und respect Congress will ever
bear to her person and character; of their condolence in the late
afflicting dispensation of Providence; and entreating her assent to
the interment of the remains of General George Washington in the
manner expressed in the first resolution. As the sentiments of that
virtuous lady, not less beloved by this nation than she is at
present greatly afflicted, can never be so well expressed as in her
own words, I transmit to Congress her original letter.

"It would be an attempt of too much delicacy to make any comments
upon it; but there can be no doubt that the nation at large, as
well as all the branches of the government, will be highly
gratified by any arrangement which may diminish the sacrifices she
makes of her individual feelings.

"JOHN ADAMS.

"UNITED STATES, _January 6, 1800_."

The proposed monument has not been erected. An unsuccessful effort was
made, in 1832, to have the remains of the illustrious dead removed to
the federal capital, and placed beneath such monument. Now that the home
and tomb of Washington have, through the efforts of the women of the
United States, become the property of the nation, every American should
rejoice that his dust will ever remain to consecrate them.

[147] The following is a copy of General Lee's oration:--

"In obedience to your will, I rise, your humble organ, with
the hope of executing a part of the system of public
mourning which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative
of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved
personage this country has ever produced; and which, while
it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event,
faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate
excellence you so cordially honor.

"Desperate, indeed, is any attempt on earth to meet
correspondently this dispensation of Heaven; for while, with
pious resignation, we submit to the will of an all-gracious
Providence, we can never cease lamenting, in our finite view
of Omnipotent Wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which
our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its
centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and
momentous changes; when our peaceful quarter of the globe,
exempt, as it happily has been, from any share in the
slaughter of the human race, may yet be compe