Washington Winter Show 2014

SOUTHERN TRADITIONS AT THE HOME OF GEORGE AND MARTHA WASHINGTON 51 This page is sponsored by Mrs. H. Bartholomew Cox and Mrs. Michael Miller “T he past is never dead,” wrote the great novelist William Faulkner. “It’s not even past.” These poignant words were penned by a man of letters who, like so many people born and reared in the American South, was greatly influenced by the rich history and vibrant culture of that region. Blessed with a keen sense of place, family, and history, Southerners have long honored the past and worked to preserve its traditions and landmarks. So it should come as no surprise that a small band of Southerners launched the effort to save and restore the home of Virginia’s George Washington. Just over 150 years ago, Mount Vernon—a key American icon—was in danger of being lost forever. As our nation veered toward civil war, the historic estate was sinking into ruin. For example, salvaged ships masts were used to prop up the piazza, the graceful veranda overlooking the Potomac where George Washington had once entertained the likes of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Land speculators offered the first president’s financially pressed great-great nephew, John Augustine Washington III, $300,000 for the property, but he refused to sell without formal assurance that it would be protected for future generations. The effort to save Mount Vernon began in 1853. Having just glimpsed the Mansion from the deck of a Potomac River steamship, Louisa Dalton Bird Cunningham, a widow from Laurens, South Carolina, wrote to her daughter: “I was painfully distressed at the ruin and desolation of the home of Washington . . . and the thought passed through my mind: Why was it that the women of his country did not try to keep it in repair, if the men could not do it? It does seem such a blot on our country!” Stephen A. McLeod Manager of Special Initiatives, Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon Ann Pamela Cunningham (seated, facing the bust of Washington), appears with many of the early Vice Regents of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 1873.