160 VIROIVIA. 



Jia?; nover been applied to ns. Eiilier of these would to m}' mind be a 

 sullioient bar to our assumption of the title, Ilesperians. We should not 

 dress ourselves in the cast off clothes of antiquity, nor would we know 

 ourselves nor be known by our neighbors in such a dress, which would 

 certainly set rather awkwardly upon us. 



Washington Irving, a name dear to American literature, and of the 

 highest authority among us in matters of taste and literature, has pro- 

 posed Appalachia, as an appropriate appellation, and this idea has been 

 endorsed by the New York Historical Society. I have not seen the 

 reasons given in support of this name, but suppose that there is no oth- 

 er of any importance than the existence of the Alleghany mountains in 

 our territory, and constituting one of the most important features of our 

 physical geography. This would have been a very good reason, if the 

 original discoverers and colonists of this country had taken it into con- 

 sideration, but as they did not, and as we have now existed over two 

 hundred years as a people, without any intimation of an intention thus 

 to designate ourselves, it is rather late to take it now. 



Various other names have been proposed, and much ridicule has been 

 cast upon the whole matter, j^et I shall venture, in the face of all this, to 

 give some reasons for our being called Virginians, which I am rather 

 surprised have never yet been urged upon the country, especially by the 

 patriotic citizens of Virginia, that "mother of noble sons." 



First, this is the original and proper appellation of the greater portion 

 of the territory now embraced in the United States, and especially of 

 that part of our nation which achieved our independence and established 

 our constitution and government. This is evident from the following 

 passage from that valuabe and interesting, though quaint work, "•Purch- 

 As HIS Pilgrim," originally published in 1617, and written cotempora- 

 neously with the foundation of Jamestown. 



His first chapter on America is headed, Virginia ; in the preface to 

 this, p. 938, he says : "After this followed the plantation by the pres- 

 ent Aduenturers, for the foundation of a »Vc?o Britan Common-wealth : 

 and the East and West parts of England ioyned in one purpose of a 

 two-fold plantation, in the North and South parts of Virginia. Of the 

 North parts our Metliod requires first mention. Mawooshen was nianv 

 yeeres together visited by our men, extending betweene deg. 43. and 45. 

 fortie leagues in bredth, and fiftie in length." 



Again on p. 939, lie says : "But your eyes wearied with this North- 

 erne view, which in that winter communicated with vs in extremitie of 

 cold, looke now for greater hopes in the Southernc Plantation, as the 

 right arme of this Virginian body, with greater costs and numbers fur- 



