The Washington critic., 1886-07-09
WASHINGTON CRITIC
WASHINGTON, July o, 1886.
"rHn ARCH or THE uSIoN.o

From THE WAsnlNoToN CnIric, Aug. 8, 1881
The mortal remains Of Ulysses s.
Grant will TO day be deposited In their
resting place at Riverside Park with
ceremonals befitting the illustrious ser
vices of the dead. Soldier aud civil
ian, veteran and son of veteran, rich
and poor, high and low, Government
and people, public official and private
citizen, men who less than q quarter
of century ago were deadly foes but
mourning now like brothers as for
common loss, are paying united hom-
age to the memory of the commander
who wrought the Unions decisive vic.
tory and twice there CATER, in the robes
of peace, presided over the destinies
of the country.
This Is q universal sentiment. 1t Is
not an evanescent emotion. 1t Is des
tined to take substantial shape, wher-
ever the name of the departed hero is
revered-not only to be written upon
the pages of history in fadeless letters,
but to be perpetuatcd all over the
country in muliform creations of me.
mortal art. The most elaborate of
these commemorative works will, as a
matter of course. be erected at Wash
ington by the General Government, and
in the name of the people at large.
What particular form his monument
will take remains to be determined, but
the popular judgment will doubtless be
unanimous that no mere obelisk pierre
ing the upper airs, no mere statuesquo
conception in stone, no mere casting in
bronze will answer the purpose.
An Arch of Triumph has been sug.
gested, but there is Il trace Of Old World
imperialism in this which free America
can do better than appropriate. 1t also
involves an element OF incongruity, for
the structure we rear Is to face the
future, rather than the past; to typify
results rather than antecedents, to ccle.
brate the fruilions of peace rather than
the passions of war-and still, the
idea of an arch possesses much pJ'
triotic as well as poetical signid
cance. Why then should not tho
bridge, which is shortly to span the
waters of the Potomac, and for which
Congress has already made prelimi-
nary appropriation, be built as the
Grant Memorial Bridge, uniting by
bonds of masonry, enduring as time
itself, the sections between which, so
recently that 1t seems but yesterday,
this noble river flowed like an impla.
cable line of separation?
What more appropriate remembrance
Of the Commander who led the armies
of the Union to the gates Of Rich.
mond and of struggle, which, in its
elimination, cemented the brotherhood
of States anew, than this final bridging
of the "bloody chasm" so long kept
open by artificial resentments and po.
litical devices?
What grandcr tribute to the memory
Of him whose love of country knew no
limitations, who sheathcd his sword
when Lee surrendered, who charitably
appreciated the sore discontinue of the
South, and whose magnanimity was al
ways superior to the petty partisanshir
of the times
Arlington and Washington would
thus become close handmaids, welcom
ing the pilgrims of liberty to their his
toric shrines. Not only this, but the
Capital of the Republic and the late
Capital of the Southern Confederacy
would be brought face to face upon a
common highway-from South to
North-from North to South-ani
mated by one hope and looking for,
ward to one lambent vista of peace
prosperity and power.
The arched and illustrated entrances
TO this heroic pile would commemorate
no armies marching and couutcrmarch.
ing, no shock Of embottled hosts, nc
vengeful animosities. but simply the
supremacy of the Union as vindicatcd
by Grant, and to-day rs dear to the
shattered legions that laid down their
arms at AppomattoX as 1t was to the
Great Captain who accepted their pa
roles.
Such structure would admit Of
artistic and architectural possiblitie,
far beyond the capacity of monumen
or mausoleum. How grand the annals
that might be carved upon its classic
pillars--what luminous visions of thu
future thrown into relief upon its solid
buttresses-what vivid portraitures in
wrought upon its colossal columns
what depth of patriotic meaning out
lined upon its bending arches, key
stoned above with the sculptured linea
ments of the General of the Armies
whose obsequies the country is now
solemnizing.
Nor is there another location in tho
broad Union so well adapted by nature
association, or in any respect as thi'
for the great object proposed, being a
it is upon the nearest direct line from th,
old and populous East to the new an(
progressive South and at the head o
,de.water upon the famous strean
whose bosom, no longer turbid will
sectional hatreds, would henceforth re
fleet as in the mirror of sacred an(
perpetual peace, the turrets and tower
and lofty parapets of the Grant Memo
rial Arch-the Arch of the Union-th
Sign of Conquest in which free prin
ciples triumphod that freedom upol
the American Continent might be mad
forever secure.
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