The Coolidge examiner., 1933-10-27
,c)HAasisa En'Ho


dent OF the Jackson monument committee, who
asked him to submit design for bronze eques-
trian statue of General Jackson and who as
sured him that "the committee would furnish
the bronze" which they later did In curious
historical way. Not having ever seen General
Jackson or an equestrian statue of any kind,
Mills hesitated, in doubt OF his own abilities.
but his Yankee enterprise came to his tescue.
He produced a design which was acceptable to
the committee and after nine months of dis
heartening labor, he finally brought TO the com
mittee a miniature model OF rather startling
originality.
The hind legs of the horse were brought ex-
actly under the center Of the body. while his
front legs paved the air, imparting both a sense
of marvellous balance and motion. Two years
were required to finish the plaster model and
another year elapsed before the committee came
forward with the bronze. They got the stock
by approprating all the old cannon captured by
General Jackson at the battle OF New Orleans.
which were broken up and melted After many
| failures in balancing the horse in bronze, the
statue finally finished.
On the thirty-eighth anniversary OF the battle
of New Orleans in 1853, the statue was unveiled
In the presence of a vast crowd and Clark Mills
himself. Stephen A. Douglas, master OF ceremo-
MES, made eloquent address and called on
Mills to speak. But Mills had never been an
orator. and his first public success awed and
frightened him. He faced the audience and
opened his mouth. but words would not come ST.
lently he pointed to the yelled statue and at his
gesture, instead of the awaited spoken word, the
veil was withdrawn. Andrew Jackson, seated
on his mount. stood before his people. There
was silence, then prolonged applause.
For Mills that occasion meant nationwide
fame He was asked to cast a statue of Washing
ton at the battle of Princeton for the Capital.
He did. using guns donated by congress.
Mills spent the last years Of his life making
busts of prominent citizens. He was not a pub
licity seeker during his life. and after his death
in 1885, at the age of sxtyeight. his fame les
sened Today he is virtually forgotten by that
group, notorious for short memory-the Public
| But II Mills could not win enduring fame by
his own efforts a sculptor. he does have some
| reflected glory from another sculptor for his
part In giving to the nation the statue of Free
| dom which looks down upon the country which
she is supposed to symbolic from her lofty ped
esta in the Capital of that country. That other
| sculptor was Thomas Crawford, nlso native of
| New York where he was bern March % 1914
After studying in New York he went to Italy in
| 1884 for further study and he remained in Eu-
rope for 15 years. Returning to this country in
lS49 he was commissioned by the state of Vir-
ginia to execute equestrian statue of Wash
ington for the city of Richmond.
| At about this time plans were going forward
for the completion of the Capitol building and
President Pierce placed it in charge of Jeffer-
| son Davis. who secretary of war in his cab
met Davis supervised the extensions and COM
missioned Crawford then residing in Italy, to
execute the colossal statue which was to sur
mount the dome.
In March. 1856. Crawford forwarded to Sec
retary Davis photographs of the model of the
statue as originally designed by him. The figure
of Liberty in the photographs represented fe-
male crowned with laurel wreath. bearing in
her hand a huge olive branch. The war secretary
objected to the wreath, and the sculptor sug-
gested that liberty cap be substituted. To this
Davis even more strenuously objected because
| it was the historical emblem of a freed slave