McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-04-28
! NEW YORK
! LETTER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Wdihou dHtnS hlVeFSlQ6 DrlV6 tDo
other Sunday morning, to see Grants
tomb. The ice broken in huge cakes,
lay in the Hudson river far below;
the tall cliffs on the other side glist-
ened in the morning sun, and there
were throngs Of people along the
Drive. walking in the bracing air;
nearly all we'll dressed and looking
very prosperous. At l2lst street, on
noble eminence two hundred and fif-
ty above the river. near upper Broad
way, stands the round dome Of the
tomb. A subdued light fell from pur-
Pile windows on various angles of the
structure, and we walked in and ap-
preached the circular wall, waist high,
inside, which forms an immense well,
some fifty feet wide and perhaps ff-
teen feet deep, on the floor which
rerts the sarcophagi in which repose
the mortal remains Of Ulysses S Grant
and his wife, Julia Dent Grant. She
rests at his right side, and each sar-
cophagus, hewn out of Wisconsin por-
phyry of dull reddish color and
highly polished, is about five feet
high, four feet wide and fourteen
feet long. These tombs of solid stone
weigh l4.000 pounds each, and are
highly polished. Their top edges are
about six inches apart, and they are
perhaps two feet apart at the bottom,
where they rest on a thick platform
of black granite from Maine. Wreaths
of sago palm tied with ribbon lie
upon each tomb, hiding the inscribed
names. There are steps going down
to the floor Of the we'll at the rear,
but no one is ever allowed to GO down
there to the sarcophagi except the
attendants of the building. and rela-
tives of the Grant family. The state
of New York maintains watchmen
there day and night, and small indeed
is the chance of some miscreant to
desecrate this tomb. The bodies lie
in leaden coffins sealed under the ex-
tremely heavy stone lids, and the light
of day will not, for many generations,
perhaps, look again upon the mortal
dust Of Americas greatest general.
Here, then, sleeps the man upon
whose shoulders rested the tragedy Of
Shiloh; who beseiged Wcksburg, and
who attained the pinnacle of military
glory in the closing days Of the civil
war as lieutenant general of the union
army; who was twice president Of the
United States, and whose later trip
around the world, whether in Europe,
Asia or elsewhere, was one long tour
Of triumph; whose habit Of keeping a
cigar, generally unlighted, in his
mouth during all bis waking hours,
brought on the cancer Of the throat
from which he died in July, 1886,
after tasting the bitterness of defeat
for third nomination for the presi-
dency. and the humiliation of being
mixed up in commercial speculation
which swept away all his fortune
which, however, he won back, while
still sick man, by selling the memoirs
dictated to his secretary from his bee
Of pain. Thousands Of organizations
corporations, city councils and other
bodies passed resolutions Of respect
and some Of these, together with tat.
tered battle flags Of his old commands
are exhibited in side rooms near the
great tomb chamber; beautifully ex
pressed and handsomely engrossed
In one of them were copied a verse Of
that splendid poem of Theodore Ola
ra, which, | have heard my father re
, peat so often, with eloquent express
ion, and it seemed so much in place
in that shadowy house of the honoret
dead:
"On fame's eternal camping grounC
Their silents tents are spread
And Glory guards, with solemn roun,
, The bivouac of the dead"
Yes, America encircles with glor,
} her great military heroes. To then
, have been reared the finest statues a
/. the nations capital, as if TO say t.
: the world: I'VE know how to defen
3 ourselves, and we never forget ou
b defenders Ulysses Grant was a
: obscure tanner Qike my grandfathe
q Perkins, at Galena, Illinois. befor
t the civil war, and but for that wal