The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-23
SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
His Statue to be Erected by
Penny Contribution.
Gen. J. S. Carr Writes on the Utility of It's Erec-
ton in Nash Square in Raleigh the
Capital City of the State.

Capital City Of the State.
Yesterday the Superintendent of Public
Instruction sent the following letter to
the county superintendent and public
school teachers of North Carolina, which
reads:
Il take pleasure in calling to the at
tention of county superintendent and
public school teachers of North Caro-
lima the enclosed communication from
General ]. S. Carr, chairman of the COM
mittee having in charge the erection of
a statue to Sir Walter Raleigh in our
capital city. 1t is my wish that every
child in North Carolina be given an
opportunity to add his penny to this
patriotic undertaking. General Carr
requests that his letter be read espe-
cially in all the schools which shall
celebrate North Carolina Day and to that
end number of copies are forwarded
you.
l call special attention to the calendar
the committee is preparing, and desire
to have one hung on the walls of every
school house in the State.
=
GENERAL CARRS LETTER.
The letter referred to, sent out by
General Carr, is addressed to the school
children. school officers and teachers in
North Carolina, and is, as follows:
"Nash Square, as doubtless many of
you know, is the open square or park
just in front of Union depot, in the city
of Raleigh. 1t is in the centre of this
square, in this, our capital city, named
so fifty in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh
that it is proposed to erect a statue to
commemorate his services to the Eng
disappearing people. His efforts to
colonize Roanoke Island connect the his
tory of North Carolina with that of
America at a most vital point. 1t was
in North Carolina, and through Raleighs
efforts that English colonization was be-
gun; he is therefore the father of it;
and it was on our own coast that he be-
gan the operations whose results have
changed the current of human affairs.
Any one familiar with our coast and
the history of that time can see at
glance the wisdom of his choice. In
1854, the time of the landing of his first
colony, Spain was the mistress of the
seas, as we'll as of the land. Her great
ships, as we'll as her great armies, were
the terror of all nations. She had des-
troyed every vestige of French colonial
ton begun or attempted on the Atlantic
coast from North Carolina to Florida.
Only one good thing was obtained by
French exploration, and that was in
formation of the only part of that coast
that was not susceptible to attacks by
large ships, that is the coast of North
Carolina, the best protected in the world;
and of this information, England,
through Raleigh, and not France, was
destined to get the benefit. So it was
not without design and far-reaching pur-
pose that he sent his little caravels to
the shores of North Carolina. 1t was be-
hind the protection of her everlasting
barriers of sand that Barlowe wrote his
famous prospectus, and Lane made his
surveys which electrified the English
speaking people, and sowed the seed in
the minds of the rising generation which
made the colony of jamestown, Va,
twenty-three years later, and the colony
of Plymouth, Mass, thirty-siX years
later, practicable. Raleighs colonies
were, in effect, the parents of all the
English settlements in North America.
His effort to effect permanent settle
ment in North Carolina from 1884 to
1850 was therefore no failure, and should
not be so regarded by any rightly in
structed student of history. To empha-
size his zeal and devotion, his faith and
his courage, this man, of whom the world
was not worthy, was allowed a martyrs
last privilege of laying down his life
and his fortune for his cause.
Inspired by these things and by the
fact that there is nowhere on earth &
monument to Sir Walter Raleigh, and
there is nowhere a place SO fitting to
erect it as the soil of North Carolina
and the city she has named to COM
memorate His virtues, motion was
made at the last meeting of the State
Literary and Historical Association to
erect this statue in the most effective
way possible, that is, by penny contri-
buttons from the school children of
North Carolina; and in order to empha-
size the utility as well as the adaptation
'of this method, at the same meeting oil
the association, bag of pennies, one
for every white child in Durham county,
was brought forward and presented as
the first contribution to the statue
So the movement may be said to have
been practically inaugurated by the pub
lie school children of one of the most
progressive and enlightened counties in
the State. Since that time many schools
and colleges have sent in their contribu-
lions.
The educational value of a monument
erected in the manner proposed will be
far greater than if one or more patriotic
citizens should of their own motion erect
it and take all the credit and honor to
themselves. The children of North
Carolina might not feel that they had
any special interest in such a monu-
ment; therefore, it is desired that every
child of school age in our State should
be given an opportunity to contribute
a penny.
For the educational value of public
monuments in general you are referred
to the Scripture so often mentioned by
Father Creecy in his efforts to arouse
among North Carolinians proper State
pride: Joshua, Chapter 4, verse 1 to s.
'And it came to pass when all the peo-
pie were clean passed over Jordan, that
the Lord spake unto Joshua saying: