Evening Star Newspaper, April 27, 1930, Page 88

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 27, 1930. , , Story of Fairfax County Resolutions George Washington and His Friend, George Mason, Played Their Patriotic Parts in Dramatic Scenes Which Led Virginia to Join With Other Colonies in Armed Protest. Gunston Hall and Old Pohick Were Rallying Points for Distinguished Virginians. BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. ~ 9 ASHINGTON is not only rich in the Nation, but within a short drive of the District of Columbia more real history of the country can be un- covered than perhaps at any other given point in the United States. Indeed if we wish to go to the very beginning of substantial American civic and national history—where the founda- tion of the greatest republic on earth was laid—one must travel to the Southland and see the wonderful shrines and homes of the founders of colonial Virginia. To attempt to take from Massachusetts and the other original States of the Union any of their just proportions of credit in founding this republic of ours would, of course, be futile, impossible and in decidedly bad taste, but when we seek the real cradle of freedom, we must look for it in the home State of Gearge Washington, George Mason, Patrick Henry, Thomas - Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and a host of other noted, distinguished and celebrated Virginians of the revolutionary and pre-revolutionary period A reference at any time to the deeds of the noted men of the Old Dominion is but in keeping with a patriotic devotion we should all have for those whose sacrifices made American independence and liberty possible, and especially at this time is a word or two regarding some of the State’s high lights in history to be appreciated, when the Govern- ment itself is planning to celebrate in and around the Capital of the Nation the 200th anniversary of the birth of that greatest of all Virginians—and Americans—George Washing- ton, said by another great Virginian—Maj. Gen. Henry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee—to have been “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” . Washington is very close to Virginia—by ties of blood and friendship, and geographical- ly separated only by the high-water mark of the noble Potomac River, several miles of which are within the original 10 miles square. Thou= sands of our Federal workers, and others em- ployed in Washington, live just across the bridge in the State reseponsible for so many Presidents, and no large meeting or entertain- ment would be complete, either in Virginia or in the District of Columbia, without there be- ing present a considerable representation of visitors from one of these places. NOpersonwhohnmtvmtedt.hhMot the country—even though he be ever so well read—can form any complete idea of what this vicinity offers in the way of American history, from the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 on the centuries down to the present day. But in view of the fact that the bicentennial will have for its object the celebra- tion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of “The Father of His Country,” naturally every- thing of a historic character will be subordinat- ed to those events which transpired nearby and in which he acted a part, or with which he was in some way closely associated, as well as his home, his home life, his religious and Ma- sonic activities, and of course his devoted asso- ciates and neighbors. Of the last mentioned, none was more con=- spicuous or valuable to the American cause than George Mason, who lived at Gunston Hall, but @ few miles to the south of Mount Vernon, and who, even a month before the first Continental Congress met, resolves, which were indorsed However, although the bill known, yet to the student of the American Revolution, no doubt the Fairfax resolves are the most interesting, since they precede by al- most two years the more famous of the two documents. part. Hmhwmmmuevmw- tunity to hear a good speech if one has the inclination and the time. Something is al- a bigger audience, the twenty-second of last have nothing to say for at least almost immediately made oore Representatives from Virgin: the present Mr. Moore serving his native State. Though the Democratic nomination in his dis- trict practically means election, yet the present incumbent from the eighth district has decided, we are told, not to seek renomination, and be- ing a friend of the District of Columbia, the people of Washington will consider his retiring from public life a real loss, indeed. HIB speech on Washington’s Birthday, the printing of which, by the way, he paid for himself, proving the contrary to the rule, was one of his best efforts, in which he in part said: «s s * somewhat distant from here are the scenes of Washington’s military activities, but it rather quickens the pulse to consider that near- by, within sight of the Capitol, is the Virginia County of Fairfax, where he lived, then include ing the present County of Arlington and the town of Alexandria, which was the county seat. There was his Mount Vernon home, where he resided from his sixteenth year, and which might have disappeared long ago, but for the faithful guardianship of an association of pa=- triotic women. Mount Vernon was not only his home and his burial place, but the place from which he started streams that broadened out into the ocean of his final achievement in cre= ating our institutions. “For example, recall a transaction, now ale most forgotten, vitally bearing upon the future, which no one could then dimly discern. It occurred nearly a decade after the British gov- ernment’s attempt to collect a stamp tax from the Colonies for its own use, which the Virginia House of Burgesses declared against as violate ing the principle of no taxation without repree sentation, a principle which had been announc= ed in Virginia four years earlier than its first announcement in the English petition of right. “At that time, Washington, a young member of the House, followed Patrick Henry, who, with flaming eloguence, successfully led the opposi= tion. The tax was wisely abandoned, but with fatuous unwisdom, a case of ‘whom the gods would destroy they first make mad,’ the principle was violated in another fashion at the later date to which I am now referring. “parliament began to tax trade. It provided that on important imports into the Colonies & tax should be collected for the use of the government. There was vehement remonstrance everywhere, and nowhere more vehement than in Massachusetts. There the revolt the familiar incident tersely recorded in the dhryo(.!ohnAdnms.wlmwm,nnderM of December 7, 1773: g ¢ OICKLY Virginia touched mind and heart with the sister colony. In May, 1774, the House of Burgesses was again in sese at