The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-13
JOHN M'DoNoGHS STATUE.
r<RDY HoNoRs TO a BENEFACToR
OF NEW ORLEANS.

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 1O.-John McDonoGn, 10
whom the public school system Of New Orleans
almost owes its existence, is at last to DO honored
With a monument In this city. After a compe-
tition the committee Of the SchoolBoard accepted
Iris week the design o Tered by Attilio. Picirilli.
The monument will DO erected In Lafayette
rouare, facing tho City Hall, and Hiram Row
ers's statue Of BENJAMIN Franklin will DO ro-
moved TO make room for II.
IL IA n remarkable case Of belated fame and
honor coming to q man, for John McDonogh died
forty eight years ago. and New Orleans is just
honoring him now, or rather 1t is not New Or
leans, but the children in the public schools.
The money required has been collected by
dimes and quarters and represents the dona-
lions of tens Of thousands OF children.
Tho man who is to be thus honored was ono
of the most picturesque figures In the history Of
New Orleans, q strange contradiction of wicked
mass and generosity, OF sour crnbbedncss and
philanthropy. Whether or not he Intentionally
Framed himself on the model of the Philadel-
phia philanthropist and miser, Stephen Girard,
no was an exact reproduction of that remark
able man, following in his footsteps.in even lit
tic peculiaritios. But while Girard's name Is
known throughout the country. McDonogh's
fame 10 largely local in New Orleans and Balti-
moro. Both aimed at the same purpose, edu-
cation, but McDonogh's large gift to this cause,
eboutthe same:in amount as Girard's, attracted
less attention, because 1t was clouded and al
most unhcard Of for years In consequence OF the
litigation over 1t. The splendid donation he
made to tho cause OF public education was al
most swallowed up in tho lawsuits that 1t de-
yeloped and in the misfortunes of the civil war,
but long after the war. by what can be called
only a ,fuke of fortune. the McDonosh dona.
ton suddenly and rapidly increased in value
and proved of inestimable value to the public
-t-z1 -.tn ~ Nnn, nr1aana. fn1nnH Nvithnnf
that donation, the public schools could never
have boon kept up as they have been. Thus,
thirty years after his death, McDonogh's aim
was largely carried out, but not his full dream.
With one or two exceptions, all the public
school buildings In New Orleans have been built
with the interest from the McDonogh fund.
Twenty eight such schools have already been
erected. as handsome as any in tho country,
and the School Board has been able to build
two or more each year.
The consequence has been no crowding in
the public.schools of New Orleans. The buildings
are roomy, airy, and give ample light. This is
all the more appreciated. as before the Melon
OCH fund constructed these buildings, the
School Board frequently complained Of the I'M
sanitary condition of tho school buildings, and
more than once 1t was declared. that the eye
sight or tho children was unfavorably affected
by lack Of enough light. In the country dis
tricts of Louisiana such complaints are still
frequent, but New Orleans boasts Of school
buildings equal to any city in the Union, and
It owes them to John McDonogh. 1t was not
wholly what he aimed at, for his ambition was
far greater. and ne proposed. establishing the
most complete and thorough educational sys-
tenn the world had ever known, and he might
have done SO had his will been carried out; but
he was unfortunately too ambitious and Tried
TO do too much. He left the bulk OF his large
fortune TO the cause of education in Louisiana,
but provided that only half the income should
be expended, the other half to be used to pur-
chase more property, and thus to secure the
capital OF the McDonogh fund. The million he
leit would thus have gone on growing, until In
have owned every acre OF land in Louisiana.
Such provisions in ..mortmain are contrary
McDonoghs purpose. that his school fund
should be the largest IN the world, and ample
Il p FSe Y State sh %ss Sefe e a Tor every child
That he should have, conceived the idea OF
public education is the more wonderful be-
was called. had not made much Roadway in
the Southland McDonogh was a slayeholder
and q thorough Southerner in his political and
social views. The system was viewed in his
time as a New England project, not TO he en-
SHu,1 70 see I far iHb Beyond the Southern presSudices
and believed that q thorough distribution of
education would strengthen and build up the
South. Comparing him with stephen Glrard.
his legacy has probably done more good. There
are q 5000 children attending the McDonogh
bCuODlb III q olltdio ul1 anu 1oOsOOo
children have used and prohted by them.
But II we look away from the schools and
what they have accomplished, we find that the
philanthropist was a misanthrope; tho gen
erous founder OF a grand educational system
q misser, and the tar,seeing citizen, who per,
IT'S lack OF public schools, o crank. His char
acter Is as curious and as incomprehensible a
compound AS that Of stephen Girard himself.
John McDonogh was born in Baltimore in
1878 and came TO Louisiana in 1900. when 1t
WAS still n Spanish colony. A man OF good fam.
lily and GQucA ion. he WAS at this part of his life
~eocinble and fond of ladies society, The sud
Cluse and anchorite-for during the latter part of
his life he withdrew from all society ana lived
with only his slaves. around him.. in an old, for
lorn plantation house opposite New Orleans
ts said to have been due to IL disappointment in
love. In 1871. when no was one OF the wealth
the hand of Donna Michaea Leonardo de Al
monaster y Foxar, one OF the creole bellies of
being tho daughter OF the old Catalan who built
the st. Louis Cathedral and the Charity Hospi-
tai wholly at his own expense. The marriage
proved Impossible because OF religious differ
ences., McDonogh refusing to become a Roman
Catholic. which was, a sine qua non. and Donna
Michaela married her cousin. the Baron de
Portaiba, and became afterward an important
ngure, In the society of PARIS, whittier she re. |
moved. As for McDonogh, he became morose,
unsocial and misanthropic. He retired to his
place on the west bank of the Mississippi. in
There he lived among his slaves, having no
white, visitors and desiring none. A slave
rowed him in q skiff across the Mississippi each
1917 SS nsPt - NO oihto pub Ho
never spent a night in New Orleans
he kept a. work. however. and his fortune
in every line of business, carried on banking and
commercial ventures, bought plantations. in.
vested in city property. purchased slaves. OF
whom he owned a large number. His fortune
grew, steadily larger, but, he seemed TO have no
use for II. He lived plainly, dressed in the
simplest style, ate only the simplest food and
entertained no one. With an income OF hun.
oreds OF thousands annually, he spent only q
Tow hundreds. A very peculiar combination of
philanthropy and, miserlincss, when he finally
became, convinced that slavery was wrong, and
resolved to free his negroes, he thought it would
be unjust TO himself TO emancipato them, and
required each OF his negroes TO purchase free.
dom. To that end he made them work hard,
but credited them with the wages they would
have earned IL free. When these earnings
amounted to the purchase price OF the slave, he
was freed. and McDonogh paid his passage TO |
africa n believing that the United States was
Of all Of McDonogh's slaves now live in Liberia; |
indeed, that republic largely owes ITS existence
70 him. az. he contributed mainly to Its support
In It's earlier days, being ice.prcsident Of the
Amsrtcan Colonization Society. In 1918 Mr..
McDonogh announced himself as a candidate
Tor United States Senator, but money had less
lnhnAnra in Sanutnpinl nnIitt,u ,ln, g. . - -.