| Show B urial burial in royal tomb not for old hickory washington possesses the tomb of a roman emperor the strange boxlike box like stone structure on tho the lawn of the arts nod 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 washington the tomb was secured by commodore jesse it II elliott commander of the frigate constitution which was the flagship of the united states squadron in athe mediterranean in 1839 front from a hillside behind the city of beirut syria although the evidence was not such buch as would satisfy an arche archaeologist archeologist elliott believed it was the tomb of the roman emperor alexander severus lie ile brought it back to washington with him A few years later andrew jackson was reported dying at the hermitage near nashville elliott had the happy or unhappy inspiration to offer the tomb to old as a last resting place jacksons reply Is one of the classics of american literature although laboring under great delill debility ity and affliction from a severe attach from which I 1 may not recover tile tie dying man wrote the navy officer 1 I raise my pen and endeavor to r reply ply 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 for breath 1 I cannot consent that my in mortal ortal body shall be laid in a depository prepared for an emperor or a king my republican fe feedings elliza and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it every monument erected to ate the memory of 0 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 toper to perpetuate 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 th the bone and sinew of our confederacy 1 I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these united states to tn 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 ray my beloved wife where without any pomp or parade I 1 have requested when god calls me to sleep with my fathers to be laid for both of us DS thero there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to call the dead to judgment inclement when we I 1 hope shall rise to together ether clothed with the heavenly body promised to all who believe in our oar glorious redeemer who died for us that we might live and by whose atonement I 1 hope tor for a blessed immortality perhaps alexander severus Is just as well satisfied that the school children of a democratic land troop past his empty tomb without noticing it emperor of rome from to A D successor to the degenerate Hello gabalus who had himself officially created a god he might have appreciated andrew jacksons emotional outburst lie he appears to have bare been somewhat of a skeptic regarding the divinity of emperors and nn an open minded boy despite his environment viron ment of degeneracy nis his brief reign Is chiefly distinguished for his feeble efforts to better the hard lot of the common people lie ile established government loan offices where they could borrow at low interest to get them out of the clutches of the b bankers ankers ne ile 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 ne neglected gleste 1 I no chances to improve his fate hereafter lie ile kept a private chipel chapel with statues of orpheus abraham apollo and jesus and paid equal homage to all of them washington star |
