The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1879-11-26
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
Memorial decentralization.
as Statue H0nors
10 the Man on Horseback.

From our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, D. c. Nov. 81, 1879.
This has been week of unusual
memorial festivity even for Wash.
ington. There are six colossal eques-
trian statues of generals in bronge
about the streets and parks of our
young capital, but neither Washing
ton, Jackson, Scott, Greene, nor Nc.
Pherson received, at the time of the
erection of their durable ctfigics, such
an imposing ovation as has been
given this week to the bronze repre-
sentation of General Thomas and his
horse. The unwilling ceremonies,
both as street pageant and in every
other detail were eminently success.
full. Seldom, even at presidential
inauguration, has the city been SO
thronged with visitors. The many
volunteer organizations from other
cities have given the streets q mar
tial appearance, carrying the mind
back, not very pleasantly, to the pc.
Rod before the cruel war was over
1t is now contemplated to-erect q
monument to General Hooker, and
steps have already been taken in
that direction. At a meeting of the
Society of the Army OF the Cumber.
land, General Barnam, of New York,
announced that q movement to erect
an equestrian statue to General
Hooker was in contemplation, and
that ne was in receipt of a letter
from California to the effect that that
state would turn out its golden ignots
to promote the movement. Just be.
fore his death, General Hooker, who
was very wealthy man, made an
offer of $4,000 for a duplicate of the
Thomas statue, for the Soldiers
Home at Dayton. What an immense
number of statues will we have when
all the generals who fought in the
late war, with no less distinction
than these, have been honored? We
are ignoring the warrior out of all
proportion. The annals of our brief
history have been the annals of
peace, but the stranger who would
attempt to read our history in the
monuments of our capital, would
come to the conclusion that we were
q more war-like people than the Ro-
mans, or than the French during the
Napoleonic era. Jefferson, the au-
thor OF the Constitution, has but one
little statue-it might better be call
cd statuette-and that was present
ed by u French Admiral. Washing
ton and Lincoln have both been car
featured in marble. Jackson's civic
services have been ignored; he too is
represented as a warrior on an in.
tractable horse. Few, if any, of the
statesmen who have made our histo.
ry in those features that will make
US, in the remote future, historically
great, have been honored. This is
the way it has always been. The
glory of the field has ever been great.
er than the glory of the Cabinet, OF
Senate. We are doing no worse than
the nations who have gone before US
Alas! we are doing no better. Our
praise is that we are good mimics.-
We are Selling every opportunity to
perpetuatc the sentiments, and pas.
sions, and memories that have made
other continents fields of blood. Art
is instructive. Monuments are cdu.
Gators. We have been prating about
eras of peace, and the progress of the
nineteenth century, Can we do nc
better than transplant in this virgin
continent the ideas of conquest that
have battle-pocked Europe? Give
the soldier his due, but let us not be
hysterical in our honors, nor ignore
the heroes of peace. c. AS.