Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-11-26

AuGUsTA. Nov. 25. 1881.

gree OF surprise, your letter of the 18th re-
iating to the erection of the soldiers monu-
ment published in the Kennebec Journal of
the 2lst. and believing as we do that some of
the signatures to the communication referred
to, were obtained without full understand
ing Of the purport of the same. we beg to call
your attention to few facts of which you do
not seem to be informed and to show you
wherein the statements contained in your
communication are, to say the least. erron-
locus and widely at variance with facts.
I 1t may be hardly courteous to point out
your misrepresentation through the columns
of newspaper. but as you have thrown the
first stone we can't forbear little Indulgence
| of the same sort.
we succeed in accomplishing nothing
more, we NAV at least be able 10 learn YOU
a salutary lesson in this respect-that you
/ should never put your names 10 = document
intended for public perusal without first
satisfying yourself of the truth therein con-
tanned. 1t is not the first time that good
reputation has been tarnished by being
swift witness in the cause of a friend
| In the first place. gentlemen. common
courtesy from persons of eminent standing
like yourselves, Was due to at least two of the
persons who signed that Protest" We
wish to remind you right here of fact which
may not have occurred to you before, that
the first name is that of the mayor of the
city. Hon. F. o. Vickery, who has subscribed
| S400 toward the erection of the monument, and
on whose warrant is to be drawn four ninths
of the money which must pay for the same.
| The next is the name of an ex-mayor and
President of the Soldiers Monument Associa-
tioE-or was, until your committee became
of such important dimensions that it swal-
lowed up the constituent power together with
its legal head.
You say there is no suggestion that the
Granite Co. and Mr.. Power have not in all
respects thus far performed their contracts as
drawn By the committee of the Association,
appointed for that purpose and ratified by the
| Association.
| Now gentlemen, how could YOU subscribe
your names to such a state ment when glance
| at the Protest would have saved you the
modification of placing yourselves in "a dlem
ma where you must either plead ignorance of
the statements, to which you have lent your
name, or stand convicted of wilful mis-
| representation.
| Read the first article in the protest-''Ist,
Shall the inscription plate be accepted, it not
being in accordance with the vote of the As
sociation'' Read Article No. ., '.Shall the
Trophy be accepted" What say you, gen.
| tlemen. is there mo suggestion" here that
| something was wrong? If it was not in ac
cordance with a vote Of the Association We
had right to presume the contractors were
at fault We certainly had not a right to
suppose that our honorable committee would
be guilty of such fraud upon the body which
had delegated them to procure the work TO
be done. You certainly could not expect
formal statement of our objections in four
lines of common type. SO you see there was
a suggestion" and you must acknowledge
1 you are wrong there.
| Neither can we allow YOU to shield your
selves by declaring that ifthe committee have
exceeded their authority, given them by the
Association, it was not the fault of Mr.. Pow
er as he was following instructions. You
see gentlemen. you have been misled. We
thought so at the outset and we believe SO
still.
1t is possible you may not have known
that at the very moment you were declaring
over your own signature the work to have
been done according to contract, one OF your
number had in his pocket a letter from Mr..
Power, lately received, in which he
lnowled edged the work had not been done &C
cording to agreement. What say you to
that?
He acknowledged that he has omitted from
the tablets what is. to the citizens of Angus
ia, almost as important an item as the Oms-
sion of the names of the soldiers them
seves-the rank and the company and
regiment to which they belonged. If
the monument is intended merely as a work
of art. the omission is immaterial and un-
important but if it is a soldiers monument
the omission was the most important that
could be made But the Association had, by
a vote passed some two years ago. decided
that the rank, company and regiment was to
II go on. The committee so informed Mr..
Power. And now, let me ask if the omis-
sion was of ian unmpOrtaht feature of the
monument as you allege Has Mr. Power
completed his part of the contract as osdered
by the committee? Is there any pretense
that this material alteration was ratified by
the Association?
Mr.. Power states in the communication
now in your possession. that he has given the
rank and regiment of the officers, but that
the enlisted men he has neither designated BY
rank or regiment. Gentlemen of the COM
mittee permit us to suggest that by allowing
such an omission--such an alteration in an
''unimportant feature" as you alege,-it is
barely possible You may have wounded the
pride or sent arrow to the h. art of some
aged father or mother whose patriot boy went
down in the storm of battle and is now slum-
bering in the soil of the South, by such a
cold and heartless statement. 1t is possible
that some honest yeoman of our grateful
Clty, whose prlue Tor many q year mas Deen
to tell how that heroic brother fought and
fell, will call you to account for such an in
suit to the memory of that dear one. And 1t
NAV be- too. that the honest, tax payers of
Augusta would have been pleased to see the
original design of the monument carried out.
And vet the rank and organization were
omitted because it would mar the beauty of
the monument.
For what purpose then, was this monument
erected? Was it to commemorate the patri-
otic services of the gallant soldiers of Angus
ia. who lost their lives in the defence Of their
country or was it intended to be purely a
work of art-to embellish and adorn a va
cant lot of land and enhance the value of
contiguous real estate?
We will now examine the Dedicatory Tab
let. The Association voted July lst 1881,
to instruct the Committee to have placed up
on this panel that the monument was ''erect-
ed by the citizens of Augusta, which was a
fact But instead of complying with the
vote of the Association, you decided in your
superior wisdom that misstatement would
be better and so, in defiance of the Associa-
ton. vou have had craven in during brass"
an untruth-namely. that the monument was
, erected by the citv of Augusta. To that we