Page:Letter from B. Henry Latrobe, Architect (1800).djvu/2

 ,—More Roman marble buildings have been destroyed for the sake of the bronze cramps, than have been spared, and very few statues indeed remain. It appeared therefore to me more proper that I should offer to the Committee the designs of a building, the constitution of which should secure it, against the slow effects of time & weather as well as against violence, and which by the simplicity of its form and the plainess of its decoration should defy the criticism of fashion, to which all complicated works must submit,—as well as concord with the character of the progress in art which at present exists in America.

The building is a Pyramid, upon a base of 13 steps, of one 10 feet side & height It contains one chamber, 30 feet square, in the center of which is a plain sarcophagus or tomb & opposite the door a niche for a statue of the General. This chamber is lighted by 4 windows, arched, one in each side. The pannels may be filled by representations, either in bas relief, or friezed painting, of the principal events of the life of Washington. A Platform encircles the upper part of the