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February
12
My birthday. So it is Pres’t
Abram Lincoln’s. Set out for
Mount Vernon with brother Charles
by the way of Alexandria and
on horseback. Magnificent day. As
we journeyed on I pointed out to C.
the various camps we had occu-
pied while in this vicinity, where
we had picketed, and the forts
we helped build. We took the Old
Mount Vernon Road, the same one
Lafayette took when he visited
there, as Mrs. Whitney told us.
Mrs. W. who lives in sight of this
hallowed spot and who knew me
at once although I had never spoken
with her before last summer and then for
the first time, prepared supper for
us on our return.
We raced many times
and each time Jeff would lead.
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In the evening we attended a
Union meeting at Alexandria and
enjoyed it exceedingly. They were
discussing the resolutions com-
mendatory of the course of those
officers who on a previous Sabbath
removed from his desk the Rev.
Mr. Stewart for omitting certain
portions of the service; i.e. the
prayer for the President and that
all “treason and rebellion might
be purged from our midst.” This
he had been doing repeatedly
Sabbath after Sabbath. Besides
this public deriliction [sic] of duty
he has in his private life given
frequent and unmistakable testi-
monies of strong personal sympathies
for the rebels. Many pithy sayings
were uttered against the reverend
gentleman and his treasonable
course.
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While at Mount Vernon I
took notes as usual. I always
get some new view on fall in
with some fresh item of interest
every time I visit this sacred
spot.
Over the iron grated entrance
to the tomb there are engraved
these words:-
“Within this enclosure
rest the remains of
Genl. Geo. Washington.”
And as you look
within you notice on the opposite
wall engraved on a marble
slab, these noble and lofty words
of St. John:
I am the resurrection and
the life: he that believeth in me
though he were dead yet shall
he live. And whosoever liveth and
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believeth in me shall never die.”
(11 cap:25.26)[sic]
Around the tomb of
Washington there are erected
several monuments commem-
orative of the decease of relatives.
I was so interested with the
inscriptions upon them that
I copied several portions.
As the visitor passes
down the walk after reaching
the tomb he turns to the left.
On the left are two monuments
within an iron fenced enclosure.
One of these bears the following
inscription:-
“To x x x x x Mrs. M. E. A. Conrad
wife of Chas M. Conrad of N. O.
daughter Lawe & Eleanor C. Lewis and
Grand niece of General Geo Washington”-
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On the other is written:-
“Tox x x x Eleanor Parke Lewis
Grand daughter of Mrs. and
adopted daughter of General W.
Reared under the roof of the
father of his country this lady
was not more remarkable
for the beauty of her person
than for the superiority of her
mind.”
On the first of these
monuments there was also this
additional inscription:-
If the possession of every virtue
that adorns or dignifies her sex
could have warded off the stroke
of death she would have been im-
mortal; and those who mourn
her untimely and are consoled
by the reflection that those virtues
seemed better to fit her for the
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abode to which her spirit has
fled than for that which it
has abandoned.”
[Written in margin sideways: Evidently this space was filled afterwards with other matter relating to the visit to mount Vernon; -but which, for want of time, or inclination was never done.
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I am more impressed with what is omitted from this Diary than what is inserted in it. I recall many interesting [?] incidents that are even mentioned here.
RC Shannon
Brockport N.Y.
February 1, 1905 |
