24 



effect in maintaining among the people a high na- 

 tional spirit, and cherishing that principle of public 

 VIRTUE which we are taught to regard as the essence 

 of our government. 



But, gentlemen, I am trespassing too long upon 

 your patience, with a detail of plans that, perhaps, 

 may never be realized. Whether such a disposition 

 as 1 have now suggested, will ever be made of the 

 sacred domain of Mount Vernon, will depend upon 

 the wisdom of the General Government. In the 

 mean time you have commenced on the smaller 

 scale, corresponding with the wants and the re- 

 sources of a single state, an establishment of this 

 description, which promises to become one of the 

 chief ornaments of the neighborhood, and of which 

 the progress, thus far, does great credit to the dis- 

 cernment and taste of your society. Superior in its 

 natural advantages of position to the famous sepul- 

 chral grounds of the ancient world, we may venture 

 to hope, unless the sons of the pilgrims shall degen- 

 erate from their fathers, that Mount Auburn will 

 hereafter record in its funeral inscriptions, examples 

 not less illustrious than theirs, of public and private 

 virtue. Even now, while the enclosures that sur- 

 round it are scarcely erected, — while the axe is still 

 busy in disposing the walks that are to traverse its 

 interior, — this consecrated spot has received the re- 

 mains of more than one, whose memory a grateful 

 people will not willingly permit to die. There was 

 laid, by the gentle ministration of female friendship, 

 as the first tenant of the place, the learned, devout, 

 and simple-hearted Daughter of the Pilgrims, who 



