Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-27
GRANTS SEPULTURE.
A Strong Plea for Its Removal from New
York 10 oWashingtou-The Grand Army
Asked TO Take Immediate Action
Hmm the Matter.

Asked to Take Immediate Action
Upon the Matter.
WASHINGTON, August 26.-Under the
heading of From Riverside to Arlington.
the Post will tomorrow print the following:
General Grant was born in Ohio. He went
into the war from Illinois. He resided during
his later years in New York. Such is the pecu-
liar character of his public life and service,
however, that no particular locality can claim
him as its own. AS State lines, with sectional
significance, were swept away by his victorious
armies, so in our retrospect of his career we re-
call him only as the patriot-soldier, to whom
all States were alike. so that the Union might
be saved. Where he was born, where he lived,
where he died, are matters of little moment
concerning one who gave the best years OF his
life to his country. and left in the hearts of the
American people an imperishable and grateful
memory.
Where his last resting place shall be is
another and greater question. To the vast
majority of those who revere the name and
fame of Grant, it has always been deemed a
strange improperly, and the sentiment has as
sumed the form of a profound and universal
regret, that the National capital, the seat of
the government he so nobly served. and which
alone can lay valid claim to the honor, should
not have been chosen as the sheltering place of
his mortal remains. To many: and the number
is considerably increasing. this is more than a
mere sentiment of regret. The people were
reconciled to the burial of General Grant at
Riverside simply because of the distinct
n
ment to his remembrance, and of SURPRISING
grandeur, should be erected there. Assurance
and pledge have come to naught but by-w ords
of reproach, and the solemnly promised monu-
ment is but an imagination of the remote and
shadowy future.
Hence regret has become indignation, and
what was at first tacit assent, on certain con-
ditions that remain wholly unfultilled, is con.
verted into vigorns and growing demand for
the removal of the remains from place where
they repose but to be dishonored, and where
hoy Shnnld hau
plea that the fame of Grant is for all time is no
excuse that it should take all time to build his
monument. But of her own acts or inaction let
New York be her own judge. The country
should wait no longer upon her sordid and
slow-paced motions. 1t should proceed at once
to do the other and greater than any monu-
mental duty of reinterring the body of the il
lustrious soldier upon the shores of the
Potomac.
The Grand Army of the Republic is now
holding its twenty-third annual encampment at
Milwaukee. What have the veteran soldiers
of the Union to say to this proposition? VIII
not they acclaim it with unanimous amen?
Do they not want this sacred obligation to be
performed in their own day and generation?
Their ranks are fast thinning out, and the op-
portunity of personal participation in its full
fllment is gliding away from their reach. Let
them claim it. therefore. as the last great priv
ilege they ask. to be the pail bearers of their
old commander from his neglected grave at
Riverside, to the companionship of the heroic
dead at Arlington. The country will be with
them in this movement. Were the mute lips
of the late General of the Armies unsealed,
they would doubtless give it assent. Congress
could not say nay to such a reasonable and Just
REQUEST, based on such high and patriotic mo-
tives. And what SO well deserves to be done
should be done without delay. New York has
no claim in the premises that she has not long
since forfeited, and can enter no protest to ac.
tionfor whichIherown shortcomings are respon.
sible The claims of the Union supersede all
others. The patriotic sense of the people can
no longer be Knocked.