Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb__ A Tour of Presidential Gravesites - Brian Lamb [8]
Our executive assistant, Amy Spolrich, helped with photo editing for this new edition.
Marty Dominguez was the overall coordinator of this book project, while Ellen Vest was responsible for its look. Initial editing was done by Karen Jarmon. Historical verification came from two sources—Richard Norton Smith, who made contributions to each chapter and checked our facts, and from longtime C-SPAN education consultant Dr. John Splaine. John contributed significantly to many of the historical projects mounted by our network. Susan Swain, our executive vice president, adds her indispensable work on this book to a long list of C-SPAN publications.
Thanks, too, to Peter Osnos, Susan Weinberg, and the rest of the staff at PublicAffairs. Their interest in this project allows this book to make its way to many new readers.
Finally, a word of thanks to the cable industry, especially our board of cable executives—this year, headed by Advance Newhouse Chairman Bob Miron—for their ongoing support of C-SPAN. More than thirty years ago, the cable television industry agreed to fund C-SPAN as a public service. C-SPAN is a not-for-profit company, offering commercial-free public affairs programming that includes daily live coverage of the U.S. Congress, programs about nonfiction books, extensive political coverage, and special series like American Presidents. Our affiliates, both cable and satellite, carry our three networks, C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3, as a service to their customers.
Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb? is a lighter look at American history, yet it has a serious intent. We hope our book, full of facts about the final years of our nation’s chief executives, will send you on a journey of discovery that helps you better understand certain aspects of our shared national history.
Brian Lamb
Washington, D.C.
December 2009
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’inevitable hour:
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
—Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, 1750
George Washington
Buried: Mount Vernon Estate, Mount Vernon, Virginia
First President - 1789-1797
Born: February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died: 10:20 p.m. on December 14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, Virginia
Age at death: 67
Cause of death: Sore throat
Final words: “ ‘Tis well”
Admission to Mount Vernon: $15.00
George Washington’s election to the presidency was really more of a coronation. Every one of the sixty-nine electors voted for the leader whose resume read like a timeline for the new republic. Thus the commander in chief of the revolutionary army and president of the Constitutional Convention became the first president of the fledgling United States of America.
Washington served two precedent-setting terms in New York and Philadelphia, the new nation’s first two capital cities. In 1797, Washington, a country squire at heart, happily retired with his wife Martha to their beloved Virginia estate, Mount Vernon. Having become an icon, he learned to cope with the constant stream of sightseers to his home. He lived to enjoy only three more years at his refuge on the Potomac.
A wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain pelted Mount Vernon on December 12, 1799. Washington made his daily inspection tour of the estate but came down with a sore throat the next morning. His condition worsened and by December 14 the general’s throat began to close. Doctors were summoned.
Sign marking George Washington’s first tomb. The bodies of George and Martha Washington were moved to a new tomb in 1831.
The dying Washington was in control to the end: afraid of being buried alive, he ordered his secretary, Tobias Lear, not to allow his body to be interred less than three days after his death. As he was taking his own pulse, George