Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-04-19

trust that, through all time, each returning an
niyersary of our national independence may
bear witness that, despite the bitterness Of
party warfare, and the acrimony Of sectional
feeling, the people of the United States are
bound together by the remembrance Of q COM
mon ancestry, and by an equal share in the
proud memories of glorious past.
| The first germ of nation which now num-
bers twenty-five millions, and boasts of free
government, against which no man complains,
whilst every man has the right of complaint,
was first planted on the soil Of Virginia. Re
publican principles we're first promulgated
there; for, from the beginning, the entire struc-
ture Of the Virginia colony wore an independ-
ent and republican aspect. The first distinct
proclamation of those great principles of popu-
lar rights and the sovereignty of the people,
which constitute the basis of our institutions,
was made on the soil of Virginia. Yet the
man who made that proclamation persisted,
whilst but few tongues are familiar with his
name, and no one knows his place Of burial
But, passing over this period of the history
of Virginia and the earlier evidences of re-
publican sentiment manifested in the old Com
monwealth, we may, looking to later period,
assert that Patrick Henry, Yirginian, was
the first advocate Of American Independence |;
| that the armies Of the Revolution which secured
that independence were led to victory by
George Washington, son of Virginia; that
the Declaration of Independence was drawn
| up by Thomas Jefferson, Virginian; that
! the first decisive movement to frame our pres
ent Constitution came from Virginia; and
that the man who built up and shaped that
| Constitution was James Madison, son of the
Old Dominion. Do not these facts furnish
abundant reasons for celebrating the anniver-
sary of the foundation of the colony, now on
independent State, which has given birth to
such men, and whose history is embellished
| by such events?
But the people Of Virginia, and those des
cended from them, have not only failed to bring
forth the facts connected with the first settle
ment, but they have folded their arms whit
others have outraged the truth Of history and
libelled those who laid the foundations of
great State-whose sons have ever been seen
foremost among the wise in council, and the
brave in war. The colony Of Virginia was
not established BY outlaws and reckless un-
princpled adventures, without resources and
without character; but it was established by
bold, brave men, whom the strifes of England
and the license of licentious age drove to
the wilderness.
1t is great fact-one worthy of the admira-
ton of the world--that on the 4th of July,
ITS, three millions of colonists, without ar
mics, without navies, without revenues without
the honest independence and confident self.
reliance taught by the privations Of forest
life, and that trust and confidence which vir-
tuous men repose in Him who holds the earth IN
the hollow Of His hand, declared themselves
free, sovereign, and independent, and in
vited the wrath Of the mightiest power upon
earth, armed in all the panoply of war, ana
supported by contributions from the commerce
Of the whole world. This spectacle was emf.
nently calculated to attract the attention and
command the admiration Of men. But verita-
Bile records tell us that even before that time,
as early as the 18th of May, l776, Virginia, by
her own separate and unsustained act, severed
the bonds which bound her to the English
crown, and declared herself "free, sovereign,
and independent" Surely this act is worthy
Of remembrance. Surely the spot, where it was
enacted, is worthy of monument.
Virginia was the first State settled; Virginia
was the first State to renounce allegiance to
Great Britain; Virginia founded the first col
Elege on the continent; Virginia was the first
State which took steps to found our glorious
confederacy; Virginia furnished the man to
write the Declaration, and the man to make
that Declaration good-the man to urge the
union, and the man to perfect the scheme.
In view of all these things, we, the commit
tee of the jamestown Society Of Washington,
appointed for the purpose, do appeal most earn
esty, TO the people of Virginia and to those
who have descended from them, to take proper
and suitable measures to bring before the pub
lie, and to make familiar to the public ear, the
deeds Of their ancestors, and their claim on pos
terity. WIN. M. OVERTON,
GEO. G. WHITING,
E. T. MONTAGUE,
Committee.
AT a meeting of the executive comm ttee Of
the jamestown Society Of the city of Washing
ton hold IN tho 18th of nr;l tho foreooinp