USA > Maryland > Biographical sketches of distinguished Marylanders > Part 23
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The Legislature of 1867, as appears by the Act of that date, hal contemplated the removal of the remains of Chief Justice Taney to the Capital of the State, and the
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erection of the monument above them. The suggestion, in itself, was eminently appropriate, for many reasons. It was here that, as a student, he had laid the deep and broad foundations of his professional learning and suc- cess. In the chamber where we meet to-day, to do him honor --- and to whose historical associations this scene will add another, not the least-he sate, for years, a Senator of Maryland, the peer of the distinguished men who sate around him, when no legislative body in the Union surpassed that Senate in dignity, ability, or moral elevation. In the Chamber there, above us, where the honorable Judges, who join us in this tribute to his memory, uphold the ancient credit of the State's Appel- late Bench, at the zenith of his reputation as advocate and counsel and in the very ripeness of his powers, he shone, the leader of the bar of Maryland, its actual not less than its official head. And those were days, too, when to lead it was to walk in the footsteps of Pinkney and be measured by the measure of his genius. If, therefore, he had slept beneath this dome, or in its shadow, it would have been with the dwelling-places of his fame about him, surrounded by the olden and con- secrated memories of the State, which was but a revolted colony when he was born.
But the wishes of the Chief Justice himself, upon that subject, had been too strong and were too sacred, to be violated by his children, even for the gratification of the public desire. The quiet town of Frederick, the theatre of his earlier professional distinction, was hallowed to him by the grave of his mother, and when he left it, in mid life, for larger spheres of usefulness and honor. he exacted the pledge, from those who loved Him, that It should be laid beside her when he died. Nor was this the outbreak of fresh grief or transient sentiment or feeling. Through all his life of toil and struggle, am-
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bition, reward and disappointment, it was his dearest longing; and there is something inexpressibly touching in the warmer and more anxious hope with which the world. worn man clung fast to it, as the period drew nearer for its consummation. The literature of the English tongue has nothing that exceeds in mournful tenderness and grace the expression which he gave to it, in a letter written but a little while before the pledge of friendship was redeemed. Such a feeling-so devoted, and cherished for so long-it would have been next to sacrilege to disregard, and the Legislature of 1870 re- spected it accordingly, by withdrawing from the appro- priation of their predecessors and their own all but the one condition, which required the monument to be erected where it stands. The final selection of that locality, with its exposure, rendered it expedient that the statue should be cast in bronze, and the Legislature, therefore, so directed.
With the erection of the monument, the prescribed duties of the committee which I have the honor to rep- resent were substantially ended, but in view of the time which must elapse before another session of the General Assembly, they have deemed it due to the dignity of the occasion respectfully to invite the official interven- tion of your Excellency, in delivering the finished work to the people of the State. It would have been a pleas- ure to them, if they could have felt at liberty to antici- pate the wishes of the Legislature, or have ventured to ask that your Excellency would gratify your own, by authorizing a more formal celebration than this quiet homestead gathering.
As a few moments will disclose to us. the artist has chosen to present us his illustrious subject in his robes of office, as we saw him when he sate in judgment. The stature is heroic, but, with that exception, the traits of
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nature are not altered or disguised. The weight of years that Lent the venerable form has not been light- ened, and the lines of care, and suffering, and thought, are as life traced them. But, unless the master's hand has lost its cunning, we shall see not merely the linea- - ments we knew, but traces of the soul which illuminated and informed them. The figure has been treated by the artist in the spirit of that noble and absolute simplicity which is the type of the highest order of greatness, and is therefore its grandest, though its most difficult ex- pression, in art. The sculptor deals easily enough with subjects which admit of ornament and illustration, or address the passions or the fancy. The graces he can lend his work-the smiles with which it wins us-the beautiful or joyous images or thoughts with which he can surround it-each is to us an open leaf of the fair poem which he writes in bronze or marble. Like the chorus of a drama, they tell, even for the worst of poets, far more than half his story. . Another task indeed it is, to embody in a single image the expression of a great historic life, so that standing severe and apart, it shall be its own interpreter, forever, to the generations of men.
The pathway of a great judge does not lead through the realms of fancy. Neither in reality nor in retro- spect is there much of the flush of imagination upon it or about it. With such a career Art cannot deal, nor History, as with those brilliant lives, which dazzle while they last and are seen only through a halo when they are over. The warrior, the orator, the poet-each in his way-is linked with the imagination or enthusiasm of mankind : and so the broken sword, the wirme 'lyre, the shattered column with its express wreath s. all have their voices for the common heart. But the at- ยท mosphere of pure intellect and dispassionate virtue,
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serene although it be, is far too cold for ordinary sympa- thies to live in. The high ministers of human justice are segregated from their fellows, by their very function, which shuts out favor and affection. Fidelity to the obligation which withdraws them from the daily inter- ests and passions and almost from the converse of society, is the patent of their nobility in their great office. The loftier the nature the more complete its isolation to the general eye-the fewer the throbs which answer to its pulses. Such men may be cherished and beloved, in the personal and near relations which are the dearest blessing of all lives. They may be venerated and revered, so that all heads shall be bowed and un- covered when they pass. But they go, when life closes, into the chamber of heroes, fated to dwell afar off, only, in the memories and minds of men.
When the great citizen whose image is beside us walked, in his daily walk, amid our reverence, the sim- ple beauty of his private life was all before us. We can recall his kindly smile, his open hand, his gracious, gentle speech. The elders of our generation will re- member how his stormy nature was subdued, by duty and religion, to the temperance, humility and patience which we knew. All of us saw and wondered low do- mestic sorrows, the toils and trials of his station, old age, infirmity of body, ingratitude, injustice, persecu- tion, still left his intellect unclouded, his courage un- subdued, his fortitude unshaken, his calm and lofty resignation and endurance descending to no murmur nor resentment. These things the sculptor is not called to tell to those who shall come after us. The pen of the biographer bas worthily recorded them, and just posterity will read what he has written. The image of the Magistrate and Ruler, as the world was wont to see him, is all that the chisel bequeaths to immortality-
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his image, as History shall see it, when, ashamed of the passions of our day, she shall be once more reconciled with Truth. With this noblest of the tasks of Art, only genius may deal fitly-yet genius has dwelt with it, and its difficulties, overcome, are the glory and the triumph of genius.
Thus, then, to-day, sir, the State of Maryland, with grateful reverence and pride, commemorates a life, than which few greater, and none loftier or purer, shall dig- nify the annals of our country. It was a life coeval with her own, and a part of her own, and she honors what she knew. It was a life of patriotism, of duty and of sacrifice ; a life whose aim and effort, altogether, were to be, and do, and bear, and not to seem. The monument her people rear to it is scarcely less her monu- ment than his to whom it rises. What changes shall roll round it with the rolling seasons; whether it shall survive the free institutions of which Taney was the worshiper and champion, or shall see them grow in stability, security and splendor; whether it shall wit- ness the development and beneficent expansion of the constitutional system which it was the labor of his life and love to understand and to administer, or shall be- hold it,
" Like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to naught "-
are questions which men will answer to themselves, ac- cording to their hopes or fears-according to their trust, it may be, in the mercy and providence of God. But Maryland has done her part . for good, in this at least, that she has made imperishable record for posterity, of the great example of her son. She has builded as it were a shrine to those high civic qualities and public virtues, without which, in their rulers, republies are a sham, and freedom cannot long abide among a people.
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It was, I was about to say, the sad mischance-but, in a higher though more painful sense, the privilege and fortune-of Chief Justice Tancy, to fill his place in times of revolution and unparalleled convulsion- when blood boiled in the veins of brethren, till it was red upon a million hands. In such a crisis, no man so conspicuous as he, and yet so bound to shun the rancor of the strife, could hope for freedom from distrust and challenge. A soul, brave and tenacious as his was-so sensitive to duty, and so resolute to do it-provoked injustice not to be appeased, and dared reproaches which he might not answer. His constitutional opinions were already part of the recorded jurisprudence of the coun- try, and he could not change them, because the tempest was howling. It was the conviction of his life that the Government under which we lived was of limited pow- ers, and that its Constitution had been framed for war as well as peace. Though he died, therefore, he could not surrender that conviction at the call of the trumpet. Ile had plighted his troth to the Liberty of the citizen and the supremacy of the Laws, and no man could put them asunder.
Whatever might be the right of the people to change their Government, or to overthrow it, he believed that the duty of the judges was simply to maintain the Con- stitution, while it lasted, and, if need were, defend it to the death. He knew himself its minister and servant only-not its master-commissioned to obey and not to alter. He stood, therefore, in the very rush of the tor- rent, and, as he was immovable, it swept over him. He had lived a life so stainless, that to question his integ- rity was enough to beggar the resources of falsehood and make even shamelessness ashamed. He had given lustre and authority, by his wisdom and learning, to the judgments of the Supreme Tribunal, and had presided
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over its deliberations with a dignity, impartiality and courtesy which elevated even the administration of jus- tice. Every year of his labors had increased the re- spect and affection of his brethren and heightened the confidence and admiration of the profession which looked up to him as worthily its chief. And yet he died, traduced and ostracised, and his image was with- held from its place in the chamber which was filled already with his fame.
Against all this, the State of Maryland here registers her protest in the living bronze. She records it in no spirit of resentment or even of contention, but silently and proudly-as her illustrious son, without a word, committed his reputation to the justice of his country- men. Nor doubts she of the answer that posterity will make to her appeal. Already the grateful manhood of the people has begun to vindicate itself and him. Already, among those whose passion did him wrong, the voices of the most eminent and worthy have been lifted, in confession of their own injustice and in manly homage to his greatness and his virtues. Already the waters of the torrent have nearly spent their force, and high above them, as they fall, unstained by their polu- tion and unshaken by their rage, stands where it stood, in grand and reverend simplicity, the august figure of the great Chief Justice !
GOVERNOR WHYTE'S REPLY.
Governor Whyte proceeded to reply from his place. Ile said :
Accustomed, almost from the cradle, to revere the name of Taney as the synonym of all that is just and good. I dare not now give utterance to my private feelings, but must needs confine myself to the cold formality of
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official duty. Maryland had already reared a stately column to him who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," and it was the duty, as it has been the pleasure of the State, to hand down to posterity, as in this memorial of molten bronze, an enduring tribute of affection and regard for her own illustrious son, upon whose shoulders the judicial ermine lay, stainless as the virgin snow.
In accepting your report and taking the statue into the permanent custody of the State, I should be remiss in duty, as its representative, did I not thank you for your willing and faithful discharge of the obligation laid upon you, and I congratulate the State that your voluntary choice of the artist to execute the legislative resolve, has fallen upon one of her own honored' children. In his presence and in advance of the ex- position of his finished work, delicacy forbids my further comment.
There. must be, I think, general concurrence of senti- ment that this is not the appropriate occasion for an extended eulogy upon the life and character of the late Chief Justice, (if, indeed, a life of "apostolic simplicity" be not its own best eulogist.) but it will be my privilege, in response to an apparent popular demand, to make suggestions to the General Assembly that a proper moment and an apt orator be selected to do justice to his preeminent judicial services and to commemorate his private virtues in the presence of the two Houses, in each of which, at times during his long and useful life, he was a distinguished actor, and much of whose legislation bears the impress of his master-hand.
Thus, day by day through his life. he carved and wrought his way, which was as the beginning of a grand jeweled stair-case leading up to the Temple of Fame.
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After this rare triumphal acknowledgment of Rine- hart's worth by his own countrymen, he returned to Italy. Here he continued his work earnestly and steadily. ITis statues are numerous; that of Clyte, oue of the most famous, was purchased for the citizens of Baltimore by Mr. John W. McCoy. It is now in the Peabody Institute. Into this beautiful creation the artist seems to have infused the golden glow of that olden story with all of its mythological sadness and sweetness. Presenting to the mind most vividly the lovely spirit of that flower which
" turns on her god when he sets The same look that she turned when he rose."
The bronze doors at the National Capitol, so noted for the beauty of workmanship, were begun by Crawford and completed by Rinehart at Rome, in fulfillment of Crawford's dying request. Four years were required to perfect this labor, and the doors were then brought to America under his charge. During his stay in Wash- ington, he made the statuettes on the clock in the House of Representatives.
Among the creations of this artist is a statue of En- dymion, which represents a sleeping boy. In this, Rinehart followed the true mythological story. En- dymion had received from Jove the gift of perpetual youth. The Queen of the Moon, clad in her mantle of silver, guarded him in his unbroken sleep for love's sake; and while he slept, she watched his flocks and made them increase untended by their earthly shepherd. From the poet we learn
" How she conveyed him softly in a sleep, His temples bound with poppy, to the steep Head of old Latmos, where she et rope each night, Gilding the mountain with her brother's light, To kiss her sweetest."
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WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
The brave and fond Antigone forms the subject of another statue closely uniting the ideal with the real. In Rinehart's work we behold the dreams of a poet, whose songs arrested in their upward flight, stand for- ever before us in forms of marble.
Hero, too, whose name has been echoed down the cor- ridors of ages, he has not forgotten. She who watched for the nightly coming of that lover who finally,
"Sinking bewildered 'mid the dreary sca,"
came no more.
Four years would have been necessary to accomplish the work awaiting the master-hand when Death over- came him. The number of statues completed, as well as the busts of many well-known citizens of the United States, seems almost incredible to an ordinary mind.
The subjects chosen from the mythical legends of Greece and Rome, seem to have responded best to the bent of his peculiar genius. It was his delight to wan- der in fancy amid the shadowy realms of ancient days, peopled by races that to us might seem only as the gods and goddesses of mythology, were it not for the remnants of glorious temples and statues, left scattered in the pathway of destroying Time. So, occasionally comes suddenly into our midst one who seems of that lost people who moved familiarly amongst the creations of perfected Art-the children of Music, of Sculpture, of Poetry :
" The fair humanities of old religion, The Power, the Beauty and the Majesty That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain, Or forest, by slow stream, or pel ly spring, Or chasens and watery depths; Spirits of gods that used to share this earth With man as with their friend."
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WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
This is but a poor recital of the ardnous life-labors of an artist. The writer of this sketch performs the lesser work of wrapping about the pedestal upon which rests the statue, a drapery whose warm tints may, in some degree, throw forth the strong, pure outlines of the snowy marble. The better work is left for a bolder pen to accomplish.
Overtaxed in mind and body, Rinehart fell a victim to that merciless disease-consumption. Following the wish of his physician he repaired to Switzerland, hoping to obtain relief from the baths of Sodon. The progress of the disease, however, could not be arrested ; it did its work rapidly and surely. His death took place at Rome on the 28th day of October, 1874. He left messages of love, and tokens of regard and remembrance to friends, many of whom were young artists. He was a quiet, un- assuming man, of a strong, deep nature. An artist-poet in temperament, and unchanging in his attachments. There is a touching story told of the artist's affection for a lady whom he outlived. It may be a romance fashioned for the occasion, yet it wears the hallowed pathos of a sacred truth ; and the tender beauty of a perfect love.
By his last will and testament, Rinehart bequeaths to each of his brothers, five in number, the sum of $2,000. The remainder of his estate he directs to be made use of for the benefit and advancement of Art. This por- tion of his will is as follows :
"Third. Being desirous of aiding in the promotion of a more highly cultivated taste for art among the people of my native State, and of assisting young men in the study of the art of sculpture who may desire to make it a profession, but having at the present time no definite plan in view for the accomplishment of these objects, I give, devise and bequeath all the rest and residue of my
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WILLIAM HENRY RINEHART.
estate, real, personal and mixed, and wheresoever situ- ated, unto my two personal friends, William T. Walters and Benjamin F. Newcomer, of the city of Baltimore, or the survivor of them, or the heirs, executors, or admin- istrators of such survivor, in trust and confidence, with the injunction that the whole of said residue of my estate, or the proceeds thereof, shall be devoted and appropri- ated by them, according to their best judgment and discretion, to the promotion of the objects and purposes named above.
"And if, in the opinion of my said trustees, this can be best accomplished by any concert of action with the trustees of the Peabody Institute, or by the establishment of a professorship in connection with the gallery of art, which, at some future time, is to be provided for by that corporation, or by the investment of any portion of the funds so held by them in trust, and aiding, from the income derived from such investment, deserving young men who are desirous of pursuing their studies abroad, but are without the means of doing so, they, my said trustees, are at liberty to adopt any or all or none of these methods, or to transfer the trust, or the estate so held by them in trust, to any corporation which, in their judgment, would best serve the purposes indicated."
As justice should be the meed of justice, the following honest truths, extracted from the "Baltimore Sun," will bear reprinting upon this occasion :
"The art culture of Great Britain has, in ten years, added twenty-five per cent. to the earning capacity of the industry of the country. While so much has been accomplished in England, and scarcely less in France and Germany, the United States, with the exception of such admirable institutions as the Maryland Institute School of Design, and the like school in the Cooper In- stitute of New York, and a few others, has almost stood
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still. The beneficent influence of the Maryland Insti- tute school upon different branches of industry and the practical work of life in its various forms in this city will be readily conceded by all. Yet it is a curious fact that in the 'Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education, No. 2, 1874,' issued from the Department of the Interior, Washington, and which professes to give the facts as to 'drawing in public schools; the present relation of art to education in the United States,' there is not a solitary allusion to the facilities afforded for that object in Maryland. The report informs us that Massachusetts was the first State to provide for such training in the public schools, a law having been passed to that effect in 1870. We are informed of schools for the practical teaching of art as applied to industry and manufactures in various Massachusetts towns, in New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati; of schools of art in various parts of the North and West, and there is not one word of the Maryland Institute School of Design, nor of what other Maryland schools have done in the same direction, within a distance of only forty miles from Washington. The Maryland Institute has been in operation over twenty-six years, and has male and female classes, who are not only taught industrial drawing, but art proper, and it was here that the famous sculptor, Rinehart, who has attained a world-wide reputation, re- ceived his primary training.
"Drawing has been also taught in the female high schools of the city for over ten years, as well as in the Baltimore City College for boys. The private collec- tions of paintings and statuary in Baltimore are proba- bly surpassed by those of no other city in the Union, and yet here we have a public document sent from the Department of the Interior, Washington, for the 'information' of the American people on this subject,
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which announces to the public what has been done far out in New England and Northern States, in 'South Bend,' Indiana, and even in San Francisco, and has no 'information' of what has been so long and so nobly accomplished in Baltimore, right under its own eyes.
"It is a pity that as much cannot be said of the country at large. The United States in 1848 was at the foot of the competitors in industrial art, and was little or no better off at the French exhibition of 1868. The atten- tion of our people should be more directed to this sub- ject, and the example of England in this regard be emulated. Industrial art should find a place in our public schools, and it is satisfactory that such a move -. ment is being made. Some productions of American industry may be indicative of the results that flow from the neglect of cultivating art in its industrial forms."
William H. Rinehart was about forty-eight years of age at the time of his death. His mortal remains were, according to his own request, brought to his native land. His funeral took place in the city of Baltimore, on Saturday, January 2d, 1875.
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