Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-02-22

rUtn w uCs VI ~
up. generation after generation, 70 uo
homage 10 his memory
A WISE DECISION.
For the grand consummation when
we celebrate to-day we are indebted
primarily to the National Government,
under the successive Presidents oil the
past nine years, with the concurrent
action of the two branches OF Con-
gress, prompted by committees SO often
under the lead Of the veteran Senator
Morrill,. of Vermont. The wise de-
cision and emphatic resolution OF Con,
eress on ID Of August, lsI6-mspired
bv the Centennial Celebration OF
American Independence, and adopted
as Il auspiciously happened, on
the hundrcdth anniversary oil the
formal signing of the great dc.
claration, that the monument should
no longer be left unfinished,
with the appointment of JOINT COM
mission to direct and supervise its COM
pletion--settled the whole matter. 10
that Joint commission. consisting oil inc
President of the United States for the
time being, the senior yice-president oil
the Monument Association, the CHIEF
engineers of the United States Army,
with the architects Of the Capitol and
the Treasury. the congratulations ana
thanks of us all may well be rendered.
But | think they will all cordially agree
with me that the main credit and honor
of what has been accomplished belongs
peculiarly and prominently to the
distinguished officer of engineers
who has been their devoted
and untiring agent from the outset.
The marvellous work of extending and
strengthening the foundations oil
structure already weighing, as 1t did,
not less than thirty-two thousand
tons-sixty-four million pounds--an
operation which has won the admira-.
ton of engineers all over the world,
and which will always associate this
monument with signal triumph oil
scientific skill-was executed upon
his responsibility and under his personal
supervision. His, too, have been the
ingenious and effective arrangements
by which the enormous shaft has been
carried up, course after course, until 1t
has reached its destined height of five
hundred and fifty-five feet, as we see 1t
at this hour. TO Colonel Thomas Lin
coin Casey, whose name is associated
in three generations with valued mill
tary service to his country, the success
full completion of the monument is due.
But he would not have us forget his ac-
cOmplished assistant, Captain George
w. Davis, and neither Of them would
have us fail to remember Superinten-
dent Mclaughlin and the hard-handed
and honest-hearted mechanics who have
labored so long under their direction.
FINS corond opus. The completion
crowns the work. To-day that work
speaks for itself, and needs no other
orator. Mute and lifeless as it seems,
it has a living and audible voice for all
who behold it, and no one can misinter-
pref its language. Nor will any one,
| think, longer cavil about its design.
That design. let me add, originally pre-
pared by the Washington architect.
Robert Mills, Of South Carolina. and
adopted long before | had any re-
lations TO this Association. was
to public favor by
such illuStriOus names as Andrew
Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Albert
Gallatin. Henry Clay, and Daniel Web
ster. A colonnadc encircling its base,
and intended as sort of Pantheon,
was soon discarded from the plan. Its
main feature from the first was an obe-
lisk. after the example Of that which
had been recently agreed upon for
Bunker Hill. And so it stands to-day,
a simple. sublime obeliSk of pure white
its proportions. in spite of its
immense height. conforming exactly to
those Of the most celebrated obelisks
of antiquity. as my accomplished
and lamented friend. our late
to Italy. so happily
pointed out TO us. 1t is not, in
deed, as were those ancient obelisks, a
single stone cut whole from
the quarry; that would have been OBJ
viously impossible for anything so CO.
lossal. Nor could we have been en-
pected to attempt the impossible in de-
ference to Egyptian methods of con-
struction. We might almost as well
be called on to adopt as the emblems of
American progress the bronze crabs -,
which were found at the base of Cleopa- J
tra's Needle America is certainly at lib /,
crty to present new models in art as well 1
as in government or to improve upon old
ones and, as ! ventured to suggest
some years ago, our monument to Wash
ington will be all the more significant
and symbolic in embodying, a. il does,
the idea of our cherished national motto.
+ Pln7buS Uaum. That compact, con-
solidated structure, with its countless
blocks. inside and outside. held firmly
in position by their own weight and
pressure. will ever be an instructive
type of the national strength and gran
deur which can only be secured by the
union of "many into one"
Had the fine arts, indeed, made such
advances in our country forty years ago
as we are now proud to recognize, it is
not improbable that different design
might have been adopted; but | am by
no means sure it would have been
more effective and appropriate one.
There will always be ample opportunity
for the display Of decorative art in our
land. The streets and squares Of this
city and Of all our great cities arc wide
open for the statues and architectural
memorials of our distinguished states
men and soldiers. and such monuments
are everywhere welcomed and hon
ored. But is mott ask in
all sincerity-is not the acknowledged
preeminence of the Father of his COun-
try, first without second, more fifty
and adequately represented by that
soaring shaft, rising high above trees
and spires and domes, and all the
smoke and stir of earth---as he ever
rose above sectional preiudices. and
party politics, and personal interests
a