The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1875-08-28
-
THAT MONUMENT.


II. T. POTTER, Esq. DEAR SIR - he |
Mound City Patriot and the Cairo Bntt6m.
as well as many other friends oi mine,
having called upon me to make a state
mcnt concerning the building of ne mon
umcnt of the Mound City National
Cemetery. shall respond to their request
briefly n pos .iblc. and as you VIII observe
from the address give you the privilege
of publishing it il you desire.
Gov Bcycridge, in pursuance of an
act of the Legislature apprOprating
ton of the above mentioned monument,
appointed Dr. Looncy, j. T.. Willis and
myself commissioners to carry out the
desire of the Legislature. \ meeting of
the commissioners was held In this town
about the 18th of April. 1871. DIR. Loo
ncy was elected president and myself
secretary. At that meeting we agreed to
advertise in one of the leading papers In
| each of the following cities, namely, Gin
cinnati, Chicago and st. Louis, and the
selection of the papers was left with the
secretary. Mr.. John Waugh, assistant
| secretary, wrote to three papers in each
| place. to get their prices for inserting the
| advertisement for thirty days from the
LIST of May, 1874. The propositions OF
the, nine papers are ON file
and can be seen by any
one wishing to learn how the advertise
mcnt was let, and a glance at them will
show that tile lowest bidders got it.,
which happened to be two Republican
and one Democratic paper. About the
last of April, 1874, Mr.. Potter, editor OF
the Mound City JouTnoi, approached me
and desired to get an advertisement for
| his paper. | told him that | did not
think we would be justified in going Ia
| such expense, rs his paper would not
reach many Of those whose notice we
wished to attract. lie replied that he
thought that we ought TO publish our adj
vcrtisement in his paper as the local pa
per of the county in which the monument
was to be built. replied that if we be
gan by giving to his paper an advertise
ment that we would have to give tn
same to others; inasmuch as the monu
mcnt was to be built ont of the funds o
the State of Illinois. each county pape
would feel that it had rs good right tC
some of the patronage rs the count,
paper o, Pulaski. We separated. h,
Potter having failed to perSnaae m,
that ii was best to give him an advertise
ment.
on the 3Oth of May, 1874, eleven de
signs were presented. Nine of them
| WE'RE III
| ers, two designs were forwarded TO the
secretary. with request that they be
placed on eXhibition-that bids with
specifications would be sent by the 30tl
In time to be seen and read before award
ing the contract. On the afternoon
the 30th OF May, 1874, the commissioner
met and examined all the designs. VI
| the 3lst, decoration day, we met agar
and adjourned to 2nd of June. Sunday
| Intervening. each OF the architect
were called into the room for the pur
pose of presenting specifications and cX
planning designs, and answering any
questions that might be asked. At !
o'clock q. IN. the bid, were opened
and, to my great establishment, ther,
was not one that came under the amour
of the appropriation. We were compellc,
to call the bidders back to state to then
that the successful bidder would have I,
pay the expense of advertising. which
they all agreed to do. We then after SOM
talk, agreed to take an informal vote
Result, two for Emery Il Co., one TO
NOlk. of Chicago. Adjourned for dinner
Met after dinner and after exchanging
opinions as to the merits of the dificren
designs. a vote was taken. Result sam,
as before dinner. being in the minority
submitted with the best grace I could
and Joined with the other commissioner
in the performance Of the duties for whicl
we were appointed.
Now let me say, here, that no bid, speci
iication or design was presented for TN,
consideration OF the commissioners thai
contemplated or even limited at five stat
ucs. The parties receiving the contract
presented three designs, with three sep
arate sets of specifications, and three
separate bids. On. B. they are all il
my possession and can be seen by any
one who feels an interest in the truth OF
falsity of this statemcnt). Messrs
Emery & Co. received the contract on
fair competition. and no fair minded man
can gamsay it.
Several articles having appeared in tn,
Mound City journal differing in ever,
essential particular from this, propose
to notice in detail, but very briefly, some
OF them. Article LIST says, poorest desigl
accepted. To this article | made no re-
ply at the time, for ] did not think il
worth while to get into newspaper
controversy abouta thing that my vot,
shows that ] was not in favor Of
Articles without number shall pas,
by, and proceed with the two last tina,
have appeared. Some three weeks az,
Mr.. Potter called ON me and asked m,
i'll did not think the present manage
ment of the Marine Ways OF this plac,
could not afford him an advertisement
assuring me At the same time that it wa.
getting pretty slim times with him,
told him that did not think that woul,
be justified in doing so. lie could no
persuade me that ii would be best for m,
to do SO. The next issue of his pane
contained the startling Information tina
the number of the statues had been re
duced from five to three. and the monu
ment materially reduced in size, for tn,
sole benefit of the contractors, with
out any corresponding reduction il
iprlcc.
Now the design HAT was accepted
was made part of the contract, and i
In my keeping to-day, subject to the in
spection of any and all who desire I,
see 1t, and compare it with the monu
ment. After reading the last article,
called on Mr.. Potter and minated m,
desire 10 post him $50 that | would no
be held up In community whose re
spect and confidence ! sincerely desire,
but found after talking with him 70
some time, that there was determination
on his part not TO be posted. then toll,
him that had been In full accord will
IL