MOUNT VERNON.

BY ERASTUS BROOKS.

THE time has come when the Mount Vernon estate, for a century or more in the possession of the Washington family, and for half that time owned by George Washington, as a bequest from his brother, must either become the common property of the nation, or belong to one or more of its citizens. It was to Mount Vernon, just one hundred years ago, the present winter, that Washington retired after throwing up his commission as an officer in the British army, in consequence of a royal order, that the officers of the regular army should take precedence of the officers of the provincial troops. It was from Mount Vernon Washington went to cross the mountains, to visit the head waters of the Ohio, and to penetrate the wilderness shores of the Alleghany. From this spot he was called to take charge of the armies of the United States, to preside over the Convention which framed the Constitution, to be the Chief Magistrate of the nation during the first and second terms of the Presidential office, and, finally, to be General-in-Chief of the army in the threatened war between France and the United States, which followed almost immediately upon his retirement from the city which bore his name. It was to Mount Vernon he

looked with longing eyes and delightful anticipations in all intervals from the public service-when he took leave of his companions in arms on the banks of the beautiful Hudson; when he gave up his commission as general of the army to Congress, at Annapolis, and when he resigned his civic honors, and voluntarily retired from his eight years of consecutive and arduous service as President of the United States.

The practical question for us to consider is, whether this spot of earth-where Washington lived, died, and was buried; where he suffered an illness, which, though brief in time, was intense in character, where he gave utterance to these memorable words "I am not afraid to die "-shall be desecrated to purposes of speculation and dissipation, or be consecrated to the higher good of becoming the property of the people of the entire American Union.

It has passed into a proverb that republics are ungrateful, and when we remember the long series of omissions in regard to the claims of Washington, I almost think the proverb to be true. Washington, it is known to all, gave his best affections, his hardest labors, his highest duties to the service of his country. Whether in the army, or in civil life, he drew no more from the treasury than a bare sufficiency to meet his daily expenses. Fifty-four years ago, the Congress of the United States received intelligence of his death. The Capitol was shrouded in sorrow, while a feeling of gloom pervaded the entire nation. In the freshness of the general sympathy for the loss of the lamented dead, Congress adopted resolu

tions providing for the erection of a marble tomb, and a marble monument over the remains of Washington, and sent an earnest request to Mrs. Washington, that these sacred relics of the nation's friend and benefactor should be transmitted for final repose beneath the walls of the Capitol, and the flag of the country. The answer of Mrs. Washington, who was a model of her sex, and like the mother of Washington, among the noblest examples of the great and good women of the land, was, that accustomed as she had been to bring her private feelings into subjection to the voice of the country, and taught as she had been by Washington himself, to bow to the will of the nation, she was ready to surrender the remains of her deceased husband to what seemed to be the call of the country.

Mr. President, I feel sure I may bespeak the good will of the Senate of New York for a proposition like that upon your table, and which has come to us unanimously approved by the other branch of the State Legislature. My assurance is founded upon the debt which New York owes to the memory of the Father of his Country. At Long Island, at Staten Island, on both banks of the Hudson, in the city of New York, and all around that city, through the darkest hours of the Revolution, and in the fiercest struggles for independence, he stood upon our soil, the defender of its liberties, the preserver of its property, the protector of the lives of its citizens. It seems to me, sir, that the waters of the Hudson, on the shores of which Washington perilled his life, and the waters of the Potomac, on the shores of which

he lived and died, might be mingled into one owing and harmonious river; that the Old Dominion and New York, forgetting all past animosities, might mutually bury their differences and divisions in the grave of Washington, and upon the soil of Mount Vernon. At least, let me hope that New York will unanimously recommend that this hallowed ground will be rescued from desecration, and become the property of the American people.

I see before me the beloved and honored John Marshall, of Virginia, as he addressed the representatives of the people in words which had become historic truths: "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." I see the venerated form of President John Adams, on whose motion in the Provincial Congress, George Washington had been placed at the head of the American armies. I hear his letter read to the two Houses of Congress, in answer to the official record of his death. I read his declaration, that if "Trajan found a Pliny, Marcus Aurelius will not need historians, biographers, or eulogists." True, sir, it is that Washington needs neither historians, biographers, nor eulogists. His name is written all over the country, while his fame is inscribed upon the hearts of all his countrymen. But the soil where his remains repose is not, as it should be, the property of the nation. In the tomb of Washington and the home of Washington, I would let every American citizen enjoy an ownership, and therefore it is I so urgently press the passage of this resolution.

Washington was a hero, a statesman, a philanthropist, a patriot, and, to sum up all, in one word, he was an American. No public man, living or dead, can be compared with him in moral purity, in generous self-sacrifices, or in disinterested benevolence. The sublimity of his character, rising in majesty above all common levels, reminds one of "the cloudcapt towers" of the Alps or Apennines, as the traveller at the foot of these mountains has seen them bathed in the morning sunlight, and kissing the very skies with which they seemed to hold delightful communion; or to come to our own home, it soars as much above the level of common men, as the highest peaks of the Alleghanies rise above the muddy waters of the Ohio. I compare the Hon. Senator to no such man, nor Washington to any man whatsoever.

If I heard the Senator read aright, he alluded to what is called "the Higher Law !". There are men, sir, who can boldly march to the desk of the presiding officer of this body, and, holding up their right hands, repeat the sacred words"I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States," or who, as they repeat these solemn pledges of fidelity, can put their lips to God's holy book, and imprint, I fear, just such a kiss upon it, as that with which Judas betrayed his Master. For one, sir, I know of no higher law to govern me here than the Constitution of my country, and when I say this, I speak both as a legislator and a man. That Constitution is in perfect harmony with