Washington, DC, 1999.
Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
For more information about this text and this American Memory collection, refer to accompanying matter.
The National Digital Library Program at the Library of Congress makes digitized historical materials available for education and scholarship.
This transcription is intended to have an accuracy of 99.95 percent or greater and is not intended to reproduce the appearance of the original work. The accompanying images provide a facsimile of this work and represent the appearance of the original.
THIS SARCOPHAGUS
WAS THE
Repository of the Remains of the Roman Emperor. Alexander Severus, procured at Beyroot, in Syria, by Commodore Jesse D. Elliott,
Who brought it to the United States in the year 1839, on board the Frigate Constitution, and presented it to the National Institute, as a resting-place for the remains of General Jackson. The Commodore at the same time presented the accompanying Marble Slab, a portion of the temple erected by Miltiades on the plains of Marathon, after his famous victory over the Persians, in the year 490 B. C., where it was procured by the Commodore in person.
COMMODORE ELLIOTT'S LETTER OF PRESENTATION.
Navy Yard, Philadelphia,
April
8, 1845.
Gentlemen:
The interest which the National Institute has been pleased to take in the eventual bestowment of the remains of the Honorable
Andrew Jackson,
in the Sarcophagus which I brought from abroad and deposited in your Institute, makes it my business now to communicate to you a copy of his letter of the 27th ultimo, lately received on that subject, with sentiments so congenial to his strict republicanism, and in accordance, indeed, with the republican feelings common to ourselves, he takes the ground of repugnance to connecting his name and fame in any way with imperial associations. We cannot but honor the sentiments which have ruled his judgment in the case, for they are such as must add to the lustre of his character. We subscribe to them ourselves; and while we yield to their force, we may still be permitted to continue our regard to the enduring marble, as to an ancient and classic relic, a curiosity in itself, and, particularly in this country, as the first of its kind seen in our western hemisphere. From it we would deduce the moral, that while we would disclaim the pride, pomp, and circumstances of imperial pageantry, as unfitting our institutions and professions, we would sedulously cherish the simple republican principles of reposing our fame and honors in the hearts and affections of our countrymen. I have now, in conclusion, to say that as the Sarcophagus was originally presented with the suggestion of using it as above mentioned, I now commit it wholly to the Institute as their own and sole property, exempt from any condition.
I am, very respectfully, yours, &c.,
JESSE DUNCAN ELLIOTT.
To the
President and Directors
of the National Institute at Washington.
GENERAL JACKSON'S REPLY
TO THE
OFFER MADE HIM OF THE SARCOPHAGUS FOR HIS BURIAL PLACE.
Hermitage,
March
27
th,
1845.
Dear Sir:
Your letter of the 18th instant, together with the copy of the proceedings of the
National Institute,
furnished me by their corresponding secretary, on the presentation by you of the Sarcophagus for their acceptance, on condition it shall be preserved, and in honor of my memory, have been received and are now before me. Although laboring under great debility and affliction from a severe attack from which I may not recover, I raise my pen and endeavor to reply. The steadiness of my nerves may perhaps lead you to conclude my prostration of strength is not so great as here expressed. Strange as it may appear, my nerves are as steady as they were forty years gone by, whilst from debility and affliction I am gasping for breath. I have read the whole proceedings of the presentation by you of the Sarcophagus, and the resolutions passed by the Board of Directors, so honorable to my fame, with sensations and feelings more easily to be conjectured than by me expressed. The whole proceedings call for my most grateful thanks, which are hereby tendered to you, and through you to the President of the National Institute. But with the warmest sensations that can inspire a grateful heart,
I must decline accepting the honor intended to be bestowed.
I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King—my republican feelings and principles forbid it—the simplicity of our system of government forbids it. Every monument erected to perpetuate 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 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, that form the bone and sinew of our confederacy. For these reasons I cannot accept the honor you and the President and Directors of the
National Institute
intended to bestow. I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these United States to be deposited in a Sarcophagus made for an Emperor or King. I again repeat, please accept for yourself, and convey to the President and Directors of the National Institute, my profound respects for the honor you and they intended to bestow.
I have prepared an humble depository for my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, where, without any pomp or parade, I have requested, when my God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid, for both of us there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to call the dead to judgment, when we, I hope, shall rise together, clothed with that heavenly body promised to all who believe in our glorious Redeemer, who died for us that we might live, and by whose atonement I hope for a blessed immortality.
I am, with great respect, your friend and fellow citizen,
ANDREW JACKSON.
To Hon. J. D. Elliott,
United States Navy.