of the country adjacent; and though the conflicting claims of other states, particularly those of Pennsylvania, were strongly urged against the measure, yet, fortunately for the nation, the popularity and influence of Washington surmounted every obstacle, and permanently fixed the seat of the general government in, perhaps, the best possible position that could be selected in any part of the United States.

It may be mentioned as a curious coincidence, and a fact not generally known, that the present permanent seat of our national legislature is contiguous to the very spot where formerly were lighted the council-fires of the Powhattans, the most prominent, numerous, and powerful nation of red men in Virginia; and on the banks of the Potomac, extending from the shores of Chesapeake to the Patuxent. These people lived under a royal government, their despotic monarch being the father of the celebrated Pocahontas. The valley at the foot of Capitol-Hill, washed by the Tiber Creek, the Potomac, and the Eastern Branch, was, as we are informed by tradition, periodically visited by the Indians, who named it their fishing-ground, in contradistinction to their hunting-ground. Here, the tradition adds, the aborigines assembled in great numbers, in the vernal season, for the double purpose of preserving fish and consulting on the affairs of the nation. Greenleafe's Point was their principal camp, and the residence of the chiefs, where councils were held among the various tribes thus gathered together. This tradition was doubtless familiar to Washington.

It has been said above that a more eligible site for the seat of our national government could not have been selected. It is true that a hostile fleet has once violated the purity of these waters, conveying a sufficient military force to invest the capital of the nation, from which most of its physical strength had been drawn to defend points which seemed more exposed to immediate attack. But we were then a young, weak, and divided people, contending with a gigantic power. Things have changed since that period; and the waters which have borne the warlike Potomac with her frowning batteries so many leagues from the interior to her destined element, can scarcely again, in the course of human events, be agitated by a hostile keel.

Under the old confederation, by which the states were nomi

nally bound together, Congress was dependant upon the several sovereignties for "a local habitation," and might have been virtually dissolved by the mere refusal to permit the occupation of public buildings. This inconvenience was provided for, probably at the suggestion of Washington himself, in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, which gave express power to Congress "to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as might by session of particular states and the acceptance of Congress become the seat of the government of the United States."

In accordance with this provision, the states of Virginia and Maryland ceded to the United States their jurisdiction over a district of ten miles square, situated on both sides of the Potomac, nearly two hundred miles from its mouth. This cession was formally accepted by the United States government, in an act of Congress passed on the 16th of July, 1790; and ten years afterward, during the presidency of John Adams, the government was removed thither, and permanently established in the infant city called after the deathless name of its patriotic founder. On the 3d of May, 1802, Congress passed an act by which the city of Washington became incorporated; the appointment of mayor being vested in the president annually, and the two branches of the council elected by the people in a general ticket. By a new charter granted by Congress in 1820, the mayor is now elected by the people for a term of two years. The city is rapidly increasing in wealth and population.

Our gallant, though as yet untried frigate, moved gracefully and majestically upon the waters of the river whose name she bears; and passing Mount Vernon with flag half-mast in token of respect for the sacred relics which were there deposited, she again came to anchor without accident at India Head.

The reader is doubtless aware that the consecrated spot alluded to is situated on the Virginia side of the Potomac river, the course of which at this place is nearly southwest, though its general course is to the southeast. Mount Vernon, therefore, is on the western bank of the river, and rises at least two hundred feet above its surface. It is about fifteen miles below the city of Washington, and eight miles from Alexandria. It was so named in honour of Admiral Vernon, in whose celebrated expedition

against the Spaniards Washington's brother Lawrence served; and he was the original proprietor of this delightful sylvan retreat. It afterward passed into the general's hands, and it was here that he resided when retired from the cares and labours of public employment; and it is here that his ashes now repose, together with those of his connubial partner, and several relatives of the family. To visit this place is deemed a sort of pious or rather patriotic pilgrimage, which few would willingly neglect to make at least once in the course of their lives, should circumstances call them to the seat of government.

The mansion in which Washington resided till his death is a plain edifice of wood, cut in imitation of freestone, two stories high, surmounted by a cupola, and ninety-six feet in length, with a portico in the rear, overlooking the river, extending the whole length of the building. The central part of this edifice was erected by Lawrence Washington, who named it as before mentioned; the two wings were afterward added by the general, who caused the ground to be planted and beautified in the most tasteful manner.

The house fronts northwest, looking on a beautiful lawn of five or six acres, with a serpentine walk around it, fringed with shrubbery and planted with poplars. The tomb, or family vault, in which rest the hero's remains, is about two hundred yards southwest from the house, and about one hundred and fifty from the river bank: "A more romantic and picturesque site for a tomb," says a late writer, "can scarcely be imagined. Between it and the river Potomac is a curtain of forest-trees, covering the steep declivity to the water's edge, breaking the glare of the prospect, and yet affording glimpses of the river even when the foliage is thickest. The tomb is surrounded by several large native oaks, which are venerable by their years, and which annually strew the sepulchre with autumnal leaves, furnishing the most appropriate drapery for such a place, and giving a still deeper impression to the memento mori. Interspersed among the rocks, and overhanging the tomb, is a copse of red cedar; but whether native or transplanted is not stated. Its evergreen boughs present a fine contrast to the hoary and leafless branches of the oak; and while the deciduous foliage of the latter indicates the decay of the

1831.]

DEATH OF EX-PRESIDENT MONROE.

17

portant of which is on Craney Island, near the mouth of the Elizabeth river, about five miles below the town. The United States commissioners who were appointed in 1818 to survey the lower part of Chesapeake Bay, reported that Hampton-Roads, though extensive, were capable of adequate defence, so as to prevent the entrance of an enemy's fleet. We therefore trust that our national metropolis will henceforth be secure from invasions.

The general instructions of the secretary of the navy to Com modore Downes, as commander of the Potomac and of the Pacific squadron, are dated on the 27th of June, 1831. He was ordered to proceed to New-York by the 1st of August, if possible; and there receive on board the Honourable Martin Van Buren and suite, the recently-appointed minister to the court of St. James, who was to be landed at Portsmouth, or some other convenient port in the British channel. The commodore was then directed to make the best of his way to the Pacific Ocean by a passage round Cape Horn, first touching at Brazil. These instructions contain full and official directions as to the steps to be taken for the protection of American commerce and sustaining the honour of the American flag, as well as for increasing the domestic resources of our own country, by obtaining and preserving such foreign staple productions as might be naturalized in our own soil. These instructions, so creditable to the department and to the character of our country, are given at length in the Appendix.

Our frigate lay in Hampton-Roads until the 15th of July, during which period all hands were busily employed in taking on board such necessary stores as could be procured at this place. Here her officers first received the intelligence of a third point to a coincidence of a very remarkable character. On the 4th of July, the anniversary of our national independence, James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, breathed his last, in the city of New-York, at the residence of his son-in-law, Samuel Governeur, Esq. This event had been for some time expected, and was several days previous to his death momentarily. looked for. His spirit, however, was permitted to linger in the body until his country's birthday came round; and he departed while a grateful nation, for whose independence he had fought and bled-a nation which venerated him while living, and which

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