He was a distinguished speaker and an author of note,
his Vermont State Papers being still a standard reference work.
To revert to the prison ship martyrs, their suffering was so great and
their bravery so conspicuous that immediately after the War a popular
attempt was made in 1792 and 1798 to provide a proper resting place
for the bones of the victims, which were scattered in the sands about
Wallabout Bay. This effort did not progress very rapidly and it was
not until the matter was taken up by the Tammany Society that anything
definite was really accomplished. Owing to the efforts of this
organization a vault covered by a small building was erected in 1808
and the bones were collected and placed in the vault in thirteen large
coffins, one for each of the thirteen colonies, the interment being
accompanied by imposing ceremonies. In time the vault was neglected,
and it was preserved only by the efforts of a survivor, Benjamin
Romaine, who bought the plot of ground on which the monument stood,
when it was sold for taxes, and preserved it. He died at an advanced
age and was, by his own request, buried in the vault with these
Revolutionary heroes.
Early in the last century an attempt was made to interest Congress in
a project to erect a suitable monument for the prison ship martyrs but
without success. The project has, however, never been abandoned by
patriotic and public spirited citizens and the Prison Ship Martyrs'
Society of the present time is a lineal descendant in spirit and
purpose of the Tammany Club effort, which first honored these
Revolutionary heroes.
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