372 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

The better to prevent any further desecration of this, to him, hallowed spot, Mr. Romaine appropriated the tomb as a burial-place for himself and his family, and with that intent, placed there, many years before his death, the coffin in which he should be interred.

The interior of the tomb, at this time, has thus been well described by an old resident of Brooklyn:1

“One Saturday of school-boy leisure for that ‘mischief’ which Satan finds for ‘idle hands to do,’ I determined to penetrate the depth of this tomb, and sought the building, fully bent on gaining the interior, and knowing all that could be revealed to the astonished eye. This was not very difficult—the fastenings were loose—and after some little toil, the exterior door swung open and revealed a sort of vestibule, in which were a few plaster busts of distinguished heroes, covered with the incrustations of dampness and neglect. There were steps leading below into a vault. These I fearlessly

“Sixth. In the same year, 1789, in the city of New York, Washington began the first Presidential career. The wide-spread Eagle of Union, with a gilded sun and star in his beak, and standing erect on a globe, is now represented as waiting on Washington's command, and then as instantly raising his flight in the heavens, and, like the orb of day, speedily became visible to half the globe. Washington had ap. peared, uncovered, before the majesty of the people, under the canopy, in front of our City Hall, when Chancellor Livingston administered to him the oath of office, and then proclaimed, Long live George Washington! The air was rent with shouts of Reclamation, and our goodly ship Union moved on our ways, a model for the Universe! A witness to this scene declared that it appeared to him that the hosts of heaven, at that moment, were looking down with approbation on the act; that he was deprived of utterance, and could only wave his hat among the multitude. I was also a witness to the scene. Then it was, at that moment, when our State sovereignty, not our equally sacred State rights, ceased to exist, and the sovereign power was proclaimed to be invested in the whole people of the United States, one and indivisible! ”

“Seventh. The Constitution of the United States consists of two parts—the supreme sovereignty, and the unadulterated State rights, one and inseparable. It has no parallel except the sacred Decalogue of Moses, which proclaimed our duties to God and man, one and indivisible, six thousand years ago.

“Eighth. In the ante-chamber of the tomb will be arranged the busts, or other insignia, of the most distinguished deceased military men and civilians of the Revolution. The Governors and Legislatures of the old thirteen States, will confer a great favor by sending them to Benjamin Romaine, No. 21 Hudson street, city of New York.”—Review.

The Tomb of the Martyrs, adjoining the United States Navy-yard, Brooklyn city, in Jackson street, who died in dungeons and prison-ships, in and about the city of New York, during the seven years of our Revolutionary War. By Benjamin Romaine, an old native citizen of New York. New York : Printed by C. C. & E. Childs, jr., 80 Vesey street, 4th July, 1839. 8vo, pp. 7, and lithographic view of tomb, from which our engraving is copied.

1 A.J. Spooner, Esq., in “Once-a-Week,” Feb. 6, 1864.