Evening star., 1921-10-23
JAMESTOWN HELD
CRADLE Of NATION
Declared Birthplace o1
Americanism Rather Than
Plymouth.
To the Editor of The Star:


In view of the visit of the Presi-
dent to William and Mary College.
and TO that shrine of our common
country, jamestown, may l claim the
Indulgence of a little space in your
columns, touching on speech made
by our revered Gen. Pershing before
he left for France at a dinner of the
Lafayette Marne committee?
In the course of his remarks on
the patriotism of the citizens who
helped win the war, and that all
classes contributed nobly TO that end.
and not any one group of men. he
further stated that these same citi-
zens inherited their patriotism from
their forefathers who came across
in the Mayfiower. and helped deter.
mine and decide the independence of
America"
Disputes Pilgrim HonOrs.
Shades of Washington. Patrick
Henry, jefferson, Monroe. and all the
rest. And still earlier shades of
Capt. John Smith. of the godly and
truly Christian priest, the Rev. Rob-
ert Hunt. and all that gallant COM
pany that braved untold terrors:
sailed practically uncharted seas and
left homes and friends and safety to
suffer and to die that we might live!
Ine fliBTlIn uIu HoI lOuhu
the United States of America.
South of them another colony at
Jamestown, Va, more truly repre-
sentative of, the ideas of England.
their common mother country, had
been established for thirteen years
before the -- Mayfiower began her
journey.
In this older colony representative
government had already been estab-
lished and. Indeed. but for the ex-
istence of this older colony America
might not have been selected by the
Puritans, as they thought of going
elsewhere.
This they debated after a ten-year
sojourn in Holland. where they had
been living peacefully and quietly,
unmolested by any one.
Declared More Significant.
But the Jamestown settlers carried
the banner of their beloved country
tarily into the wilderness to extend
it's power and influence in the world
at large.
The Virginia settlement was there
fore a larger. more significant and
nobler movement than that or the
Plymouth settlement 1t was the
great national struggle of the whole
of England, while the Plymouth set
tlement was that of a part which
was out of harmony with the whole.
CSee "The Conquest of Virginia. the
Forest Primeval," by Conway Whit
tile Sams)
And to Virginia we owe not only
the states that were carved out. of
her sides New England among them,
which was first called North Vtr-
ginia'D, but the race of men she
produced, the men who first lifted
their voice against tyranny. who later
fought and won the revolution, who
wrote the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, the bill of rights. the great
state documents that have never been
surpassed. the patriots, jurists. ora
tors, soldiers, the hardy pioneers who
won the west with their good blades
and stout hearts. the great explorers,
who penetrated even to the Pacific
in short, the men who stamped their
impress upon our country and estab-
lished our Anglo-SaXon civilization.
and whose deeds and achievements
and ideals are woven into the very
fabric of our national life.
Plea for JamestOyvn.
Surely something of their spirit
must also have inspired the brave
men who went forth to battle for
well as the spirit of the Pilgrim
fathers. to whom all honor is due.
Although 1 do not agree with the
gentleman. smarting under Puritani-
cal restrictions of his personal liber-
ties, who wittily remarked that he
Thought it was great pity when
the Pilgrims landed on the rock that
the rock didn't land on the Pilgrims"
still as Nirginian 1 must enter
plea for jamestown, where the birth
of the nation really took place and
where the spirit of her great sons
still broods upon the face of the
waters. FRANCES A. WALKER.