Memoirs of Anne C.L. Botta,: written by her friends. With selections from her correspondence and from her writings in prose and poetry.

anne C. Z. cotta
nation may honor by an interment here; and in the center of
the monument are to be placed the remains of Washington.
Each State has been invited to furnish a block of native marble
with the name and arms of the State inscribed upon it. The
temple base, in the plan of the monument, has been objected to
by artists and architects, and it is possible that the design may
be somewhat modified. The whole cost of this structure, it is
estimated, will not much exceed one million of dollars, and this
is to be collected by the voluntary gift of the people for the
erection of the noblest monument ever raised by the gratitude
of man. It will exceed the Pyramids in height, as it will far
transcend them and all the monuments of antiquity in the moral
grandeur of the sentiment that rears it, and the character it commemorates. The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, in his address on the
laying of the corner-stone, in 1848, says: " Build it to the skies,
you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles; found it upon
the massive and eternal rock, you cannot make it more enduring
than his fame; construct it of the peerless Parian marble, you
cannot make it purer than his life; exhaust upon it the rules
and principles of ancient and modern art, you cannot make it
more proportionate than his character." At present there are
some fears expressed that the contributions will not be sufficient
to carry on the work, and that to another generation will belong the glory of completing it.
About fourteen miles from Washington, washed by the waters
of the Potomac, is Mount Vernon, the Mecca of the New World;
a spot of profound interest not only to every American, but
strangers from all parts of the world turn aside to visit the hallowed ground, and ships from foreign lands reverently lower
their flags as they pass by. The shadow of the departed whose
ashes repose here seems to lie on all around; a spirit whispers
in every breeze, and a spell is written on every leaf. The house
itself is a vestige of former days, and its wainscoted halls, its
spacious and hospitable dining-hall, the library, and every object within and around is instinct with the noblest associations.
Here is the bust of Washington, cast from the living model by
Houdon in 1785, and although smaller than those usually seen
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