(lass. PRESKNTHI) r.V THK &0^ 6 3.5 DEDICATION GREEN MOUNT CEMETERY. JULY 13th, 1839. BALTIMORE: PR1^TED BY WOODS &. CRANE. 1 8 ;3 9 . , urif f in 4 0'02 ft > (^^^ GREEN MOUNT. Green Mount was the name given to the country seat of the late Robert Oliver, in the vicinity of Balti- more. During his life, Mr. Oliver spared no expense in beautifying it; and, aided by its natural advantages, he left it, at his death, a highly ornamented and most lovely spot. It was purchased from his heirs by an association of gentlemen, who appropriated sixty acres of it to the establishment of the public cemetery, whose dedication gave rise to the ceremonial, of which the following pages are the record. The dedication took place on the grounds, in the open air, in a grove of forest trees, on the evening of Satur- day, July 13th, 1839. DEDICATION OF GREEN MOUNT CEMETERY The hour for commencing the ceremonies of the dedi- cation having arrived, the Musical Association of Bahi- more, who lent their most valuable services on the occasion, sang the following chorale, from the oratorio of St. Paul: Sleepers wake, a voice is calling, It is the watchman on the walls : Thou city of Jerusalem ! For lo ! the bride2;room comes ! Arise, and take your lamps ! Hallelujah! Awake, his kingdom is at hand, Go forth to meet your Lord ! When the opening was concluded, the following Prayer was delivered by the Rev. William E. Wyatt, Rector of St. Paul's church, Baltimore. PRAYER. Our Father in heaven, we who dwell in houses of clay, and are crushed before the moth, approach to ren- der homage to Him that inhabiteth eternity. Strangers and pilgrims as we are upon the earth, we would lay the foundations of a city of the dead. And taught by this narrow field, destined to be the receptacle of successive generations, we discern the vanity and frailty of our nature, and we take refuge at the foot of thy throne, O Most Mighty, Creator of the ends of the earth, whose judgments are a great deep. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the worlds were made, from everlasting to everlasting, thou, and thou only, art GOD. Together with the adoring tribute of creatures to their Creator, we offer thee our thanksgiv- ings, for all the dispensations of thy love and bounty, thy care and providence, thy forbearance and pity. More especially we praise thee for the glorious hope of immortality ; and that beyond our bed of corruption, and our sleep in dust, there is a bright world of perfections and privileges, spiritual, and like thyself, everlasting. Great God, we thank thee for all the means and instru- ments of attaining this unspeakable gift; for thy written word, with its mighty attestations; for thy life-giving doctrines; thy strengthening ordinances; thy consoling graces. Above all, we thank thee for sending eternal redemption to us by the blood of thine own incarnate Son. O accept our worship and praise, that thou art recon- ciling the world unto thyself by Jesus Christ, not imput- ing their trespasses unto them; and that in him we have "complete redemption." It is thy gracious promise, Lord, who dost guide thy people in thy strength to thy holy habitation, that if we lean not to our own understanding, but commit our way unto the Lord, thou wilt bring it to pass. We therefore come before thee, to invoke thy blessing upon the under- taking of thy servants, here assembled, who, according to the example of the patriarchs and thy people of old, are about to set apart "a field for a burying place," when we, and ours, shall be gathered unto our fathers. The earth is thine, O Lord, and the fullness thereof; and meet it is, thpct we should solemnly dedicate to the blended pur- poses of religion and charity, a portion of what thou hast given to our use. Meet it is, that here, beneath the shade of the majestic wood, in a holy solitude and silence, they who have fulfilled their pilgrimage, and rest from their labors, should wait in peace, the summons of the resur- rection morn. Our Father, take this sequestered asylum to thy special providence. Ever spread over it the sha- dow of thy wings. With gentler dispensation than of old, when sin had driven our fathers from Eden, let angels, though unseen, guard its entrance. Let not the foot of pride, or folly, or violence, come near to unhallow it. And although no voice of admonition can reach the dull ear of death, nor prayer avail to change the doom which thou hast here sealed, yet, gracious Lord, may each grassy mound, and each marble memorial, utter a thrill- ing warning to the living, and fill this page of man's history with lessons of wisdom to every heart. When to any one among us, thy decree shall go forth, "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return;" and when the mourning train has hither borne the loved one to the house appointed for all living, and with holy rites we seek at thy hands consolation and strength; have thou respect unto the prayer of thy ministering servants, and to their supplication, O Lord our God, to hearken to the cry of sorrow, and to the prayer of faith, which may reach thy footstool from these sepulchres; and hear thou in heaven, thy dweUing place, and when thou hearest, forgive. God of consolation, may thy Spirit ever be present to minister to the bereaved whom thy providence shall draw within these sacred enclosures; and while resigned, they bow meekly before thy sovereign, though sometimes in" scrutable, decrees, inspire, Lord, the soothing reflection, that, "to die is gain;" that here the wicked cease from 2 TO troubling, and the weary are at rest; that here ternpta- tion expires, and each toilsome task is fulfilled, and tran- sient sorrow turned into everlasting joy. When in bitter anguish they shall look into the graves here to be opened, as into a fearful abyss, dividing them from all that can render life joyous, O do thou teach them, that that sepa- ration shall be short; that quickly shall all the scenes and illusions of time vanish; and that, in the land of spirits, soon shall every holy tie be again bound, and severed hearts be forever reunited. All wise God, in this vestibule of the unseen worlds where through the clustering oaks, the perpetual dirge of winds seems the response of awful rites within, inspire us with lessons of heavenly-mindedness and devotion. From yonder stately mansion,* where once was heard the viol and the harp, but henceforth the sanctuary of offices for the dead, let us learn the instability of earthly things. From the slow funereal pageant, which entering with touching ritual, within these walls, in the proud mausoleum shall deposite the remains of the possessor of rank and wealth, may we all be taught the folly of pride. And when the learned and the mighty shall here say "to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and sister," may the friendless and the poor be inspired with contentment under the brief humiliations of their lot; and may they lay it to heart, that every path of * 'I'he seat of the late Uobert Oliver, Esij., to be converted into a chapel lin Lhe cemetery. 11 iife, however illustrious or obscure, ends alike but in a silent, narrow cell. In the view of the mouldering masses of corruption which shall soon swell this verdant turf, grant, most just and holy God, that the madness of profligacy and ex- cess, may be mightily urged upon every conscience. Teach the youthful and the impassioned, musing in these avenues of the charnel house, that the ways of guilty pleasure lead to premature ruin, and that the wages of sin is death. Here, let those who, in sottish idolatry of the world, are putting off from day to day the work of con- version to God, discern the danger of procrastination. Teach them the appalling truth, that "there is but a step between us and death." And while the tombs of the young, and the vigorous, and the bold, who have not lived out half their days, disclose the brief memorial of frustrated plans, and presumptuous hopes, may they startle every conscience into greater diligence of prepa- ration for the Master's coming. Here, in this quiet retreat from the turmoil of the world, teach us, O our Father, the fruitlessness of discord, and the littleness of ambition. Looking into the noiseless chambers of the tomb, where once angry partisans lie down together without strife, and rival heroes find a calm resting place by each other's side, may our hearts be touched with the vanity of the feuds which disturb the peace of the world. Seeing here the end of glory, and the emptiness of triumphs, may we shun the vain conflicts 12 of life, and seek supremely those things which are spiritual and eternal. When the wan and the weary child of disease, stands trembling beside an open sepulchre, and the vision of its dreary solitudes and eternal desolations, sends a chill and shuddering foreboding into his heart, do thou. Lord, with thy rod and thy staff, sustain and cheer him. In the midst of that gloom, insinuate gently the triumphant as- surance, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." When holy bonds, cemented under thy sanction, are riven, and alliances of kindred or friendship are here dissolved: when standing thus upon the shore of eternity, we gaze upon the stranded bark of the now distant voyager, Lord, send to our hearts the deep inquiry, "Have the vows and the offices of love which I once assumed, been faithfully discharged? Was aught left undone for his temporal good 1 Withholding the meet returns of grateful affection, have I embittered the days of him, whose remains now lie insensate before me? Owed I more zeal to his safety in that unchangeable state, where the never dying spirit now is, beyond the reach of my aid, my prayers, and my attachment ?" And grant. Lord, that salutary reflections like these, controlling our plans, and tempers, and con- versation, may diffuse the spirit of gentleness and charity throus^h the intercourse of such as survive. 13 Thou Great First Cause, Fountain of every good, who, by thy gospel, hast brought life and immortality to light, here teach the hapless sceptic the power of faith. Con- strain him to inquire, what would be the refuge of his trembling spirit, in consecrating the cemetery, and rear- ing the mausoleum, if its darkness and gloom were the last stage of our being; if the dissolving elements of the body revealed the utter ruin of our nature; and if here an iron destiny called us to abandon forever to the desolations of the grave, the infant in its lovehness, the tender wife, and the cherished friend. Pitying God, whence then could the voice of comfort arise! O fill all our hearts with a transporting sense of the value of our heavenly inheri- tance. Disclose to us the gate of the grave, as the portals of immortality. And having this hope, may it be our great aim to purify ourselves even as thou art pure; to crucify the world in our hearts; in spirituality and heavenly mind- edness, to be conformed to the likeness of Christ; to five by faith in the Son of God; that we may die in hope, and go down to the chambers of the dead, rich in all the pro- mises of the everlasting covenant. And, O God, who dost now make darkness thy pavilion about thee, in that day, when the last trumpet shall sound through all the secret caves of the ocean, and deep recesses of the earth, and when the voice of the archangel shall call forth the slumbering generations of men from the silent abode of ages, may we rise to a glorious resurrection. Justified by faith, may we mingle in that great assembly, which 14 cannot be numbered for multitude, with bodies glorified, affections sublimed, faculties perfected, to see thee face to face, and to expatiate in immortal youth. Our great Mediator, incarnate for man, who didst vouchsafe that thy sacred body should repose in the tomb of Joseph, own and bless this our undertaking. In thy name, we now dedicate this field "to be a burying place;" that, in the bonds of a common faith, they whose remains shall be here consigned to their parent earth, may together rest in safety and hope. May the hallowing influences of thy gospel ever abide, in peaceful sway throughout this awful sanctuary of the dead. And, when thou shalt stand at the latter day upon the earth, and the mountains shall quake, and the hills shall melt, may the awakening in- habitants of this city of the dead, through thy merits and intercession, O blessed Lord Jesus, have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. At the conclusion of the prayer, the following Hymn, composed for the occasion by J. H. B. Latrobe, Esq., was sung by the Musical Association, to the tune of the 100th Psalm; the assembled multitude joining in the well known melody. 15 HYMN. We meet not now where pillar'd aisles, In long and dim perspective fade; No dome, by human hands uprear'd, Gives to this spot its solemn shade. Our temple is the woody vale, It shrines these gi-ateful hearts of ours; Our incense is the balmy gale, Wliose perfume is the spoil of flowers. Yet here, where now the living meet. The shrouded dead ere long wUl rest. And grass now trod beneath our feet, Wm mournful wave above our breast. Here birds will sing their notes of praise. When summer hours are bright and warm; And wmter's sweeping winds will raise. The sounding anthems of the storm. Then now, wliile life's warm currents flow, WhUe restless tlirobs the anxious heart, Teach us, oh Lord, thy power to know, Thy grace, oh Lord, our God, impart: That when, beneath this verdant soil, Our dust to kindred dust is given ; Our soulsj released from mortal coU, May find, with thee, their rest in Heaven. After the Hymn, the Hon. John P. Kennedy delivered the following Address. ADDRESS My Friends — We have been called together at this place to distinguish, by an appropriate ceremonial, the establish- ment of the Green Mount Cemetery. It is gratifying to perceive, in this large assemblage of the inhabitants of our city, a proof of the interest they take in the accom- plishment of this design. To a fev^ of our public-spirited citizens we are indebted for this laudable undertaking, and I feel happy in the opportunity to congratulate them upon the eminent success with which their labors are likely to be crowned. It is a natural sentiment that leads man to the contem- plation of his final resting place. In the arrangement of the world there is no lack of remembrancers to remind us of dissolution. This unsteady navigation of life, with its adverse winds, its sunken rocks and secret shoals, its dangers of the narrow strait and open sea, is full of warning of shipwreck, and, even in its most prosperous conditions, awakens the mind to the perception that we are making our destined haven with an undesired speed. 3 18 Childhood has its dream of destruction; youth has its shudder at the frequent funereal pageant that obtrudes upon his gambols; manhood courts acquaintance with danger as the familiar price of success, and old age learns to look upon death with a cheerful countenance and to hail him as a companion. This theatre of life, is it not even more appropriately a theatre of death ? What is our title to be amongst the Hving, but a title derived from mortality? That extinction which tracked the footsteps of those who went before us and overtook them, made room for us, and brought us to this inheri- tance of air and light: — they who are to follow us will thank Death for their turn upon earth. He is the patron of posterity, and the great provider for the present gene- ration. We subsist by his labor; we are fed by his hand; to him we owe all this fabric of human produc- tion, these arts of civilization, these beneficent and beau- tifying toils, these wonder-working handicrafts and head- fancies, that have filled this world with the marvels of man's genius. From Death springs Necessity, and from Necessity all man's triumphs over nature. Look abroad and tell me what has brought forth this beautiful scheme of art which we call the world; what has invented all this enginery of society; what has appointed it for man to toil, and given these multiform rewards to his labor; why, with the rising sun, goes he forth cheerily to his vocation, and endures the heat and burden of the day with such good heart. It is because Death has taught 19 him to strive against Hunger and Want. Without such strife, this fair garden were but a horrid wilderness — this populous array of Christian men but some scattered horde of starving cannibals. Again look abroad, and tell me what is this universal motion of the elements, this perpetual progress from seed-time to harvest, these silent workings of creation, and unceasing engender- ments of new forms, — what is this whole plan, but a mass of life ever springing from the compost of death, — sensible, breathing essences, melting away like flakes of snow, milhons in every moment, and out of their destruc- tion new living things forever coming forth? Look to our own race. Even as the forest sinks to the earth under the sweep of the storm, or by the woodman's axe, or by the touch of Time, so our fellow men fall before the pestilence, or by the sword, or in the decay of age. The dead a thousand-fold outnumber those that live : All that tread The globe, are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom. In the midst of these tokens, do we stand in need of lectures to remind us that we are but for a season, and that very soon we are to be without a shadow on this orb ? Child of the dust, answer ! Confess, as I know in your .secret breathings you must, that in the watches of 20 the night, when wakefuhiess has beset your pillow, or in the chance seclusion of the day, when toil has been suspended, nay, even in the very eager importunity of business, and often in the wildest moment of revelry, this question of death and his conditions has come un- bidden to the mind, and with a strange familiarity of fellowship has urged its claim to be entertained in your meditations. Thus death grows upon us, and becomes, at last, a domestic comrade thought. Kind is it in the order of Providence that we are, in this wise, bade to make ourselves ready for that inevita- ble day when our bodies shall sleep upon the lap of our mother earth. Wise in us is it, too, to bethink ourselves of this in time, not only that we may learn to walk humbly in the presence of our Creator, but even for that lesser care, the due disposal of that visible remainder which is to moulder into dust after the spirit has returned to God who gave it. Though to the eye of cold philoso- phy there may be nothing in that remainder worthy of a monument, and though, in contrast with the heaven- lighted hopes of the Christian, it may seem to be but dross too base to merit his care, yet still there is an ac- knowledged longing of the heart that when life's calen- ture is over, and its stirring errand done, this apt and deli- cate machine by which we have wrought our work, this serviceable body whereof our ingenuity has found some- thing lo be vain, shall lie down to its long rest in some place agreeable to our living fancies, and be permitted. 21 in undisturbed quiet, to commingle with its parent earth. The sentiment is strong in my bosom, — I doubt not it is shared by many,— to feel a keen interest in the mode and circumstances of that long sleep which it is appointed to each and all of us to sleep. I do not wish to lie down in the crowded city. I would not be jostled in my nar- row house, — much less have my dust give place to the intrusion of later comers: I would not have the stone memorial that marks my resting place to be gazed upon by the business-perplexed crowd in their every day pur- suit of gain, and where they ply their tricks of custom. Amidst this din and traffic of the living is no fit place for the dead. My affection is for the country, — that God- made country, where Nature is the pure first-born of the Divinity, and all the tokens around are of Truth. My tomb should be beneath the bowery trees, on some pleasant hill-side, within sound of the clear brattling brook; where the air comes fresh and filled with the perfume of flowers; where the early violet greets the spring, and the sweet-briar blooms, and the woodbine ladens the dew with its fragrance ; Where the shower and the singing bird, 'Midst the green leaves are heard — where the yellow leaf of autumn shall play in the wind; and where the winter snow shall fall in noiseless flakes and lie in unspotted brightness; — the changing seasons 22 thus syinboling forth, even within the small precincts of my rest, that birth and growth and fall which marked my mortal state, and, in the renovation of Spring, giving a glad t}^e of that resurrection which shall no less surely be mine. I think it may be set down somewhat to the reproach of our country that we too much neglect this care of the dead. It betokens an amiable, venerating, and re- ligious people, to see the tombs of their forefathers not only carefully preserved, but embeUished with those natural accessories which display a thoughtful and appro- priate reverence. The pomp of an overlabored and costly tomb scarcely may escape the criticism of a just taste; that tax which ostentation is wont to pay to the living in the luxury of sculptured marble dedicated to the dead, often attracts disgust by its extravagant dispropor- tion to the merits of its object; but a becoming respect for those from whom we have sprung, an affectionate tribute to our departed friends and the friends of our ancestors, manifested in the security with which we guard their remains, and in the neatness with which we adorn the spot where they are deposited, is no less hon- orable to the survivors than it is respectful to the dead. "Our fathers," says an eloquent old writer, "find their graves in our short memories, and sadly tell us how we may be buried in our survivors." It is a good help to these "short memories," and a more than pardonable vanity, to keep recollection alive by monuments that may 23 attract the eye and arrest the step, long after the bones beneath them shall have become part of the common mould. I think we too much neglect this care of the dead. No one can travel through our land M^ithout being im- pressed with a disagreeable sense of our indifference to the adornment and even to the safety of the burial places. How often have I stopped to note the village grave-yard, occupying a cheerless spot by the road side ! Its ragged fence furnishing a scant and ineffectual barrier against the invasion of trespassing cattle, or beasts still more destructive; its area deformed with rank weeds, — the Jamestown, the dock, and the mullen; and for shade, no better furniture than some dwarfish, scrubby, incon- gruous tree, meagre of leaves, gnarled and ungraceful, rising sohtary above the coarse, unshorn grass. And there were the graves, — an unsightly array of naked mounds; some with no more durable memorial to tell who dwelt beneath, than a decayed, illegible tablet of wood, or if better than this, the best of them with cover- ings of crumbling brick masonry and dislocated slabs of marble, forming, perchance, family groups, environed by a neglected paling of dingy black, too plainly showing how entirely the occupants had gone from the thoughts of their survivors. Not a pathway was there to indicate that here had ever come the mourner to look upon the grave of a friend, or that this was the haunt of a solitary footstep bent hither for profitable meditation. I felt my- 24 self truly amongst the deserted mansions of the dead, and have turned from the spot to seek again the haunts of the living, out of the very chill of the heart v^hich such a dilapidated scene had cast upon me. Many such places of interment may be found in the country. It is scarce better in the cities. There is more expense, it is true, and more care — for the tribute paid to mor- tahty in the crovrded city renders the habitations of its dead a more frequent resort. But in what concerns the garniture of these cemeteries, in all that relates to the embellishment appropriate to their character and their purpose, how much is wanting! Examine around our own city. You shall find more than one grave-yard enclosed with but the common post and rail fence and occupying the most barren spot of ground, in a suburb near to where the general offal of the town is strewed upon the plain and taints the air with its offensive exha- lations. You shall observe it studded with tombs of sufficiently neat structure, but unsoftened by the shade of a single shrub — or, if not entirely bare, still so naked of the simple ornament of tree and flower, as to afford no attraction to the eye, no solicitation to the footstep of the visiter. That old and touching appeal, "siste viator," is made to the wayfarer from its desolate marbles in vain; there is nothing to stop the traveller and wring a sigh from his bosom, unless it be to find mortality so cheap- ly dealt with in these uncheery solitudes. We have cemeteries better than these, where great expense has 25 been incurred to give them greater security and more elaborate ornament; but these too — even the best of them — are sadly repulsive to the feelings, from the air of overcrowded habitation, and too lavish expenditure of marble and granite w^ithin their narrov^ hmits. This press for space, the result of an under estimate, in the infancy of the city, of what time might require, has compelled the exclusion of that rural adornment so appropriate to the dwellings of the dead, — so appropriate because so pure and natural — the deep shade, the ver- dant turf, the flower-enamelled bank, with their con- comitants, the hum of bees and carol of summer birds. I like not these lanes of ponderous granite pyramids, these gloomy, unwindowed blocks of black and white marble, these prison-shaped walls, and that harsh gate of rusty iron, slow moving on its grating hinges ! I cannot affect this sterile and sunny solitude. Give me back the space, the quiet, the simple beauty and natural repose of the country! The profitable uses of the Cemetery are not confined to the security it affords the dead : The living may find in it a treasure of wholesome instruction. That heart which does not seek communion with the grave, and dwell with calm and even pleasurable meditation on the change which nature's great ordinance has decreed, has laid up but scant provision against the weariness or the perils of this world's pilgrimage. "Measure not thyself by thy morning shadow, but by the extent of thy grave," 4 26 is the solemn invocation which the departed spirit whis- pers into the ear of the Hving man. The tomb is a faith- ful counsellor, and may not wisely be estranged from our view. It tells us the great truth that Death is not the Destroyer, but Time; it counsels us that Time is our friend or foe as we ourselves fashion him, and it warns us to make a friend of Time for the sake of Eternity. That this instruction may be often repeated and planted deep in our minds, I would have the public burial ground not remote from our habitations. It should be seated in some nook so peaceful and pleasant as to be- guile the frequent rambler to its shades and win him to the contemplation of himself. And though it should not be far from the dwellings of men, yet neither should it be cheapened in their eyes by bordering too obviously on the path of their common daily outgoings. Screens of thick foliage should shut it out from the road-side, or reveal it only in such glimpses as might show the way- farer the sequesterment of the spot, and raise in his mind a respect for the reverence with which the slumber of the dead has been secured. There should evergreens relieve the bleak landscape of winter, and blooming thickets render joyous the approach of spring. Amongst these should rise the monuments of the departed. Here, a lowly tablet, half hid beneath the plaited vines, to tell of some quiet, unobtrusive spirit that, even in the grave, had sought the modest privilege of being not too curi- ously scanned by the world ; there, a rich column on the 27 beetling brow of the hill, with its tasteful carvings and ambitious sculpture, to note the resting place of some favorite of fame or fortune. At many an interval, peer- ing through the shrubbery, the variously-wrought tombs should unfold to the eye of the observer a visible index to that world of character which death had subdued into silence and grouped together under these diversified emblems of his power. There, matron and maid, parent and child, friend and brother, should be found so asso- ciated that their very environments should communicate something of the story of their Hves. Every thing around him should inspire the visiter with the sentiment that he walked amongst the relics of a generation dear to its survivors. The sanctity and the silence of the place, with its quiet walks, its retired seats beneath over- hanging boughs, its brief histories chronicled in stone, and its moral lessons uttered by speaking marble, — all these should allure him to meditate upon that great mystery of the grave, and teach him to weigh the voca- tions of this atom of time against the concerns of that long eternity upon which these tenants of the tomb had already entered. What heart-warnings would he gather in that meditation against the enticements of worldly favor! How soberly would he learn to reckon the chances of slippery ambition, the rewards of fortune, and the gratifications of sense ! We misjudge the world if we deem that even the most thoughtless of mankind have not a chord in their hearts 28 to vibrate to the solemn harmony of such an atmosphere as this. There is no slave of passion so dull to the per- suasions of conscience, no worldling so bold in defying the proper instinct of his manhood, but would sometimes steal to a place like this to discourse with his own heart upon the awful question of futurity. Here would he set him down at the base of some comrade's recently erect- ed tomb, and make a reckoning of his own fleeting day, and then, with resolve of better life, — a resolve which even the habit of his heedless career, perchance, has not power to stifle — go forth stoutly bent on its achievement. Hither, in levity would stray many a careless footstep, but not in levity depart. The chance-caught warning of the tomb would attemper the mind to a sober tone of virtue, and long afterwards linger upon the memor}-. To this resort, the heart perplexed with worldly strivings and wearied with the appointments of daily care, would fly for the very relief of that lesson on the vanity of human pursuits which this mute scene would teach wdth an eloquence passing human utterance. Such considerations as these have not been without their weight in prompting the enterprise which we are assembled this day to commemorate. Our friends, to whom the city is indebted for this design, have with great judgment and success, in the selection of the place and in the organization of their plan, sought to combine the benefit of these moral influences with the external or physical advantages of such an institution. This Ceme- 29 tery, like tiiose which suggested its estabhshnient, will be maintained under regulations adapted to the preservation of every public observance of respect which the privacy and the sanctity of the purposes to which it is dedicated may require. Indeed, such institutions of themselves appeal so forcibly to the better instincts of our nature, and raise up so spontaneously sentiments of respect in the human bosom, as to stand in need of little rigor in the enforcement of the laws necessary to guard them against violation. The experience of our people in their usefulness is limited to but few years; yet, brief as is the term, it is worthy of observation that no public establish- ment seems to have excited a more affectionate interest in the mind of the country, or enlisted a readier patron- age than this mode of providing for the repose of the dead. Within the last ten years, the cemeteries of Mount Auburn and Laurel Hill have been constructed. They already constitute the most attractive objects to the research of the visiter in the environs of the cities to which they belong. Scarce an inhabitant of Boston or Philadelphia who does not testify to the pride with which he regards the pubhc cemetery in his neighborhood. No traveller, with the necessary leisure on his hands, is con- tent to quit those cities without an excursion to Mount Auburn or Laurel Hill; and the general praise of the public voice is expressed in every form in which the home dweller or the stranger can find utterance to pay a tribute to these beautiful improvements of the recent time. 30 This C'einetery of Green Mount, constructed on the same plan, may advantageously compare with those to which I have alluded. It is more accessible than Mount Auburn; it is more spacious than that in the neighbor- hood of Philadelphia; and in point of scenery, both as respects the improvement of the grounds, and the adja- cent country, it is, at least, equal to either. — I know not where the eye may find more pleasing landscapes than those which surround us. Here, within our enclosures, how aptly do these sylvan embellishments harmonize with the design of the place! — this venerable grove of ancient forest; this lawn shaded with choicest trees; that green meadow, where the brook creeps through the tan- gled thicket begemmed with wild flowers; these embow- ered alleys and pathways hidden in shrubbery, and that grassy knoll studded with evergreens and sloping to the cool dell where the fountain ripples over its pebbly bed: — all hemmed in by yon natural screen of foliage which seems to separate this beautiful spot from the world and devote it to the tranquil uses to which it is now to be applied. Beyond the gate that guards these precincts we gaze upon a landscape rife with all the charms that hill and dale, forest-clad heights and cultivated fields may contribute to enchant the eye. That stream which north- ward cleaves the woody hills, comes murmuring to our feet, rich with the reflections of the bright heaven and the green earth ; thence leaping along between its gra- nite banks, hastens towards the city whose varied out- 81 line of tower, steeple, and dome, gilded by the evening sun and softened by the haze, seems to sleep in per- spective against the southern sky: and there, fitly sta- tioned within our view, that noble column, destined to immortality from the name it bears, lifts high above the ancient oaks that crown the hill, the venerable form of the Father of his Country, a majestic image of the deathlessness of virtue. Though scarce an half hour's walk from yon living mart, where one hundred thousand human beings toil in their noisy crafts, here the deep quiet of the country reigns, broken by no ruder voice than such as marks the tranquillity of rural life, — the voice of "birds on branches warbling," — the lowing of distant cattle, and the whet- ting of the mower's scythe. Yet tidings of the city not unpleasantly reach the ear in the faint murmur which at intervals is borne hither upon the freshening breeze, and more gratefully still in the deep tones of that cathedral bell. Swinging- slow, with sullen roar, as morning and noon, and richer at even tide, it flings its pealing melody across these shades with an invocation that might charm the lingering visiter to prayer. To such a spot as this have we come to make provi- sion for our long rest; and hither, even as drop follows drop in the rain, shall the future generations that may 32 people our city, find their way and sleep at our sides. It may be a vain fancy, yet still it is not unpleasing, that in that long future our present fellowships may be pre- served, and that the friends and kindred who now che- rish their Hving association shall not be far separated in the tomb. Here is space for every denomination of re- ligious society, leaving room for each to preserve its ap- propriate ceremonies; and here too may the city set apart a quarter for public use. That excellent custom, the more excellent because it is so distinctively classical in its origin, of voting a pubHc tomb to eminent citizens, a custom yet unknown to us, I trust will, in the establish- ment of this cemetery, find an argument for its adoption: that here may be recorded the pubHc gratitude to a public benefactor, and in some conspicuous division of these grounds, the stranger may read the history of the statesman, the divine, the philanthropist, the soldier or the scholar whose deeds have improved or whose fame adorned the city. In such monuments virtue finds a cheering friend, youth a noble incentive, and the heart of every man a grateful topic of remembrance. I mis- take our fellow citizens if it would not gratify them to see their pubhc authorities adopt this custom. There is something in the spectacle of a living genera- tion employed in the selection of their own tombs that speaks favorably for their virtue. It testifies to a rational, reflecting piety; it tells of life unhaunted by the terrors of death, of sober thought and serene reckoning of the past 33 day. Our present meditations have not unseasonably fallen upon these topics, and I would fain hope that they will leave us somewhat the wiser at our parting. The very presence of this scene, in connection with the pur- pose that brought us hither, sheds a silent instruction on the heart. How does it recall the warning of scripture, "Go to now, ye that say to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life ? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." This grove now untenanted by a single lodger, this up- land plain and all these varied grounds, in the brief space of a few generations, shall become a populous dwelling place of the dead. Hither then will come the inmates of yon rapidly-increasing city, in their holiday walks, to visit our tombs, and gaze upon the thick-strewed monu- ments that shall meet them on every path. Amongst these some calm morahst of life, some thoughtful observer of man and his aims, will apply himself here to study the past — his past, and whilst he lingers over the inscriptions that shall tell him of this busy crowd who so intently ply what we deem the important labors of to-day, — alas, how shrunk and dwarfed shall we appear in his passing com- ment ! A line traced by the chisel upon the stone shall tell all, and more perhaps than posterity may be concern- ed to know, about us and our doings. Which of us shall reach a second generation in that downward journey of 5 34 fame ( ILjw many of these events which now fill our minds, as tnatters belonging to the nation's destiny, shall stand recorded before the eye of that aftertime ? How much of our personal connection with present history, these strivings of ours to be noted in the descent of time, these clamorous invocations of posterity, these exaggera- tions of ourselves and our deeds shall be borne even to the beginning of the next half century ? Here is a theme for human vanity! Let it teach us humility, and in hu- mihty that wisdom which shall set us to so ordering our lives, that in our deaths those who survive us may be in- structed how to win the victory over the grave. Then shall our monuments be more worthy to be cherished by future generations, and the common doom of oblivion, perchance, be averted by better remembrancers than these legends on our tombs. In this anticipation we may find something not ungrateful in the thought, that whilst all mortal beings march steadily onward "to cold obstruc- tion," we sink into our gradual dust upon a couch chosen by ourselves, with many memorials of friendship and esteem clustered around our remains, and that there we shall sleep secure until the last summons shall command the dead to arise, and call us into the presence of a mer- ciful God. It does not fall to my province to pursue these reflec- tions within the confines to which they so plainly lead us. Such topics belong to a more solemn forum, and a better provided orator: I dare not invade their sacred field. 35 My task required no more than that I should present those pubhc considerations which have induced the es- tabhshment of this Cemetery ; the subject has naturally brought me to the verge of that sublime mystery, from which, in reverence only, I turn back my steps. In closing my duties at this point, I may assume, with- out transcending my assigned privilege, to speak a parting word. Our thoughts have been upon the grave — our discourse has been of death. It is good for us to grow famihar with this theme; but only good, as weighing its manifold conditions, we deduce from the study its urgent persuasions to a life of piety and virtue. So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of Death, Thou go not like the quarry slave at night, Scourg'd to his dungeon; but sustain'd and sooth'd By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who vnraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams. When Mr. Kennedy had finished speaking, the fol- lowing Hymn, composed for the occasion by Francis H. Davidge, Esq. was sung, as the first had been, to the tune of PleyeFs German Hymn. 36 HYMN. Fount of Mercies — source of love, List the hymns we raise to thee ; I^'rom thy holy throne above, Heedful of our vporship be. Creatures of thy sov'reign will, At thy feet we humbly bend 5 Let thy grace our bosoms fill. Be our comfort — be our friend. Here beneath the smilit sky, With thy gifts around us spread; We beseech thee — from on high — Bless these dwellings of the dead. Guard them when the summer's glow, Decks with beauties, hill and dale; Guard them when the winter's snow, Spreads o'er all its mantle pale. Here — when wearied pilgrims cease. O'er life's chequered scenes to roam. May their ashes rest in peace, 'Till thy voice shall call them home. 'I'hen, oh then — their trials done. Bid them rise to worship thee. Where the ransomed of thy Son, Join in endless harmony. The ceremonies of the dedication were then concluded with a Benediction from the Rev. J. G. Hamner, Pastor of the fifth Presbyterian church in Baltimore. GREEN MOUNT CEMETERY Our Plan, for carrying out more speedily to completion, what has been so successfully commenced, is a simple one, and can be accom- plished as readily in twelve months, as in as many years. It is to get five hundred persons to take four lots each. This will be sufficient to pay for the property, construct the gate- way, complete the wall, lay off the ground, build a chapel, and set apart a permanent fund of forty thousand dollars, &c. There is no one who feels any interest in the Cemetery itself, or the noble charities it contemplates, who could not either spare the time or the money to do this. Should he not be disposed to keep them all, he can readily part with one, two or three, as he thinks best. This he can do almost without labour, and with but little effort. In the course of conversation or his walks he can say to his friend or neighbour, "I have taken four lots in the Cemetery, will you take one beside me." By this means, persons almost unconsciously become agents for the disposition of two or three lots each. It lightens labor, insures success, and secures to such as take an active interest in it, the satisfaction of having done thus much towards promoting some of the most desirable objects that can interest the hearts, or engage the attention of any community, in relation both to present and future good. Viewing it only as a Cemetery, it is a treasure to Baltimore, on account of the moral and religious influence it will necessarily exert over the rising generation. But when you connect with this the four* *Tlie proprietors propose, after the payment of the purchase money of sixty- five thousand dollars, with mterest, and the expenses that will be mciirred ui laying out, enclosing, and improvhig the grounds, out of the proceeds of sales of lots, to transfer their entire interest m the cemetery to the lot-holders, who will thereafter be the corporators under the charter ; with tliis reservation only, that after the accunudators, out of the receipts of the corporators, from sales of lots or otherwise thereafter, of the sum of forty thousand dollars, to constitute a permanent fund for niamtainhig the cemetery, the further receipts shall be annually divided and set apart as ft)lhnvs, viz : two-fifths to the exclusive use of the cemetery ; one-fifth to promoting the cause of temperance ; one-fifth to promoting the cause of Sunday schools ; and one-fifth to the estab- lishment and support of a seaman's home, and an apprentices library. noblest charities of the age, viz : the Temperance cause, the Sabbath School cause, the Seaman's Home, and the Apprentices' Library, you find here high motives to prompt you to action, contrasted with which, the mere consideration of gain, will bear no kind of comparison ; and in pursuing which you have a two-fold remuneration — you not only do good without any prospect of loss, but with a certainty of gain : you get value received, in the consciousness of having done your duty, and you get value received in a burial lot, twenty feet by sixteen, or three hundred and twenty square feet : the sale of every one of which dimi- nishes the number and enhances the value of the remainder, added to which, the expenditure for gate-ways, walls, &c. must all tend to increase its value. About one>third the number which the directors are desirous of sell- ing, has already been disposed of, and if for the remaining two-thirds we can get one hundred and fifty persons willing to take four lots each, two hundred to take two lots each, and three hundred to take one lot each, our work is done. If any congregation should be desirous of taking a number of lots, a part or the whole of the amount may constitute a portion of the permanent fund; and they may suit their convenience as to the time of payment, by paying up the interest semi-annually. The terms are one-fourth, cash ; one-half, first of November ; and one-fourth, first of February, 1840. A Subscription List is at the Exchange, and at the office, No. 150 Market street. CHRISTIAN KEENER, President. "Bury me not , I pray thee," said the patriarch Jacob, "bury me not in Egypt, but I will lie with my fathers. And thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place." — "There they bu- ried Abraham and Sarah his wife; — there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife ; and there I buried Leah." Such are the natural expressions of •human feeling, as they fall from the lips of the dying. Such are the reminiscences, that forever crowd on the confines of the passes to the grave. We seek again to have our home there with our friends, and to be blest by a communion with them. •'We dwell with pious fondness on the characters and virtues of the departed ; and, as time interposes its growing distance between us and them, we gather up, with more solicitude, the broken fragments of memory, and weave, as it were, into our very hearts, the threads of their history. As we sit down by their graves, we seem to hear the tones of their affection whispering in our ears:— We listen to the voice of their wisdom, speaking in the depth of our souls:— We shed our tears; but they are no longer the burning tears of agony; they relieve our drooping spirits, and come no longer over us with a deathly faintness.— We return to the world, and we feel ourselves purer, and better, and wiser, from this communion with the dead. "Our cemeteries, rightly selected, and properly arranged, may be made subservient to some of the highest purposes of religion and human duty. They may preach lessons, to which none may refuse to listen, and which all that live must hear. Truths may be there felt and taught in the silence of our own meditations, more persuasive, and more endearing, than ever flowed from human lips. The grave hath a voice of eloquence, may of superhuman eloquence, which speaks at once to the thoughtless-, ness of the rash, and the devotion of the good; which addresses, at all times, and all ages, and all sexes ; which tells of wisdom to the wise, and of comfort to the afflicted; which warns us of our follies and our dangers; which whispers to us in accents of peace, and alarms- us in tones of terror; which steals with a healing balm into the stricken heart, and lifts up and supports the broken spirit; which awakens a new en- thusiam for virtue, and diciplines us for its severer trials and duties : which calls up the images of the illustrious dead, with an animating presence for our example and glory; and which demands of us, as men, as patriots, as Christians, as mortals, that the powers given by God should be devoted to his service, and the minds created by his love, should re- turn to him with larger capacities for virtuous enjoyment, and with more spiritual and intellectual brightness."— (See Judge Story's Address at the consecration of Mount Auburn.) Nor to the dead alone, but to the living kind, A monument, to your benevolence, you rear, More durable than marble, brass, or steel; A monument ! on living tablets writ. A monument! to praise you, when you're gone. The poor INEBRIATE'S worse than widow'd wife, And more than orphan children, by your bounty, Pluck'd from fiery ruin, and their hearts made glad, And peace, and plenty, and domestic bliss, Long banish'd, now restor'd, abiding inmates '^"' Of that quiet home, so late the scene of tumult, Strife, and want, where wretchedness and woe, in Undistuib'd possession, reign'd supreme. And many a WandPring Youth.) whose hardy lot, Was, under dubious circumstances cast, His way hedged up by walls of ignorance. And vice 3 without example of parental kind. To lure him on, ui vutue's pathway, and to whom The streams of knowledge were, as fountams, seal'd ; By your kind interference, timely check'd. Will live to bless the hand that mterposed, And rescu'd liim from ignorance, vice, and crime ; And brought the wand'rer back, and bade him live, To piu-poses of usefulness below, and spread, Tlirough the meanderings of liis joimiey here, The odour of a well eani'd virtuous fame. An(l lips, of many Little WandPrers^ gather'd in, tVom hedge and higlra ay, to the fold of Clirist ; And brought, tluough Sabbath School Instruction, Hun to know, Whose "ways are pleasantness, whose paths are peace," Shall bless you — while you sojourn here below. And when yoirr clayey tenement shall fail. And crumblmg, mhigle with its mother earth. Sleeps, undisturb'd, beneath some marble slab. Or cold grey stone, or shade of spreading elm. Which your own hands, perchance have help'd to rear. VV^hen friendship's off'rmgs cease, with flow'ry chaplets, To adorn your tomb — and none of kindred ties. Remains to tell, the stoiy of your doings, Or your birth, — when these and you, have pass'd awayj Even then, in after days, shall other little Wanderers, yet unborn, "aidse and call you blessed." Here too, the TVcather-beaten Sailor, soimduig finds, Where he can safely, let sheet anchor go; and moor His long, long shatter'd bai-quej — mto "snug harbqr," Right in sight of home. Tliere, peacefully to ebb out Life's last flow — and not a ripple break the parting wave. ^, ,,r\ WOODS & CRANE, PRS. Lb H 10