HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 371

tributed one thousand dollars. But all this fervid excitement soon collapsed. Tammany Hall, good at the beginning, did not keep up the stimulus. Some money was collected, but scattered—no one knew or cared where—private donations were not called for, and the sum appropriated by the State was finally returned to its treasury, to be realized, it is hoped, with increase, at some future day, when the patriotism of our people shall finally make amends for the long delay of the past.

So the bubble burst—the tide of population so surged in upon this favored region of Brooklyn, that the old elements were dissolved in the current of new-comers, and the very purpose of this vault and its wooden covering was well-nigh forgotten. In course of time, by an alteration of the grade of Jackson street, the walls of the vault were infringed upon; and finally, the very lot on which it stood was sold for taxes! Then BENJAMIN ROMAINE, the treasurer of the fund of 1808—a true patriot, and fully earnest in his efforts to secure a monument—came forward and bought it. He had been himself a sufferer by imprisonment in the old sugar-house prison at New York, and he now took pleasure in rescuing from desecration the remains of those whose sufferings he bad shared, and whose memory he revered. He erected an ante-chamber over the vault, and other appropriate adornments and inscriptions.1

1 These improvements, etc., are thus fully described in a little pamphlet published by him on the 4th of July, 1839:

The following inscriptions are now displayed in and about the sacred premises:

“First. The portal to the Tomb of 11,500 patriot prisoners of war, who died in dungeons and pestilential prison-ships, in and about the city of New York, during the War of our Revolution. The top is capped with two large urns, in black, and a white globe in the centre.

“Second. The interior of the tomb contains thirteen coffins, arranged in the order as observed in the Declaration of Independence, and inserted thus—New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

“Third. Thirteen beautifully turned posts, painted white, each capped with a small urn, in black; and between the posts, the above-named States are fully lettered.

“Fourth. In 1778, the Colonial Congress promulgated the Federal League Compact, though it was not finally ratified until 1781, only two years before the Peace of 1783.

“Fifth. In 1789, our grand National Convention, ‘to form a more perfect union,’ did Ordain ‘the present Constitution for the United States of America,’ to be one entire sovereignty, and in strict adhesion to the equally necessary and sacred State rights. Such a republic must endure forever!’