The Making of an American Pantheon: The Story of Grant’s Tomb

00:00:11
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And up next to the story of Ulysses S. Grant, our 18th president. But this isn’t a story about his Civil War victories or his presidency. It’s about his final resting place. Here to tell the story is Lewis Picone, author of Grant’s Tomb. Take it away.

00:00:31
Speaker 2: Lewis, Grant was the most popular man in America.

00:00:37
Speaker 3: But he was also perhaps the one figure that was admired by all sections and was really a unifier.

00:00:44
Speaker 2: And this was a…

00:00:45
Speaker 3: time when America was still greatly divided after the Civil War. This was only fifteen, eighteen years after the Civil War. But he was beloved by Democrats and Republicans, by Northerners and Southerners, by whites and African Americans, by men and women in the North. He was the savior of the Union. He was a liberator of four million enslaved. But even in the South, he was beloved. And it’s just, it’s fascinating to think about that because he was the victorious general that defeated the South in the Civil War. But he was beloved because he was magnanimous. He had given generous terms to Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, but also, all throughout the war. He was known for treating Southerners with compassion, whether they were captured soldiers or whether they were Southern citizens.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: But he was diagnosed with inoperable throat…

00:01:33
Speaker 3: and tongue cancer, which at the time, a diagnosis of cancer was pretty much a death sentence. He died on July 23rd. He was surrounded by all of his loved ones. He was surrounded by his children, by his wife, Julia, by his doctors, who he had grown so close with. It was what was considered a good Victorian death. The country was united. There was outpourings of grief and notes of condolence that came in from the North, the South, and all throughout the world. Even before he had died, Confederate generals that he had been friendly with at West Point before the Civil War had come to visit him on his deathbed to say their final goodbyes.

00:02:18
Speaker 2: But the public’s…

00:02:19
Speaker 3: outpouring of grief was immense. It was something that had never been seen before, because, one, he was beloved by the North and the South, unlike Abraham Lincoln years earlier, and also the public had this long time to prepare for this kind of, like, this long drawn-out saga of basically reading about and watching Grant die. So, it was really an immense outpouring of grief that would then manifest itself first in the funeral but then later in the tomb. So, the opening act of Grant’s funeral, first his body was take can buy train to Albany and he was placed in a public space where he can lie in state, and thousands and thousands of people lined up to see the remains of Grant because at the time, even with Lincoln, it was an open coffin.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: funeral that was held.

00:03:16
Speaker 3: That was kind of the expectation at the time that the public would get to look upon the remains one final time. After the public viewing in Albany, the body was again placed on a funeral train that brought the remains to New York City. An interesting side note, just to show how popular Grant was, there was a coffin company that had created a one-of-a-kind, beautiful coffin that Grant would be buried in, and it was shipped ahead of Grant’s body.

00:03:46
Speaker 2: It was shipped to New York City.

00:03:48
Speaker 3: So, the funeral company that had handled Grant’s funeral had put the empty coffin on display in their storefront window, and 70,000 New Yorkers lined up just to see the empty coffin of Grant, and that kind of gives a taste of what the funeral would be like in a couple of days. First, the procession marched seven miles and it included 60,000 marchers. If you were sitting on a bench in New York City at the time, it would have taken five hours for the funeral procession to pass you. From beginning to end, there was 60,000 marchers. Many of those were Union veterans, but there was also more than a handful of Confederate veterans that had traveled to pay their respects to Grant. Two of the pallbearers were Confederate generals as well. The funeral had this permeation of reunification and reconciliation throughout it. It was the largest funeral that had ever been held for any president up until this time. One and a half million people witnessed the funeral, which is more than the population of New York City.

00:05:08
Speaker 2: At the time, the population was about 1.3 million people.

00:05:11
Speaker 3: One and a half million people saw the funeral, so much larger than a concert at Madison Square Garden. Even if The Beatles came to Madison Square Garden, they wouldn’t have gotten that many people crammed into.

00:05:21
Speaker 2: New York City to see them.

00:05:22
Speaker 3: And the phrase that was repeated all throughout the funeral event, whether it was in speeches or whether it was held in banners, was Grant’s campaign slogan of reunification: “Let us have peace.” They were almost repeated as if they were Grant’s final words, and that “let us have peace” kind of became the hallmark of his death and his tomb. So, the remains were placed in a temporary crypt in Riverside Park, and there was reports that the designer had basically sat down to this eye the crypt and 20 minutes later he was done.

00:06:02
Speaker 2: And if you see images of it, that that’s pretty easy to believe. It kind of looks like a pizza oven.

00:06:08
Speaker 3: But the intentions were, he’s not going to be there for long because right away after he died, that’s when the mayor, Mayor William Grace, had gathered together Gilded Age elites: President Chester Arthur, former President Chester Arthur, New York City former and past mayors and governors, titans of industry—J.P. Morgan and Joseph Pulitzer, Astor and Vanderbilt. He gathered them together to form the Grant Monument Association, whose mission was to build a magnificent Gilded Age monument for Granted.

00:06:46
Speaker 1: And indeed he was a warrior, and his mantra: “Let us have peace.” Many a warrior, as that is their mantra. Nobody knows the price of war better than warriors. Were Unification, reconciliation where he his themes. And when we come back, more of the story of Grant’s Tomb with Lewis Picone here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past, know that all of our stories about American history—from war to innovation, culture, and faith—are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale.edu to learn more. And we return to Our American Stories and the story of Grant’s Tomb. When we last left off, Grant had succumbed to his cancer and had a massive funeral in New York City. He was then placed in a temporary crypt as Gilded Age elites worked to create his marvel of a tomb. But while the idea for a tomb had been around for a while, where to bury him was another story. Let’s continue with Lewis Picone.

00:08:38
Speaker 3: Well, the idea for a grand tomb to honor this great man, it started coming back while he was still alive.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: There was talk about that even before he had died.

00:08:50
Speaker 3: But several weeks before he had died, he had tried to speak with his family about his thoughts about where he should be buried. He had mentioned several different laws locations. He had mentioned Saint Louis; they had lived there and he had a cemetery plot that he owned there. He had mentioned Illinois; he had mentioned West Point, but he had also mentioned New York City.

00:09:12
Speaker 2: But ultimately, his family wouldn’t speak to him about it.

00:09:15
Speaker 3: They were still in denial, and Julia just couldn’t bring herself to have the conversation with Grant. So, when he died, it was still undetermined about where he would be buried, and it seemed like everyone in the public had an opinion. Most people felt that Grant should be buried on national ground. He was a national hero. West Point or Arlington Cemetery or the Old Soldier’s Home, and it kind of became almost like a national competition where cities were vying for the honor.

00:09:45
Speaker 2: But Julia ended up choosing New…

00:09:47
Speaker 3: York City, really, for three reasons. One is that she still lived in New York City. That would be a close location where she can go visit the grave. Number two was the mayor of New York City. He aggressively he lobbied the family for the honor of hosting Grant’s Tomb. He had sent a telegram just a couple of hours after it was announced that Grant had died, to the family, again offering his city, offering to take the family on a tour anywhere throughout the city. They can choose the location, and he also promised this grand, unprecedented…

00:10:21
Speaker 2: Gilded Age tomb would be built in his honor.

00:10:24
Speaker 3: Perhaps the most important reason why Julia had chosen New York City was that she could be buried by Grant’s side. Now, in West Point, Arlington Cemetery, the Old Soldier’s Home—which was kind of like the Summer White House in Washington, D.C.—all of those locations had regulations that only members of the military could be buried there and spouses couldn’t be buried there. So, for Julia, that was a showstopper, and that was really the primary reason why she ended up choosing New York City.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: They had settled on Riverside Park. Riverside Park is, it’s very far north in the city.

00:11:02
Speaker 3: If a tourist goes to New York City and they go to the Empire State Building and they go to Rockefeller Center or the Broadway show Times Square, Riverside Park is about 70, 80 blocks north of that. It’s pretty close to Columbia University. But the mayor of New York City had kind of sold the family on that location for several different reasons.

00:11:25
Speaker 2: At that time, there was very little population.

00:11:28
Speaker 3: One reporter had said that there were more goats than people, but the mayor had felt that eventually the population would keep moving further and further north, and Riverside Park would become the cultural and population center of the city. Now, the population moved further and further north, but that never really happened where it became the cultural center of the city. The other reason was that the mayor had convinced the family that since this was so unpopulated, that when they built this magnificent tomb for Grant, the architects would really have a blank slate to work from.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: of $1 million.

00:12:20
Speaker 3: Nothing like that had ever been raised through public subscription before. That’s how Lincoln’s Tomb had been funded, and that’s how Garfield’s Tomb had been funded.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: But those tombs were much, much less.

00:12:32
Speaker 3: Than $1 million, so the $1 million target was really just an astronomically ambitious target that they’d had. There were some efforts to capitalize on the fact that there were so many people in New York City for the funeral, so there were some canisters that were set up throughout the city to raise money. Children held fares and bake sales; they were getting little articles written about them in the newspapers.

00:12:54
Speaker 2: And it was also perfect timing.

00:12:56
Speaker 3: If Grant had died 10 years earlier, the country would have had still been too greatly…

00:13:02
Speaker 2: divided to really focus…

00:13:03
Speaker 3: on the cause of building this Grant’s Tomb, or really celebrating Grant’s death or memorializing his death in such…

00:13:10
Speaker 2: a universal fashion.

00:13:11
Speaker 3: If he had died 10 years later, the Civil War would have kind of passed a little bit more into history, and Grant’s star would have fallen just a little bit more by that point.

00:13:24
Speaker 2: But after that…

00:13:25
Speaker 3: strong start, fundraising and donations began to taper off. After the funeral and after all the public sentiment had started to dissipate and public attention had looked to focus on other things, and the mourning black mourning ribbons and the banners were taken down off the homes, fundraising kind of started to dry up. At about $100,000, and a couple of years later there were only about $150,000, so outside of New York City, very few funds ended up coming into the Grant Monument to Grant’s Tomb. Almost immediately, there was an outcry for everyone outside of New York City, feeling that New York City had basically stolen the tomb, that it wasn’t the right location. The opinion was, “You know what? New York City wanted this.” They convinced the family, “Let them fundraise it.” “I’m not sending them a dime.” Another thing, which is really hard to believe. At this time, 20 years after the Civil War, there wasn’t even a statue of Grant in America. So, after Grant had passed away, there were all of these other efforts to memorialize Grant that were popping up throughout the country. In Leavenworth, Kansas; in Philadelphia; in Chicago, there was these other Grant monument funds, or some of them are actually named the Grant Monument Association, to even add to the confusion, but there was just all of these other efforts that were vying for the public’s dollars to memorialize Grant. Every dollar that went to the statue in Chicago was one less dollar that was coming to the tomb in New York City. But also, it wasn’t until 1895, years after Grant had died, that a design was finally chosen, and that was another reason why the fundraising had dried up, because people didn’t know what they were donating towards. They had felt that after so many years, “They don’t even know what they’re building. How come I’m donating to? I don’t even know what I’m donating towards.”

00:15:17
Speaker 2: So, fundraising had started.

00:15:19
Speaker 3: off strong, but it very quickly had turned into a challenge. So, finally, September 1890, a big milestone was achieved when John Hemenway Duncan, who was an architect from New York City, was chosen with the winning design. That wasn’t the end of the difficulties. The original target that was set by the Grant Monument Association was in the fall of 1895 to complete the tomb, but there were stone workers’ strikes, there was the Panic of 1893, there was other issues. One of the big problems was with the leadership with the Grant Monument Association. These Gilded Age elites that were on the board of the Grant Monument Association kind of got distracted with their with their Gilded Age businesses and they really didn’t give the attention to the Grant Monument Association and Grant’s Tomb that it really needed to help drive it forward. It turns out the fall of 1895 ended up getting pushed several times, and it wasn’t until April 1897 when they finally completed and dedicated Grant’s Tomb. And even though they were able to raise the funds to complete the tomb, it wasn’t the $1 million that they had originally budgeted or that they had originally…

00:16:34
Speaker 2: set the goal for.

00:16:35
Speaker 3: So, several features in Duncan’s original vision were end up scaled back; like the tomb was shortened from 100…

00:16:42
Speaker 2: and 60 feet to 150 feet.

00:16:44
Speaker 3: There was statuary that was eliminated so they can meet the budget.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: So, it wasn’t until 12 years later that they had the dedication.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: And you might think by that point the public had forgotten about Grant. He’s now been dead for 12 years, but the affection and the public sentiment for Grant was still just as just as powerful and just as strong as it was at the funeral 12 years earlier.

00:17:10
Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Lewis Picone tell the story of Grant’s Tomb, which, by the way, still sits in a beautiful area in the Morningside Heights neighborhood, very near Columbia University, in the shadows of the George Washington Bridge, that famous bridge you see in movies up just ahead. It’s a great place to bring your family to touch a piece of history. Visit, if you ever get to New York City. And when we come back, more of this remarkable story, Grant’s Tombs story here on Our American Stories. And we return to Our American Stories and the story of Grant’s Tomb. In the 1950s, Groucho Marx had a joke disguised as a question for contestants on his show You Bet Your Life. It goes, “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” And the answer was, “No one, as Grant is buried in a sarcophagus above the ground.” But in the ’50s, not very many people knew that. But during the dedication of Grant’s Tomb, most people did. Grant was on the top of everyone’s mind years after his death for the dedication of his Tomb. Let’s continue with Lewis Picone telling us about that event.

00:18:48
Speaker 3: The public sentiment for Grant was still just as just as powerful and just as strong as it was at the funeral 12 years earlier. There was another dedication procession that was almost as large as the funeral march that had taken place 12 years earlier. Thousands attended the dedication, including the dedication address being made by President William McKinley at the time. Former President Grover Cleveland was there by Wil