American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-05-28
..~ WASHINGTON: WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 49, 1861.

the gospel, armed with the armor of truth, and
speaking with power, proclaims the utterly un-
done condition of those who persist in living
without God in the world? They are the young.
Oh, tell it to you, and charge it upon you, that
if you resist the truth now, the time win come
when secular concerns and the wies of Satan
will so engross the attention and corrupt the
heart, that though Christ himself were to ap-
pear, ye would turn away and say, "Go thy
way for this time" Ask the experience of the
church, and it will be found that in nine cases
out OF ten it's members are those who embraced
religion between the ages Of twelve and thirty,
ere their cOnsciences had become scared or
their tongues blistered by profanity--ere their
blood had been corrupted by the intoxicating
draught and ere they had ceased to have rel
ish for truth. On induIging the first vicious pro-
pensity-as uttering an oath, or taking social
glass-there was animmediate and active contest
between vice and the conscience. Soon, how
ever, by reason of repetition, that which at first
was regarded as ga monster of most hideous
mien," was so far embraced that the erring
one, could swear, go to the bar, and even to
those poisonous blotches, grog-shops, with utter
rccklessness. Well may God address the young;
and though youth is still impressible, there is
such thing rs death; and while | would win
you by reason, and not alright you with
"bloody bones," yet must direct your atten-
tion to the graveyard. Examine those marble
tokens of affection-and what do they declare?
Such an one died in infancy, another in child
hood, others in adolescency; but how many
over seventy? Not one in ten-because there
are but few old men, comparatively, to die
How many, in this large and attentive congre-
cation, are there over seventy? Not ten. How
many over sixty? Not score. Where are the
old? The old are nowhere.
1t has been established by the most accurate
physiological research, that half of those that
are born die in infancy, three-fourths before
they arrive at maturity, and but few of the
whole number live to see seventy. The reason
why so few are old is, that they die young. And
tell you that, ere fifty years hence, this as
sembly, now SO buoyant with youth, health,
vigor, and hope, will be but ghastly assem-
blage of shriveled bones. I feel that if had
not yielded to the influence of grace when
young, should long ere this have been in the
grave "Young man ~ receive the truth ere
the evil days come" AS young men you ought
to hear and heed the interrogatory, s'Where
withal shall young man cleanse his way?"
Such is an imperfect sketch of very i'm
pressive discourse; and, though imperfect, it
may possibly be required to with interest by
many who were attentive listeners, and, per-
chance, revive the recollection of much that
was said to interest and instruct in the dis
course, that neither my time nor your space
will allow to be reported. NJ
MOUNT VERNoN.-We quote the following
from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, and
give to it our entire and hearty assent: "t
Every traveller from abroad, who visits
Mount Vernon, wonders ut the apathy of the
American government, which allows this histo-
rical place to 60 to decay. Something of the
same feeling impresses itself on the mind even
| of our own money making citizens, when, for
the first time, they visit the hallowed precincts
where Washington lived, and where he now re-
poses in the slumber of death. The place is
fast sinking to decay. The soil, long since ex-
hausted will not yield to the proprietor
remunerative return, and the natural conse-
quence is that he spends little or no money in
keeping the mansion in repair. He offered, last
summer, to sell the estate to the United States
for two hundred Thousand dollars, but because
the price was thought exorbitant the purchase
was declined We trust, however, that the next
Congress will be more far-seeing than the last,
and will not come to the consideration of n
transaction like this in the petty spirit of ped
lars, but with the wide and liberal views of
patriots and statesmen. For ourselves, we do
not consider the price asked exorbitant. 1t is
not mere common land, we must recollcct that
the Government wishes to buy; it is o spot
hallowed by thousand peculiar associations.
The former can be purchased, all over Virginia,
for comparatively nothing; the latter can be
had nowhere but at Mount Vernon.
| Who can doubt that the mansion and tomb of
Washington if preserved from decay and per-
petuated to future times, will, as a centre of
patriotic associations, be of incaculable value
to the United States. Mount Vernon might be
rendered in fact almost Palladium for the
Union. An hour spent in its grounds would, to
,frt,t nto1,
even the thought of dissolution. What Mara
thon is to Greece, or Bannockburn to Scotland,
or Tells Chapel to Switzerland, that Mount
Vernon might be rendered to the United States
Let the Federal Government buy Wasliingtons s
home; let it repair the mansion, restore the
grounds, and secure the tomb against injury
let it collect there all the memorials that exist
Of the Father of his country, his hat, his sword,
his manuscripts; and let the whole be perpet-
uated from age to age. What monument it
would be! Think of Americans, centuries
hence, walking in the very hall where Wash
ington walked, sitting in the rooms where he
sat, writing at the table where he wrote. What
would not England give for such memorial Of
her Alfredf How the pulses, even Of Ameri-
cans, would thrill if they could stand where that
great law-giver Of their mother country stood
ages ago, if they could touch the blade he
welded, If they could read the books he read.
The purchase of Mount Vernon has often been
urged upon the Federal Government: but the
reasons for this purchase are now infinitely more
potent than ever before. Unless the home of
Washington speedily becomes public property,
it will lose its distinctive features by decay, and
ultimately sink into ruin. Agcneration or two,
at most, will see every vestige of the mansion
gone The soil itself, by the failure of heirs,
or the misfortunes incident to all families, may
pass into strangers hands, become divided and
subdiyided, and perhaps be desecrated to the
most pitiful purpose. The plough may pass
beneath the spot where Washington died, and
|