It is a city of the present; and yet, in extent, commerce, and population, it is the third city of the republic, numbering now about one hundred and sixty-five thousand inhabitants. *
I passed half an hour in the Roman Catholic cathedral during the matin services. Toward noon I listened to a persuasive sermon from the lips of Doctor Johns, of Christ Church (brother of the Virginia bishop), predicated upon the words of Moses to Hobah; ** employed the remainder of the day in reading; and, early on Monday morning, started out, with port-folio and pencil, to visit the celebrities of the city.
The noble monument erected by the State of Maryland in honor of Washington is the object of first and greatest attraction to visitors. It stands in the center of a small square, at the intersection of Monument and Charles Streets, in the fashionable quarter of the city, one hundred and fifty feet above tide-water. It is composed of a base of white marble, fifty feet square, and twenty feet in height, with a Doric column, one hundred and sixty feet in height, and twenty feet in diameter at the base, gradually tapering upward to a handsomely-formed capital.
* The census for 1850, which shows this result, also exhibits a case of remarkable longevity in Baltimore. Sukey Wright, a colored woman, whose age is well certified, was then 120 years old. She had a child twenty-five years of age when the Revolutionary war broke out in 1775.
** "We are journeying toward the land of which the Lord said, I will give it you, and we will do thee good."—Numbers, x., 29.
*** The following are the inscriptions on the monument: East front.—"To George Washington, by the State of Maryland. Born 22d February, 1732. Died 14th December, 1799." South front.—u To George Washington, President of the United States, 4th March, 1789. Returned to Mount Vernon, 4th March, 1797." West front.—"To George Washington. Trenton, 25th December, 1776. Yorktown, 19th October, 1781." North front.—"To George Washington. Commander-in-chief of the American armies, 15th June, 1775. Commission resigned at Annapolis, 23d December, 1783."
Maryland Historical Society.—Pulaski's Banner.—Moravian Nuns at Bethlehem.
Upon the top is a statue of Washington, by Causici, sixteen feet in height, which is reached by a winding stair-way on the interior. It represents the chief in the act of resigning his commission. The statue cost nine thousand dollars. The ground on which the monument stands was given for the purpose by John Eager Howard, the "hero of the Cowpens." The corner stone of the monument was laid on the 4th of July, 1815, with imposing ceremonies. This view is from Monument Street, looking northeast. The Battle Monument, near Barnum's Hotel, erected to the memory of those who fell in defense of Baltimore in 1814, is beautiful and chaste in design and execution, and is an ornament to the city. It cost about sixty thousand dollars. A description of this structure, and copies of the inscriptions upon it, are given in a note on page 388.