The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-30
Tuesday, March 80. 1875.
Mo Monument for Douglas.

The lower branch of the Illinois legisla- |
ture, last Thursday, refused TO pass the
senate bill appropriating $4,000 for the
completion Of the Douglas monument.
The vote stood 60 yeas to 70 nays. Of the
sixty who voted for the bill 80 are Demo-
Gratis, % Republicans, and 1ndepen-
dents. Of the seventy who voted in the
negative, IA are Democrats, 80 RepubG-
cans, and II Independents. "
We are particular in Analysing the vote
on this measure, because, under all the
circumstances of the case, we think the
action Of the house as contemplate piece
of business as any legislative body was
ever guilty of. Therefore the political
complexion Of its authors should be clearly
set forth for the benefit of the public. 1t
is needless to reiterate the claims which
Douglas has upon the people of Illinois
for grateful remembrance. 1.-THE state of
which he was the idol and the pet, only
fifteen years ago, has been able to lind
among her prominent local politicians sew
enty men who would, by their legislative
votes, refuse to give him honorable burial,
then surely the less said about the dead
man the better-so far, at least, as Illinois
is concerned. But there is popular SEN
timen. outside of Illinois which is likely to
take proper cognizance of this matter, for
the dead man, with all his faults, was of
sufficiently ample intellectual dimensions
to secure for himself a national reputa-
ton. Coming upon the political stage at
the time when the giants we're growing
old and passing away, he displayed abili-
ties. which proved him their peer and
made name which neither the neglect
Akn =, Il - ,~ka
stituents can wipe from the nations mem
DRY. Impartial history will rank him in
the same category with Clay. and Web
ster, Calhoun and Benton, and the indif-
ference of the present generation will be
atoned for by the admiration Of the next.
Anxious, as we are, to discover some
decent excuse for the conduct of the ILL
nois representatives, wesclect this edito-
rial paragraph from the Democrat as
having the merit Of ingenuity, if nothing
else
mot out Of want of respect for the memory O
Senator Douglas, we suppose, but rather becaus,
nearly all efforts to encourage art by public contri
buttons have resulted in shameful abortions, tn,
Illinois legislature has defeated the bill giving $50
900 for monument to the deceased statesman. 1
the governments, local, state and national coulC
make 1t understood, at once and forever, that no
funds for paintings, statues and monuments, TO
twenty years, private taste and culture would pres
emily stimulate much higher development OF ar
than we have yet attained"
1t is not at all probable that the seventy
men who voted in the negative were infu
enced by aesthetic ideas, or cared coppe
whether art fourished or decayed. In
deed, these subjects had nothing whateve
to do with the main question. That ques
ton was: Shall Illinois spend 5000 t.
give her most distinguished son suitable
tomb? This tomb might have been
through the bad taste of the commission
ers or the unskilfulness of the workmen
an exceedingly clumsy and ugly affair; blu
it would have represented, even in its de
formity, the grateful appreciation of tn
people of great and growing state, an,
thus been enshrined in purer beauty an,
more perfect grace than any that mer
artistic manipulation could produce. |
was not absolutely necessary to build
the sculptor and obtain for him patronag
elsewhere. A small area around the gray
might have been converted into a quie
garden where trees and flowers and Greer
ing vines could grow, and where childre
could play and birds sing, and over til
dust of the sleeper single plain tablet q
imperishable granite might have bee
placed with the simple inscription 18th
people of Illinois to Stephen A. Douglas"
fifth of the sum asked for would have dor
all this and more, and when done the r,
proach which now rests upon the fame
the state would have been removed foreve
AS things stand to-day, illinois has al
nounced to the world that the only re-
statesman she has ever contributed to til
national councils, and the first man WI
gave her proud name throughout Amer
ca ond in foreign lands, is not, in her est
nation, worthy of appropriate sepulture
her own soil. And by making this al
nouncement she has saved $4,000. W;
there ever an instance of more costly eco
omy PSF. Louis Republican.