Tour the Castle's Top Floor After its First Fifty Years

This sarcophagus was removed from elevated grounds in the rear of Beirut, Syria, and embarked on the United States frigate Constitution, the flagship of the Mediterranean squadron in 1839. Who the occupant was, or what his position, is a subject of pure conjecture, though it has been supposed to have been the last resting place of a Roman Emperor.

It was placed in the Patent Office, Washington, by Commodore Jesse R. Elliott, U. S. Navy, and offered to General Andrew Jackson as a tomb for the deposit of his remains. The General, however, did not accept the honor. The following is the correspondence which took place on the subject:

NAVY YARD,
PHILADELPHIA, 8TH April, 1845.

To the PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. GENTLEMEN:

The interest which the National Institute has been pleased to take in the eventual bestowment of the remains of the honored Andrew Jackson in the sarcophagus which I brought from abroad and deposited in your Institute, makes it my business now to communicate to you a copy of his letter of the 27th ultimo lately received, on that subject.

With sentiments so congenial to his strict republicanism, and in accordance indeed with the republican feelings common to ourselves, he takes the ground of repugnance to connecting his name and fame in any way with imperial associations.

We cannot but honor the sentiments which have ruled his judgment in the case, for they are such as must add to the lustre of his character. We subscribe to them ourselves, and while we yield to their force, we may still be permitted to continue our regard to the enduring marble, as to an ancient and classic relic, a curiosity in itself, and particularly in this country as the first of its kind seen in our Western Hemisphere.

From it we would deduce the moral, that, while we would disclaim the pride, pomp, and circumstance of imperial pageantry as unfitting our institutions and professions, we would sedulously cherish the simple republican principles of reposing our fame and honors in the hearts and affections of our countrymen.

I have now, in conclusion, to say, that as the sarcophagus was originally presented with the suggestion of using it as above mentioned, I now commit it wholly to the Institute as their own and sole property, exempt from any condition.

I am, very respectfully, yours, &c.,

JESSE DUNCAN ELLIOTT.

HERMITAGE, March 27, 1845

COMMODORE J. D. ELLIOTT, United States Navy.

MY DEAR SIR:

Your letter of the 18th instant, together with the copy of the proceedings of the National Institute, furnished me by their corresponding secretary, on the presentation by you, of the sarcophagus for their acceptance, on condition it shall be preserved, and in honor of my memory, have been received, and are now before me.

Although laboring under great debility and affliction, from a severe attack, from which I may not recover, I raise my pen, and endeavor to reply. The steadiness of my nerves may perhaps lead you to conclude my prostration of strength is not as great as here expressed; strange as it may appear, my nerves are as steady as they were forty years gone by, whilst from debility and affliction, I am gasping for breath.

I have read the whole proceedings of the presentation by you of the sarcophagus, and the resohltions passed by the board of directors so honorable to my fame, with sensations and feelings more easily to be conjectured than by me expressed. The whole proceedings call for my most grateful thanks, which are hereby tendered to you, and through you, to the President and Directors of the National Institute. But, with the warmest sensations that can inspire a grateful heart, I must decline accepting the honor intended to be bestowed. I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an emperor or a king. My republican feelings and principles forbid it; the simplicity of our system of Government forbids it. Every monument erected to perpetuate the memory of our heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of the economy and simplicity of our republican institutions, and the plainness of our republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our glorious Union, and whose virtue is to perpetuate it. True virtue cannot exist where pomp and parade are the governing passions; it can only dwell with the people, the great laboring and producing classes, that form the bone and sinew of our Confederacy.

For these reasons I cannot accept the honor you, and the President and Direetors of the National Institute, intended to bestow. I cannot permit my remains to be the first in these United States to be deposited in a sarcophagus made for an emperor or king. I again repeat, please accept for yourself, and convey to the President and Directors of the National Institute, my most profound respects for the honor you and they intended to bestow. I have prepared a humble depository for my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife, where, without any pomp or parade, I have requested, when my God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid, for both of us there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to call the dead to judgment, when we, I hope, shall rise together, clothed with that heavenly body promised to all who believe in our glorious Redeemer, who died for us that we might live, and by whose atonement I hope for a blessed immortality.

I am, with great respect, your friend and fellow-citizen,

ANDREW JACKSON.

Return to start of the Top Floor of the Castle's Main Hall in 1886