The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-12-08

HIS STATUE AT wAsHINeToN-soME {
CHARACTERISTICS


HIS STATUE AT observation-disclosures OF HTs
CHARACTERISTICS.
"Gath" writes thus to the Chicago Tribune
of the late General Ra Wins and his statna
just erected in Washington: The first north
western man to be set up in bronze in this
capital was the Chief of staff of Gen. Grant.
Rawlins, of Galena. There WAS no care.
mony on the OCCASION; the event was nlain
and subordinate as his life: for he lacked
racter to take the first place. The
plow-neld may make good SOL
diers; the military academy makes the Of
ficer. 1t raises in the man the secondary
parts which manage natural force, and forces
mediocrity up to the sense of M
Rawlins was a very useful and sound sol-
dier, but, while he n the president were
very friendly, the latter grew in mvs-
terry, and maintained an unconscious
advance, which finally had all the
Width between president and citizen.
The late Gen. Hillver used to say: Raw
Inns and l were both politicians; we never
knew what Grant was, but in everything he
was supreme. He liked both of us as well
as anybody be knew, but we could lead no
diversion in his career. We never captured
him for our political side: both of us were
democrats: Although his original staff
omcers, he never took us into a
c~oterie, like Mcclellan and other generals.
Therefore, while everybody thought, as
we DID, that our personal relation to the hero
OF the age would make our fortunes, IL
probably was the illusion of our lives.D ANY
simple question of this kind is surrounded
with disputsnts. There are people who
think Grant was comprised in Rawlins, and
that he ought to have made Rawlins power
full. These same people, in the
next breath, accuse Grant of max
ing friendship the tenure of the great
offices. But the fame of grestjsuccess is not to
be diminished by a thousand years of criti-
cism. The chief of staff is still the chief of
staff; the general the fame. Washington IT.
wing relates, in one OF his minor sketches,
that when amongst a certain band OF Bohe-
mians he fell into praise of any celebrated
current author, the band cried "Pooh, Pooh!
lt was Jones who gave him all his ideas for
that" But Jones, Mr.. Irving had never
heard OF. BE therefore inferred that ths
p~urlieus of authorship bad their own
heroes; and this is the case in the purlieus
of criticism. President Grant continued in
civil lite the grade Rawlins enjoyed in mil
itary life; chief of staff became secretary of
war. Az his death, a sum of money nearly
equal to what Mrs. Stanton and family re
ceived, was conferred on Mrs. Rawlins.
Stanton is without a statute. Rawlins is
the
FIRST UNION e
to receive a statue at the capital. 1t stands
in Rawlins square,, a piece of ground near
the Potomac. and close by the new state de-
partment, which lifts its smart renaissance
facade into the sight of the timberless hills
of Virginia. There, Arlington House, sur
rounded with all its dead, points its col
umned portico to the figure of the chief
of staff, emblematic OF the Northwest
men who fought and overcame
the detection of the Lees and Washingtons,
and took possession of the general capital.
The statue is by one Bailie, OF Philadelphia, 9.
and is presentable without being either ele-
CANT or a likeness. Rawlins was a hollow
breasted man, of large muscular fibre. with
very apparent vital weakness, a face charac-
teristic of Western trials and fortitude, and
an easy portrait for "A man of genius to
catch. in its long, dry hair and beard,
look of doom, bone and work. Instead of
this, we nave a being padded and uni
formed, with square shoulders all buck-
rammed up, flesh enough for Horse-Guard,-
and the erect carriage of an actor. He is
standing on his left foot, with the right adj
vanced. The right hand is doing the unim-
posing work of holding a very heavy field
glass. The left is resting on the head OF the
sabre. He has the big leggings of that period
swaying open. The face, without any
out Photographic vitality, is slightly turned
to a point in the battle field. TO saw any-
thing more of this statute than that it has
no pregnancy nor suf1ciency for existing,
would be unjust. 1t Is something like Raw
Inns; it is quite an object, and it is brand
new. A vigorous and appreciative mind
would have burned or furrowed
some lesson into those sad. wild
to tell the responsibility of the
generals chief reliance in his citizen staff
officer, prosecuted with hemorrhage and
pain, greater than outer danger. The presi-
dent survives all his original stad. Since
Rawlins and Bowers. the most assiduous of
them all has been Babcock. The price of his
devotion has been more abusethan generally
falls to the lot OF young men.
John Bright has sent to the mayor of Bos-