The Jewels of Virginia: A LECTURE, DELIVERED BY INVITATION OF THE HOLLYWOOD MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION IN RICHMOND, JANUARY 18, 1867, BY COL. GEORGE WYTHE MUNFORD, Of Gloucester, Va. [Published for the benefit of the Association.] RICHMOND: GARY & CLEMMITT, PRINTERS. 1867. LECTURE. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, One of the most difficult things to accomplish is the composition of good toasts. To make them worthy of note they should. be sententious, full of meaning, and like the champaigne in which they ought to be drunk, spirited and buoyant. Of the great number I have heard, the only one I will recall was delivered many years ago by the great Carolinian. It was "Virginia! Like the mother of the Gracchi, when asked for her jewels, she points to her sons." This sentiment, rich with classic beauty, high compliment and sparkling brilliancy, I have adopted as the theme of my discourse on the present occasion. But I have so seldom addressed a public audience, and especially of late, that I feel like the aged minstrel: "Amid the strings his fingers stray'd, If I shall gain his reassured confidence, I may begin to "talk anon I Of good earl Francis, dead and gone; And of earl Walter, rest him God! A braver ne'er to battle rode." may make an effort to bring to remembrance the great, the good, the wise and the brave of Virginia, who were characterized by the great and good, the wise and brave Calhoun as the "jewels" she wears, and to which she points with exalted pride as ornaments that have made her famous in story, and given her glory and immortality. There has been no son of hers of any repute in her councils, or the councils of the nation, for the last fifty years, that I have not seen and known. I have had opportunity to scan their public actions and writings, their persons and lineaments, the character of their minds, the intonation of their voice, their style of oratory, their modes of thought, the principles they inculcate, the parties upon whose altars they poured their incense, the aims and objects they had in view. But where shall I begin? Which casket shall I open? Her house is full of them-jaspers, sapphires, chalcedonies and emeralds. In the quaint language of St. John the evangelist, at the close of his gospel, I may say, and there are also many things which the great men of Virginia have accomplished, "the which, if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." I shall have then to pick and to choose, and while I would do injustice to none, by omission, I must per force leave some of them on the pedestals, upon whose superstructure some Houdon, or Crawford, or Rogers, may rear their form sublime. And then again there are thousands who have never entered her councils, whose charity and hospitality, and rare intellects and virtues, have made Virginia lovely and of good report, and spread her renown from pole to pole. Besides the oaks of her forests, there are roses and lillies in her vales, and Of all her brilliants, none can compare with her Washington, the greatest of all the Kohinoors of ancient or of modern times. Every chisel and every brush has essayed to develop his character and actions; every pen endeavored to describe and beautify both; every flower and leaf have been woven and twined around him; every heart has poured forth its love; every tongue uttered his name with loud acclaim, and all the nations praise him. I name the name of Washington, simply because my subject is Virginia's jewels, and I could not omit her purest, most pellucid, unblemished diamond. In the mysterious book of Revelation we read of one "that was, and is not, and yet is;" and this language seems to convey a contradiction in terms. But when I contemplate the life of Washington, I can understand how it may be true; for he was, and is not, and yet is. He lived, he is dead, and yet he lives. We We may well imagine that his living soul has found a blissful paradise. We may well imagine that one of the four and twenty seats which are round and about the throne of Jehovah has been reserved for him, and that he occupies the place of one of the four and twenty elders that were clothed in white raiment with crowns of gold upon their heads. But, more than this, he lives on earth, he endures in his precepts, in his writings, in his prophetic warnings, in his matchless example, in the institution of learning which he endowed, and to which the fame of the second Washington, now at its head, has given a new attractive force; by which the minds that will be enlightened there will enlighten others, and so on, wave upon wave extending and enlarging through endless ages. And besides, we have a living witness in the person of Governor Wise, (another of Virginia's jewels), who happily reminds us, in glowing language, that George Washington lives in another sense; for "in Houdon's marble we have the form and feature, the limb and lineament, the configuration and proportion, the stature and posture, and we have enlivening all, illumining all, the mien, and manner, and majesty of the man, the breath as well as the body, the grandeur of the moral greatness of the very soul of the living Washington!" But how long he may be permitted to live in the capitol |