They Vote For No Political Officer, Not Even For The
President, And Return No Member To Congress, Either As A Senator Or
As A Representative.
Mount Vernon was never within the District of
Columbia.
When I first made inquiry on the subject, I was told that Mount
Vernon at that time was not to be reached; that though it was not in
the hands of the rebels, neither was it in the hands of Northerners,
and that therefore strangers could not go there; but this, though it
was told to me and others by those who should have known the facts,
was not the case. I had gone down the river with a party of ladies,
and we were opposite to Mount Vernon; but on that occasion we were
assured we could not land. The rebels, we were told, would
certainly seize the ladies, and carry them off into Secessia. On
hearing which, the ladies were of course doubly anxious to be
landed. But our stern commander, for we were on a government boat,
would not listen to their prayers, but carried us instead on board
the "Pensacola," a sloop-of-war which was now lying in the river,
ready to go to sea, and ready also to run the gantlet of the rebel
batteries which lined the Virginian shore of the river for many
miles down below Alexandria and Mount Vernon. A sloop-of-war in
these days means a large man-of-war, the guns of which are so big
that they only stand on one deck, whereas a frigate would have them
on two decks, and a line-of-battle ship on three.
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