Show burial in royal tomb not for old hickory y washington possesses the tomb of a roman emperor the strange boxlike box like stone atone structure on the lawn of the arts and industries dus tries building of the national museum which visitors usually pass without noticing was the occasion of a dramatic incident 00 years ago when it was first brought to wash ington In irton the tomb was secured by commodore jesse R elliott ElI Iott commander of the frigate constitution which was ras the flagship of the united static squadron in athe mediterranean in 1839 from a hillside behind the city of beirut syria although the evl evidence was not such as would satisfy an arche archaeologist archeologist elliott believed it was the tomb of the roman emperor alexander severus ile he brought it back to washington with him A few years later andrew jackson was reported dying at the ner her milage ini lago near nashville elliott had the happy or unhappy inspiration to offer the tomb to old IlIc kery as a last resting place Jacksn jacksons ns reply Is one of the classics of american literature although laboring under great debility and affliction from a severe attack from which I 1 may not recover the dying man wrote the navy of officer licer 1 I raise my pen and endeavor to reply the steadiness of my nerves may perhaps lead you to conclude my strength Is not as great as here expressed strange as it may appear my nerves are as steady as they were 40 years gone by whilst from debility and affliction I 1 am gasping tor for breath 1 I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a depository prepared for an emperor or a king lly republican feekings and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it every monument erected to ate the memory of our heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of the economy and simplicity of our republican institutions and the plainness of our republican citizens who are the sovereigns of our glorious union and whose virtue Is to perpetuate petua te it true virtue cannot exist where pomp and parade are the governing passions it can only dwell with the people the great laboring and producing classes the form the bone and sinew of our confederacy 1 I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these united states to tc be deposited in a sarcophagus made for an emperor or king I 1 have prepared a humble depository for my mortal body beside that wherein lies iles my beloved wife where without any pomp or parade I 1 have requested hen god calls me to sleep with my fathers to be laid for both of it us 03 there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to call the dead to judgment when we ve I 1 hope shall rise together clothed with the heavenly body promised to all who believe in our glorious redeemer who died for us that we ml might ht live and by whose atonement I 1 hope for a blessed immortality perhaps alexander alexande r severus severna Is just as ag well satisfied that the school children of a democratic land troop past his empty tomb without noticing it IL emperor of rome from 2 to A D successor to the degenerate Hello gabalus who had himself boffl officially bially creaked created a god he might have appreciated andrew jacksons emotional outburst lie ile appears to have been somewhat of a skeptic regarding the divinity of emperors and an open minded boy despite his environment viron ment of degeneracy ills brief reign Is chiefly distinguished tor for his feeble efforts to better the hard bard lot of the common people lie he established government loan offices where they could borrow at low interest to get them out of the clutches of the bankers ile he did much to improve the status of the common soldier of the roman legions christianity was making headway in rome the emperor was not a convert but he neglected no chances to improve his fate hereafter lie ile kept a private chapel with statues of orpheus abraham apollo and jesus and paid equal homage to all ot of them washington star |