember me to your friends, and to assure you that I am, with the most unfeigned regard, my dear Patsy, your affectionate, &c." *The eminence which gave name to the whole estate on the Potomac, owned by Washington, and on which the mansion was built, was called Mount Vernon in honor of Admiral Vernon of the British navy. Lawrence Washington, half-brother of George, and owner of the estate at that time, had served in the British army before Carthagena, where Vernon was the naval commander. Lawrence died in July 1752, from the county of Fairfax to the house of burgesses.* During the reigns of the provincial governors, Boteat the early age of thirty-four years, leaving a wife and infant daughter. The Mount Vernon estate was bequeathed to that daughter, and in the event of her decease without issue, the property was to pass into the absolute possession of George, to whom, in his will, Lawrence had entrusted the chief care of his affairs, although he was the youngest executor. He was then only twenty years of age. The daughter did not long survive her father, and Mount Vernon became the property of George Washington. In a letter to a friend in London, soon after his marriage, Washington wrote concerning his home: "No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated. In a high and healthy country; in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold; on one of the finest rivers in the world-a river well stock with various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year, and in the spring with shad, herring, bass, carp, sturgeon, &c., in great abundance. The borders of the estate are washed by more than ten miles of tide-water; several valuable fisheries appertain to it; the whole shore, in fact, is one entire fishery." * While engaged in the campaign of 1758, Colonel Washington was elected a representative of Frederick county, in the Virginia house of burgesses. Just previous to the election, his friends urged him to leave the army for a few days, and give the weight of his personal presence in favor of himself, as a candidate. The public good required him to remain with the army, and as that always outweighed every private consideration, he refused to leave. There were four candidates, and he was chosen by a large majority over all his competitors. "Your friends," wrote one of his correspondents, "have been very sincere, so that you have received more votes than any other candidate. Colonel Ward sat on the bench and represented you, and he was carried round the town in the midst of a general applause, and huzzaing for Colonel Washington." This was a gratifying result for the young commander, for he had received the support of the people among whom, in the most trying times, he had been compelled to exercise strong military restraint. This election cost Colonel Washington thirty-nine pounds and six shillings, Virginia currency. "Among the items of charge which have been preserved," says Sparks, are a hogshead and a barrel of punch, thirty-five gallons of wine, fortythree gallons of strong beer, cider, and dinner for his friends." Colonel Washington was a member of the house of burgesses for about fifteen years. Soon after the meeting of that body, in January 1757, when Washington appeared there as a member for the first time, it was resolved to return thanks to him for the distinguished service he had rendered his country in the field. Upon Speaker Robinson devolved the pleasing duty. "As soon as Colonel Washington took his seat," says Mr. Wirt, "Mr. Robinson, in obedience to the order, and following the impulse of his own generous and grateful heart, discharged the duty with great dignity, but with such warmth of coloring, and strength of expression, as entirely to confound the young hero. He rose to express his acknowledgments for the honor, but such was his trepidation and confusion, that he could not give distinct utterance to a single syllable. He blushed, stammered, and trembled for a tourt* and Eden, the courts of Williamsburg‡ and Annapolis displayed as much of the polish of high life as was second; when the speaker relieved him by a stroke of address that would have done honor to Louis the Fourteenth in his proudest and happiest moment. 'Sit down Mr. Washington,' said he, with a conciliatory smile, 'your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess.'' * Lord Botetourt, one of the king's lords of the bedchamber, arrived in Virginia as governor of the colony, in the autumn of 1768. He was the successor of Governor Fauquier. He was an Englishman; upright, honorable, benevolent and accomplished. When asked by the king, on receiving his appointment, "When will you be ready to go?" he promptly replied, "To-night." His manners were very conciliatory. For this reason Junius described him as a "cringing, bowing, fawning, and sword-bearing courtier;" and Horace Walpole said, on his departure, "if his graces don't captivate the Virginians, he will enrage them to fury; for I take all his douceur to be enamelled on iron." Like others of his class, Lord Botetourt had underrated the people he had consented to govern; and his ostentatious display of vice-regal pomp, when proceeding to open the Virginia assembly, for the first time, disgusted them. He was, on the whole, one of the best of the royal governors ever vouchsafed to Virginia, and his memory is cherished with affection in the Old Dominion. On the green, in front of William and Mary College, at Williamsburg, is a statue of Lord Botetourt. He died in 1771, and was succeeded by Lord Dunmore. † Sir Robert Eden was the last of the royal governors of Maryland, and succeeded Governor Sharpe in 1768. He was a very amiable gentleman, and at the commencement of revolutionary movements against royal authority, he was disposed to be very conciliatory toward the people of Maryland. But, as royal governor, he was compelled to obey the commands of his king and his ministers, and in so doing, he offended the republican sentiment of his colony, and was obliged to abdicate. He returned after the war to recover his estates, and died at Annapolis, in September 1784. His wife was sister to Lord Baltimore. Williamsburg, as we have elsewhere remarked, was made the capital of Virginia at an early day, and the governors held courts there in a style approaching that of royalty itself, only on a smaller scale. The remains of the "palace" of Lord Dunmore may yet be seen. These consist of the two wings. The whole was constructed of brick. The centre portion was accidentally destroyed by fire, while occupied by the French troops, immediately after the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown. It was seventy-four feet long and sixty-eight feet wide, and occupied the site of the old palace of Governor Spottswood, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Attached to the palace were three hundred and sixty acres of land, beautifully laid out in gardens, parks, carriage-ways, and a bowling-green. § Annapolis, on the Chesapeake, at the mouth of the Severn, became the scat of the government of Maryland in the year 1694, when all the records and offices were moved there from St. Marys, the first capital. There, as at Williamsburg, was found the most polished society; and of so much importance were these two places |