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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
132 HUTCHINGS’® CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE.
hearts and was visible in the deeds of the
heroic women of the revolution, has been
rekindled in their posterity, and the la‘dies of America have vied with each other in laboring for this cause. By their
endeavors, and, above all, by the exertions of the Honorable Edward Everett,
whose genius, eloquence, scholastic research, extraordinary appropriateness and
aptitude of illustration and anecdote never
were more nobly devoted, the work is approaching its completion. The 22d of February next, the anniversary of the birthday, not of a Man only, but of a nation,
has been justly and beautifully selected
as the day on which Mount Vernon shall
become to us and to ours forever, a cherished spot, guarded from the decaying
influences of time, and standing, among
the tottering gods of party strife, local
dissensions and petty jealousies, the Ark
of Liberty and National Honor.
Ladies of California! Let me address
you, not only by the conventional term
which marks a class of society, but by
that generic name, that noblest name of
all, the only one which the Savior of the
world bestowed upon the Virgin Mother,
— Women of California! will you not, by.
such a trifling gift as is daily wasted
upon mere ephemera, aid in a worthy, a
patriotic, a womanly cause? Though your
homes are here, do not your thoughts often travel back to your birth-place, to
parents’ dwelling on the Atlantic continent, where the name of Washington was
so familiar and revered? Do not those
old associations, “like to a gentle music
heard in childhood,” prompt you to contribute to this work? As wives, as daughters, as sisters, and as friends, is not the
Home of Washington equally as dear to
your hearts, as to the hearts of the men
you love? And as. mothers, how can you
more surely, more worthily make your
children “polished stones”? in the Temple of Liberty, than by practically illustrating your reverence for its great.advocate? Recollect, also, that your names
will be registered as assistants in this
“labor of love ;” and that: your children,
with their children’s children, when they
make in future years their pilgrimage to
Mount Vernon, will turn to the volume
and proudly say, pointing to the name:
“That was my mother!”
The annexed letter, though not intended for publication, written by Mrs.
Ritchie, formerly widely known as Mrs.
Anna Cora Mowatt, contains so much of
interest that we cannot better serve the
fund than by inserting it:
Ricusonp, June 7, 1858.
My Dear Mrs. Conner,—-Your letter of
May 4th, addressed to the “ Southern
Matron,” was duly received by her. The
lady who formerly headed the Mount
Vernon Association, under that title,
(which she has been induced to drop,) is
Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham, Regent,
by the new constitution, of the Mount
Vernon Ladies’ Association. Her severe
indisposition, and the illness of her private secretary, made her request me to
reply to your letter, though my own correspondence, as Vice Regent of the Association for Virginia, is necessarily very
large. I do not address you as a stranger, as we have been both members of
the same profession, and are now engaged in the same holy cause,—rather, as a
sister, . welcome you among the patriotic
sisterhood who have resolved to save the
home and grave of our beloved Wasuincton from desecration, and consecrate it
for all time, through woman’s devotion.
All I have ever heard of you prevents my
being surprised at your so promptly and
so warmly espousing this cause. The
two California papers received by the
Regent, (which the Richmond Enquirer,
my husband’s paper, will copy,) show
that you have already gone to work with
heart and might. The Regent charged
me to say that she ‘‘is deeply touched
when she feels she is the humble instrument of awakening a patriotic chord in
the breast of a true-hearted woman, and
that your letter gave her infinite satisfaction.” We are making the most zealous
efforts to raise the whole of the two hundred thousand dollars, which we have
contracted to pay for Mount Vernon, be-