The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-08-27
FROM RIVERSIDE TO ARLINGTON.
A Washington Paper Calls for the Removal of
Grants TOmb-New YOrk's Broken Promise.

WASHINGTON. Aug. 26.-The Post will to-
morrow print the following:
General Grant was horn in Ohio. He
went INTO the war from Illinois He resided
during his later years IN New York. Such
Is the peculiar character of his public life
ana services, 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
IN our retrospect of his career we recall
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
MS lie. 70 his country, and left in the
hearts of the American people an imperish-
able 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 lmpropriety, and the sentiment has
assumed the form of q profound and uni
versaI 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.
ITO many, and the number is condsidera-
Dly increasing, this is more than mere
sentiment of regret. The people were
reconciled to the burial of General Grant
at Riverside, simply because of the distinct
assurance and pledge of New York that q
monument TO his remembrance, and of sur
passing grandeur. should be erected there.
Assurance and pledge have come to naught
but by-wOrds of reprOach, and the solemn
ly-promised monument is but an imagina-
tlon OF the remote and shadOwy future.
Hence, regret has become indignation,
and what was at first tacit assent, on GER
tain conditions that remain wholly un-
filled, is converted into vigorous and
growing demand for the removal of the re-
mains from place where they repose but
to be dishonored, and where they should
never have found sepulture. The 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
irActiOn 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 monumental duty of re-
ipterring the body of the illustrious soldier
upon the shores of the Potomac.
The Grand Army of the Republic is now
campment at Milwaukee. What have
the veteran soldiers of the
Union to say to this propositioni
Will not they acclaim it with unanimous
ameni Do they not want this sacred obli-
cation to be performed in their own day
and generations Their ranks are fast
thinning ont. and the opportunity of per-
sonal participation in its fulfllment is
gliding away from their reach.
LET them claim it, therefore, as the last
great privilege they ask to be the pall-bear-
ers of their old commander from his neg.
lected grave at Riverside to the companion
ship of the heroic dead at Arlington. The
country will be with them in this move.
ment. Were the mute lips of the late Gen.
eral of the armies unsealed they would
doubtless give it assent. Congress could
not say nay TO such a reasonable and just
request. based upon such high and patri.
otto motives