The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-07-25
The Memory Of Lincoln at the
White House.
A DISGRAGEFUL DEVELOPMENT.

ANDREW JOHNSON, Acting President
of the United States by the grace of
Booth the assassin, is stated in the
letter of Colonel BOYNTON to the
Cincinnati Gazette, from which we
make the extract below.
1t appears that the facts came to
the knowledge of Congress just before
its adjournment, and a resolution of
inquiry was sent up to the President.
A dispatch dated on the 10th says:
The resolution regarding the Lin
coin Memorial Tablet, known to be
in a coal-heap in the cellar of the
White House, went up to the Presi-
dent at ten o'clock this morning. Up
to the time of adjournment it had not
been found. It will now become the
duty of General Mitchell, in charge of
the public buildings, to dig it out. and
have it taken to the old Hall of Rep
resentatives.
Col. Boynton's account of the Lin
coin Memorial Tablet is as follows:
Let the reader be certain that what
follows is truth, truth unadorned, if
strange and difficult of belief.
Instead of entering the East Room,
as you approach it by the usual way,
turn to the right and go down a toler-
ably we'll lighted stairway to the level
of the basement or cellar of the
building. A wide paved hall runs
the entire length of the house. On
one side are kitchens, store rooms,
and other apartments of similar
character. On the opposite are other
store rooms, and besides vaults for
coal and for other purposes. Let us
enter one of these near the east end
of the building. 1t is perhaps thirty
or forty, feet square. In it are the
furnaces The floor is stone. The
furnaces are bricked over. There are
piles of coal and wood in various
parts. 1t is not tidy. and there is on
all sides the litter that belongs to
and it is. gloomy and quiet, and
through the iron bars across the
w~indows--you car see the cobwebs
and the dust on the panes. The
door which leads out into the
area on the south is thick and heavy,
and barred securely. As you face it,
there is another door at the right. "a
heavy one, also. IF curiosity, or any
previous information of what is hid
den there. prompts you. open it. 1t
will crate a little on its unused hing
es. Thefe is just room to swing it
open, as it turns inward. and the
small apartment is nearly filled with
a variety. of trash. You enter part
way, and then are obliged to shut
the door. in order to move around.
1t is a small place, almost like a cell.
1t may be ten feet long and eight
feet wide. There is one grated win
dow, dim with dust, looking out in
to an area under a porch. There is
an old work bench, half covered with
worn out coal scuttles, and on the
floor are some portions of broken
CRATES and old iron pipes. and a heap
Of coal and kindling. An old wine
box, half full of musty feathers, evil
IDENTITY pulled out of a ragged cush-
ion which lies on the window sill be-
side it. On the coal and kindling is
a lot of shavings, half mixed with
feathers. On that heap of rubbish.
in this subterranean cell of the White
House, lies a stone, with this inscrip-
ton:
ABRAHAMO LINCoLNIO
REGION. FoEDERAT, AMERIC. PRESIDE ii
HvNC Elk sERvI TvALLI AGGERE
LAPIDEM
QvO vTRIsQUE
LIBERATTIS ADSERTORIS FORTISS. '
MEMORIAL CONIvNGATvR
GIVES ROMANI,
A. MDCCCLXv.
The stone upon which this inscrip-
ton is cut is a species of red sand
stone very similar to that SO common
~ in use for building purposes in our
Eastern cities. It's surface has grown
dark by age. A considerable piece
has been battered off. and there the
grain looks fresh. The block is rect
angular, the upper surface being two
feet and three inches long, by eighteen
inches wide, and the thickness about
nine inches.
The translation of the inscription,
which will vary slightly with the word
for which the letter ID in the last line
but one is an abbreviation, has been
thus rendered:
THE citizens of Rome dedicate
this stone. taken from the tomb of
Servius Tulius, to Abraham Lincoln,
President for a second term, of the
United States of America. by which
the memory of either brave defender
of liberty may be Joined to that of the
other. A. ID. 1865"
A STRANGE AND DIsGRAcEFUL HIS
TORY.
The STORY of this block. as told by
those about the White House, is as
follows:
1t arrived in the autumn of 1865.
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