If this promise was made, it was never redeemed. The American nation, in its reasonable gratitude, dedicated in almost every hamlet some memorial to its great commander. For her it did nothing. No stone or tablet for years marked her resting-place. Tradition loves to repeat the myth that Congress, which was in session at the time of her death, wore the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, and passed resolutions of respect to her memory and sympathy with the President. No such action was taken by Congress. There is no official record of the fact. Nor does Robert Maclay, who transcribed in his journal every incident of his senatorial life, make any mention whatever of Mary Washington. We delighted to call her son "a king among men, godlike in his virtues." We knew that he served us for eight years in peril of life and fortune, unsustained by encouragement or the hope of success, leading a forlorn hope against a powerful enemy. We knew that his, more than any score of names, had given us the place we held among the nations of the earth. We knew that he himself said, "All that I am, I owe to my mother." And yet the country seemed content with toasting his name at its banquets, and left his mother's grave to be marked only by mouldering stones and noisome weeds! The graves of her family were all preserved from decay. Her distinguished son lay, as it was fitting he should lie, in a marble sarcophagus at Mount Vernon. She had chosen for her final pillow, the spot where God had answered her prayers in the gift of wonderful serenity of soul, and in a short while God alone would have known where to find that spot. Brambles and weeds covered it, hiding, for very shame, the witness of man's ingratitude and neglect. Twice, bills were presented to the Congress of the United States, asking for an appropriation for a monument over Mary Washington's grave. By various misfortunes the bills were lost. In 1830 the women of Fredericksburg banded themselves together to rear this monument, and were zealously engaged to that end when they received the following letter from a patriotic man of wealth in New York City:-- "NEW YORK, April 11, 1831. "TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS GOODWIN, _Mayor of the Town of Fredericksburg, Va._ "SIR:--I have seen with the greatest interest the efforts making by the citizens of Fredericksburg to erect a monument over the remains and to rescue from oblivion the sacred spot where reposes the great American mother, Mary, the mother of Washington. I feel a great interest that the ashes of this good American mother shall remain where they are, and I wish to be allowed the honor of individually erecting the monument, which I assure you, sir, shall be, in style and execution, to please the family of Washington and the citizens of the United States. "Be pleased, sir, to make this communication known to the Washington family and all interested, and believe me truly,