Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1912 — LINCOLN MEMORIALS AND STATUES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LINCOLN MEMORIALS AND STATUES

A GRATEFUL nation has been anything but tardy in affording tangible evidence of its gratitude to the man who as President of the republic guided the Union through the most trying period of its history. Tributes in marble and bronze to Abraham Lincoln are to be found in all parts of the United States, and additions to the list are constantly being made. Latterly there has been a disposition on the part of our public men and influential citizens to devise in recognition of the services of the Civil War President memorials of even more elaborate and imposing character than the statues that have been erected in so many of the states that he labored to keep under one flag. A recent notable instance of this trend was found in the provision of an Impressive memorial structure on the famous “Lincoln farm” In Kentucky. The erection of this monumental edifice, which was dedicated by President Taft only a few months ago, represents but one phase of an ambitious project to restore and protect the birthplace of Lincoln and the scene of his early life, making it, as it should be a patriotic mecca to which great numbers of Lincoln’s fellow-countrymen will make pilgrimages just as they do to the home of George Washington at Mount Vernon, and to the home and tomb of Thomas Jefferson at Charlottesville, Virginia. Even more pretentious is the project now before congress for a $2,000,000 memorial to Lincoln that shall be in the fullest sense a tribute from the reunited nation. Visitors to the seat of government in recent years have often expressed wonder that whereas there are in Washington appropriate testimonials to the Father of His Country and other national idols, there has been no memorial commensurate with the commanding place which Lincoln has occupied in the history of the country. The government has not been unconscious of this lack, but merely deferred action until such time as there could be provided a tribute worthy of the great man who inspired it. This is now assured, owing to the liberal sum that will be expended in this labor of love. From the time it was decided that the occasion had arrived for congress to take definite action with reference to a national Lincoln memorial there has been discussion and difference of opinion as to the form which this acknowledgment of the nation’s gratitude should take. Most of the men having voice in the matter seem to have come to the conclusion that the ideal memorial will be a massive monumental structure—a sort of temple of fame to be built of white marble on the banks at the Potomac at Washington and adorned with statues of Lincoln and representations of persons and events conspicuously identified with his career. The effect would be, of course, to create a companion patriotic shrine to that at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate a few miles farther down the same river. However, many persons of prominence have all along argued in favor of other forms of memorial. A memorial bridge between the national capital and the national cemetery at Arlington beyond the Potomac has repeatedly been suggested and so has a memorial arch,

but probably sentiment has been strongest for a Lincoln memorial boulevard or highway. The proposal has been to construct this highway as a connecting link between the national capital and the battlefield at 'Gettysburg where Lincoln delivered his immortal speech. The chief objMtibn tb ThTs ”BcEeme "fs~tfiat~Ylre~ highway could be used and enjoyed only by people who had automobiles or other vehicles of their own or the means to hire such conveyances. While on the subject of these elaborate Lincoln memorials it may be noted that first place in this category belongs, of course, to the Lincoln tomb at Springfield, Illinois. The monument to Lincoln at Springfield, alike to the monuments to our other martyr presidents— Garfield and McKinley—is not merely public but national. For the Lincoln monument the sum of $200,000 was collected. Of this sum $28,000 came from the soldiers of the Civil war, and SB,OOO of this amount was contributed by the negro troops out of the first money they ever earned. The Lincoln monument has had to be reconstructed several times and entirely rebuilt once, owing to the character of the foundation, and these circumstances necessitated the removal of Lincoln’s body, which, all told, has been moved some ten or twelve times since the original burial. Certainly one of the most commendable of

all the existing memorials to Lincoln is the Lincoln Memorial University of Claiborne county, Tennessee, which was founded by Gen. O. O. Howard, one of the most devoted of Lincoln’s admirers, and the object of which is to benefit the people from whom Lincoln sprang, ifie~ niountaTheerß of the Cumberland Gap region. The grounds of the university contain six hundred acres and there are several buildings upon them, although more are needed. The university was chartered by the State of Tennessee on Lincoln’s birthday In 1897 and has already performed a tremendous service for the people of an isolated region which may be said to offer no other similar educational advantages. It has been, claimed that owing to the handicap which Lincoln himself sustained in early life, owing to ignorance and poverty, he would, if he could choose, probably prefer this memorial in the Tennessee mountains to any other that could be reared to his memory. Of the numerous statues of Lincoln which have place in cities and town all over the United States the most notable, from an artistic standpoint, are two executed by the late Augustus St. Gaudens, Amercia’s greaest sculptor. Both of these statues are figures of heroic size. One which represents Lincoln standing has been erected in Lincoln Park in the city of Chicago, whereas the other, which

k * shows Lincoln seated, was a gift to the South Side of Chicago by bequest $ of the late John Crearar of that ciltf. ' \ The St. Gaudens head of Lincoln was \ selected by the national government \ for reproduction on the Lincoln com- \ 'memorative postage stamp, which I issued by tire Post Office DepartI ment a year or so ago. / The work of the sculptors who are / called upon to reproduce the features / of Lincoln in marble or bronze is / greatly facilitated by the fact that •—I there are in existence excellent life and death masks which faithfully portray the countenance of the kindly ruler at the time he first took office and at various periods up to his death. The making of the life mask - of Lincoln was, by the way, a rather trying ordeal for the president, who P was obliged to sit for an hour jwith the plaster covering hjs face, but not interfering with his eyesight or breathing. Mr. Lincoln himself assisted in removing the mask, a particularly difficult task owing to his high cheekbones, but the undertaking was entirely successful, the mask coming off in one piece and bein£ especially satisfactory In that It included the impress of both ears—something that in many Instances must be omitted in the securance of a life mask. One of the most Jnterestlpg of all the Lincoln statues is the bronze figure in Lincoln Park at Washington, which shows Lincoln freeing the slave —an emblematic figure of the great emancipator striking the shackles from the hands of a kneeling negro. The significant feature in connection with this unique statue is that it was erected by money contributed through popular subscription by the freed slaves. Another interesting memorial to Lincoln at the capital he saved is found in a simple silver plate on the pew which he always occupied In the church, a few blocks from the White House, of which he was a member. Congress has paid $30,000 for the house in which Lincoln died, and will, In all probability, in time convert it into a Lincoln Memorial Museum under governmental auspices. This will Involve the expenditure of considerable money, because the building is now closely hemmed in by other buildings which ought to be torn down in order to properly safeguard the historic building "against fire. .-7 —~ ' The city of New York, which has notable memorials to so many of the nation’s heroes, is deficient in testimonials to Lincoln, but this lack is soon to be remedied if the project launched by Joseph H. Choate and other prominent New Yorkers meets with success. This contemplates the erection in the metropolis of some fitting memorial, possibly a magnificent arch such as the Arch of Triumph, vhlch is one of the chief glories of Paris. A very appropriate form of Lincoln memorial is the present task of placing in all our national cemeteries bronze tablets bearing Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Ultimately these tablets will be placed also In great numbers of public buidljngs, etc.