Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-05-11
Our Washington Letter.

Editor Rutland Herald :-Washington
has collapsed. Congress has adjourned,
and its absence reminds US how essentially
it is the handspring of the place, and
more essentially how, when Reavis shall
have "toted" the Capitol and all govern
ment interests away to the Mississippi
Valley, the Rocky Mountains, or the CAL
ifornia slope, this place, bearing the hal
lowed name of our God-given sire, will
be given up to moles and bats. No longer
sacred to the memory of" this place
will greet the eyes of future generations,
an instance of departed glory. When
this il done there would seem fitness in
following the example of the pirate in
burying his mothers bible.
There should be left no reminders of
our ingratitude to the nations benefac-
tors, nothing to rebuke US for our want
OF constancy. Having determined the
course to pursue, the pirate did we'll in
destroying this relic of his better days,
and thus Kidding himself of constant re-
buke. So when Reavis shall get our
beautiful capitol well upon wheels, ruth
lessly tearing up the corner stone laid by
the immortal George, he should also
"bury his mothers bible" First let him
expunge the name of Washington from
the city, or place, for then
there will be no city here; there
may still remain here a landing
and a way station which will need des-
ignation, to which some of the prent
locals may be promoted, none, perhaps,
more appropriate than "Swampoodle."
To leave the name of Washington still
clinging to it would be an outrage upon
paternal regard from which even a ban
dit would shrink. 1t would be. like leaving
the headstone of parent at the grave of
an animal.
Every old association should be re-
Let the old house on Capitol
Hill where he lived be demolished, let
the stately unfinished monument upon
the muddy banks of the Potomac be sunk
out of sight by human power, even faster
than it is now sinking by its own gravity
to complete the work of demolition and
get our bible as much disposed of as pos
'ible, we will descend the Potomac to
Mount Vernon, where America has
'een for years lavishing foolish genera
ION (T upon the memory of her Star 7
}enius. This spot, if left untouched, r.,
would be constantly IerAi~a;-e that
our country once had father, and re- !
Duke our Inconsistency. The old residence
We could soon demolish, easily could we
dispose of the old trees planted by his ,
land, and beneath which he has meditated .
lpon the blessings also planted by him
or US, his devoted posterity. .
BY raising the old tomb, sinking the
arcophagus ont of sight, and turning the r
PREMISES into common for the benefit of r
attic and negroes, we may get these re- :
ninders out of sight, it may be some time 1.
efore we shall have forgotten the debt of
everence due though we may repudiste 4.
+. Doubtless the pirate found it easier ,
o dispose of his mothers Bible than her
nemory, though in his piratical career he -
nay have met with some success in both. !.
70 in the mania to capitalize the central :.
tom of our possession be it in Alaska,
an Domingo, the Sandwich Islands or 4,
'orneo, wa may sunder these associations
nat more closely bind us to those who ;
offered for us in the long ago, but we
annot forget them. Vandals of the
ineteenth century may demolish these =
md marks of infant liberty, but the q
lemory of their founders must ever re-
roach them for faithlessness. But I
ave spent too much time and thought -
pom question which our staid civiliza- ~
on renders improbable, write to keep 20
efore the readers of the HERALD mad a
'heme upon which demagogues are try "
g to make political capital.
STATISTICAL. RI