The times., 1899-07-17
A FAMOUS STATUE OF CLAY.
Trolley Cars and Wires Get the Hest
of New Orleans Sentiment.

New Orleans. July ls-The New orleans
city council has decided 10 remove the
Clay statue. which stands at the junction
of Canal. Royal, and St Charles Streets,
and is to the Crescent City what City Hall
Park is to New York. 1t is the official
centre of the city. the point from which
all distances are measured. where ell the
street car lines centre. II marks the shop
ping centre and the political centre. 1t is
as much a part of New Orleans as the
levee. For nearly twenty years the city
council and the street car lines have been
trying to get it out OF the way as a
nuisance. which 1t undoubtedly is. while
artists have protested against 1t as a
horror. Henry Clay has tIiumphed over all
these. The statue has had so strong a
hold on the public that it has remained.
The statue was erected in 1853, when
Clay was the popular nero Of New Orleans.
Canal Street, the Broadway OF the city
had then parkway in the centre. 1t was
determined to beautify 1t by the erection
of statues of great Americans at every
intersecting street. Then the street cars
came and built five parallel tracks in the
centre of the street. The statues would
have been in the way and so no more
were erected. Clay was in the way, too
and an attempt was made TO move him, but
popular sentiment forbade it.
When Ben Butler took command at New
Orleans he improved the statue by .chisel-
ing or its granite base an extract from one
of Clay's speeches. in which he denounced
slavery in the most violent terms. This
quotation, as well as others craven on
New Orleans statues by Butler, always
puzzled visitors, who could never under
stand why a Southern city should show
abolition sentiments on its monuments.
The Butler-Clay inscription remained un-
til a few years ago. when it was ordered
chiseled out as not being part OF the
original monument.
Originally the statue stood on a broad
granite base, which set ii of to advantage.
but greatly interfered with the street cars
The street car companies. after failing to
remove the statue. got permission TO put
1t on high stone pedestal The result Is
ludicrous. TIE status is there, but 1t
cannot be seen. Henry Clay's head is sur
rounded by a network of trolley wires.
As the statue cannot be reached dust has
settled on the Kentuckian's head until
he is a sight to wonder at
But although cut off from reach and
largely from view. popular sentiment is
so largely drawn. to the statue, which IS
regarded in New Orleans with much the
same reverence as the statue of Pallas
Athene in Athens. that it may step in and
prevent the removal after all; for Henry
Clay is net only the political, business. and
official centre Of New Orleans. but also the
starting point of all its revolutions. Tlere
are two places in New Orleans where mass
meetings are held-Lafayette Square, op-
posite the City Hail. and the Clay statue.
meeting in Lafayette Square means
protest; a gathering at Clay statue means
a revolution. 1t was here that the mos
gathered in cid Rnow-Nothing days. 1t
was here that the Carter revolution start
ed in 1870. which gave President Grant so
much trouble in Louisiana. 1t was here
that the White League organized on Sep
tember II, 1874 and around the statue the
battle was fought in which the league de-
feated the militia and police and ousted the
Republican government. II was here again
that in 1877 the Nichols forces were or
ganized and marched on the State House
The last episode in which the Clay statue
figures was the mass meeting or mob
which assembled there in 1891 and marched
then to the lynching of the Italians in the
parish prison.