The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-05-17
TWO NOTABLE GRAVES.
TWO NOTAbLE UhAVhS'
The Resting. Place OF Buchanan and
decentralization on the Lives
oftwo Great Pennsylvanians.
From q. A. Townsend's letter TO the Phil
adelphia Times.

From q. A.Townsend's letter TO the Phil
adelphia Times.
HARRISBURG, May 7, 1876.
Buchanan's grave in Woodward's Gem
etery (Lancaster), on the banks of the
Conestoga, is as unsatisfying as his life.
1t contains neither precept epitaph, nor
information. A marble affair, slim and
oblong, with the word buchanan" on
one side, and on the other side "James
Buchanan, fifteenth President ofthe Uni
ted States, born somewhere (Stony Bat
teri, Franklin county, 179li died at
Wheatland 1867 or '68" 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 q
good foreign minister, q good Secretary
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
well as he could the whole sentiment OF
bis times We have had only two per-
fectly accomplished Presidents, the pro-
ducts of long exercised political and legal
talent, Martin Van Buren, and James
Buchanan. They came to the Presiden-
ey through regular promotion, and were
firm and subtle IN high degree, and yet
80 single were they in the purpose OF
mere success that they were not beloved,
and probably meyer 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 a
bird or flower to sing or blossom seemed
consonsnt with his proud and obdurate
reclusiveness. Perhaps he was haunted
by his very humble origin, and cultivated
GOODNESS as the best substitute for rank.
Mr.. Buchanan cultivated proud stran-
gers, and did not know his neighbors.
Reguiescdt az pace.
Stevens's grave is in the heart of Lam
caster, in small. neat cemetery of u so.
cial look, where death has lively neigh.
bors and dogs and wagons 60 past. ltis
a substantial tomb, disfgured by mourn
ing ornaments, heavy granite, with what
l suppose to be his autograph at the end.
al repose In this quiet and secluded spot,
Not from any natural love OF solitude;
But fiuding hat other cemeteries We're
limited as to race
have chosen this, that might Illus
trate
In my death
The principles / have maintained
through q long lite;
Equality OF man before his creator"
This inscription, which is also an cpl
tapb, is not only lucid and individual,
but it is prettily picturesque: Being in
the first person, the vault itself and the
dead appear to address the visitor with
out the intervention of any apologist.
The opening lines are descriptive of the
spot and nearly poetieal,. and the dis
claimer of an unsocial reason for hiding
away like Selkirk touches the sympathy
cheerily. Some yiolets and dandelions
were growing in the grass, and i folded
three of them in the leaves of q book 1
carried, although l do not recollect ever
having behaved so before. A touch OF
skin, 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
a sort OF nesty warmth abided; his friends,
il few, were real. He rejected no relig-
ion, 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
rectitude. He was not wise man, and
queer notions, seemed which almost to
be atiectations, cropped out in him. He
valued the assertion of anything too
much. He was vindistive. His mater
ial works were often failures, like the
Tapeworm railroad. But he was never
t:mid. and he had broad tread. Pure
ly Yankee, he still had wonderful pow
er over the crudest German elements, and
with these he neutralized the dominant
Pennsyk snis classes and carried the
Presidents homestead year after year.