CARRY ME BACK

a car the people the places the names the faces this is America [Applause] good evening ladies and gentlemen this is Jack Douglas no matter where you may be if you say carry me back chances are someone will add to old Virginny well tonight the television cameras will indeed carry us back back to the Jamestown of John Smith and Pocahontas to Williamsburg and the Potomac River and the Shenandoah Valley back to the Magnificent homes of Washington and Jefferson and robert e lee the immortal song by james bland says it for all of us carry me back these are replicas in Jamestown Festival Park of the three small ships the landed in Jamestown in May of 1607 to establish the first English colony in America the three vessels the discovery the Godspeed and the Susan constant had a combined weight of only a hundred and sixty tons and carried slightly more than a hundred passengers within four months half the hundred were to die in the new world the Susan constant was by far the biggest of the three vessels a hundred and eleven feet long and capable of carrying 54 passengers and a crew of seventeen but looking at this diagram it appears that most of her hull space was used for food and supplies so it must have been a wretched voyage and a long one for crew and passengers alike more than three hundred and fifty years later reward these replicas and try to recapture the mood in the spirit of those hardy early adventurers the flag of st. George flies from the mast as it did when the Susan constant was made fast to trees on the riverbank on May 13 and a seaman went aloft to Pier at the Wilderness in those hectic first days they knew not what to expect even from the crow's nest atop the enormous mass there was nothing to greet the eye but the vast forest and accordingly the settlers landed the next day May 14 16 o 7 John Smith whose statue overlooks the James River was not the original leader of the Jamestown Settlement but when the leadership proved incapable this tough brave termined man took over and saved the settlement from chaos and total extermination just a few feet away from the replicas of the three ships they've reconstructed fort James the palisade that guarded John Smith and his men from the hostile Indians the fort was not an empty gesture two men were killed tack upon the colony in those first days some attention was paid to pomp and military detail but in a short time when there were hardly enough able-bodied men to mount a guard no one cared very much whether the flag was lowered or not at first the men lived in rotting tents when John Smith took command he ordered small houses to be build thatched and half-timbered now this process of filling in the cracks is called Watling and dubbing the Watling or filler was made of oyster shells straw water and yellow clay it was then dubbed into the cracks there is at least one real indiana jamestown festival park a member of the Rappahannock tribe whose name is running deer he weaves baskets and is extremely knowledgeable in the history of local Indian tribes including the tribe of Powhatan the father of Pocahontas and this statue honors the greatest and best-known Indian woman in American history Smith himself acknowledges that Pocahontas saved his life she became a frequent and welcome visitor at the fort and later married John Rolfe one of the settlers and returned with him to England where she died never to see the new world again much of the original settlement at Jamestown has since been washed away by the James River these few remaining foundations were of a slightly later period perhaps ten or twelve years after the first settlers arrived we're looking now through an arch of the old tower Church part of which is the oldest structure still standing above ground at Jamestown it was built in the late 1630s and the main building was restored by the National Society of Colonial Dames in 1907 almost 300 years later here on the special occasion is the Queen's Guard unit from William and Mary College this simple cross has been erected in memory of those first settlers who died at Jamestown during that first terrible year to the glory of God in the memory of those early settlers the founders of this nation the plaque also states that the settlers lie buried on a ridge just beyond the cross [Applause] in 1698 the Statehouse at Jamestown was leveled by fire so the legislators moved the capital to a small settlement known as middle plantation and renamed Williamsburg in honor of the then King William the 3rd 81 years later in 1780 the capital was moved to Richmond and thereafter with a few notable exceptions Williamsburg faded from prominence the restoration involved several decades and tens of millions of dollars fortunately old documents such as this one known as the Frenchman's map and the boat lien plate found in the archives at Oxford England were brought to light and proved invaluable in restoring Williamsburg as it was for example this section of the boat lien plate shows the building designed by the great Christian fur Wren for William & Mary College the restoration as we see was faithfully carried out another section of the plate illustrates the governor's palace and here is the restoration a magnificent building that served as the home of the royal governor appointed by the king and later after the rebellion of the colonies the first two elected governors of Virginia Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson also lived in the palace but now let's turn back the hands of the clock in restored Williamsburg it is the middle of the 18th century and milady has an appointment at the millinery shop the barber served as the perot-gore wig maker and the word derived from the French Parikh later anglicized to para wig and finally shortened into the colloquial or just plain wig and times haven't really changed too much except that today a wig is often a woman's favorite possession the sign of the mortar and pestle tells us that this is the apothecary shop the forerunner of our modern drugstore packaged drugs were unheard of in those days virtually all of the drugs were freshly ground from herbs and leaves contained in bottles such as these the local printer doubled as postmaster while the ink has been soaked up rubbed free of lumps and applied to the printing plate [Music] by present standards the process was painfully slow but the results were excellent one Virginian did not necessarily need a printer to spread his views this is a copy of an inflammatory letter by the great Patrick Henry the blacksmith is forging part of an elaborate wrought iron candelabra fashionable in the 18th century Williamsburg of all the colonial Arts and Crafts perhaps none has had the enduring popularity of the cabinetmaker those Michelangelo's of wood whose foot propel lathes gave us colonial furniture furniture that is today regarded throughout the world as antique works of art Raleigh tavern and noticed the spelling was the favorite meeting place of the famous as well as the unknowns Washington Jefferson Patrick Henry Lafayette all dined here the public jail again note the old spelling was the stopping off place for those who imbibed too heavily and in discreetly and judging by the size of the jail Williamsburg had at least a few people who imbibed both heavily and in discreetly well this is inevitable our friends approaching the stocks our visitors from New York City and they'll do what you or I would probably do try the stocks on for size and in the meantime their wives will snap pictures for the folks back home and here's one for the road buster and just wait till the in-laws see that a new day begins another day here at Williamsburg the residents ask which williamsburg are you looking for there is the Williamsburg the restored city that is apparent to the naked eye but there is also the Williamsburg that is emotional and personal the inner longing in each of us to go back to go back to a different age and a different time and a gloriously different way of life Shenandoah Valley and no fancy man-made words can match nature's own superlative styles speaking of superlatives save a few for your first look at the Shenandoah River beautiful serene unspoiled by man and here's the picture that takes all of us back to our own childhood a couple of pounds of fish and pole a can of bait and loyal Rover tagging at our heels this by the way is the Mount Jackson covered bridge and spans the North Fork of the Shenandoah [Music] it is Sunday the day of worship a narrow road near Dayton in the shadows of the Shenandoah as buggy after buggy passes we can't help noticing the lack of color each buggy is a somber black or dark blue well these are Mennonites on their way to church but god-fearing peace-loving hard-working Mennonites once inside the church the women will sit on the right the men on the left and while this meeting of the Mennonites took place only a few weeks ago it seemed to me a throwback to the pioneer days a wooden Church in a clearing and country people who drove for miles to observe the Sabbath [Music] Richmond the capital of Virginia since 1780 is steeped in tradition and historic landmarks but our main interest is in the Capitol building it has east and west wings which were added in this century but the main building shown here was designed by Thomas Jefferson and completed in 1788 and here in the Rotunda is what we've come to see the only statue of George Washington made from real-life Washington by the way saw the statue and approved of it he was then 53 years of age and stood well over six feet tall the excursion boat George Washington leaves Washington DC twice daily and leisurely cruises down the Potomac to Mount Vernon a trip of about an hour and 15 minutes Mont Vernon the home of America's first president was developed by his father then passed on to George's half-brother Lawrence and after his death George Washington became the full owner between 1754 and 1799 Washington developed Mount Vernon into one of the nation's finest estates his land holdings for example increased from 2,000 acres to more than 8,000 and here at Mount Vernon Washington lived the life he loved best bat of a prosperous country Squire he was enormous ly proud of this magnificent estate and he once wrote no estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this [Music] about the banquet-hall fireplace hangs the faint portrait by Gilbert Stuart the painting was executed in 1790 and was given to Martha Washington in a section of the library which Washington used as his office we find some of his personal belongings money weighing scales a taper holder for melting sealing wax spectacles and pen stand this handsome harpsichord reposes in a room known as the little parlor and yes Washington's slept here that statement may come as a shock to real-estate salesman who through the years have led us to believe that Washington slept in every old home in America excepting Mount Vernon at the foot of the for post there is the sturdy man-sized trunk purchased by Washington Massachusetts in 1775 he was to use it throughout the bitter years of the American Revolution and the Lafayette bedroom is named after its most distinguished occupant these have been but brief glimpses of what is in store for you when you visit Mount Vernon it's there overlooking the Potomac just a short distance from Washington DC it's not hard to find but it is hard to forget Monticello Italian for small mountain is the name Thomas Jefferson selected for his home in Charlottesville and true to its name Monticello is built atop a gracefully rising mountain overlooking a valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background the talented Jefferson as we know designed Monticello and other he said all my wishes end where I hope my dreams will end at Monticello his wishes were granted he was to live a rich and full life and he is buried here on the estate Jefferson himself had composed the inscription for his tombstone here lies Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American Independence of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom and father of the University of Virginia what a brilliant mind was this a mind capable of conceiving the eloquent language of the Declaration of Independence in his bedroom this desk set is further evidence of Jefferson's talents verse the first swivel top desk was his innovation the chair also swivels possibly the first swivel chair in America although most likely it was imported from England in the entrance hall Jefferson placed the handsome seven-day clock but not content with knowing the time he devised a method of having the clock tell the day of the week now as these weights dropped actually their cannonballs from the revolution a glance at the wall would indicate the day however there wasn't ruled from ceiling to floor for all seven days so to accommodate the weekend Jefferson simply cut a hole through the floor incidentally the antlers on either side of the clock were gifts from the Lewis and Clark expedition finally in this bedroom time ran out and one of the most brilliant men in American history passed away on July 4 1826 exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and on that very same day only hours later President John Adams followed Jefferson to the great beyond this now is Stratford Hall the ancestral home of the leaves of Virginia there were many leaves and as John Adams once wrote their greatest fault is having more men of Merit than any other family history best remembers Frances Lightfoot Lee and Henry Light Horse Harry Lee and here at Stratford Hall in January of 1807 was born the greatest and noblest of his family line General Robert Healy today Stratford is operated by the robert e lee Memorial Foundation and has been refurnished to look as it did in the time of the lease a section of a small dining room the portrait in the background is of Queen Caroline a musical grouping in the main our Great Hall Park and harpsichord [Music] four generations of leaves were born in this very bedroom including robert e lee in 1870 just a few short years after the end of the war between the states robert e lee passed away in lexington virginia as one of the atlantic seaboard states it's only natural that virginia should and does have a strong tradition of the sea and thanks to the Mariners Museum at Newport News it's possible in just a few moments to recapture the atmosphere of Virginia's ties to the seas beyond now this is truly an excellent museum not a dusty musty scattering of odds immense but a glorious treasure of mementos from the days when the men who sailed the seas did so with our radar our steel plate and in the certain knowledge that every voyage was a heavy risk these are figure heads that adorned the boughs of nineteenth-century vessels this model in a bottle made by Ralph Preston of Lowell Massachusetts is a one-sixteenth reproduction of the good ship young america circa 1853 and this is the prize of the Mariners museum a model by auguste Crabtree of a Venetian galleon the Crabtree spent 27 years making this model and its value today is over a hundred thousand dollars these close ups will tell us why [Music] the Mariners Museum at Newport News make it a must on your visit to old Virginny and finally what would a visit to over Ginny be without scenes such as this the day is bright and sunny the horse is an excellent jumper and the equestrian miss Dianna Stokes was almost literally born to the south [Music] they came to virgin soil and they called the land Virginia in honor of Elizabeth the Virgin Queen well the horse and the mutt heights have given way to newer and faster transportation and dwellings that today reach to the sky give way change spread the wonders of civilization and yet isn't it nice to be able to go back [Music] [Applause]