USA > Virginia > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County > Westmoreland County, Virginia : parts I and II : a short chapter and bright day in its history > Part 3
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"I had struggled for about twenty years to pay the expenses of my farm and to afford a comfortable support for those who culti- vated it, from the produce of their labor. In this way to have balanced that account would have satisfied me, but I always had to draw upon my other resources for those objects, and I would state upon my best judgment that the produce of the farm has in general fallen short of its support from $500 to $1,000 annually. To the best of my recollection I have during the above period (two years excepted) had to buy corn for the negroes, for which I have sometimes paid five, six and seven dollars a barrel. Last year I commenced the purchase of this article for ninety negroes in the month of May and so continued to the end of it.
"The insubordination of my negroes and their total disregard of all authority, rendered them more than useless to me. Southern gentlemen understand, and well know how to appreciate the force of this motive, and I, therefore, forbear to enlarge upon it.
"But if it should be asked, as it well may be, why this temper was more observable at Mount Vernon than upon other plantations in the neighborhood, I answer that, that place has at times been visited by some unworthy persons, who have condescended to hold conversations with my negroes and to impress upon their minds the belief that as the nephew of General Washington, or as President of the Colonization Society, or, for other reasons, I could not hold them in bondage, and particularly that they would be free at my death. That such conversations have passed I have evidence en- tirely satisfactory to myself; and that such impressions had been made on the minds of the negroes was imparted to me by a friend, who had no reason to doubt the fact. In consequence of informa- tion so truly alarming, I called the negroes together in March last, and, after stating to them what I had heard, and that they had been deceived by those who had neither their or my good in view. I assured them most solemnly that I had no intention to give freedom to any of them, and that nothing but a voluntary act of mine could make them so. That disappointment caused by this declaration should lead to consequences which followed was to be expected."
There remained then, no alternative, however distasteful, but the sale of his negroes. Emancipation without deportation was
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not to be thought of, and he had already gone as far in that direc- tion as prudence permitted, and was at that time contributing to the support of the most promising of his servants whom he had liberated and sent to Liberia.
Judge Washington's connection with the Colonization Society deserves more notice than it is possible to give it in a sketch of this character. He was its first president, and whatever of success it enjoyed, was due in no small measure to his labor and interest and to the assistance and confidence which his connection with it secured. What the work of this society would have amounted to but for the Civil War, is a matter of speculation ; what it has amounted to is best told perhaps by C. H. J. Taylor, who was appointed by President Cleveland Minister to that country, and who on his re- turn to the United States, painted a pathetic picture of reversion to type.
Judge and Mrs. Washington had no children, and the condition of her health rendered impossible a continuance of the hospitality that had made Mount Vernon famous during the life of its pre- vious owner. A dinner now and then to members of the Supreme Court, and that informal visiting that constituted one of the charms of Virginia society, was all that Mrs. Washington's strength per- mitted, and even that was much interrupted by their frequent absences on account of official duties. Mrs. Washington always accompanied her husband and insisted on traveling in their private carriage, in which they made their regular journeys to Philadelphia and Trenton. The fall term of 1829 was attended with much diffi- culty. He managed to sit through the session at Trenton and came back to Philadelphia, hoping to perform his duties there, but grew steadily worse and died on the 26th of November, 1829, his wife dying the following day.
One short incident as illustrating his attitude toward his slaves, and I am done.
The incident was related to me by a niece of Mrs. Washington, who was a constant visitor at Mount Vernon, and now living, at the age of nearly one hundred years.
An old negro, who was a kind of under gardener, had been en- couraged by the promise of a dram, to catch a rat that had done much damage and destroyed some of the finest bulbs in the con- servatory. The old negro had long pitted his cunning against that of the rat, and had devised many traps for its capture, but his efforts had been unrewarded, when one day, while the family was at dinner, there came a knock at the back door. which was re- sponded to by the servant waiting on the table. Returning to the
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dining room and announcing no visitor, the Judge asked who had knocked. The servant replied it was nobody but old Joe with a rat and that he had sent him away.
"Go and bring him back," said the Judge, and calling for a suitable cup he poured out the promised dram and himself took it to the door, accompanying its presentation to his old negro with highly appreciated praise.
Such, Mr. President, was the man most inadequately portrayed, for whose portrait we beg a place among the portraits of the other illustrious sons of this county, and it is no disparagement to the greatest among them to have it placed there. He represented what they stood for. His regard for truth and justice was as great as was that of his greater kinsman, and his devotion to duty as sub- lime as was that of the immortal Lee.
ADDRESS OF REV. RANDOLPH HARRISON MCKIM, D. D., CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
In Presenting the Gallery to Westmoreland County at the Same Time and Place.
The genius of Sir Walter Scott has immortalized the old Scotch- man, Robert Patterson, who passed his life restoring the grave stones of the Covenanters.
Those pious labors of "Old Mortality" find an interesting par- allel in the work which was initiated some years ago by your emi- nent fellow citizen. Judge Wright, whom I am proud to call my friend-a friend of my early years, when we were both students at Jefferson's great university. I refer, of course, to his admirab e enterprise of making the county courthouses historical museums, where the people may see portrayed by the painter or the sculptor the forms and features of the distinguished men whose name: have adorned their anna !:.
I am not surprised to learn that the plan has appealed to the pride and patriotism of the people. It is natural that these county picture galleries should foster self-respect, and a sense of dignity, among the citizens. who are thus constantly reminded of the lives and talents and achievemente of their ancestors-or, at least, of the great men who were the fellow citizens and representatives of their ancestors.
But they should do more. I think you may expect that they
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will awake in the breasts of your young men the laudable ambition to emulate the example of the illustrious men who sprang from the sacred soil of Westmoreland. Well may these historical museums be instrumental in kindling the resolve of your young men to be worthy of their sires-to rise to the same lofty plane of endeavor on which they lived and labored-to serve their country and their fellow citizens as they did-to count for something in the making of the future history of the Old Dominion.
We read in Holy Writ that the funeral rites of a certain man of Israel were rudely interrupted by the approach of a band of Moabite invaders; and that, in consequence, the corpse was cast in haste into the sepulchre of the prophet Elisha, whereupon an amazing thing occurred, viz., this: "When the dead man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet."
This, my fellow citizens, is to me a parable of what may be anticipated when a young man in whose breast noble ambition is dead, patriotism is dead, the sense of responsibility for the better- ment of the world is dead-and, alas! there are such young men, dead while they live, dead to the solemn issues and the splendid opportunities of life-I say, when such a young man is brought into contact with even, so to speak, the bones of those great men of old Virginia ; with the memories of what they were; with the story of their lives; with even a feeble outline of their achievements, we may expect, in some cases, at least, a similar resurrection. He will awake to a new life. Ambition will stir within his breast to play worthily his part on the stage of life. He will say to himself, "Why should not my life count for something in the land of my birth ? Why should not I achieve something worthy the name I bear- worthy of the great State of which I am a citizen? Why not? The same blood flows in my veins. The same noble line of ances- tors incite me to be worthy of my birth-worthy of my name."
My fellow citizens, why should we think the old noblesse of this ancient commonwealth incapable of a new outburst of genius and force when the times shall require it?
It did not fail half a century ago when a tremendous crisis arose in the history of the Old Dominion. A hero arose-he was born in old Stratford-who wrought deeds of arms more illustrious than any wrought by the famous men of the Revolutionary epoch. Such was his stature, in peace as well as in war, that he stands in the Temple of Fame the unquestioned equal of that other great American whom Westmoreland gave to the world, born at old Wakefield. And this glorious hero of 1861-"70 was not alone. He
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had behind him a great company of men of courage and capacity, unsurpassed in the Revolution of 1776. Yes, Virginia's outburst of genius and force in 1861 was worthy of her best days.
Fellow citizens, I have faith to believe it will not fail in the time to come, and I think this enterprise of my friend, Judge Wright, will help it to the birth.
The early settlers of this county named it Westmoreland after that famous county in the west of England which has ever been renowned for its beautiful mountains and its lovely lakes-Win- dermere, Grasmere, and Ulswater. But this Virginia Westmore- land presents a striking contrast in those respects to the West- moreland of old England. Here is, indeed, on your northern bor- der a majestic river to which all Europe can furnish no equal, but you have no charming lakes reflecting lovely hills and mirroring the changing hues of the sky; you have no beautiful mountains lifting their lofty heads towards heaven. Your country is level (I believe it boasts one hill), and though it has a beauty and a charm all its own, it cannot rival the picturesqueness of that famous lake country of the northwest of England.
But, my friends, as the traveller passes through this Virginia Westmoreland, the forms of the great men who have sprung from its soil rise before him. Their fame, their great deeds, tower up to heaven, loftier and more majestic than the mountains of Eng- land's Westmoreland. The deeds they have wrought, the ideas they have given to the world, the standards of civic virtue they have upheld, are like lofty peaks piercing the sky on every hand. After all, great men are more impressive than great mountains, and the great men born on this sacred soil of yours are among the greatest of all time.
Here were born two Presidents of the United States-Washing- ton, "the Father of his Country," and Monroe, "the Father of the Monroe doctrine." Close to your border was born Madison, "the Father of the Constitution." Here, too, was born Thomas Mar- shall, father of the great Chief Justice Marshall ; so that Westmore- land is the grandmother of that illustrious jurist. Here was born another great jurist, Bushrod Washington, whom President Adams placed second only to John Marshall, and who in the estimation of Mr. Justice Story, was one of the greatest ornaments that ever adorned the Supreme Bench of the United States. Of other fam- ilies which flourished here, I have time only to speak of one-that illustrious family of the Lees, which has given so many notable men to history, from Colonel Richard Henry Lee, who dared to challenge the power of the mighty Cromwell, and only at last
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acknowledged his authority on condition that the Old Dominion should never bear taxation without representation, down to the last and greatest of the name. Grand old Stratford House has a history unequaled by any other mansion in American history. There lived Governor Thomas Lee, whose worth was so much ap- preciated in the mother country that Queen Caroline contributed, unsolicited, a large sum from the Privy Purse to help rebuild it, when it had been destroyed by fire. There, in the same chamber, were born two of the signers of the Declaration par nobile fratrum, Francis Lightfoot Lee and Richard Henry Lee, the Cicero of the Continental Congress, scholar (Wirt says he was by far the most elegant scholar in the House), debater, statesman, patriot, orator, "the smooth tongued chief, from whose persuasive lips, sweeter than honey, flowed the stream of speech"-the man who dared to propose the resolution that "these Colonies are and by right ought to be free and independent States"-the man who was unanimously elected President of the American Congress and afterwards one of Virginia's first representatives in the United States Senate-the man who would have been charged with the duty of writing the Declaration of Independence, but that he an- swered the call to hasten to the bedside of his sick wife. It was he who wrote the Memorial of Congress to the people of British America. His hand also produced the Address of Congress to the People of Great Britain, productions which Mr. Wirt says were "unsurpassed by any of the State Papers of the time." No won- der the British made such strenuous efforts to capture him. At Stratford was born also Arthur Lee, who rendered such distin- guished service to the young Republic in France and England. At Stratford, too, lived Henry Lee, the famous Light Horse Harry, a soldier of great ability, the favorite of Washington, chosen by Congress to pronounce his funeral oration ; an accomplished classi- cal scholar, a brilliant orator and the historian of the Southern Campaigns of the Revolution. One of his famous utterances may here be recalled : "Virginia is my country! Her will I obey, however lamentable the fate to which it may subject me !" But I have yet to name the crowning glory of old Stratford-it was the birthplace of the greatest soldier in American history. "His eye and lofty brow the counterpart of Jove, the Lord of thunder"-of whom Viscount Lord Wolseley has said that he would be recognized as the greatest American of the nineteenth century, and of whom Freeman the historian said, that he was worthy to occupy in his tory a place side by side with Washington himself; and I may re- mind you that Lord Brougham acclaimed Washington as the great est man of our own or any other ag ..
That these United Colors are, and of
right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved the from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them. and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally defooled.
ORJINAL PAPER DI PREVEVED IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT AL WASHINGTON
-
.
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Yes, my fellow citizens, this old county of Westmoreland was the mother of both these peerless heroes Washington, whose brow Fortune crowned with the laurel of success in his great Rebellion against the mother country ; and Lee, foredoomed by Fate to fail in his Titanic effort to establish the Southern Confederacy, but in spite of failure-yes, by reason of his failure, rising to a height of moral grandeur never reached by any other American.
History tells us that seven cities contended for the honor of being the birthplace of Homer, but Westmoreland has the undis- puted title of having been the birthplace of these two greatest Americans. No wonder this ancient county has been called the Athens of Virginia, for the "worth, the talents and the patriot- ism that once adorned it." No wonder it has been celebrated above all other counties in Virginia as the birthplace of genius and lib- erty. The great Athenian orator, Pericles, once exclaimed, "The whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men," because their greatness has given them a claim upon all the world. But the city or the county that gives birth to a great man receives the homage of the world as the benefactor of mankind.
Such is the homage which is due to this Virginia Westmore- land for the patriots, the orators, the soldiers, the jurists, the statesmen, she has given to America and to mankind.
The nations of the world to-day acclaim this great Republic of the West. They recognize her as the mightiest power on earth. They do honor to her flag in every land and on every sea. But it may be truly said, that but for the men of genius and devoted patriotism who sprang from your soil, my fellow citizens, the thir- teen colonies would never have achieved their independence and the United States of America would never have been born.
The spirit of liberty and independence began to stir in this famous county, I believe, at an earlier period than in any other part of our broad land. Your patriots met at Leedstown, in the northern part of this county. under the leadership of Richard Henry Lee and the presidency of Judge Parker, to denounce and oppose the Stamp Act. ten years before the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and long before the North Carolina Declaration at Meck- lenburg.
But to-day, alas! the traveller in the Northern Neck finds many a scene of desolation where once were the homes of patriots and statesmen. Wakefield is no more. Chantilly is a wilderness. Of Nomini Hall not one stone is left upon another. Pope's Creek Church is in ruins. Leds Church has disappeared. Round Hill Church is no more. Even the grand old pile of Stratford is
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falling into decay. We see in many places the ruins of churches, mansions and cemeteries, once identified with the great families of the county.
Well, in some respects it is true that decay and death have set their seal on much in this county that was once associated with its genius, with its culture, with its force. What then? Though the seed be dead, the harvest that sprang from it has filled the world with the fruits of liberty and justice and civilization. So these old decaying mansions, these ruined churches, these neglected cemeteries, should be to every American sacred spots, consecrated for all time by the memories of the brilliant past ; by the lives and achievements of the great men whose homes were in this ancient county, and hence went forth to build the American Republic. Yes, it is meet we should do homage to-day to the shades of the mighty men, the sons of old Westmoreland, whose genius and self- devotion created the fabric of our free institutions.
The venerable Bishop Meade, reflecting upon the spectacle pre- sented by the ruined churches and mansions of Westmoreland, says one is tempted to exclaim, "Fuit Ilium et ingens gloria Dardani- dum," but no, he continues, "We trust there awaits for Westmore- land a greater glory than the former."
Prophetic words, my fellow citizens, for to-day a greater glory does indeed belong to Westmoreland than when the noble Bishop contemplated her fallen grandeur, in that she is acclaimed as the mother of that hero of whom I have spoken, born at Stratford, whose glory fills the world, as did that of Washington, shining, too, with a peculiar lustre derived from the fact that in defeat and disaster he bore himself with a majesty and a dignity and a spirit of Christian self-sacrifice and submission which the great son of Wakefield, crowned as he was with success, never had the oppor- tunity to show.
Nor is the venerable Bishop's prophecy yet entirely fulfilled. We believe that Westmoreland will yet bring forth noble fruit in her old age. Her waste places shall be restored : she shall blossom as the rose: her soil will vet support a teeming population : her ruined churches shall be rebuilt ; her people shall be animated by a spirit worthy of her great past : her young men shall be fired with a noble ambition to emulate the patriotism and the virtues of her heroes of former days: the old Commonwealth of Virginia shall welcome to her counsels men of an intellectual and moral stature worthy of Westmoreland s splendid history. And what we are do- ing here to-day shall, by God's blessing, contribute to that end so devoutly desired by us all.
!
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ADDRESS OF REV. GEORGE WM. BEALE, D. D., OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, VA., In Accepting the Gallery at the Same Time and Place.
Your Honor, Ladies and Gentlemen,-The interest and pleas- ure which I feel in accepting in behalf of the people of this county, this elegant statue and these portraits of her distinguished sons, spring from a variety of sources. One of these, and it is one which all present must have greatly enjoyed, i's the exceedingly graceful and felicitous manner in which these memorials were presented by the distinguished gentleman who has just spoken (Dr. McKim). It is a pleasing cause of felicitation to us all that among the men represented in these portraits there are so many names eminent in our history and embalmed in the hearts of all our countrymen. It is also a source of happy reflection that the merits and virtues of these worthy, men are not sinking and fading from the minds of their posterity, but are receiving ever fresh and significant tokens of a growing appreciation and esteem. It is, moreover, a matter of hearty congratulation that it cannot be so truly said as once it was, that as a people we are too intent and busy in making history to care for its records or the perpetuation of its memorials. Now, happily, it would seem if our gaze be on the future and "Forward" be our motto, and our hands eagerly grapple with the strenuous present, we still can pause to glance backward at the lights which have illumined our pathway, and to give attentive heed to the voices which call to us from the past in mingled ac- cents of virtue, of manly honor, of love of country, and of un- selfish and oft times heroic devotion to duty. For one, at least, I say thrice welcome the day when the eager present clasps hands with the past, and the grateful children gather reverently, as it were, at the feet of the fathers, to crown their brows with the chaplets of their veneration and love.
The patriots and heroes represented in these portraits claim our devout and admiring contemplation not merely because of their high characters, but by reason of the important positions which they held, the high arenas on which they acted, and the noble ser- vices which they rendered. One of them-Colonel Thomas Lee- was acting Governor of Virginia when she was as yet a colonial dependence of Great Britain. Another-William Lee-having made his residence in England, became Lord Mayor of London and Middlesex. Another-Richard Henry Lee-as a member of the Continental Congress of 1776, offered the memorable resolu-
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tion for Independence which unsheathed the sword of the Revolu- tion. Another-George Washington-led the colonial armies to victory in that great conflict. Two of them (Washington and Mon- roe) were elevated to the chief magistracy of the nation. Three of them (William Lee, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe) served effi- ciently as diplomatic agents at the leading courts of Europe; two of them (Charles Lee and James Monroe) served as United States cabinet officers; two of them (Henry Lee, son by adoption, and James Monroe) were Governors of Virginia; one (Bushrod Wash- ington) was a justice of the United States Supreme Court; one (Richard E. Parker) was a Justice of the Virginia Court of Ap- peals; two (Richard Parker and John Critcher) were judges of Vir- ginia circuits, and eight at least (R. H. Lee, Francis L. Lee, Arthur Lee, Henry Lee, an adopted son, John P. Hungerford, Willoughby Newton, R. L. T. Beale, and R. M. Mayo) held seats in Congress. And amongst these all-conspicuous and commanding-rises the majestic form of Robert Edward Lee, who was to this old county even as Joseph was to Jacob, for whom in the hours of his stern trials and splendid victories she felt as the patriarch felt for his favorite son-"The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him and hated him : but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his band were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob."
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