Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-06-09
TWO NOTABLE GRAVES.
The Resting-Places Of Buchanan and
Stevens--ReHection on the Lives
of Two Great Pennsylvanians.

HARRISBURG, May 7.-Although
had ridden up and down the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad for nineteen years, !
had never stopped at the State Capt.
tol of Pennsylvania. In spite Of Its
beautiful situation in regon of
mountain and garden, nothing ro-
mantle seemed to adhere to it, no
battle but the buckshot war, no
pioneer but old Harris, no statesman
but Simon. Yet when l heard of
the boom bill, the expulsion of a
youth with the singular Cossack
name of Petroff, and the general de.
sire that the Legislature should de-
camp, was possessed of the idea that
my destiny must lead me to Harris
burg. "At least" said I, "there is
Lancaster on the way, and can
stop over on the way and drink some
of Franke's beer" FRANKIE is a huge
brewer, who was one of President
Buchanan's pallbearers. He makes
fine article of beer, and the late
Thaddeus Stevens had to drink 1t by
prescription during his last years of
life. AS l had seen the funerals of
both of these worthless, l proceeded
from Franke's straight to the graves
of Buck and Thad.
Buchanan's grave, in Woodward's
Cemetery, on the banks of the Con-
estoga, is as unsatisfed as his life
1t contains neither precept, epitanh,
nor information. A marble affair,
slim and oblong, with the word "Bu-
chanan" on one side, and on the
other side, "James Buchanan, Fif-
teenth President of the United States,
born somewhere (Stony Batter),
Franklin county, 1901. Died at
Wheatland 1867 or '6s. That is all.
He solicited no great love in life and
rejected compliment on his tomb,
and still he was in many respects
the most accomplished and disciplin-
ed native of Pennsylvania, and of the
longest success. He was a good
Foreign Minister, n good Secretary
of State, vlgilant Congressman, and
an informed Senator-consulted by
the greatest of his day. He was also
respectable President, considering
that he resisted as we'll as he could
the whole sentiment of his times
We have had only two perfectly ac-
complished Presidents, the products
of long exercised political and legal
talent, Martin Van Buren, and James
Buchanan. They came to the Presi.
dency through regular promotion,
and were firm and subtitle in high
degree, and yet, SO single were they
in the purpuse of mere success that
they were not beloved and probably
never will be loved in fame. stood
at this respected magistrates grave
and think to stand by a mans
grave is good way of grasping his
life charitably, feeling ones own
destiny to be there, and hungering
to be well thought of-and l tried to
touch him somewhere OF to be touch
ed by something he had done, and
not one note or mote in nature gave
me any assistance. A pretty widow
went by in Grape and that set me to
thinking how lonely the old fellow
had been. The refusal of bird or
flower to sing or blossom seemed
consonant with his proud and obdu-
rate reclusiveness. Perhaps he was
haunted by his very humble organ,
and cultivated coldness as the best
substitute for rank; perhaps he was
all the time seeking to be warm and
his manners would not relent. They
say there was almost tragedy in
his early affection, yet how dexter
ously he stepped from station to
station, eluding antagonisms, and he
was as firm a champion of Van Buren,
as of Polk, though they were enemies.
His error is that which few men
make, of setting his heart against the
great revolution of his countrymen,
resisting the rightful rising of his
neighbors against an insolent and
distant faction, and being a remon-
strant against an inevitable Provi-
dencc. He was essentially in the
civil war what Tory was in the war
of Independence, and there was
many Tories of the highest probity
and honor. The line which separat-
ed Galloway from Franklin was
hardly visible; they were colleagues