Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-03-10
a1lraster ftlteuigerlrsr.
.nA1unDAY EVENING. MARCH 10. 1853
Fulton and MuhIenberg.

IA1unDAY EVENING, MARCH 10. ieea.
Fulton and Auhlenberg.
Apropos Of the erection in the federal
1opttol Of the statue of Robert Fulton,
nade for one Of Pennsylvania's two
secs there, the West Chester Record,
Nth Characteristic i'll nature, remarks
LIT sthe statue of the New York gen.
EIeman who is to represent Pennsylvania
n the rotunda of the Lational capitol
has been placed in position, but the Vir-
Rinian who is to have the other niche is
not yet ready - and our acrid contem-
poraEy predicts that in years to come
" the young Pennsylvanians will look
upon the statues of the New Yorker and
the Virginian, whose names they will
probably never have heard, and wonder
how the well-knOwn names of Anthony
Wayne, David Rittenhouse, William
Penn and other Pennsylvanians should
not have occurred to the people who Sc
lected the statues"
At the rate at which the intellectual
development of Chester county has been
s. Fastening to decay of late years, we
should not be surprised that its youth
Q generation hence would not have heard
the names of two such prominent figures
in the history of their state and country
- the eminent inventor of the practi
cal application of steam power to naviga-
tiop, and that preachers soldier -publicist
who illustrated in character and action
the qualities which made the Revolu-
tionary struggle an epoch in the worlds
history. But in such foTgetfulness we
nre confident that the constituency OF
the West Chester Record will be solitary
and singular among the people. of the
land, who keep Fulton and Muhlenberg
In grateful remembrance.
There was fair division of opinion
o to the proper subjects to be honored
by Pennsylvania in the choice of the
statuary commission. But when the
language of the act creating this body
limited its members to those whose
claims to distinction were established
previous to or during the revolution"
and when the two whose names are most
viyidly impressed upon our common
wealth's history were ruled out, lest
some carping critic like the Record
would refer to Penn as the emigrant
from England" and to Franklin as the
" carpet bagger from Boston'-after
this the commission did about as we'll as
it could, and certainly selected as con
spicuous and familiar figures as those
suggested by the Record. Gen. Mullen
berg was born and died in Pennsylvania.
and though he preached in Virginia
the picturesque incident of his life,
which the talented artist who is work.
ing out the statue of him has seized
upon for representation, was one of such
national significance that its commence
ration in marble will be most worthy
subject for national gallery. Besides
Muhlenberg, after good service in the
army, rose through the gradations of the
civil service to the Unitsd States Sen
ate he was of a family distinguished
in the religious and political life of the
state, and he is a fit representative of
race which makes such large part in thu
composite citizenship of Pennsylvania
If the Record has any doubt of Pennsyl
vania's claim to the place of Fulton''
nativity, it is only because its vision
does rot extend to this side of the OctO
raro hills, where the " Fulton House
is railroad station and the streams art
living witnesses to the youthful invent
or's experiments with steam. Betweer
him and Rittenhouse there is fal
less danger that he will be forgotten
either for his citizenship of a stat'
having many memorials of him or for th'
popular and practical results of hi
scientific labors. Gen. Wayne, it il
true, was the most eminent Pennsylva
mia soldier of the revolution, ant
though the commission, in extending it
view beyond simple military achiev
ments, made other selection for the capi
tol, the state has not been slow to racog
nize Wayne's claims to grateful memory
and due respect is accorded him every
where-except, perhaps, among th'
youth of Chester county, by whom W;
believe his monument at Radnor ha
been desecrated, despite the devotion o
his family.