brick, and upon a larger scale, may be built at the foot of what is called the Vineyard Enclosure, on the ground which is marked out, in which my remains, and those of my deceased relatives (now in the old vault), and such others of my family as may choose to be entombed there, may be deposited.'

For thirty years the remains of Washington lay undisturbed in the old vault, when the tomb was entered and an attempt was made to carry away the bones of the illustrious dead. Others were taken by mistake, and the robber being detected, they were recovered. A new vault was soon afterward erected

upon the spot designated by Washington, and the old one is now a gaping ruin.

Congress was in session at Philadelphia, when information of the death of Washington reached them on the day of his funeral. On the following day the announcement of it was formally made on the floor of the House of Representatives, by the Honorable John Marshall, of Virginia (afterward chiefjustice of the United States), and after some appropriate action, the House adjourned.

On Monday, the 23d of December, the Congress adopted joint resolutions-first, that a marble monument should be erected at the capitol; second, that there should be “a funeral procession from Congress Hall to the German Lutheran Church, in memory of General George Washington, on Thursday, the 26th instant," and that an oration be prepared at the request of Congress, to be delivered before both Houses that day; and that the president of the Senate, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, be desired to request one of the members of Congress to prepare and deliver the same; third, that the people of the United States should be recommended to wear crape on their left arm as mourning for thirty days; fourth, that the president of the United States should direct a copy of the resolutions to be transmitted to Mrs. Washington, with words of condolence, and a request that her husband's remains might be interred at the capitol of the republic.

On the 30th of December Congress further resolved, that it should be recommended to the people of the Union to assemble on the succeeding 22d of February, "to testify their grief by suitable eulogies, orations, and discourses, or by public prayers."

In accordance with one of the foregoing resolutions, General Henry Lee, of Virginia, then a member of Congress, was invited to pronounce an oration on the 26th. He consented, and the Lutheran Church in Fourth street, above Arch, in Philadelphia, the largest in the city, was crowded on that occasion. No man in the Congress could have been chosen better fitted for the service than General Lee. He had served his country nobly as an officer of cavalry during the war for independence, and from boyhood had been a special favorite of Washington. He was a son of that "Lowland Beauty" who won the heart of young Washington, and drew sentimental verses from his pen. Throughout the war he was beloved by his chief for his manly and soldierly qualities, and he was an ever welcome guest at

Mount Vernon, where he was on terms of the greatest intimacy with Washington and his family. Mr. Irving gives the following example of Lee's perfect familiarity with his chief, when on a visit at Mount Vernon after the war:

"Washington one day at table mentioned his being in want of carriage-horses, and asked Lee if he knew where he could get a pair.

"I have a fine pair, General,' replied Lee, 'but you cannot get them."

"Because you will never pay more than half price for any thing; and I must have full price for my horses.'

"The bantering reply set Mrs. Washington laughing, and her parrot, perched beside her, joined in the laugh. The general took this familiar assault upon his dignity, in good part. Ah, Lee, you are a funny fellow,' he said 'see, that bird is laughing at you.'

Lee's oration on the death of Washington, though hastily prepared, was an admirable production: and in it he pronounced those remarkable words of eulogy, so often quoted:

66 FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE, FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF

On that occasion, the McPherson's Blues, a military corps of Philadelphia, composed of three hundred young men, the élite of the city, performed the duties of a guard of honor. Only seven of them, who were present on that occasion, now (August, 1859) survive, namely: Samuel Breck, aged eightyeight; S. Palmer, aged seventy-nine; S. F. Smith, aged seventy.

nine; Charles N. Bancker, aged eighty-three; Quintin Camp

M'PHERSON'S BLUE.

bell, aged eighty-three, Robert Carr, aged eighty-two, and the annalist of Philadelphia and New York, aged eighty.

President Adams transmitted the resolutions of Congress to Mrs. Washington, and in reply to their request concerning the remains of her husband, she said:

"Taught by the great example which I have so long had before me, never to oppose my private wishes to the public will, I must consent to the request made by Congress, which you have the goodness to transmit to me; and in doing this, I need not, I cannot say, what a sacrifice of individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty."

The remains of Washington have never been removed from his beloved Mount Vernon. It is well. They never should be. The HOME and the TOMB of our

illustrious Friend, should be inseparable; and the glowing words of LUNT should express the sentiment of every American:

"Ay, leave him alone to sleep forever,

Till the strong archangel calls for the dead,
By the verdant bank of that rushing river,
Where first they pillowed his mighty head.

"Lowly may be the turf that covers

The sacred grave of his last repose;

But, oh! there's a glory round it hovers,

Broad as the daybreak, and bright as its close.