Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-04-15
STATE CELEBRITIES
IN NATIONAL ABBEY
StGtuary Hall Famous ShotU-
place of Capital.

Every state of the Union was repre-
sented at the inaugural ceremonies on
March 4; visitors from Twenty-Five
states found great men of their COM
monwealths memorialiZed in the Statu-
airy hall of the. United States Capitol
building.
"Statuary hall, in the older portion
of the Capitol, is a room which holds
more historic associations than any
other chamber in America" writes DR..
Gilbert Grosvenor, president of the
National Geographic society.
An unwarranted phrase has made II
popular to call Statuary hall a cham
Der of artistic horrors. Such designa-
ton does injustice to the art and the
history of the room where the house
of representative met for forty years
and which now exemplifies a really
fine memorial idea.
Here Lincoln, John Quincy Adams,
Horace Greeley and Andrew Johnson
served in the same congress. Here
Henry Clay welcomed Lafayette, who
replied in speech said to have been
written by Clay. Here John Marshall
administered the oath of office to Mad
isOn and Monroe.
When, in 1926, the house balloted in
this room fol President, John Quincy
Adams won over Andrew Jackson.
The former, the only man to be elect
ed to the house after being President,
was stricken with paralysis suddenly,
in this chamber, after delivering an
impassiOned address; the latter, while
President, narrowly escaped an as
sassin upon leaving this room, where
he had attended the funeral of a con-
gressional friend.
| A bronze star marks the location of
Adams desk. The star happened also
to denote spot where one may hear
the whisper of a friend who stands in
the corresponding position on the OPP
| pOsite side of the hall. Move away
from the spot and the speakers voice
fails to carry, even when he speaks
| loudly.
Closed to visitors now is the narrow
| gallery of the old house, reached by
! dark, tOrtuOus steps worn deep by the
tread of many feet. In this gallery
Dickens CLEANED notes for his COM
ments on Americas congress. He
called Washington "a city of magnifi-
cent intentions"
Close your eyes and see John Ran
dolph stalk in, with squirrel cap and
hOmeSpun suit, white boots and jing-
ling spurs; he has just galloped
! through muddy streets from George
town. Throwing cap and coat to his
desk, he drinks a glass of porter
! handed him by an attendant and cuts
! in on any debate, in thin, Querulous,
| piping voice. Here another type of
orator, Edward Everett, just out of
| the pulpit, charmed his hearers.
For some years religious services
were held in the old hall of representa-
! tives on Sunday afternoons; Lincoln
attended them during the war period,
when the hall was crowded because
many churches had been converted in
| to barracks.
The floor of this room was raised to
! It's present level when the hall was
! converted into an American Westmin
ster abbey. Tradition has it that the
lower level of the old floor led to the
| popular designation of the house of
representatives as the 'lower house"
When the old hall was deserted for
the new, a law was enacted, in 1864,
| providing that the states could use it
as a place to do national honor to
J the memory of their sons and daugh-
eers renowned for civil and military
service, each state being entitled to
place two statues here.