The National tribune., 1903-05-21
SACRED ARLINGTON.
The Greatest and Most Beautiful Eationa
Cemetery in the World.
BY ISABEL woRRELL BALL,
Chairman, Press Committee, 2Gth National En-
cImpmeut.


On the Virginia hills, with the placid
Potomac below, where the shadow of the
Capitol's white dome falls athwart the
sliimmering waters and the Monument
like a grim sentinel is ever on duty at the
gateway, lies Arlington, the National City
of the Dead, where s,eep nearly 19,o0o
"soldiers of the Union, mustered out"
1t Was the great War Governor of
Pennsylvania, Andrew G. Curtin, who
suggested that National interment of the
Nations heroes would be but simple jus
tite to those whc died in the Nations de-
fcnse. 1t was on the soil of Pennsyl-
vania that the first shrine to the dead of
war fought in National defense was
dedicated. At Gettysburg, on Nov. ~,
1863, this first dedication occurred and
the tribute to the battlefield dead and the
Usiion soldiers, paid by President Lincoln,
isl read each recurring Memorial Day i'll
every cemetery in the world where 4 SOL
disr of the Union sleeps.
:Standing on the yet battle-roughened
SLOT, with the Catoctin Mountains for his
Western horizon, and the Round Tops
liAlned against the Southern sky, Presi-
nearly three years spread out before him,
aid at his feet the graves of 5000 men
WHO had fought the fight and kept the
f:sth." 4 pitiful handful! of the thou
s:slds and thousands sacrificed in the war
Nkose end was net yet in sight. His
rtat heart was heavy with the woe OF
iR.a.l, and in hOmely pathcs he gave ut
tSance TO words which have been printed
ils nearly every tongue and pronounced
r9der every sky where patriotism and
tSIe valor are cherished. Words that
lave long been accepted as the purest eX-
ample of English expression extant In
LIS clear voice which suffering had soft
sied, lie said:
Z TIE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS.
.."Four score and seven years ago our
fAthers brought forth upon this continent
as new Nation conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men
:3re created equal Now we are engaged
u great civil war testing whether that
lTation or any Nation so conceived and so
dedicated. can long endure. We are met
in a great battlefield of that war. We
aave come to dedicate a portion OF that
Geld as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that that Nation
might live. 1t is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
/. But, in a larger sense. we can not ded-
icate, we can not conSecrate, we can not
hallow this ground. The brave men, liv-
ing and. dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it far above uur poor power
to add or detract The world will Little
note nor long remember what We say
here; but it can never forget what they
did here 1t is for us the living, rather.
to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here, have
thus far so nobly advanced. 1t is rather
for us to be here dedicated ts the great task
remaining before us-that from these hon
ored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last
full measure of devotion; that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain; that this Nation under
God shall have a new birth of freedom;
and that the government of the people,
by the people. for the people, shall not
perish from the earth
And they have not "died in vain,'' for
like Moslems to Mecca, journey the peo-
pie to these 'battle cemeteries" there to
learn Few lessons in patriotism While the
example of these honored dead' inspires
increased devotion to the principles for
which they gave up their lives.
OF the So National cemeteries, Airing
ton is the most beautiful and the best
known. Much that has been said about
the acquisition of Arlington by the Gov
ernment is not true. 1t never belonged to
George Washington nor to Robert 4. Lee.
1t was net confiscated by the Government.
The United States bought Arlington es-
IL slA ililIcS dS
much as its broad acres had ever been de-
clared TO he worth by the assessor.
FORMER OWNERS OF ARLINGTON.
Arlington las had but few owners, and
the title to the estate is easy to trace One
year less than 40 after the Pilgrims land
ed at Plymouth Rock, the LOO acres in
Fairfax. Va. were granted under pat
ent of Sir William Berke,y, Governor of
Virginia to Robert Howser who named
the estate for the Earl of Arlington. Its
next owners We're the Alexanders. From
them it was purchased by John Parke
Gusts, the son of Martha Washington by
her first husband. The head of the Amer
ican Gusts family was an immigrant inn
keeper, formerly of Rotterdam, II Hand
John Parke Gusts, at his DEATH de-
vised the estate to his son. George Wash
ington Parke Gusts. This was the boy
who grew up at Mount Vernon. He died
in 1857. and by will devised Arlington to
his only child, Mary Ann Randolph Gus
It's, who was married to Robert T.. Lee.
she to enjoy the estate during her life.
At her death the plantation was to be-
come the property of her son. George
Washington Gusts Lee. provided he took
the name Gusts and dropped the name Of
Lee. He was also to adopt tie Gusts
arms. He never did either, and had to
invoke the aid of the courts to give him
a clear title to the vast estates of his
grandfather. long after the war. and after
the death of his mother, tie wife Of Rob-
ert Z. Lee.
On. April 90. 1861, Robert z. Lee re-
signed his commission as Colonel in the
United States Army, and on April %
1861. with his wife, children, and most
of his servants. left Arlington for Rich
mond. On April %. Lee became Com
mander-in-Chief of the Virginia forces of
the Confederate army. The Lees thus
practically abandoned Arlington, to which
they never returned, nor did they make
the slightest attempt to assert ownership
during the life Of Mrs. Lee
In 1861, Congress, TO provide revenue
for the Government, passed an act levy
ing direct tax apportioned among the
States severally. In June, 1862, a law
was enacted providing for the collection
of this tax in insurrectionary districts,
and all tracts and parcels of land upon
which the owEers failed or refused to
pay this tax, were TO be sold in about
the same manner rs property is sold to-
day for delinquent taxes. This act also
provided that at such sale of land, by
direction of the President. it might be bid
In by the tax sale commissioners for the
United States to be used Cor war. mill
tary, naval. revenue, charitable, or police
purposes.
Yirginia's share in this direct tax was
something over 100000 Arlington
HightS formed n great stratpgical point