The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-02-15
REMARKS OF MIR. BALIEW,

KEMAkkS Of Mk. bALLEW,
In Lhe Senate, Feb. Q, on the proposition 10
purchase the Hermitage.
Mr.. Speaker:-As an American citizen aud
a Tennesseeun, ! nm constrained to favor
this bill. AS a Senator, representing nm in.
telligcnt, high.minded and chivalrous con.
stituency, Icould not do otherwise. TO this
course duty prompts-patriotism cons:rains
me.
The bill proposes TO purchase, on behalf Of
the State, the Tomb of jackson and make il,
rs his fame is, the common property of the
citizens of Tennessee.
have visited. Mr.. Speaker, three several
times in my life, the hallowcd precincts Of
the Hermitage and always with increased and
Increasing interest. The spaciou, lawns, the
stately mansion with its boundless hospital.
ty, the familiar garden, within whose holy
precincts " lie ashes which make it holier-
dust which is even in itself an Immortality"
the associations awakened, all, all are elo.
quent of the past. Standing above the tomb
of the hero statesman, what tide OF memory
crowded upon me. felt that stood round
the urn of the representative man of his age
and nation-around whom in lie, the hearts
and hopes and affections of his countrymen
chung with fond fidelity, and to whose honor
ed grave their descendants will resort to do
homage to latest time.
"ANDREW JACKSON,
Born March IS, 1867,
died June 8, 1885,"
is the simple inscription upon the plain slab
which "marks his couch Of lowy sleep," yet
this is enough-his name will live when
granite moulders and records fail. In the
corner of the garden, in plain republican sim
plcity, ms he directed, are deposited his NOR.
tai remains in his own chosen receptacle;
preferring it to the kingly or imperial sarco
phagus, rendered by the hands of too partial
friendship. There let them rcpose, conse.
secrating the holicst spot upon the surface of
Tennessee soil. Sir, were State pride to
erect there n monument as towering MS the
heavens and rs durable as time, "where the
clouds might pause and reposc themselves in
passing" it would not adj cubit to his stat.
ure. Were national gratitude to rear mau.
soleum huge and imposing us the brick noun.
tains old Egypt piled above her dead kings,
and outvieiug in splrndor its immensely, It
would but be mockery of the fame which
it sought to perpe.uate. When around this
proud Capitol ga thousand years their cloudy
wings expand and dying glory smies,"-
nye, sir, when these magnificent halls shall be
left in dull, untenanted repose--when these
massive gray walls ard finely chisselIed col.
umns shall Stand ga noble wreck in ruinous
reflection" grave of Andrew Jackson will
lie hallowed spot.
1t is not proposed to erect mausoleum
or towering obelisk by State mnniiicence. in
honor of Andrew Jackson, how ever meritori.
Gus such project might be, but to purchase
his own beloved Hermitage, honored MS his
cherished home, and consecrated BY his ashes.
1t is stated authoritatively that this property
must pass out of the hands of its present
honored proprietor, and the question arises,
shall the State own it, or shall it rass into
the hands of strangers! In stranger hands,
might not the myriads of his visitors who
come up annually from the States of this
confederacy, and every other government in
christendom, TO do homage at the shrine of
departed greatness, become wearysome and
yexatious and be barred as intraders and tres.
passers from the consecrated ground? Shall
that feeling so enrolling to humanity, which
seeks to vent itself in silent, vet eloquent,
musings round the tomb of the mighty dead,
be stided and denied ulterance9 Shall Ten