Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-10-08
Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon.
To the Editor of the Alexandria Gazette /:
l have no disposition to engage in a
newspaper controversy, and certainly l
do not wish to question the patriot
ism" OF "a Virginia Woman but l
ask leave to briefly reply to the article
dissenting from my views on the Mt.
Vernon question l may be obtuse as
she asserts. which means according to
Webster stupid" All are not gifted
with peyce ption that can grasp and
fully understal I'd any question submit
ted. So. "A Patriotic Virginia woman"
should be charitable to dullness ofap-
prehension. But stupid or not, my
stup dity does not prevent me from
fo n ing correct est mate of the man
ne in which an association Of trustees
intrenched behind wrong construc-
ton. or rather a disregard of the stat
utes of Virginia, have been for gene
ration co1fning the carrying of visi-
tors to the Hone and Tomb" by wa
ter TO a single individual or company,
According to the preamble fthe chart
er of the Mount Vernon Association,
passed by the Virginia legislature,
March II, 1856, the two hundred
acres including the Home and
Tomb" was 10 be converted into
public property forever" Here i9 the
keynote of the who c matter at issue,
Clearly, it was neve-' intended by eth
cr the letter or spirit ofary ofthe char
ter's provisions that the hallowed place
should ever be II onopolized and turned
into a show ground. Evidently it was
not contemplated by the legislators
who passed the act Of incorporation
any more than it was by the two
hundred thousand ladies who
paid in their tributes to secure
the title deed from John A. Washing
ton tnat there should ever be any eX-
clusivcness in the case.
During the encampment numbers of
steamers from other States passed up
the river by Mount Vernon with cxcur-
sionists. many of whom probably had
never been here before. and doubtless
it would have been delight TO them if
they could have had the opportunity
of stopping Just for an hour to look over
the grounds but no-they had not the
regents "open sesame and the tomb OF
Washington was rs impossible of view
TO them rs the tomb of Mahomet ut
Mecca.
Section 9TH of the charter says ANY
person who may land on the grounds
Shall pay % cents and no more, imply
inc that the visitor might be brought
or landed there not by A., B. or C.'s
boat but by any other boat or other
means of conveyance We have all
seen how this provision has been disre-
garded so far as approach from
the river is concerned. And we
have seen how an unjust dis
elimination has been made in re-
gard to hours Of admission to the
grounds against the passengers by the
electric railway.
The natural inference from the
phraseology of "a Patriotic Woman
is. that all passengers visiting the
grounds by the associations autho.'-
lied and privileged boat or boats are
strictly order loving and law abiding
people, aud that all who are carried
over the electric road vandals, ready
to deface or break down and carry
away everything before them, and that
only regiment or q brigade of sol
diers could restrain them from acts of
trespass. l deplorc as much as any
one can the deflcing of mon
uments or works Of art. and all
such sneaking acts OF petty thicvery as
that committed in the Washington
Lodge during the encampment "a Pat
hottie Virginia Woman" must know as
well as anyone else that the mania for
gathering relics and curiosities is not
limited to any political party, religious
sect, nor to any class or condition of
life, so that there need not be any more
apprehension of depredations from rail
way passengers than from those who are
carried by steamboats, More visitors
90 to Arlington than TO Mount Vernon
aud all of them are carried there by rail
or carriage, but we hear of no depreda-
tons being committed, though there is
not so much rs coiporal's guard ON
the premises-so OF the monument, so
of the Capitol, and the White House,
and of independence Hail.
But why SO much effort to bolster up
this monopoly and apologize for its
arbitrary exactions? 1t has well nigh
had its day, and must very soon yield
to the clamor ola tide Of public senti-
ment which is everywhere setting
againstit. Since the grand encampment,
returned veterans all over the Union
have in their local papers been protest
ing against its longer continuance. Our
American people are forbearing and
long suffering Of public wrongs; but at
length the time comes when their Yer.
dict is given and right triumphs and
prevails, so it will be in this case.
W. H. S.
Fairfax, Oct. I.