Two Extra Crypts!!!

[Donna McCreary]

I agree that Robert would have been most unhappy with his wife's choice of a burial location.
However, I think she did manage to secure Robert's "own place in the sun." By the time of Robert's death, the Lincoln Tomb had already been rebuilt due to the stress caused on the structure from the number of people who visited. MHL wanted a peaceful place of burial - not someplace where bodies had to be dug up and moved every so often because of remodeling the tomb. She may have borrowed the phrase "own place in the sun" from Kaiser Wilhelm's 1901 speech in which he discussed the future of Germany. It was not about being the biggest, or the best, or the most visited; it was about finding a place in the greater world that is your own. She accomplished that for Robert. She gave him a quiet eternal resting spot - separate from the noise, traffic, and tourism of the Lincoln Tomb.
Afterall, people who go to the Lincoln Tomb do not go there to pay respect to Robert or any other member of the family. They go because of Abraham. Those who hunt and seek out Robert's grave, are truly paying their respect to him. I think that is what MHL wanted.

[Gene C]

Well said Donna. I imagine Abraham might have preferred a quieter spot than what he has, but Mary might have liked all the attention.

[Eva Elisabeth]

(05-22-2014 11:02 AM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  She may have borrowed the phrase "own place in the sun" from Kaiser Wilhelm's 1901 speech in which he discussed the future of Germany.

Sure irrelevant, but the phrase is originally from a famous speech Bernhard von Bülow, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909) gave in Berlin on Dec. 6, 1897, which he closed: "In short, we do not want to put anyone in our shadow, but we also demand our place in the sun". His vision of Germany as a colonial power became the ideological foundation of German naval expansion, which began shortly thereafter.

In a speech given to the North German Regatta Association in Hamburg on June 9, 1901, Wilhelm II refered to von Bülows words as follows: "In spite of the fact that we have no such fleet as we should have, we have conquered for ourselves a place in the sun."

[LincolnToddFan]

(05-22-2014 12:34 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Well said Donna. I imagine Abraham might have preferred a quieter spot than what he has, but Mary might have liked all the attention.

At the time AL was buried at Oak Ridge in 1865 it was a quiet rural cemetery that had only been in existence for less than 20 years. It was very undeveloped and was no where near what it is today. That is why the city of Chicago fought to have him buried in the middle of their bustling metropolis, in the plot of land they had purchased for him(the Mather Block). They felt that Oak Ridge was not distinguished enough.

But it was because Oak Ridge was on the edge of town and so quiet that Mary insisted on burying her husband there. And there is no place in the world AL would have wanted to find eternal rest but in his beloved Springfield. He had intended to come home to live after his 2nd term. So Mary was in fact following his wishes to the letter.

The only place she could have chosen that would have been quieter would have been if she'd buried him in the wilderness where he was born, or dumped his body at sea.

[Hess1865]

The Mather Block was in Springfield, not Chicago, right??

[RJNorton]

(05-24-2014 05:42 AM)Hess1865 Wrote:  The Mather Block was in Springfield, not Chicago, right??

Hi Mr. Hess. Yes, it was in Springfield.

[LincolnToddFan]

I goofed-thanks Mr Hess and thanks Roger!

There was quite a push by the City Fathers to have AL buried there but MTL fought them tooth and nail. They really resented her for it, but she wanted her husband to have the "quiet spot" he had asked her for and she also wanted to make certain there would be a spot for her next to her husband. There would not have been at the Mather Block.