The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1908-07-10
Memorials of Great Men.
M the Baltimore Sun

From the Baltimore Sun.
The plan to make road from
Washington to Gettysburg as a mem
oriaI to Abraham Lincoln has much
to commend it. Lincoln was a prac-
tical man, and a public work that
would be Of practical value to thou
sands of citizens would seem to be
more fitting memorial than mar
BILE monument, which is only orna-
mental and can serve no useful pur-
pose. Such a memorial as this would
speedily become better known and
would be seen by more people than
the most imposing structure. A high
way is among the most enduring of
memorials. More than twenty-five
centuries ago a Roman official built
road and called it after his own
name as memorial OF himself. That
official was a reformer and a patriot,
but few people know of his political
activities. He was a distinguished
nearly all been lost, and the few
fragments that remain are not read
by one man in ten ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
not one man in ten thousand ever
heard of them. He was general and
led the victorious armies of Rome in
one of it's great wars, but compare
lively few persons know him as gen.
eral. Nevertheless, the name of APP
plus Claudius is almost as well known
throughout the civilized world as that
of julius Caesar. He is known, not
as writer, nor ruler, nor general,
nor patriot, nor censor. He is known
as the builder of the Appian Way
the most famous highway in the
world. His monument has survived
the fires by which the Eternal City
has been destroyed and the marble
monuments shattered. Alaric and the
Goths and Vandals could not over
throw the memorial of Appius Claud-
ius. Not only has this monument en-
dured more than two thousand years
and made the name it was to perpetu-
ate household word for all time, but
it was one of the greatest and most
efficient agencies for advancing the
prosperity and civilization of Italy.
With this record before the people,
it is surprising that more memorial
roads have not been quilt. Lincoln's
name is inseparably connected with
Gettysburg. 1t was there that he
made the most splendid speech that
he ever uttered, and It was perhaps
the battle which saved him from de-
feat in the convention of 1854 by the
insurgents in his own party.
BY all means, let Congress provide
for memorial road from Washington
to Gettysburg. 1t will pass through
one of the most fertile and beautiful
regions of the United States. Once
made, it will be highway with con-
slant procession of vehicles passing
over it from Washington to Gettys-
burg.
This might be the beginning of
highway memorials radiating from
Washington. One road might go down
through Alexandria to Mount Vernon,
to be known as the Washington road
A Jefferson road might be constructed
to Charlottesville. A Henry Clay
road to Hanover county, Virginia; a
Rumsey road up the Potomac and a
Thomas Jefferson road to Annapolis.
Thomas Johnson nominated Washing
ton for Commander-in-Chief, was one
of the most efficient agencies for sup
plying him with troops, was justice
Of the Supreme Court and one of the
commission which laid out the city
of Washington. Congress- may well
begin this great plan of improvement
with Lincoln road to Gettysburg.
Memorial highways will be far more
noble and useful monuments than the
statues of men on horseback at the
various street crossings in Wash
ington.