The Winchester home journal. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1858-08-19
The Bones Of Washington.

IL mas Deen alllrmed that the poor
t peddler Of fine walking. sticks at
, mount Vernon--the spurious inhcri-
tor Of a name that should have pass
ed beyond all chance of being ap.
preached by mortal meanness, when
its greatest posscssor passed beyond
this sorry stage Of bcing--is disposed
to dispute the right of the purchasers
Of the Washington estate to retain
thereon the sacred remains there depos.
tied, and that he means to remove them
to some locality, for the purpose Of
making more money in the premises
perhaps by retailing the bones to
devout and patriotic collectors Of sim
liar relics.
That the wrath and Indignation Of
the press and the people of the Uni.
ted States should be kindIed into q
flame Of fury at the bare suggestion
Of such an unimaginable swindle is IL
matter Of course. Should so foul a
perverson Of the meaning and the
terms OF that purchase be seriously
attempted. the sordd apostate would
forthwith find himself plunged much
deeper into perdtion than though he
were at the bottom of the sea, with a
milestone fastened to his neck. But it
cannot bel The American nation will
never suffer itself to be thus cheated
and bamboozlcd.
Possibly, the narrow-souled haggler
remembered that the bones of Thomas
Pane were coveted by some of his
admirers in England, and that Cob
bett, or some other worshipper, made
money by their expectation. He may
have heard, too, that the skull of
Cromcell, doubtless at great cost, was
procured for preservation in the Ash
mclean Museum at Oxford; and that,
no longer than the year 1921, the skull
OF DeSc0rtcs, at an auction of the IL
brary Of Professor Sparman, was sold
for "eighteen banco dollars!" This
was enough, surely, to excite genu-
inc miser's cupidity.
In his dreams over the unmerted
wealth to be gained by his chance sale
of the resting place of George Wash
ington, it is not unlikely that there
commingled numerous images of mir
acles wrought by the bones of saints
in oden time. And among those vis-
ions, unquestonably, nothing appear
ed more gorgeous and marvellous than
those "pictures Of go,d' that might be
realized by the exhibition or the sale
Of those precious relies! "Who
knows he may have imagined, ''that
| may not impress some portions of
mankind with a belief that in every
particle of this ilustrivus skeleton,
there exists even more miraculous vir-
tue than ever belonged to the relics of
all the no y men and canonized mar
tyrs since the days Of St. Stephen?'
Something substantial might have
grown out Of such a phantasma in
some former age; for there are num-
berless precedents. But the books
record no superhuman speculation,
that could afford a parallel to the pro.
ject now supposed to be in contempla-
ton. The only instance bearing the
faintest resemblance, is that of GER
tain Catalonans, who undertook to
foresteal the relics of "St. Romuald Of
Ravena." This devoted add wonder
working anchorite, being about to
change his residence, his proselytes,
from dread of losing so choice treas
ure as his bones would yield, CONSUL
tud together in secret and resolved to
cut his throat. The good man. how
ever, heard of the plot; but declining
to participate in the pious monopoly.
fled out of Spain. and thus escaped
being distributed by piecemeal before
his time. Ofthat event, which occur.
red in the tenth century. history has
given no further particulars. What
it may have to show W hereafter. in