Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-07-24
Washington's Headquarters.

| BRET HARTE writes to the New York
Tribune under date, Morristown, N. j.,
June oath, as follows:
have been to Washington's headquar-
tiers, at Morristown. The adult American
| who has not at any time stood beneath the
same roof that once sheltered the Father
of his Country is to be pitied and feared.
| The opportunities for performing this
| simple patriotic act are so ample and va
ried that studious disregard of them is,
l am satisfied, consistent only with moral
| turpitude. Such a person may, indeed,
offer as an excuse that he has sat in u
chair once occupied by Washington; that
he has drank from a mug once used by
Washington, or that he has in his extreme
youth talked with an aged person who
distinctly remembered Washington, but
these are supererogatory acts which do
not take the place of this primary obliga-
ton When we consider the numbers of
roofs that Washington has apparently
! slept under; when we reflect upon the in
| finite toll and travel which the great and
good man must have undergone to place
this proud privilege within the easy reach
of every American citizen, the omission
to avail oneself of it is simply despicable.
The Valley Forge experience has always
| been deemed spe ct Gle of noble devo-
ton and unparalleled self-sacritice, but
have preferred, l confess, to lay awake
nights thinking of this unselfish hero,
rising ere it was yet day, hurrying away,
accompanied only by his $50 colored body
servants, each with longevity and garruli-
ty depicted on their faces, hurrying away
to reach the next town in time to make
another roof.tree historical. have
| thought of him pursuing his noble duty
| with dignitied haste, pausing only to pat
the heads of toddling infants, who in af
| ter years were destined to distinctly re-
member it, until the tears have risen to
my eyes.
So that when l heard that Washington's
headquarters at Morristown was to be
sold at public auction on the 25th, de-
termined to go and see il. 1t was my first
intimation that it was still in existence;
had perhaps often passed it without know
ing the fact, for it is a peculiarly of this
kind of property that its historic quality
is always sprung upon you like trap !;
| that you are hardly safe in any old tene-
ment; that you drop unconsciously into
the Washington chair, or imbibe serencly
from the Washington mug, and that the
fact is brought sharply upon you like a
pin in the cushion, or fly in the milk. In
the course oftime this expectation natural
ly excites morbid activity ofthe intellect;
hut only once do | remember being mis-
taken in the result 1t was in Sierran
solitude, where l had encamped, and
where | was solicited to take supper in
the newly-built cabin of an eastern immi-
grant. At supper was supplied with an
| ordinary looking china mug ola pale blue
willow pattern. "That mug" said my
| host, "has little story connected on it, 1t
has been in our family nigh on a hundred
year. 1t belonged to my grandfather. At
| the siege of Yorktown, he lived conVen-
lent to the battlefield, and the guns was
| posted all around the house. All Of a
student" 81 remember" / interposed
hastily: suddenly commanding form
darkcncd the little doorway, and digni-
| fed but courteous voice asked for a drink
OF water Your grandfather rose" 81
was goin' on to say" continued my host
calmly, ''that the boomin' o. them guns
broke every bit Of china in the house,
and that grandfather had to buy new set
the next day, and this yer one is the last
Of them" put down my cup and gazed
long and earnestly at the man. His face
was calm, thoughtful, and even sad-a
slight RIGHTEOUSNESS ofthe left eyelid, and
a depression of the lower angle of the
mouth on the same side, easily attribute
bic to historic emotion, were the only
evidences of feeling.
But here was veritable headquarters OF
Washington--based on no local tradition,
but standing boldly in history. There
| had been temporary headquarters at the
Freemason's tavern on "the village green"
the gray shaft that commemOrated the
Morristown dead of the last civil war OBJ
liberated the past. How then, remote and
blOodlcss looked that Jersey campaign OF
III, beside the names on this obclisk.
How rusty those old blood stains appeared
beside the bright red, still warm current
of today. hurried past it, and out into the
leafy road that led TO the historic home.
1t had been my original intention to
take with me a certain humorst-a man
who had made some little reputation by a
habit of soothing at certain revered objects
by humorous analysis of their effect upon
others; a man who kept you in high
spirits, and left you vapid and uncom-
Portable; Il man whose company was dis
sipation that brought dreadful to-mor-
row morning after it: a man who was al
| be trusted ] concluded, however, not to
| ldhC MN J" Wa IL ~ oNAiy wv
didn't" he said gloomily, as he leaned
againsta fence with the settled melancholy
of his profession. "YCu're not to be
trusted alone. I'd like to get shy at G..
| w. some time. Look around his garden
not cherry tree to be seen. Tell me
that he can get over that habit-that he
didn't sleep with Ratchet under his pill
low, and get up in the dead Of night to do
it. And then he had no sense of humor.
When the staff were doing conundrums
down there one night, and Greene asked
him why gooseberry was like Hes
sian,' didn't he reply, Gen. Greene, / can
not tell lie--thcre is absolutely no con-
nection in nature between the two,' and
spoil the boys Of their little fun!' And
SO left him muttering, with look in his
eye as if he were even then celebrating a
humorous account Of my visit, based en-
tirely upon speculation of my character
and bearing every external evidence Of
greater truth than my own narrative.
But here was the house. A canny walk
and gentle ascent under few old trees
led to the porch. On that bright day Of
| yellow June its hard outlines and scant
| decoration were somehow lost in the gra-