USA > Maryland > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 14
USA > Virginia > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 14
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Through the chill and lonely hours of the night did our Washington with the one great and controlling purpose in view ride on and on to his destination, sometimes through plantation clearing or straggling hamlet, and sometimes through stretches of woodland, fording or ferrying the many streams now deep and full with the spring time freshets.
At Colchester, eight miles away he drew in his horse's rein and tarried awhile for re- freshments for man and beast, with mine host of the "Arms of Fairfax" a hostelry still standing solitary in the wastes of the vanished town. When he again mounted his horse and clattered down the street of the drowsy hamlet to the banks of the Occoquan, the ferryman made haste to set the distinguished wayfarer over the swiftly flowing stream, as many a time he had done before, and bid him speed over the hills and val- leys of Prince William.
On and on he pursues his solitary way. He leaves behind him the highlands of ro- mantic Occoquan, and the roaring of its cascades die away in the distance. He crosses
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the waters of the Neabseo, Quantico, Choppawamsic, Aquia, and Potomac creeks into the sandy lowlands of Stafford and Spottsylvania.
As he sped fast through the watches of the night with no token or sound of life to relieve the stillness of the surroundings save here and there the glimmering light in lonely farm house or negro cabin, or the baying of watch dog or croaking of frog in the wayside fen, how profound and varied must have been the thoughts that drifted through the mind of the great man.
For thirty years he had been prominently connected with the history of the colonies, had been through many years a member of the Virginia Assembly, had been a member of the Continental Congress, had been conspicuously instrumental with other compatri- ots in developing and successfully directing the spirit of independence under the op- pressive measures of Great Britain, had been commander-in-chief of the victorious American armies in the Revolution, and now was to be first President of the United States.
The road he passed over was historie. In 1676 the armed rangers and colonists, of the Bacon Rebellion under the lead of his own great grandfather Col. John Washington had hurried to their bloody work at Assaomeck and Piscataway. Over a portion of it in 1716 had clattered the Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe under the gallant Spotts- wood to open a way for the white man through the Alleghanies to the great West. Later, in 1740, Virginia's contingent of provincials passed over it to join the forces of Admiral Vernon fighting the Spaniards at Carthagena. Then in 1755 it had seen the passing of other Virginia troops on their way with Braddock to fight the French and Indians on the banks of the Ohio, and in 1781 it was gay and noisy with the "continen- talers" going to and from Yorktown.
Before the early dawn, Washington had finished his journey, and damp with the night airs, was standing at the gate of the maternal home on the borders of the Rappa- hannock. Of the notable interview between the honored chief and his aged mother, George Washington Parke Custis, his adopted son, has left us this enthusiastic and in- teresting narrative.
"The President had come all unheralded and unannounced. After their first moment of greeting, he said, 'Mother, the people of our republic have been pleased with the most flattering unanimity to elect me their chief magistrate, but before I can assume the functions of the office, I have come hastily to bid you an affectionate farewell, and to ask your maternal blessings. So soon as the weight of public business which must necessarily attend the beginnings of a new government, can be disposed of, I shall hasten back to Virginia'-and here the matron interrupted him with-'And then you will not see me. My great age and the disease which is fast hastening my dissolution warn me that I shall not remain long in this world; and I trust in God that I may be better pre- pared for another. But go George and fulfill the destiny which heaven appears to have intended for you. Go, my son and may God's and a mother's blessing be with you to the end!' The President was deeply moved. His head rested fondly on the shoulder of his parent whose aged arm feebly but affectionately encircled his neck. Then the brow on which fame had wreathed the fairest laurels ever accorded to man, relaxed from its lofty bearing. That look which could have overawed a Roman Senate, was bent in filial tenderness upon the time worn features of the faltering matron.
He wept !- a thousand recollections crowded upon his mind as memory retracing scenes long past, carried him back to the lowly homestead of his youth in Westmore- land where he beheld that mother whose care, education and discipline had enabled him to reach to the topmost height of laudable ambition. Yet how were his glories forgotten in the moment, his exploits and his victories, while he gazed upon her from whom he was soon to part to meet no more. Her premonitions were but too true. She passed away from earth in August of the same year, 1789, at the age of eighty-five."
Passing from the dear pathetic presence, and hurriedly retracing his way, next morn- ing, back to Mount Vernon, the President elect, perhaps did not hear the plaudits in the streets of Fredericksburg. He rode all day and reached his home before evening,
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having exhibited his powers of endurance at the age of fifty-seven, by riding over eighty miles in twenty-four hours. His good wife Martha in his absence had busied herself in making ready the necessary traveling equipage, and on the following morning, April 16th, the President set out for New York, then the seat of the new Government.
GUNSTON, THE HOME OF GEORGE MASON.
"Twas an old colonial palace Ere that brazen boom
Thunder'd Freedom from the State House
Through the thrilling land; In those days it was a great house, Spacious, feudal, grand."
The next place of historic interest below the Fairfax home of Belvoir on the Poto- mac, is an estate which in its original entirety contained seven thousand acres and be- longed in the colonial days to Col. George Mason, the distinguished patriot, whose name is very prominent in early Virginia history, and especially in that portion of it which relates to the Revolutionary contest. He was not a soldier and had no aspira- tions for official dignity and honor, but he was a thinker and a most forceful writer, . and better than all, a man of correct principles and honest purposes.
On one of the commanding situations of his manorial domain he erected in 1758, a pretentious dwelling where for thirty-four years he lived in almost princely style, dis- pensing a generous hospitality to his wide circle of acquaintances in the colonies and devoting his time to his broad acres, the pursuits of literature, the promotion of neigh- borhood improvements and the dissemination of his liberal and popular ideas of colonial independence.
The founder of the Virginia family of Masons of whom George Mason, the builder of Gunston Hall and fifth in line of descent, was a member of the long parliament dis- solved by Oliver Cromwell in the reign of Charles the first of England. Like Hyde and Falkland, though fully committed to the reformation of many of the then existing evils of the royal prerogative, he did not favor the overthrow of the monarchy; for when the two great factions of the kingdom came into armed conflict he organized a military body to defend his king against the measures of Cromwell and his party.
After the disastrous battle of Worcester which sealed the fate of Charles, Mason fled in disguise with many others of the royal adherents from the English realm, and in 1651 found refuge in the province of Virginia, whither his family soon after followed him. He settled first in the county of Norfolk, but later moved to Pasbitansy on Acohic creek near the Potomac where he died and was buried.
In 1676, the year of Bacon's Rebellion, he commanded a force against the Indians and represented the same year the county of Stafford in the House of Burgesses. Stafford was carved out of Westmoreland the year before, and was so named by Mason in honor of his native county of Staffordshire, England. His eldest son, also called George, was married to Mary, daughter of Gerrard Fowke of Gunston Hall, Staffordshire, England. The eldest son by this marriage also bore the name of George, the third of this name, and like his father, lived and was buried on the patrimonial estate of Acohic. Their wills were recorded in Stafford county Court in 1710 and 1715 respectively.
George Mason the fourth in descent and eldest son of the last named, married a .ughter of Stevens Mason of Middle Temple, attorney general of the colony of Vir- inia in the reign of Queen Anne. He established a plantation in Dogue Neck on he Potomac, then in Stafford, now in Fairfax, on land which he had inherited, and was the Lieutenant and chief commander of the county of Stafford, in 1719. He was drowned by the upsetting of his sail boat. He left three children, two sons and a daughter, of these two sons one was George Mason of the Virginia convention and the other Thomson, hardly less celebrated than his brother, who settled in Loudoun county and was frequently a member of the Assembly, an eminent lawyer and a true patriot. His son, Stevens Thomson Mason was a member of the Virginia convention which adopted the Federal Constitution, and was a United States Senator as was also his son Armistead.
George Mason of the text, the fifth of the name, was born in 1725, seven years be-
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fore Washington, At the age of twenty-five he was married to Anne Eilbeck of Maryland, aged sixteen. This was in 1750. She was said to have been a very esti- mable woman. She died at the age of thirty-nine leaving children, George, Anne, Wil-
Gyn moltoles. Test
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SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS
liam, Thomson, Mary, Daniel, Sarah, John and Elizabeth. Of the sons, George, and Thomson of Hollin Hall served in the Continental Army, Thomson settled in Loudoun county. The last surviving son of John, lived on Analostan Island opposite to George- town. He was the father of James Murray Mason who for years was United States
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GUNSTON HALL.
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Senator from Virginia; who figured with Slidell in the famous Trent affair and was afterwards confederate commissioner to England. He died at Clermont, Fairfax county, 1849 aged 43 years. His eldest daughter by his second wife became the wife of Samuel
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Cooper, Adjutant General of the Confederate Army. Another daughter married S. Smith Lee, brother of Robert E. Lee and was the mother of General Fitzhugh Lee.
Col. George Mason was twice married. His second wife was named Brent but of this alliance there was no issue. His last years were made miserable by chronic gout. He died in 1792 and was buried in the family grave yard at Gunston, but no stone was set to mark his grave until a hundred years afterward. In 1896 through the instrumen- tality of the "Sons of the Revolution" a small granite shaft was erected to the memory of the distinguished statesman and patriot.
George Mason was one of the best and purest men of his time, and-possessed the con- fidence of those younger civilians, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, whose opinions he did much to mould and shape along the lines which led to American Independence. He was a near neighbor to Washington and the Fairfaxes, and on the most intimate terms with them. In 1776 we find him writing to his agent in London a powerful statement of the wrongs inflicted by the mother government upon the colonies; and about the same time appeared his masterly exposition of "colonial rights," entitled "Extracts from the Virginia charters, with remarks upon them." In 1769 he drafted the "Articles of Association" against importing British goods, which the Burgesses signed in a body on their dissolution by Lord Botetourt; and in 1774 he drew up the celebrated Fairfax county resolutions, upon the attitude to be assumed by Virginia. In 1776 he was elected to represent his county in the convention of that year, and drew up the "Bill of Rights" already alluded to which was adopted. Jefferson, then in Philadel- phia, had written "a preamble and sketch" to be offered, but Mason's had been re- ported, and the final vote was about to be taken when it arrived. Mason's bill was therefore adopted, but Jefferson's "preamble" was attached to the Constitution. Ma- son sat afterwards in the Assembly, and supported Jefferson in his great reforms of organic laws, such as the cutting off of entails, the abolishing of primogeniture, and the overthrow of church establishments. The disinterested public spirit of the man may be inferred from the fact that, by birth and education, he belonged to the dominant class and to the Episcopal Church. He also advocated the bill forbidding the further importation of slaves, in 1778, and ten years afterwards sat in the Convention to decide on the adoption or rejection of the Federal Constitution. He was elected one of the Senators for Virginia, but declined the honor on account of pressing home duties, and continued to reside on his Gunston estate. In the much admired group of sculptured heroes and statesmen which adorns State House Square in Richmond, his statue is conspicuous.
George Mason with all his force of intellect; with his correct judgment of the pur- poses and actions of men, with his fine perceptions of right and wrong among individ- uals, communities and nations, which won for him the approval and admiration of all among whom he moved, and with his fitness for any position of public trust and confi- dence, was remarkably modest and unassuming .. He was domestic in his attachments and inclinations, and cared more for the enjoyments of his home life than for the en- vied circumstances, often vexatious and forbidding which surround the politician and legislator. By his own fireside in the midst of his family circle in his own manorial halls was the place of all others most dear to him. But withal, he was no recluse. He went often out from his fireside and circle and mingled freely with his friends at church, at elections, at barbacues, and on other social occasions, and he loved to have them come and share under the roof of Gunston his large and cordial hospitalities. His library was extensive and varied for the time, and in it he found perennial delights. He was not a learned man according to the common acceptation of the term, but his knowledge of the world so far as he had delved and studied was very correct and practical. He was not an orator and never indulged in lofty flights of language to carry convictions but he had been endowed with a great store of strong common sense which he put forcibly into all the phrases of his public addresses and documents. He had an abiding interest in the affairs of liis county and parish, and he co-operated earnestly with the founders of the towns of Alexandria and Colchester, the first stones of both of which he had seen laid in the wilderness.
Letters of this sterling patriot to his children have been preserved and are replete
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with good advice and parental solicitude. One of them, a sample of them all, to his son John, a merchant in Bordeaux, France, and to whom he consigned cargoes of his plan- tation products, closes as follows: "Diligence, frugality and integrity will infallibly in- sure your business, and your fortunes. And if you content yourself with moderate things at first you will rise, perhaps by slow degrees, but upon a solid foundation."
In his last will and testament he thus charges his sons: "I recommend to you from my own experience in life to prefer the happiness of independence and a private station to the struggles and vexations of public business; but if either your own inclinations or the necessities of the times should engage you in public affairs, I charge you on a father's blessing, never to let the motives of private interest nor ambition induce you to betray, nor terrors of poverty nor disgrace nor fear of danger nor of death deter you from asserting the liberty of your country and endeavoring to transmit to your coun- try's posterity those sacred rights to which you were born."
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George Mason held many slaves, for he had numerous plantations under cultivation, requiring a vast amount of labor, and his exports of grain and tobacco to foreign mar- kets were on a large scale, but like his neighbors Washington and Jefferson he deplored the existence of the system in the colonies, for he foresaw clearly the consequences of its workings in the generations which were to come after him. He said in the Virginia convention: "This infernal traffic originated in the avarice of the British merchants. The British government constantly checked the attempts of Virginia to put a stop to it. The present question concerns not the importing states alone but the whole union. Maryland and Virginia have already prohibited the importation of slaves expressly. North Carolina has done the same in substance. All this would be in vain if South Carolina and Georgia be at liberty to import them. The western people are already calling out for slaves for their new lands and will fill their country with them if they can be got through those two states. Slavery discourages arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when it is performed by slaves. They prevent the migration of whites who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce the most pernicious effect upon manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations can not be rewarded nor punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. I regret that some of our Eastern brethren have from a love of gain embarked in this nefarious traffic. I hold it essential in every point of view that the general government should have the power to prevent the increase of slavery." What his ideas of religious toleration were, may be learned from the last article in his Bill of rights. "Religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and con- viction-not by force nor violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the ex- ercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other"-Mason was a member of the church of England but his influences were for its disestablishment.
Gunston Hall is one of the very few colonial dwelling places of the upper Potomac tide water region which are still standing as in the past, one stone upon another. But it has shared a better fate than the most of them, thanks to its enduring materials of construction and to two of its proprietors since the civil war, Col. Edward Daniels and Mr. Joseph Specht; it is now in as good condition as in the days of its builder and first master. Not only its interior of spacious apartments with their high ceilings, wainscotings and elaborate stairways have been put in pleasing order, but its exterior of quaint roofs and gables, and dormer windows and tall chimneys has been well cared for. The manorial domain of seven thousand acres which once belonged to it has dwindled down to only a few hundred. Long may the old historic landmark continue through the mutations of time to call up to coming generations memories of a ster- ling, self sacrificing patriot whose potent influences in the shaping of the beginnings of our republic have never been sufficiently understood and recognized.
" The patriotic and curious pilgrim who wishes to visit this colonial shrine can board the steamer which plies daily between Washington and Mount Vernon. Or if he pre-
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fers going leisurely by land, he can in carriage take the old King's Highway at Alex- , andria and visit in his way of eighteen miles, Mount Vernon, Washington's old mill at Epsewasson, Woodlawn, Belvoir and the little hamlet of Accotink at the head of Accotink Bay where in the hostelry of "Royal George," long since gone to ruin, Wash- ington often met his neighbors after a barbecue or fox chase. The site of the van- ished town of Colchester on the Occoquan, seven miles below Mount Vernon will well repay a visit.
The following lines were written by a sojourner under Gunston roof on a Christmas night a few years ago.
I sat in Gunston Hall ;- Grim shadows on the wall Around me pressed, As memories of the past Came crowding thick and fast, And to my mind, at last, Their theme adressed.
Back from the shadowy land They pressed, a noble band, A stalwart race ;-
I saw them come and go, As if they thought to show Their stately grandeur to My mind apace.
From wall and ceiling high, And ancient panel nigh, Their faces showed.
I marked them, one and all,
Majestic, grand, and tall, As from the corniced wall Their shadows strode.
They seemed to grow apace Like old Antenor's race, Of Trojan fame. Or men of lofty state, On whom the good and great
Bestowed their utmost weight Of honored name.
Then prouder forms were seen, Of more majestic mien,- Those grand old knights,
Whose sires at Runnymede
Stocked England with a breed Of men that made kings heed Their subjects rights.
Their spectral grandeur showed In every step they trode Through ancient hall,
While women held their place
Supreme in every grace With which the Gothic race Invests them all.
Each captive husband vied With lover by his side, To own her sway
Who practised less the art
To win than keep a heart
That once to Cupid's dart Had fallen prey;
While wives with sweethearts strove To keep the torch of love In constant flame,
That, like sweet Omphale, They might retain their sway,
And yet their lords obey By rightful claim.
So passed the shadowy throng, In misty group along, As fancy played, Or pictured, one by one, These spectral scenes upon
My mind, as night wore on With deep'ning shade.
And as my eyelids fell
They grew more palpable- These spectres grand,
That still, in Gunston Hall,
Hold nightly carnival,
As fancy stirs withal Her conjurer's wand.
The Gunston estate was divided into the following named "quarters" or "plantations" Gunston, Occoquan, Pohick, Stump Neck, Hallowing Point, Dogue Run, and Hunting Creek. From these places the exports of grain and tobacco were large for many years after their clearing of the original growth of heavy timber. But other commodities were produced as appears from an account book of the proprietor before us, such as beef, tanned hides and wool. Of the last named article there are the following entries:
1789 167 fleeces
397 p'ds.
" 90 164
398
166
384 458
46
" 92 171
.€
George Mason, like his neighbor Washington, was orderly and methodical in all his business affairs, and his integrity in his dealings is a fact well established.
GUNSTON HALL RESTORED.
"Whatever was in condition to remain as it was originally, stands to-day, voicing in more eloquent lan- guage than could be conveyed by the most fervent patriot the spirit of the past. Thus the long, worn flights of sand stone steps leading to the porched entrances on the north and south fronts of the mansion, the most beautiful external features of the house, have weathered the hundred and fifty years that they have stood and are now battered and hollow with age and long use.
The principal entrance to the house is on the north side, and is made through a large, square porch, solidly built of brick and stone, with a peaked roof, supported in front by four Doric pillars of stone. The front door is crowned by a lunette of glass that corresponds to the arched front of the porch, and on either side are narrow hall windows. The southern portico is a smaller, octagonal structure, quite classic in its grace of form. In this picturesque retreat, doubtless, Coloncl Mason. was wont to entertain his dis- tinguished guests of a summer evening, where they might rest and be refreshed by the cool breezes arising from the quiet waters of Pohick Bay, as it was then called, now Gunston Cove, not many yards below.
Then hall and mansion wide They filled on every side, With phantoms grand;
While, at the outer gate, Pressed carriages of state, With spectral steeds to mate The shadowy band.
I saw the hearth-stone blaze,
As in colonial days, In this old hall; With beauty flashing high, And gallants thronging nigh, As if some love-lit eye Held them in thrall.
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This porch is said to have been a favorite spot, too, for a quiet turn at draughts between Washington and Mason.
The mansion is built of bricks that were imported from Scotland, and its walls, interior as well as exterior, have the thickness of three of these very large blocks. It is surmounted by a long, sweeping Virginia roof, that gives slope to the walls of the chambers in the second story, and necessitates the quaint .. dormer windows that are an added feature of attraction. Four immense brick chimneys rear themselves liigli above the roof, from the four corners of which they spring, though they have their bases in the im- mense cellar that runs beneath the entire house. The present owner of the mansion has built a tall observation tower on the top of the house, sacrificing somewhat the architectural harmony of the structure to the pleasure of enjoying the inimitable landscape spread before one for miles below.
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