an of our time, so far as we know, who possessed both the
character and the military ability which were, under the
circumstances, indispensable in the commander of the armies which
were to suppress the great rebellion.

"It has been said that Grant, like Lincoln, was a typical American,
and for that reason was most beloved and respected by the people.
That is true of the statesman and the soldier, as well as of the
people, if it is meant that they were the highest type, that ideal
which commands the respect and admiration of the highest and best in
a man's nature, however far he may know it to be above himself. The
soldiers and the people saw in Grant or in Lincoln, not one of
themselves, not a plain man of the people, nor yet some superior
being whom they could not understand, but the personification of
their highest ideal of a citizen, soldier, or statesman, a man whose
greatness they could see and understand as plainly as they could
anything else under the sun. And there was no more mystery about it
all, in fact, than there was in the popular mind."

[Illustration: SPEAKER THOMAS B. REED.

Resigned as Speaker in 1899.]

To the widow of General Grant was given the right to select the spot for
the last resting-place of his remains, she to repose after death beside
her husband. She decided upon Riverside. It then became the privilege of
his friends to provide a suitable tomb for the illustrious soldier. The
funds needed, amounting to nearly half a million dollars, were raised by
subscription, ground was broken on the anniversary of Grant's birthday,
April 27, 1891, and a year later the corner-stone was laid by President
Harrison.

The tomb of General Grant, standing on the banks of the Hudson, is an
imposing structure, square in shape, ninety feet on each side, and of
the Grecian-Doric order. The entrance on the south side is guarded by a
portico in double lines of columns, approached by steps seventy feet in
width. The tomb is surmounted at a height of seventy-two feet with a
cornice and parapet, above which is a circular cupola, seventy feet in
diameter, terminating in a top the shape of a pyramid, which is 280 feet
above the river.

The interior of the structure is of cruciform form, seventy-six feet at
its greatest length, the piers of masonry at the corners being connected
by arches which form recesses. The arches are fifty feet in height, and
are surmounted by