Petersburg High School - Missile Yearbook (Petersburg, VA)

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same house that five Royal Governors met in 1754 to arrange a campaign against the encroachments of the French and Indians on western territory. When, unsuspecting its far-reaching consequences, they recommended a tax measure to Lord North, that Congress of Alexandria became the beginning of the subsequent Congress of the United States. As a direct result of this conference of nobility, Braddock with a thousand British regulars made Carlyle House the headquarters of their ill-fated expedition. Then too, it was here that Washington began his military career as aide-de-camp to the British commander-in the house where he had made love to his Iirst sweetheart, Sally Cary. On one dark night of April, 1777, during the darkest hours of the colonies, a German and a Frenchman, losing their way en route to join 'Washington's army, were guided to Gadbsy's Tavern by a young Scotch- man. This collection of nationalities was the Baron de Kalb, the Marquis de Lafayette, and John Paul Jones. Report has it that they talked far into the night. Perhaps they formulated plans for the help of their re- spective countries to end the war quickly. But I think a great part of the -conversation was concerning the beautiful Creole daughter of General Roberdeau from the West Indies with Whom Lafayette was infatuated. At this popular King's Highway roadhouse of the eighteenth century 'Washington, as adjutant-general of Virginia, had his headquarters. And it was only fitting that the city at whose Assembly Hall in 1785 Daniel -Janifer, Thomas Stone, Samuel Chase of Maryland and George Mason, Alexander Henderson, and George Washington of Virginia met in a boundary-line conference that resulted in the first steps toward the Consti- tution should hold the first celebration of its adoption in 1787. And what more natural than that it should be held in the great banquet hall of Gadsby's Tavern, famed throughout Virginia for its cuisine? Very prob- ably this dinner with its gathering of notables was front-page news for the oldest daily newspaper in the United States, The Alexandria Gazette, 'which dates from 1784. Prior to drawing up the United States Constitu- tion George Mason, an Alexandrian, self-educated planter, was the author -of the Fairfax County Resolves, the Virginia Bill of Rights and the first constitution of the state of Virginia. Possibly he was even then prepar- ing for his grand climax. After the miraculously successful close of the Revolutionary War, Washington, in the role of Father of His Country, did not neglect his 'home-town. A model citizen, he was a member of the Board of Trustees and President of the Chesapeake Sz Ohio Canal, begun by him as the Pow- tomack Company. Another first of the first president was the Alexan- dria Academy, the first free school in Virginia. THE MISSILE Pagellirle

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South to Little Falls on the North, he never suspected that in that very area the American Constitution would be dreamed of to begin a country that rivals England. And when Howson sold it to John Alexander for 6600 pounds of tobacco, do you suppose that astute merchant dreamed that that same land would sell tobacco to England amounting to the value of 768,000 pounds sterling? It was not until 1732 that shrewd Scotch merchants recognized the worth of this land and established there the to- bacco shipping port, Hunting Creek Ware House. Around this point grew up the little hamlet of Belhaven which was incorporated in 1748 by Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Lawrence Washington, John Carlyle and other leaders and renamed Alexandria for the original owners. Then began her days as belle of Northern Virginia when Washing- ton was her hero. Picture the lively city fired by the excitement of a ship arriving from England, laden with luxuries of manufactures and news from Old Country relatives. From miles around estates are emptied of life to bring their one produce-tobacco. Grinning negroes, ambling along in their customary manner, sometimes forget themselves so far in the rush as even to hurry a bit. If the ship carried negroes for sale, they were hustled to The Pen, and the auctioneer began his ranting. Here, perhaps, was the vilest home of the slave-dirty, smelly, revolting block Where humanity was bought and sold. Needless to say, the bitterest opponents of this aspect of slav- ery were the southern gentlemen. To follow the frenzied buying and selling the local gentry usually staged a fox hunt with a cock-fight or a horse race on the side for those who didnot indulge in the sport handed down from English ancestors. At night the ladies held sway at Birthnight balls and at the theatre during its season. This pleasant social life was kept from excess by their devotion to their church-principally the Established Church of England. There was no cessation to the visiting between the widely scattered es- tates. Guests came without invitation for a week or a month's stay and were not considered Will Wimblesf' It was this constant visiting which constituted the social life of the colonies, Often abused but never refused hospitality sometimes-speaking literally--ate up every profit of the plan- tation, and owners of homes on the main highway were compelled to build another house inland to escape from the colonial code of courtesy. Guests at many of these sempiternal open houses were men of world-wide repu- tation. John Carlyle was host to John Paul Jones, the first American ad- miral, James Rumsey, inventor of the first steamboat, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, rivals for the Presidency, in the exquisite setting of the Carlyle House. And it was in the pleasant English atmosphere of this Pageeishf THE MISSILE

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A modern memorial to Washington, the Masonic National Memorial to their first Worshipful Master, stands upon the original choice of James Madison for the site of the national capitol. The selection of Shooter's Hill behind Alexandria was vetoed by Washington for some unknown personal reason. Nevertheless, the first boundary stone of the District of Columbia was located at Jones' Point by the Alexandria Lodge of Masons and included Georgetown as well as Alexandria. Congress re- turned to Virginia in 1846 all the land on the west bank of the Potomac, but the continual growth of Washington may make it necessary for that land to be receded to the government. if 1 3 In the second act of her prominence Alexandria took a leading part in the drama of the War Between the States. It was one of the strange contradictions of the time that this definitely Southern city should have been made capital of Pierpont's farcical Restored Government of Vir- ginia. Although the northernmost city of Virginia, with a population of perhaps 12,000 had sent 700 men to the Confederate army, it was a part of the national capital and lay within the circle of forts that protected Washington. Because of this latter fact, Francis Pierpont, confident of the Union's success, chose to establish the valid General Assembly of the State of Virginia in Alexandria. With a vote of twelve of its members fagainst onel he followed Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation with a constitutional provision for abolition of slavery in this State of Virginia. In view of the fact that no one could vote who had given assistance to the Confederacy, the number of voters was negligibleg taxes were insufficient for support of the government. Consequently, before the close of the war, their jurisdiction was limited to two counties, Alexandria and Fairfax. However, with the victory of the Union forces, the state government of the Confederacy was declared null and voil, and Pierpont was directed to take charge of the civil administration of all Virginia. Governor Pier- pont, in all justice, was strongly in favor of Lincoln's plan of Reconstruc- tion, but with the President's assassination and the Reconstruction days which followed, no power on earth could have saved Virginia the ravages of the war's aftermath. Placed as it was between two fires, there were incidents derogatory to both sides. There was the woman who was so pleasingly courteous to one Confederate troop that they took away all that they could to remem- ber her by. Not wanting them to miss anything she sent her old colored Moses with a scraggly donkey they had somehow overlooked. The gen- eral said, Thank you. Better known is the circumstance that the first blood shed in the war Pagefell THE MISSILE