Who IS buried in Grant's tomb?

It's amazing what we all used to think was so funny during our childhood.  For example, do you remember the riddle, "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?"  The answer is that no one is buried in Grant's tomb.  Keep the emphasis on the word buried.  Technically, no one is buried there, but rather both Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia are entombed there and not buried (they are entombed in sarcophagi, raised on a dais).  I'm not sure why that was so funny, and I can't find any information on how, where, or when the riddle got started.  Oh well.

The riddle came to mind yesterday, as my wife and I were walking through the streets of downtown Chicago.  We ended up at the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is now fully open after months of limited operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The zoo doesn't charge for admission, so we didn't spend a lot of time there.  As we were walking through Lincoln Park, we came across a very large monument topped by a statue of what appeared to be a Civil War general riding on his horse.  We walked around the statue to try to figure out who it was - it was a statue of Ulysses S. Grant!  My wife and I are still relatively new to Chicago, so we quickly searched to see if we were actually in Grant Park.  It would make sense, right?

Apparently, we were still in Lincoln Park (we kind of knew that all along).  So, there is a statue and monument to U.S. Grant (see Ulysses S. Grant Monument) in Lincoln Park, which begs the question, "Is there a statue of Lincoln in Grant Park?"  As it turns out, there is indeed a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Grant Park!  It's called the Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State (or alternatively, Sitting Lincoln).  Go figure!  Incidentally, there is also a fairly large statue of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Park (this one is called, Lincoln: The Man, or just simply Standing Lincoln to distinguish it from the Lincoln statue in Grant Park).

After my wife and I finished our walk, I looked up and read more about all of these different monuments.  First, don't poke too much fun at Chicagoans.  Both Lincoln and Grant are claimed by the State of Illinois (we are the "Land of Lincoln" after all), and both individuals played a major, if not definitive role in the Union victory over the Confederacy during the American Civil War.  Second, Grant Park was originally known as Lake Park, so the fact that there is a statue of Lincoln in what was originally known as Lake Park doesn't seem all that strange.

Okay, I know what you are thinking.  Where's he going with all of this?  Trust me, there is a point here!  During my reading about these different monuments, I learned a couple of new things.  First, the Sitting Lincoln statue in Grant Park (originally Lake Park) was intended by the artist, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to evoke the loneliness and burden of command felt by Lincoln during his presidency.  I have written about the loneliness of leadership in the past (see "It's lonely at the top", "Tap Code", and "Now is the time to lead").  A number of Lincoln's biographers have discussed his feelings of loneliness and, at times, outright depression, during some of the longest days and nights of the American Civil War.  It is poignant, for me at least, that an artist chose this theme when he honored Lincoln's memory.  I too have felt the loneliness of leadership at times, and it is both humbling and inspiring to think about what Lincoln went through during his Presidency.  

Second, in regards to the Ulysses S. Grant Monument (again, in Lincoln Park - I know, it's all really confusing!) and circling back to my original question about Grant's Tomb.  There is an inscription on Grant's Tomb that is somewhat faded and hard to discern, but really important.  It says simply, "Let us have peace."  Apparently that was Grant's campaign slogan for the Election of 1868.  As Rosa Inocenio Smith wrote in an article on Grant's Tomb in The Atlantic, "Having won the Civil War as the “Unconditional Surrender” general, Grant ran on a platform of black civil rights and reconstruction, promising, essentially, to make America whole again."  Bearing in mind what the United States of America has gone through in the past year or so and recognizing how divided we are as a nation right now, "Let us have peace," so that we can recover, heal, and "make America whole again."

The third point I would like to make, and it's more of a question really than an actual point, builds upon the theme of making America whole again.  I also read last night that all three statues mentioned above are listed among the 41 statues that a recent commission in Chicago listed as "problematic" and identified for further public discussion.  The commission came in the aftermath of the removal of a controversial statue of Christopher Columbus.  I don't want to dive into these difficult questions (so I won't), other than to repeat what Chicago Tribune writer, Jenny Whidden, said this past year, "...it’s healthy for communities to revisit monuments, grapple with complex histories and make decisions about who they want commemorated in their neighborhoods."

So all of this came about from a long walk on a sunny day.  Leadership is lonely.  Let us have peace.