The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-05-15
Two Notahse a5ravs.


THE HEsffNosrIaoEs 81 S,jc,s IS, Co.,
MISREPRESENTATION Ifyss or Tyvs,
GREAT PEsiNsfLvAHlASs. O !. ~ :
fFron "a. "A. Townserl,is letter 10 The pb,lsaeInh,,
Times.l !. ....1' i,A $40
HARRISBURG, MAY I, 1915.
Buchanan g grave In Woodwnrd's Gene.
terry tLancasterb on the banks OF the Cones.
Etoga, is as unsafisfying as his life. Tt cor.
taiHs neither precept epitaph. nor informa-
ton. a marble affair, slim and obionp.
with the word s Buchanan y OF, one side.
and on the other side &c James Buchanan.
fifteenth President OF the United States.
born somewhere stony Battery, Franklin
county, 1901; died at Wheatland 1867 or
,63." 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 disciplined native
Pennsylvania and OF the longest success.
He was good foreign minister, good Sec
rotary OF State, a vigilant congressman, and
an informed senator, consulted by the great
est 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 accomplished Presidents, the pro-
ducts OF long exercised political and legal
talent, Martin Van Buren, and james Bu-
chanan. They came to the presidency
through regular promotion, and were firm
ana subtle in high degree, and yet so
single were they in the purpose Of mere
success that they were not beloved, and
probably never will be beloved in fame.
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 conso-
nant with his proud and obdurate reclusiye-
ness. Perhaps he was haunted by his very
humble origin, and cultivated GOODNESS as
the best substitute for rank. s
Mr.. Buchanan cultivated proud strangers,
and did not know his neighbors. Requt-
escat in pace. -
Steyens's grave is in the heart OF Lancas-
ter, in small, neat cemetery OF social
look, where death has lively neighbors and
dogs and wagons go past. It is substan-
tial tomb, disfgured by mourning orna-
ments, heavy granite, with what I suppose
to be his autograph at the end.
u repose IN this quiet and secluded spot,
Not from any natural love OF solitude;
But finding that other cemeteries were limited as
to race
Ih.ye chosen this, that 1 might illustrate
The principles have maintained through long
This inscription, which is also an epitaph,
is not only lucid and individual, but it is
prettily picturesque. Being in the first per-
son, the vault itself and the dead appear to
address the visitor without the intervention
of any apologist. The opening lines are
descriptive of the spot and nearly poetical,
and the disclaimer Of an unsocial reason for
hiding away like Selkirk touches the SYM
patty cheerily. Some violets and dande-
lions were growing in the grass, and I
folded three Of them in the leaves of book
I carried, although do not recollect ever
having behaved so before. A touch OF
kin, l suppose, makes the whole world
nature. Stevens loved something, else
he would not have been the genial
bachelor he was. In the rugged assures OF
his life sort Of nesty warmth abided; his
friends, il few, were real. He rejected no
religion, and the simple nuns who closed
his eyes thought he died in their faith. He
was indeed Catholic, and yet, perhaps, not
wholly incorruptible; for he valued certain
ideas more than propriety, or even recti-
tudc. He was not wise man, and queer
notions, which almost seemed to be affccta-
tons, cropped out in him. He valued the
assertion Of anything too much. He was
viudictivc. His material works were often
failures, like the Tapeworm railroad. But
he was never timid, and he had broad
tread. Purely Yankee, he still had Won
derful power over the crudest German ele-
ments, and with these he neutralized the
dominant Pennsylvania classes and carried
the Presidents homestead year after year.