Ellsworth American

Correspondence.

Ellsworth, Aug. 19th, 1859.

Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham,

Regent of the Mt. Vernon,

Ladies' Association of the Union.

Madam:--On the 17th of Feb. last, availing myself of the opportunity afforded, in giving notice of a remittance of the amount then collected in the County of Hancock, State of Maine, on account of the Mt. Vernon Fund, the liberty was taken of expressing my views as to the future disposal of the grounds. Your letter of the 5th of April in reply was duly received, but has remained unanswered, not from any want of appreciation of the honor conferred upon me, but from reluctance to intrude upon time necessarily occupied in the discharge of the laborious duties of your office by another letter possibly subjecting you in your opinion to the necessity of an answer.

Your letter was all I could ask or reasonably expect; you very properly avoided an expression of your own opinion of my project, stating that the plan to be adopted would be determined by the Grand Council of the Associated Ladies at their annual meeting.

Since the publication of the 17th of Feb. in the Mt. Vernon Record, a letter has been received from a Lady, who was well acquainted with the Estate, asking whether the cost of a suitable wall of Granite to enclose the grounds would not be too high as there was no Granite in the vicinity, ME., obviate this to over Geo. ddia.E upied b ow addressed: proposition; the reas...AIR. well fo My suggestion of a plain, high, massive wall of granite as an exterior fence, was not from any partiality to that kind of fence but in opposition to an ornamental one; my object was to inculcate simplicity, and the avoidance of superfluous decorations: hedge of Thorns, as more congruous to the plan proposed, no comparison handsomer itself, equally durable, and affording more effectual protection against intrusion, would be preferred to any fence, whether of wood, brick or stone; and until it attained maturity might itself be protected by a temporary Pale-fence, previously erected, and then the hedge of Thorns, might be made at leisure by those who had charge of the grounds.

The description of the Pale-fence proposed is as follows : Iron posts or bars 1 1-8 inches in diameter, seven and a half feet long, driven into the ground two and a half feet, eleven feet distances; connected by three parallel rails, two and a half inches thick, four inches wide of any convenient length, not less than fourteen feet, holes bored through them flat ways, to pass over the posts, one and a half, three and a quarter, and five feet from the ground ; both ends of each rail beveled edge ways and thus nailed together continuously; the pales, Spruce slats, two inches wide, one inch thick, seven feet long nailed on to the horizontal rails, with four inches space between them, and further secured by battens two and a half inches wide nailed to the rails. Such a fence could be built for three dollars a rod, would be appropriate for the situation, would be strong and durable, lasting twenty years without repair when it might require re-nailing, and after that would continue good for an equal length of time, though at the end of ten years, it might be dispensed with, as by that time the hedge would be of sufficient strength, and then the materials of the fence would be worth half the original cost of construction.

Should you conclude, as intimated in your letter of the 5th of April, to submit the plan proposed in mine of the 17th of Feb. to the consideration of the Grand Council, you will please make the alteration now suggested.

My proposition is in brief, the buildings, gardens and the cultivated grounds contiguous, to be restored to the same condition, they were in 1790. The remainder of the two hundred acres to be improved as a Park for Deer, inclosed with a hedge of thorns impervious to man or beast, studded with trees of every description congenial to the soil and climate, single and in clumps, as taste may dictate, with no roads but the space between the trees made perfectly smooth and convenient for the passage of light carriages in every direction, "thick sown with grass best adapted to make a tough sward, always close shorn or cropped; so managed, shielded by nature's covering, to guard the ground from the operation of the frosts of winter, and the rains of Spring, it would be kept in repair with the least possible expense of human labor. The whole the residence of Washington in life, his Monument in death: to be dedicated to him exclusively, who stands alone, without a parallel in history: to be maintained forever as a place of public resort, a Church Universal, the Palladium of our Country, its gate thrown open to Citizen Denizen and Foreigner, there to dwell upon his character, emulate his virtues, and treasure deep in their hearts the injunctions of his Farewell Address,

The interest I have taken and continue to take in a project which will rank hereafter among the noble deeds of Woman, is my excuse, if not my justification for addressing you in your official capacity, through the columns of a newspaper: thus exonerating you from the slightest obligation to reply.

Wishing you and your Associates success equal to the merit of an enterprize, conferring deservedly a higher honor on the memory of the Hero Patriot, than was ever before conferred on man; the plan for the improvement of the grounds now briefly detailed, is to you and them most respectfully submitted.

With the highest sentiments of respect, I am Madam

Yr Obt. Serv't

Charles Jaff