The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-23

mayor of the city, secretary, and Mr..
Joseph G. Brown. president of the Citi-
zens' National Bank, treasurer of the
association. Some two thousand dollars
was soon raised by subscription and
otherwise, but, the financial depression
coming on, the efforts of the association
were suspended for a while. Governor
Carr, going out of office and his health
becoming impaired, resigned as president
of the association, and he who addresses
You was put in his place. The off1cers
had in contemplation plan for the col
| lection of the amount requisite Tor tneir
purpose by small subscriptions in each
county, proportioned to the number or
! Confederate soldiers enlisted from me
county But the Legislature OF 1879
having convened, DR.. Richard ii. Speight,
the wise and patriotic Senator from
Edgecombe, offered bill for the appro-
priation of $4,000 for the desired pur-
pose, to be used with the funds raised
by our association, and DR.. Spelght of
the Senate and Representatives }. ID.
Boushall of Wake and NJ. ). Hart of
Edgecombe. appointed by the presiding
officers of the two houses, were conSti-
tuted with the president and treasurer
of the association, Il committee to pro-
cure and erect the statue. Plans and
specifications were submitted to leading
sculptors of the country, and of one
dozen models presented that executed by
Henry j. Ellicolt of Washington City
was, all things considered, unanimously
preferred. In Marnh last, being informed
that the statue in clay was ready for
inspection, all the committee, with the
exception of Mr.. Hart, who had been
removed by death land Representative
j. &. Curtis of Buncombe, not then hav
ing been appointed to succeed HIM, went
to Washington and, after careful in
spection and suggestions of slight altera-
tons, cordially approved the work. The
moulding was done at the foundry of the
Gorham Manufacturing Company in
Providence, II. l., probably the best i'll
the country. The statue in bronze was
inspected at the foundry by DIR. Speight
and the chairman of the association,
and is now before us. | can only say
that the committee, assisted from time to
time by Col. Thomas S. Kenan and Hon.
A. A. Thompson, have discharged their
duties to the best of their ability. 1t
has been a labor of love with us all; a
large share of the labor, however, fall
ing to the lot of the treasurer, Mr..
Brown. The executive officers of the
capitol lent ready help in locating the
statue: the street, commissioner of the
city, without charge, erected the mound.
and the keeper of the capitol and his
assistants have needed no suggestions to
keep the grass on the mound green by
| frequent waterings during the ralnless
weeks of July and August.
Indeed, all who could render assist
ance. by advice or otherwise, have cheer
fully done So 1t is located where it is
as the most appropriate place i'll the
opinion of the committee and the othcers
| in the capitol Being mOuntalneer,
some have said that Vance's statue ought
to be on the western side of the capitol
and looking towards the mountains.
Even did not the stately Confederate
monument at the west front preclude
that, here is the place and that the posi-
ton in which the bronze likeness of our
great North Carolinan should stand.
The west was already subject to his
magnetic influence when he first came to
alegh as the Governor of the whole
State. and, looking toward the east,
sought at that tempestuCuS period, to
unity her people. Poetry, too. repre-
sents the Star of Hope as i'll the East.
and it is meet that one so hopeful as he
for the triumph of the right, and of the