Preface, vli 



JEvery field, smiling under the toils and economy of the hus- 

 bandman^ — every sail wafting the treasures of commerce, — 

 every tabric raised by wealth and taste, for comfort and 

 convenience, — or splendor and enjoyment,; — all the blessings 

 which religious or civil institutions shed around them, — all 

 the products of the useful, or elegant, arts, — and, — ^the ce- 

 ment and security of the whole,— the freedom and indepen- 

 dence of our country, — are the rich and invaluable materials, 

 of which this monument is composed ; — and agriculture 



IS ITS BASE. 



This capacious monumental pyramid, — ^thus splendidly 

 ornamented, — visible to all the civilized world, — limit- 

 ed in its site, only by the territorial boundaries of our 

 nation, — ^has, inimitably, anticipated the faltering chissel of 

 the tardy sculptor. Unless the desolating volcano of dis- 

 cord, should whelm his and our beloved country, in its ex- 

 terminating lava, it will, through ages yet to come, defy the 

 tooth, and the ravages, of time. 



Fame, long the faithful eulogist of the atchievements of 

 our departed military chief, and those of the brave and 

 patriotic band, — his companions in arms, — ^now intermits its 

 clangors, or lays aside, her justly boastful and far-sounding 

 trump. She attires herself in the peaceful garb, and is 

 decked with the emblems, of Ceres. Admiring this stupen- 

 dous memorial of the civic virtues of the father of his 

 country, and his venerated compatriots, she displays them 

 for imitation. She hovers o'er its pinnacle, or visits its 

 apartments ; and encourages, by recitals of Washington's 

 precepts and example, our own citizens, in the ways of well- 

 doing. She invites, — not the ambitious, the visionary, or the 

 restless and disappointed ; but the worthy and ingenious, of all 

 descriptions and countries ; — and peculiarly the industrious 

 and sober husbandman and artizan, — from the trou'bles and 

 oppressions which afBict them, mthe desolated and subjugat- 

 ed portions of Europe, She allures, without anxious or un- 



