Recently I posted an Onion bit about ancient Egyptians
only visiting the Pyramids when friends came in from out of town. Sadly,
that applied to Mount Vernon as far I was concerned. I was aware of its existence but never
bothered to visit. My impression is that
it was mainly his house and not much else.
I was wrong.
First off, my hiking – an attempt to lose weight without
hammering my knees and ankles on the treadmill – took me down the Mount Vernon
Trail, which begins at the estate itself and ends 17 miles north in Rosslyn,
where I used to live. I could not hike
17 miles at once, so I had to do it in stages, alternating with similar efforts
on the W&OD Trail. Also, I started
from Rosslyn and worked my way south, doing the trail in reverse. It follows both the George Washington Parkway
AND the Potomac River, which are roughly parallel to each other. As of yet, I had never ventured down that way
beyond King Street in Old Town Alexandria, so taking the trail itself was
illuminating and fun in its own right.
Not only that, the Potomac River gets much wider, and the view across it
to Maryland highly aesthetically pleasing.
Ultimately I became determined to visit the estate itself after the hike
was done. Last weekend I finally
managed to do so.
George Washington himself was born in 1732, a younger
scion of his father, who was apparently successful at producing multiple
offspring. Sadly, his overworked (!)
father died when he was just 11. In the
1750s he fought in the French & Indian War, then returned to Mount Vernon
to manage it after his older brothers conveniently died off. Twenty years later he led the Revolutionary
Armies to victory against the British (1775-1781), served as our first
President for two terms (1788-1796) (I prefer to round terms down to their
even-numbered election years, though the first election actually took place in
1789) and just a few years after retiring to Mount Vernon to chill
indefinitely, sadly did so literally in December 1799, dying of an illness
related to the cold weather.
Washington’s impressive plantation had a fishery, lots of
farmland – he switched from tobacco to wheat at some point – and had a whiskey
distillery down the road. It also had a
nice wharf which juts out into the river, which as previously noted is fairly
wide at this point. Fort Washington (a
future destination) and a nature park face the estate from the Maryland side.
His tomb is here, up on a hill, up away from the marshy
slope near the river. He was originally
buried in the Old Tomb until that area degenerated, and someone felt it was advisable to move his remains to more
solid ground, as was done in 1831. The
Masonic Memorial in Alexandria has a curious goblet constructed of his first
coffin, an item which is wisely kept behind glass and not used to drink
anything.
The house itself is pretty small, but looks like it has 5
bedrooms and an office. One intriguing
artifact hangs from the wall in a glass case:
the French presented him with no less than the KEY to Bastille Prison in
Paris. (Approving voice from Long
Island: “NICE….”)
Those of my readers whose ancestors most highly appreciate
the Thirteenth Amendment are probably aware that Washington was indeed a slave
owner, and the grounds contain multiple references to his involuntary staff and
a large building which housed these unfortunates. The dialogue insists that Washington was a
compassionate manager and even instructed Martha to free the slaves after her
death, and she did so after his own. So
at least one group didn’t have to wait for Lincoln….
On the way out, there’s an impressive museum. This has the usual high tech stuff but does a
good job of chronicling his life from 1732 to 1799 with the various things he
did along the way – leading our armies to victory against the British and being
our first President for two terms. Back
then we only had 13 states, and from 1788-1796 he seemed determined to make
sure we didn’t do anything truly stupid.
He kept us out of Syria, Iraq, and Vietnam, personally put down the
western Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion, resurrected the Navy, and overall
remained neutral. Keep in mind that in
1789 the French had issues, which erupted even more in 1793 when they gave
Louis XVI a fatal haircut at the Place de la Concorde, and thereafter Europe
was quite busy trying to squash this inconvenient rebellion. For the ladies, there’s a presentation on
George’s relationship with Martha, though I didn’t stay long enough to
ascertain if their conjugal relations were explicitly depicted. I’m guessing decorum and discretion mandate
otherwise, though the estate might see more traffic if they were; others might object given the school groups
which frequent the museum. Anyhow.
National
Treasure 2 (Book of Secrets).
The original film featured Nicolas Cage and Jon Voight as a father and
son team trying to find a lost Mason treasure.
The sequel gets the same pair trying to find Eldorado, which turns out to
be located under Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. In part of the film, Ben Gates (Cage) has to “kidnap”
the President himself (Bruce Greenwood) to ask him confidential information in
the President’s legendary secret book.
He does so at a nighttime event at Mount Vernon, and their interaction occurs
in a secret – and fictitious – underground tunnel at the estate. The writers preferred to use that than to
defer to the actual underground meth lab with which Washington supplanted his
income.
Bogus
Article. I picked up the
5/23/19 issue of Washington Post Express which had a particularly onerous article
on Mount Vernon by a fatally clue-deficient liberal, Sadie Dingfelder, called “Estate
Facts: Hard truths get a bit lost at Mount Vernon”. My readers know I’m no fan of Trump, but
idiocy like this is where I’m sympathetic when his supporters bitch
about “libtards”: applying contemporary
politically correct values to Founding Fathers over 200 years ago. Her specific argument is that Washington’s
slave-owning was “hidden” or “denied” at Mount Vernon. First off, the slave quarters on the grounds
are clearly marked as such, AND there is an exhibit in the museum itself about
his slave ownership. No one is denying
he owned slaves or trying to hide that. Second, Ms. Dingbatter herself cites a $10 “Enslaved
People of Mount Vernon” tour at Mount Vernon (!!!). The Mount Vernon website itself has a section
addressing this issue: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/ten-facts-about-washington-slavery/
Third, it took a Civil War and 600,000 casualties for the
US to finally rid itself of slavery, as South Carolina and the other CSA states
didn’t simply say, “sure, OK” when the North demanded they free their slaves. Washington directed that his slaves be freed
upon his wife’s death, and Martha Washington did so during her own lifetime
(see website link). Fourth, George
Washington managed to lead a ragtag army from 1775-81 and defeat the strongest
country in the world, then successfully steered the country through its first
two presidential terms. None of that
features in her article. According
to this woman, because Mount Vernon does not make Washington’s slave-owning the
primary focus of the entire estate, somehow they are “hiding” or “losing” this
issue. Forget everything else, the only truly
important thing about Washington (and Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers)
was that he owned slaves. Massive
facepalm.
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