The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-11-17
MT. VERNON OF THE PAST.

Not far from Alexandria is Mount
Vernon, the home of Washington
spot which is the Mecca of con-
slant stream of American pilgrims.
Mount Vernon is worth visit, for 1t
is not alone the shrine to which the
loyal patriot may justly pay his tri-
butte of respect, but it is help in
understanding the development OF
this country. The estate lies upon
the hills that border the Potomac.
Washington, in letter telling OF
his home, said that it was washed by
ten miles of tidewater. Ships sailed
up the river and landed at the Mount
Vernon wharves to take their loads
direct from the plantation, such were
the quantities of tobacco, wheat, etc.,
produced there. When Washington
made his regular rounds over the
place to direct the farming operations
he frequently rode twelve or fifteen
miles in his days journey about his
plantation. His estate was princi-
pality, yet so lavish was he in enter
tanning his friends and neighbors
that he writes in one letter that while
he keeps one hundred and one milch
cows, he still has to buy milk to sup
ply his large family.
The old mansion at Mount Vernon
still stands, and seen from the Poto-
mac it is a fitting memorial of the
man who was so instrumental in CIV
ing to the world nation which has
SO far no rival. Washington's tastes
were all simple, and for his home and
plantation.
The Washingtons had great estates,
and when George was young man
he came into contact with Lord Fair
fax, neighbor, who had such pos
sessions that his $4,000 acres reached
far up the Potomac and we'll toward
the western bounds of Maryland.
Washington had taken to mathemat-
les in his early days, and his knowl-
edge of surveying led Fairfax to
send him to survey the vast estate.
In that way Washington came to
know the woods and the west, and
that knowledge developed his self-re-
lance and his resources of mind.
1t is interesting to speculate on
what might have followed in the
United States had not the revolution
made this country an independent
government. With such estates as
were building up in Virginia, where
the soil is fertile and the climate as
fine as any on earth, it is easy to in
fer that the American estates must
soon have overshadowed anything in
England, and that long ago the
American landed proprietors would
have become far more wealthy and
important than those of the mother
country. 1t is not impossible that
the colony might have superseded the
power in the government, making
America now the mistress of much OF
Europe.
Mount Vernon shows how much
Washington was the man of circum-
stances as we'll as of force of charac-
ter. The revolution could not have
started except by men such as he was
who had influence and following, and
whose distance from England made a
sense of freedom and instinct and an
inheritance. The Virginia planter
was born and reared to realize that
his surroundings imposed few re.
straints. He was absolute lord of his
domain, while beyond his own terri
tory he was subject to oniy such laws
as nature imposed on all men alike.
Freedom and equality were his con-
slant conditions. The king was far
away. It was impossible that the
British rule should hold over such
men and over such colony.
While Washington acquired Mount
Vernon and the estate by inheritance
from his brother, he received the
place in crude form. Therefore the
creation of the estate as it was left at
his death is largely the work of his
hands. Washington enlarged the
house, giving it its present form, and
laid out the lawn, planted the trees,
and planned the system of operation
which prevailed on the plantation.
He was exceedingly methodical, as
would be expected of surveyor.
The plans for Pohick church, which
he drew in detail, are as carefully and
thoroughly done as though he had
been making the working drawing
for a modern steel structure. The
plantation was modelled after the
same careful designs. Every tree
that was set was placed according to
the general draft of the place which
showed where the plant, path or
every feature should be. While he
lived in princely luxury, it is clearly
apparent from all that is visible at
the Mount Vernon estate that Wash
ington never forgot his American
ability to depend on himself, and to
do things methodically and well.
Mount Vernon was not his sole pos
session. Down on the Rappahan-
mock, near Fredericksburg, he owned
the broad acres that had been the
home of the Washingtons before the
family had bought Mount Vernon,
and between the two places his atteu-
ton was divided when he was not in
the service of the colony or of the
country.
Tu1s is the time Of wear when the