Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, each in their sixty-sixth year on retiring. John Adams lived the longest, dying in his ninety-first year. The shortest lived was Garfield, aged forty-nine years and ten months. Age order of the Presidents when inaugurated: W. H. Harrison, Buchanan, Taylor, Jackson, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Quincy Adams, Washington, Johnson, B. Harrison, Hayes, Van Buren, McKinley, Lincoln, Tyler, Arthur, Fillmore, Polk, Garfield, Pierce, Cleveland, Grant, Taft, Roosevelt. John Adams, the only Vice-President officially presiding (April 21, 1789) prior to the inauguration of the President (April 30, 1789). John Adams, the only Vice-President presiding (April 21, 1789) prior to taking an oath. Oath administered June 2, 1789. See page 269. John Adams, Clinton, Tompkins, and Calhoun only Vice-Presidents reëlected. John Adams and Tompkins, the only Vice-Presidents who were reëlected at the reëlections of their Presidents. Tyler, Fillmore, Johnson, Arthur, and Roosevelt elected as Vice-Presidents and elevated to the Presidency by the death of their President. Two Vice-Presidents each served under two Presidents: Clinton under Jefferson and Madison, Calhoun under Quincy Adams and Jackson. Since 1833 no Vice-President served longer than four years. During the nineteenth century there has been but one Vice-President elected to the Presidency, viz. Martin Van Buren. Richard M. Johnson, the only Vice-President not elected by the Electoral College. Virginia refused to give her electoral vote, which left him without a majority. The Senate elected Johnson with 33 votes, Francis Granger receiving 16 votes. With the exception of Tyler, Wheeler, and Hendricks, none of the Vice-President candidates for election have ever been suggested, at the time of their nomination, as candidates for President. Four Vice-Presidents elected President: John Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren and Roosevelt. The State record rank" furnishing Vice-Presidents: BIRTHS RESIDENCE WHEN ELECTED Six Vice-Presidents died in office : George Clinton, April 20, 1812. Thos. A. Hendricks, November 25, 1885. Garret A. Hobart, November 21, 1899. Four died within a few days of the same day of the month in the year of their respective deaths, the other two dying in the month of April. BURIAL PLACES OF THE PRESIDENTS AND THEIR WIVES. GEORGE WASHINGTON. Buried at Mount Vernon, Virginia, on the south bank of the Potomac River, about sixteen miles from Washington. The present tomb was constructed agreeable to a clause in his will. "The family vault at Mount Vernon requiring repairs, and being improperly situated besides, I desire that a new one of brick, and upon a larger scale, may be built at the foot of what is commonly 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." The interior walls are of brick, arched over eight feet from the ground. This forms a roomy brick vault of about twelve feet square. The front of the tomb is rough, with a freestone casement, enclosing a plain iron door, over which on a stone panel is carved: "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE." Enclosing this tomb proper is a brick structure, twelve feet high, the entrance to which is an iron gateway, opening some distance in advance of the vault, forming an antechamber. The gateway is flanked with pilasters, surrounded with stone coping and cornice, covering a pointed Gothic arch; above the arch is a plain marble slab, bearing the inscription: WITHIN THIS ENCLOSURE REST THE REMAINS OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON. In the antechamber are two marble sarcophagi. The one on the right contains the remains of Washington. It is a plain sarcophagus, with a sculptured lid, upon which is represented the American shield suspended over the flag of the Union, the latter hung in festoons, and the whole surmounted, as a crest, by an eagle with open wings, perched upon the superior bar of the shield. Below the design and deeply cut is : WASHINGTON. One of the talons of the eagle in the coat-of-arms was broken off during the Civil War by some relic hunter, which incident suggested the outer and higher gate. This was the only outrage committed at Mount Vernon, though the unarmed pickets of both sides often met before the tomb. Their arms at the request of the servants in charge were left without objection at the old Porter's Lodge some three-quarters of a mile distant. There was but one gate to the tomb at this time, the iron bars not extending to the ceiling. It was over this gate the vandal climbed. This act led to the construction of the present double gate. The legend is, after the gate was locked the key was thrown into the channel of the Potomac River under orders of the Mount Vernon Association preceding a declaration that the gates are never to be opened. The sarcophagus of Mrs. Washington is perfectly plain, with the words: MARTHA CONSORT OF WASHINGTON DIED MAY 21ST 1801; AGED 71 years. The sarcophagi consist of single blocks of Pennsylvania marble, eight feet in length and two feet in height. They were constructed by John Struthers of Philadelphia, from a design by William Strickland, by whom they were presented to the relatives of Washington. The transfer of the remains to the sarcophagi was completed Saturday, October 7, 1837. In consequence of a feeling of insecurity, the body of Washington was transferred from the old family vault and placed in the new vault April 19, 1831. The present vault contains the remains of about thirty relatives, members of Washington, Blackburn, Corbin, Bushrod, Lewis, and Custis families. JOHN ADAMS. Buried beneath the portico of the "Stone Temple" (First Congregational), Unitarian Church, at Quincy, Massachusetts. The tomb is an apartment in the cellar beneath the granite portico that forms the entrance to the church, walled in with large blocks of roughly faced granite. A granite slab, seven feet by three, with a huge clasp, padlock, and massive hinges of wrought iron, all red with rust, forms the door. Within, the body lies in a leaden casket placed within a case hewn from a single block UNITARIAN CHURCH, QUINCY, MASS. of stone. Over and around this odd monument is a Gothic structure, twelve feet long, nine feet wide, and twenty feet high, with four pillars supporting a peaked roof. On the left of the pulpit (as you face it), in the church proper, is a memorial tablet to John Adams and his wife, of slightly clouded marble, seven feet by four. This is surmounted by a life-sized bust of John Adams, from the chisel of Greenough. This monument and vault and the tablet was erected by John Quincy Adams, the indenture conveying to him for the purpose 66 a space four teen feet square under the portico, with liberty to affix to any portion of the walls of the temple obituary tablets." |