FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>  
rch--the richest church in America. The stone erected to show where Andre was hanged was destroyed by a cheap patriot, who thought it represented a compliment to the spy. The spot where Alexander Hamilton was shot in the duel by Aaron Burr is known to few and will soon be forgotten. It was not until a century of obloquy had been heaped on the memory of Thomas Paine that his once enemies were brought to know him as a statesman of integrity, a philanthropist, and philosopher. His deistic religion, proclaimed in "The Age of Reason," is unfortunately no whit more independent than is preached in dozens of pulpits to-day. He died ripe in honors, despite his want of creed, and his mortal part was buried in New Rochelle, New York, under a large walnut-tree in a hay-field. Some years later his friends removed the body to a new grave in higher ground, and placed over it a monument that the opponents of his principles quickly hacked to pieces. Around the original grave there still remains a part of the old inclosure, and it was proposed to erect a suitable memorial--the Hudson and its Hills the spot, but the owner of the tract would neither give nor sell an inch of his land for the purpose of doing honor to the man. Some doubt has already been expressed as to whether the grave is beneath the monument or in the inclosure; and it is also asserted that Paine's ghost appears at intervals, hovering in the air between the two burial-places, or flitting back and forth from one to the other, lamenting the forgetfulness of men and wailing, "Where is my grave? I have lost my grave!" THE RISING OF GOUVERNEUR MORRIS Gouverneur Morris, American minister to the court of Louis XVI, was considerably enriched, at the close of the reign of terror, by plate, jewels, furniture, paintings, coaches, and so on, left in his charge by members of the French nobility, that they might not be confiscated in the sack of the city by the _sans culottes_; for so many of the aristocracy were killed and so many went into exile or disguised their names, that it was impossible to find heirs or owners for these effects. Some of the people who found France a good country to be out of came to America, where adventurers had found prosperity and refugees found peace so many times before. Marshal Ney and Bernadotte are alleged to have served in the American army during the Revolution, and at Hogansburg, New York, the Reverend Eleazer Williams, an Episcopal mission
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>  



Top keywords:
monument
 

American

 
America
 

inclosure

 
GOUVERNEUR
 
flitting
 
Gouverneur
 

MORRIS

 

RISING

 

expressed


Morris

 

considerably

 

enriched

 

minister

 

places

 

beneath

 

hovering

 

intervals

 

lamenting

 

forgetfulness


wailing

 

burial

 

asserted

 

appears

 
confiscated
 
prosperity
 

adventurers

 

refugees

 

effects

 

people


France

 
country
 
Marshal
 

Reverend

 

Hogansburg

 

Eleazer

 

Williams

 

mission

 

Episcopal

 
Revolution

Bernadotte
 
alleged
 

served

 

owners

 
members
 

charge

 

French

 

nobility

 

coaches

 
terror