The writer was there and felt a deep personal interest in everything that related to the Washington Monument, because he had set the ball in motion, through the Virginia Historical Society.
The assemblage was grand, despite the weather, which was inclement and signalized by a driving snowstorm. Yet a large multitude stood and faced it for hours. The venerable minister's (Dr. Adam Empie) supplications were heard by only a few; the stentorian bellowing of the Masonic orator (Robert G. Scott, Sr.) was unintelligible, and then it came to Governor Wise, whose usual eloquence rang out clear and distinct. One could hardly refrain from shouting aloud: "Thank God for stump-speaking!"
The Messenger spreads this brief speech, in large type, on its pages. Mr. Hope did not give his terminal ode to the press, because he wished to deliver it in other places. At length the writer sought refuge from the storm in the Capitol, and there, from a window in the State Library, saw Mr. Hunter speaking and the rest of the proceedings. Only a few feet away, the widow and child of the deceased sculptor, Crawford, were viewing the same scenes.
The Rev. Dr. Gilman, one of the literary ornaments of Charleston, S. C., is no more. Thompson knew him and pays friendly tribute to him. Lucian Minor died in Williamsburg, July 8th,
