, 1863-12-14
The STATUE Of Freedom.


Correspondence of the n. 7. Ttibune,1
WAs11saToS, Dec. 2. 1863.
The colossal statue of "Frccdom." In
bronze, BY Clark h1ills, modelled By Craw.
fold, is to-day set upon the great tholus sur.
mounting the dome Of tile capitol.
During more than two years Of our strug,
gle, while the nntfonnl' cause seemed weak
she has patiently waited and watched below
now that victory crowns our advances
and the conspirators are being hedged in and
vanquiEhed everywhere, and the bond are be-
Ing freed, she comes forward the cynospre o1
thousands OF eyes, her face turned rebuk-
ingly toward Virginia, and the hand out
and Personal Freedom.
Perhaps the whole history Of that admin
Bile work Of art Is not generally known. As
eee, from my window, the crowd gathered at
the Capitol, andps the grand salute in chorus
from Al the forts around the city reaches my
cidents for the Tribune.
when the bronze castings were being COM
ple!ed, at the foundry OF Mr.. Mills, near
Bladensburg, his foreman, who had sTper-
intended the work from the beginning, and
Tho Tns re IIeeelying IS per day, struck and
vance must be granted to him, Us nobody in
America, except himself could complete the
wolk. Mr. II. felt that the demand was cx-
horbltant, ami appealed in his dilemma to
the slaves Who were assisting in the moldins.
II can do that WELL" said one Of them, al
Intelligent and ingenious servant, who had
been intimately engaged in the various pro-
cesses- The striker vas dismissed, and the
negro, assisted occasionally By the finer skill
of his master, took the strikers plncc as su-
pcrintendent, and tho Work went on. The
black master-huilder lifted theponderous m
eouth masses, and bolted them together,
ed into tic majestic s, ~ VIZ VIZ tssdsy n.eau;
lifts her head In the blue clouds above Wash
1ngf,11a' Re1nk3; 1nrokinE benedicion on the i'm
Was there prophecy in that moment when
the slave became the artist, and with rarc
poetic Justice, reconstructed the beautiful
symbol Of freedom for America?
Another fact: The original model OF Craw-
ford was crowned with the old tsLiberty
Cap"-lored BY our g1andfathers for lis e,s-
nlfcance, but fallen Into disrepute and DIS
3 nee under the pro-slayery debaqchery Of the
last twenty years. When HI: Jefferson d.
ris, then Secretary Of War under Pierce, saw
the model, he said ut once, ttThis will never
do. we Americans have patronized this ab-
surd Liberty Cap too long already. It was
the detestable head-gc adopted BY the freed
siaTes Of Rome: Let us put it out Of our
sigl4t' And with characteristic bad taste.
and fondness for American institutions for
which, he has not recently been conspicuous,
he ordered that the classic helmet be dotted and
that the goddess be crowned, after the manner
Of our North American 1ndians, with fantas-
tic Aeaddress Of feathers! So the Liberty Cap
OF CraWford was knocked ofI,and the barbar-
GUS device Of JEFF Davis mounted In It's place.
consisting Of limpsy eagle skin, with 4 |
row Of stiff quilts, rampant, running down |
the back, from beak to tail. 1t Is related |
That when the amended head was finished, |
and on exhibition In the Rotunda, an Izishman,
inspecting it, said to his comrade, "Murther,
Et1$ to- ~fH 1T AnSt
he top Of his head?'' Is It stands to-day, /
hough Nj. Mills gave all his talent for lis |
and Interpreted carefully and |
the orders which he received, the /
aead- d-drcss is IN utter nondescript; and our /
capitol is to wear sign Of. bArbarism for its /
Iery crown, because JEFF Davis, worshiping /
Slavery, despised the significant and grand |
Did "Cap Of Liberty"
4 spirited debate has been carried On In the
napCrs with reference to the pondcrous |
:hfeld On which the Goddess lcans-a half |
3or1er, with which the artists have taken
he ;t,,1 liberty to encompass i, giving it some
'tHpes, instead Of The Old 0th thiltsen ':fSn fSe
:ritics charge that this Was deliberately de-
;igned to represent the fifteen Slave States.
instead Of the thirteen original members
This Ia too bold an outrage for probability;
besides, the slight alteration Of the shield
loes not justify the criticism. All frivolous
nentation, are. obnoxions to every artistic
mind, not less on the ground of ambiguity
han Of irTegnlarity; do not see that this is |.
lpen to any other objection. There are
eally but thirteen separate stripes. Besides,
u Will believe that Crawford, though Vir-
in1an, had too much patriotism to conceive,
nd Mills, though educated in South Caroll-
ia, too much honor to execute such wauton
nd wicked mutilatlou of our National Shield.