McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-01-29
A NATIONAL MAusoLEuM.
The Crying Need Of the Times-Where the
Past Presidents Are Buried.

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The Crying Need Of the Times-Where th'
Past Presidents Are Buried.
1t would be good idea for the
United States to have national mauso-
leum, like Westminster abbey, In
which presidents could be buried, and
statues of them erected. At present
some of them have neither slab mol
monument to mark their graves
Gen. Harrison's body rests in brick
vault on the top of little hill fifteen
miles west of Cincinnati. A big, fiat
stone lies on its top, but there is no in
scription, and the only beauty about
the grave is the pine trees which sur
rounds it with their perpetual green.
John Tyler's body is buried in the
Hollywood cemetery at Richmond.
Va, and has not stone or bust to
mark its resting-place. Ten yards
away is President Monroe's grave, but
he was not buried here until after the
centennial anniversary of his birth.
Monroe waited twenty-seven years
for an appropriate tomb, and he now
rests in a vault over which is large
granite sarcophagus, and On it an in
scription testifying that it was erected
las an evidence of the affection of Vir-
ginia for her good and honored son. y
Van Buren's grave, Notwithstanding
his wealth, is now bleak and bare,
without flower or shrub, at Kinder
hook, and a year or two ago the little
mains of Thomas Jefferson had been
mutilated and its inscription Destroy
ed by relic-hunters. Its gates were
rusty and its appearance that of ruin.
George Washington has been twice
buried, and Henry Clay showed one
day in the senate piece of his first
coffin. Mount Vernon is now his
tombstone, and the sarcophagus in
which he lies is brick vault overlook
ng the Potomac. 1t has but one word
on it. and that is, ''Washington."
The two Adamses are buried in the
Uniterian church at Quincy. When
John Adams died his son, then presi-
dent, obtained deed to a burial lot
in the cellar of the church fourteen
square, and IN this he built granite
tomb for himself and his father. Here
lie the two presidents and their wives,
and on the walls of the church above
are long inscriptions commemorative
of their lives and worth. John Quincy
Adams inscription commences: "Near
this place reposes all that could die of
John Quincy Adams" And it coses-
A son worthy of his father.
A citizen shedding glory on his country.
A scholar ambitious to advance mankind.
This citizen sought to walk humbly in the
sight OF God.
The inscription devoted to the first
Adams and his wife Abigail ends in
the following verse of advice, headed
'.Pilgrim:'
From lives thus spent thy earthly duties learn !;
From fancy's dreams to active virtue turn;
Let freedom, friendship faith, thy soul en-
And serve, live them, thy country and thy age.
The most expensive of the presiden-
tial monuments are, l suppose, those
of Lincoln and Garfield. Lincoln's
monument at Springfield cost $206, $50,
and the ground devoted to that of
Garfield is said to be worth 100000,
and the monument is to cost $3.50, 900
more.
There have been a number of stories
published in regard to the graves of
President Taylor, in that he was first
buried at Washington and his body
afterward moved about from place to
place. The truth is he has never been
buried, but was brought Immediately,
on his death at the capital, to his
fathers old farm in Kentucky and there
put into vault. His body has lain
tbora avor cipoo ond tbnro &c q orou
granite monument, surrounded by a
marble statue of the general, near by.
Frank Pierce has a monument of
Italian marble at Concord, and, strange
to say, the name engraved upon it is
Francis Pierce, instead of Franklin
Pierce, as he was known to the coun-
try. 1t has no inscription, and is, like
the monument of Willard Fillmore at
Buffalo, simple to an extreme. James
Buchanan lies in vault in the Lam
caster cemetery, and chronicles his
life in the dates of his birth and death
and the fact that he was the fifteenth
president of the United States. 1t
takes twenty-three lines to write the
inscription on Folks tombstone, and
it lies in Nashville, twelve miles away
from that of Andrew jackson, a much
greater man, who sums his record up
in three, Jackson's body lies in his
garden at the Hermitage beside his
wife. The monument above them is
of Tennessee limestone, and JacksOn's
life is given in these words: "Gen.
Andrew jackson, born March Is, 1867;
died June s, 1916. Cleveland Leader.