Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-24
A NATIONAL SHAME.


ericksburg, Va, by women, the purpose
of which is to raise fund with which to
place monument over the grave of Mary,
the mother of George Washington. 1t is
a movement that should not have encour-
agement. -Four months after his inaug
uration as President, the mother of the
first Chief Executive of the Repub-
lie died. The nation was then too pow
erty-stricken to think of marking her rest
ing place suitably. Private purses were
not in those days able to furnish the sum
needed for fitting monument. Washing
ton himself placed slab over his mothers
grave, but it was not enduring enough.
Half century later patriotic merchant
of New York resolved to reproach the ma
ton for its neglect, and to erect at his own
expense a suitable monument to the mem
ory of beloved woman, who in her day
was honored and esteemed as are only the
few. He entered upon his work, but after
the stones were placed business reverses
overlook him, and the monument rose no
higher. Since then the structure has
crumbled and fallen in ruins, and decay,
neglect and shame are the reproach of the
hour at the grave of Mary Washington.
While we have been prospecting as peo-
pie and growing in might and strength
and health the spot where rests the re-
mains of the woman who gave birth to the
first of Americans has been forgotten.
The Fredericksburg ladies now propose to
remove the reproach, and to raise $4,000
to complete the monument. They should
not be aided. They should be brought
| to cease work at once upon this
scheme. If but $4,000 are needed to
complete the monument and place an
enduring record in chiseled stone over the
lowly tomb of this blessed mother of the
chiefest of eminent men of America, and
the National Congress declines to pay the
sum out of the treasury of the people,
let the reproach continue and genera
ton yet to come blush for the parsimony
of the present. We are told that
the people of Boston are taking active part
in assisting the ladies of Fredericksburg
to raise the sum of money. Shame upon
the people of Boston for the offer, since in
a single night recently they paid $4,000
into the treasury of theatrical manager
for one solitary performance by dramatic
company After such demonstration of
ability to crafty their selfish tastes and
contribute to their pleasures, they should
blush at the very suggestion of aiding the
women of the little Virginia town to raise
less than they cast away upon two hours
of enjoyment every night in the week.
But neither Boston, nor New York, nor
Chicago, nor any other community should
supply the money. 1t is beggarly sum,
and the national purse should pay it. The
soul of Jared Sparks, who eulogized the
character OF Mary Washington, and grew
eloquent in his assertion of the debt of
mankind to the mother of Washington,
must groan in agony if it knows that it
requires effort at this day to raise the beg
carly sum needed to lift the ruins from
the grave of that noble woman and erect
there simple stone to mark her resting
place. All her biographies agree that to
her-this widow, left with her son when
but lad-was due the molding of the
character of George Washington. To her
careful instruction, the sound principles
she implanted in his heart, her scrupulous
fidelity, her fine spirits, her high sense of
honor, her noble example of integrity and
uprightness, George Washington owed the
foundation of his own character. Yet the
nation that halls him first in the record of
her eminent men, it is proposed shall
wrestle with small politics and allow the
women of Virginia town to beg the land
through for scanty sum to crown the
spot where Mary Washington lies, with
fitting marble slab. Such shame should
not be consummated.