Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/143

 ENTOMBED GREATNESS.

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��ENTOMBED GREATNESS.

��BY C. E. GEORCE.

��It is indeed a singular fact that, with perhaps one solitary exception, our chief executives have found a final resting-place on the soil of the state from which they were elected.

Five of these majestic spirits, life's fitful spirit ended, await the resurrec- tion morn in the land of the queenly mother of presidents, namely : —

George Washington, at his home, Mount Vernon, in Westmoreland county, within sound of the music of the Potomac. A marble coffin, in- closed within a chaste brick vault, in- cases the mortality of this imperial man and humble Christian.

Thomas Jefferson, in a rural ceme- tery near his beautiful Monticello, Al- bemarle county. His monument is an unpretentious granite shaft, soon to be replaced by a handsome memorial, the gift of the government to this her greatest statesman.

James Madison, on his estate at Montpelier, near Orange Court House, a beautiful location, marked by a sim- ple monument of inferior quality and design.

James Monroe, after reposing twenty- seven years in New York soil, has slept a quarter of a century in Virginia's loveliest cemetery, Hollywood, near Richmond. A Gothic temple of unique design, commemorates the spot.

John Tyler sleeps in Hollywood, near Monroe, soothed by the dirge-like chant of the classic James. No mon- umental column bespeaks the gran- deur of his earthly station.

John Adams, and his son, John Quincy, lie side by side within a vault beneath the Unitarian church of Quincy, Mass. Tablets of clouded marble, inscribed with epitaphs and surmounted by busts of the deceased, are on each side of the pulpit.

Tennessee entombs three of the

��Nation's executives within her soil.

Andrew Jackson, within his garden at the Hermitage, eleven miles from the State Capital, the tomb eighteen feet in diameter, is environed by fluted columns and surmounted by an urn. Magnolia trees impart beautv and per- fume to the sacred spot.

James K. Polk, in the family garden at Nashville. A monument with Dor- ic columns tells where the Methodist hero sleeps his last sleep.

Andrew Johnson has an ornate mar- ble monument a half mile from Green- ville.

The Empire State enfolds her two worthy scions — Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore. The former sleeps near his beloved Kinderhook. A plain granite shaft, fifteen feet in height, marks his resting-place. The latter lies in Forest Lawn Cemetery at Buf- falo. A lofty shaft of Scotch granite surmounts his grave.

Zachary Taylor was interred at Cave Hill Cemetery, at Louisville, but we think his remains were afterward re- moved to Kentucky's legislative city, and distinguished by a fitting memo- rial.

Franklin Pierce is entombed at Con- cord, N. H. A marble monument keeps watch over his remains.

James Buchanan has found rest in Woodward Hill Cemetery, at Lancas- ter, Pa., in a vault. A single block of pure Italian marble reveals the spot.

Abraham Lincoln's remains are in- closed in a sarcophagus of snowy pu- rity in the Oak Ridge Cemetery of Springfield, Illinois. His monument is ot granite, marble and bronze.

James A. Garfield, the nation's hero, who so lately passed to his eternal rest, lies in a tomb in Cleveland, Ohio, and we think William Henry Harrison also found a grave in the same fair state.

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