That
address and that letter did not attract much
attention at the time. (They don't appear in
the 100 documents.) Yet they are among the finest
sentiments of what medicine and its science mean to
human life, liberty, and happiness. Indeed, FDR
shared the ache for a better tomorrow that pounded
in the hearts of those who had weathered both
economic depression and the great assault on
democracy. Though he did not live to see it
flourish, medical research became a grand gift of
our republic.
This Grave History?
The Arlington National
Cemetery has a distinguished lineage. Martha
Washington's grandson by her first marriage,
George Washington Parke Custis, inherited 1,100
acres of Virginia land from his father and later
built a mansion. His daughter, Mary Anna Randolph
Custis, married her distant cousin, Robert E. Lee,
and they lived there until Lee left in 1861 to serve
as general of the Confederate Army. In 1864, the
United States seized the land for unpaid taxes, and
it was designated for federal use. Union
Quartermaster Gen. Montgomery Meigs ordered that
1,800 casualties of Bull Run be buried in the rose
garden. Meigs's intent was to make the property
uninhabitable should the traitorous Lee ever try to return.
