The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-06-17
Petersburg Ka. } Iadez. appeal.

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Owing to the inability of the Govern
ment to acquire perfect title to the
ground under the act of Congress,
specially. passed in the Forty.6fth Con-
gress, the erection Of the monument
which was authorized over the grave Of
Thomas Jefferson, at Monticello, has
been delayed, awaiting additional legis-
lation. The State Department has this
week addressed a letter to the proper
committee, submitting the defects which
the Attorney General has found in the
title, and asking for such legislation as
will remedy them and permit the United
States to proceed with the erection OF
the monument. Monticello, by which
the estate of Jefferson is known, has
been in litigation for a great many years,
and has only been settled within thepast
few months BY e legal sale to the princl-
pal heirs. Fol, a long timeit was aban-
doned, and the mansion remained wholly
uninhabited, but it will be at last a mat
ter of pride to the people of the entire
country thatithe private estate has been
reclaimed through private efforts, and
that the grave, so long desecrated, OF the
author of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence is to pass under the control Of the
Government he was pre- eminent in form
ing and perpetuating.
The proposition to erect a new monu-
fment over the grave of Jefferson prompt
ed q. visit to Monticello. The route is
once some six hours over the Virginia
Midland Railroad from Washington,
through Manassas, Culpeper, across the
Rapidan, by Orange Court House and
Gordonsyilla- stones that mark the
shocks Of battle TO Charlottesville. At
this season of the year it is q most
charming journey. May in Virginia is
a lovely month. The rich green foliage
of the seceding spring g-timesis softened
by the balmy air Of the coming summer.
The meadows are luxuriant, and the wild
flowers bloom in the valleys and the
maple and the elm wave on the hill-tops.
As the train rolls around the edge OF
the valley of the Riyanna, just before
you reach Charlottesville, Monticello
may be seen on the '.little mountain" on
the left through the opening in the old
trees which nearly surround it. Month
cello pronounced as if spelled Monti-
chel2o) is an Italian name, meaning Lit
tie Mountain. The ascent, which is
about six hundred feet above Charlottes-
Vile, is over an excellent road, over
shadowed with wooden folds, through
which now and then you catch glimpses
Of the beautiful country beneath that
stretches for miles till it meets the pic
turesqqe summit of the "Rlue noun
tains.S After crossing the notch between
Little Mountain on the left and Carter's
Mountain that rises above it on the right,
the road leading 70 Monticello is sleeper.
Two-thirds of the way up and few
yards to tho right of the road in a thick
growth of woods ia located the. grave of
Thomas Jefferson. The condition of the
grave and the monument that marks it
are 8 disgrace to the American name.
The location is deselate; the graveyard
dilapidated, and the decay all but COM
plete. The grave mound has been these
many years leyeled with the ground,
while the monument has been defaced
beyond recognition For. half q century.
the vandal RHO would defy the spesti-
lence that Malketh at noonday@ to carry
ON his work Of estruction-has Clipped
and hewn the edges of the shaft from
base to apex, which now locates the heap
Of the grave, till; it looks as if it had been
placed there rough from the quarry. 1t
was originally coarse granite obelisk,
about nine feet high, on base three feet
square, designed with its Inscriptions by
Jefferson himself, and erected soon after
his death. sThet legendary tablets of
the pasED were utterly obliterated by the
,defacement with the single exception of
the words in block letters at the base: