Extract from Thomas Jefferson’s Design for Tombstone and Inscription
could the dead feel any interest in Monuments or other remembrances of them ...
The following would be to my Manes the most gratifying.
On the grave
a plain die or cube of 3.f without any mouldings, surmounted by an Obelisk of 6.f. height, each of a single stone: on the faces of the Obelisk the following inscription, & not a word more
| ‘ | Here was buried | |
| Thomas Jefferson | ||
| Author | of the Declaration of American Independence | |
| of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom | ||
| & Father of the University of Virginia.’ | ||
because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered. [. . .] to be of the coarse stone of which my columns are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials ... On the Die of the obelisk might be engraved
Born Apr. 2. 1743. O. S.
Died —
MS (DLC); undated; in TJ’s hand; on verso of a reused address cover; with TJ’s drawing of
monument in left margin.
Date Range
Date
July 4, 1826
Collection
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