The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Keep your sacrilegious hands off these venerable stones! Parian
marble, wrought with consummate skill, could not replace them.
Connected with these homely monuments are historical associations
that ought not to be forgotten. The scarcity of better materials,
the rudeness of monumental sculpture, the poverty of the country,
the early struggles and pecuniary embarrassments of the colony, at
the period when these monuments were erected, as well as the
self-denial and hardships and labors of the distinguished men who
gave fame and usefulness to Nassau Hall, are indicated by these
rough stones. Nothing modern, nothing polished or magnificent,
could suggest the early history of New Jersey. Spare what remains
of these broken memorials. Thoughtless young man! why do you break
and deface these old monuments? A few fragments carried in your
pocket, or placed in your cabinet, will not impart to you the
activity and energy of Burr, or the profound and logical intellect
of Edwards, or the eloquence of Davies, or the piety and triumphant
death of Finley, or the poetical wisdom, the power of governing and
inspiring youth, the love of knowledge, and the stern, unflinching
patriotism of Witherspoon. If you admire and reverence the
character of these great and good men, read their works imitate
their example; and forbear, we beseech you, to add to the shameful
mutilation of the frail memorials intended to protect their bones
from insult.
But there is a strange and startling incongruity observable in this
enclosure. At the foot of the grave where rest the remains of the
venerable Aaron Burr, first president of the College of New Jersey,
stands a tall white marble monument of modern form and appearance, so
utterly out of keeping with the rest of the tombs, that the visitor at
once turns to it, and is none the less startled to find that it marks
the last resting-place of that other Aaron Burr, the traitor, the
duellist, the libertine, whose remains, brought hither in the night,
were surreptitiously buried at the feet of his venerated father, and
this monument placed over them, years afterwards, in the same manner.
And for his father's sake, there they were suffered to remain. 'After
life's fitful fever he sleeps well,' in the midst of these old grey
stones, and surrounded by the honored dead. The monument bears no
record, except his name, the dates of his birth and death, and the
statement that he was Vice-President of the United States from 1801 to
1805. It is as if it said,--
'No further seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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