h they neglect the graves
of illustrious persons who have reflected honor on the national life. We
may as well take this criticism directly home to ourselves. In the United
States there is nothing to correspond with England's Westminster Abbey,
and how many American schoolboys are there who are able to name the
burial-places of so many as a dozen of our Presidents, famous statesmen,
generals, admirals, and men of letters?

Nearly all the resting-places of our Presidents have been purchased by
private means, and in several cases the monuments that mark them have been
erected with funds obtained by popular subscription.

Unfortunately, however, many of these spots that should be held in
veneration by the citizens of the republic have, from time to time, been
suffered to remain in a state of neglect that reflects little credit on
the national spirit--and this, too, notwithstanding the proposition to
raise the salary of the President of the United States to one hundred
thousand dollars per annum and to pension retired Presidents at
twenty-five thousand dollars.

George Washington's tomb is situated at some little distance from the
mansion at Mount Vernon. Surrounded by sweet briar, trailing arbutus, and
other flowers, it is the Mecca of Americans as well as the revered
visiting-place of thousands of Europeans. The tomb is of brick, according
to Washington's desire. The front is plain, with a wide gateway arching
over double iron gates, above which is the inscription upon a plain white
marble slab:

Within This Enclosure
Rest the Remains of
GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON.

The sarcophagi containing the bodies of George and Martha Washington are
in the anteroom, behind which is the vault where the bodies of about
thirty members of the family repose. On a tablet over the door are the
words: "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in Me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live."

On the sarcophagus of Mrs. Washington is the inscription: "Martha, Consort
of Washington; died 22nd of May, 1802; aged 71 years."

That of Washington is ornamented with the United States coat-of-arms upon
a draped flag, and bears the all-sufficient word:

WASHINGTON.

John Adams, the second President, rests side by side with his son, John
Quincy Adams, under the First Congregational Church, where they worshiped
in their native town of Braintree, Massachusetts, now called Quincy. The
tomb is in the front part of the cellar,