USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 45
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and cost $35,000. Congress appropriated $25,000 for the pedestal and furnished the bronze for the figures.
The unveiling occurred on November 19, 1879, and the inaugural was very elaborate. Buildings were decorated in honor of the occasion and thousands of people thronged to witness the procession and the place of the unveiling exercises. The procession, chiefly military, is said to have taken two hours to pass one point. In addition to Washington military there were organizations from Annapolis, Alexandria, Cantonsville, Norfolk and Richmond, while military bands also came from West Point, Fort Monroe, Columbus, Ohio, David's Island, New York, and Frederick, Maryland, to assist those already here. Besides the music from these bands a choir of fifty select- ed male voices sang appropriate hymns and patriotic odes. Senator Stanley Matthews of Ohio delivered the oration, and President Hayes accepted the statue in behalf of the people of the United States.
In Farragut Square at Connecticut Avenue and I Street is a bronze figure by Vinnie Ream Hoxie, of Admiral David G. Farragut, which was cast from the guns of the flagship Hart- ford. Tlic monument was unveiled April 25, 1881. Its cost was $25,000.
In the Smithsonian grounds is W. W. Story's bronze figure of Professor Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, erected by Congress at a cost of $15,000. It was dedicated April 19, 1882.
Chief Justice John Marshall, has been honored by the erec- tion of a dignified sedent figure in bronze, executed by W. W. Story. This monument rests midway of the great western double stairway of the Capitol which leads down to Pennsylvania Avenue. It was the gift of members of the United States Bar, and the Government furnished the pedestal. The monument cost $40,000, and it was dedicated in 1884.
In the center of Dupont Circle at Connecticut and New Hampshire Avenues, Nineteenth and P Streets, is a standing figure in bronze by Launt Thompson, of Rear-Admiral Samuel
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Francis Dupont, dedicated on December 20, 1884. This monu- ment was erected by Congress at a cost of $20,500.
Another monument erected in 1884 is that of Martin Luther, a replica of the central figure of the great work of Rietschel in Germany, at Wurms, cast from the original model. This strong figure, eleven and one-half feet in height, stands on an eleven foot pedestal before the Lutheran church northeast of Thomas Circle, at Fourteenth and N Streets, northwest. Both the church and statue stand as a memorial of the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great German reformer. The monument cost $10,000, and was paid for by subscriptions of Lutherans all over the Country.
The Garfield monument was dedicated May 12, 1887, and is the work of J. Q. A. Ward. It stands before the southwestern entrance of the Capitol grounds. The entire monument cost $62,500, $25,000 of which was contributed by the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, and the remainder by the Govern- ment.
In front of Kendall Green Chapel, in the grounds of the Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, is a bronze monu- ment to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the teacher who first opened the way for the intellectual advancement of those born without the sense of hearing. This group of Gallaudet and his first pupil, little Alice Cogswell, is the work of Daniel C. French. The statue was dedicated in 1887, the centennial year of the birth of Gallaudet, and was paid for by deaf students from every State and Territory in the Union.
At Pennsylvania Avenue, Tenth and D. Streets, is a quaint likeness of Benjamin Franklin, designed by Ernst Plassman. The sculptor of the figure of Franklin was Jacque Jouvenal. This memorial was presented to the city by Mr. Stilson Hutchins, January 17, 1889.
General Lafayette has been honored in America's Capital by the handsome bronze monument in Lafayette Square. Con- gress appropriated $50,000 for this memorial and the commis- sion for its execution was allotted to two French Sculptors, Alexander Falquiere and Antonin Mercie. Below Lafayette, on the pedestal, is America reaching up to hand him the sword
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of victory. Standing on the pedestal are Rochambeau, Dupor- tail, D'Estaing and De Grasse. This graceful monument was unveiled in 1890.
The remaining three corners of Lafayette Square are also devoted to monuments to foreign heroes of the American Revolu- tion. These are the monuments to Rochambeau, by F. Hamar, for which Congress appropriated $22,500, unveiled May 24, 1902; to Baron von Steuben, by Albert Jaegers, erected by Congress at a cost of $50,000, and unveiled December 7, 1910; and to Kosciusko, by Antoni Popiel, the gift of Polish-American citizens, dedicated May 11, 1910.
In the Smithsonian grounds, is a memorial dedicated by the Photographic Association of America, to the memory of Louis J. M. Daguerre commemorating the first half century of photog- raphy, from 1839 to 1889. This monument, surmounted by a granite globe representing the earth with a bronze relief portrait of Daguerre, is the work of Jonathan S. Hartley, and was ded- icated August 15, 1890.
At Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventh Street is a monument to General Winfield Scott Hancock, executed by Henry J. Ellicott.
The unveiling took place May 12, 1896, with impressive cere- monies, opened by President Cleveland.
This monument was a gift of the Government, $40,000 hav- ing been appropriated by Congress for its cost and that of the pedestal.
A distinguished physician honored in the Capital city is Dr. Samuel D. Gross, whose bronze stands in the Smithsonian grounds. Dr. Gross was a famous surgeon, as well as teacher and author. This statue is the work of A. Sterling Calder, and was presented to the Government May 5, 1897, by the physicians and surgeons of the United States. Congress appropriated $1,500 for the pedestal.
On the west side of Scott Circle is a standing figure of Daniel Webster, the gift of Mr. Stilson Hutchins. It was dedi- cated January 18, 1900. It is the work of G. Trentanove. The pedestal was erected by Congress at a cost of $4,000.
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On the east side of Scott Circle is a semi-circular memorial to the founder of Homeopathy, Christain S. F. Hahneman, by Charles H. Niehaus. The monument was dedicated June 21, 1900. It was the gift of the American Institute of Homeopathy. Congress appropriated $4,000 for the foundation.
In Iowa Circle at Rhode Island Avenue and 13th Street, is a bronze to General John A. Logan by Franklin Simmons. This monument was unveiled April 9, 1901, the ceremony being led by President Mckinley. The oration of the day was deliv- ered by Senator Chauncey M. Depew of New York.
This statue cost $65,000, of which sum $50,000 was appropri- ated by Congress and $15,000 by the Society of the Army of the Tennessee.
At the intersection of Indiana Avenue, Third and D Streets, is a large bronze by G. Trentanove, of General Albert Pike, erected by the Masonic fraternity and dedicated October 23, 1901.
The monument to General William T. Sherman, by Carl Rohl-Smith, in Sherman Park facing the south front of the Treasury Building, was unveiled October 15, 1903. This monu- ment was erected by the Society of the Army of the Tennessee which contributed $11,000, and the United States Government which contributed $80,000. On one side of the high pedestal is War, represented by a woman tearing her garment as she stands over the slain body of a soldier. On the opposite side of the pedestal is a figure of a woman, typifying Peace. At the four corners of the wide base of the statue are figures repre- senting soldiers of the cavalry, artillery, infantry and engineers.
At Twenty-third and E Streets, at the Naval Museum, is a statue of Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. This monument was erected in 1904 by the American Medical Association.
A monument to General George B. McClellan, by Frederick MacMonnies, stands in the little park surrounded by Connecticut Avenue, Columbia Road and California Street. It was dedicat- ed May 2, 1907, and is the gift of Congress which appropriated $60,000 and of the Society of the Army of the Potomac.
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At the intersection of Seventh and C Streets, Pennsylvania and Louisiana Avenues, stands the monument to Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, the projector of the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, which organization contributed the figures. The obelisk pedestal was erected by Congress at a cost of $10,000. The monument, which was designed by J. Massey Rhind, was unveiled July 3, 1908.
At Connecticut Avenue and M Street is the monument to Henry W. Longfellow. This statue is a sedent bronze figure in a gown, the work of William Couper, and was unveiled May 15, 1909. It is the gift of the Longfellow National Memorial Association. The pedestal was erected by Congress at a cost of $4,000.
The animated equestrian statue of General Sheridan, by Gutzon Borglum, in Sheridan Circle at Massachusetts Avenue and Twenty-third Street, was erected by Congress at a cost of $60,000 and unveiled November 25, 1909.
On the plaza of the Municipal Building, facing Pennsylvania Avenue stands a bronze memorial to Governor Alexander R. Shepherd. This is the work of W. S. J. Dunbar, a local sculp- tor, and was unveiled May 3, 1909.
William Couper's statue of John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, stands at the inter- section of Connecticut Avenue, Eighteenth and L Streets. It was presented by the Witherspoon Memorial Association and unveiled May 20, 1909. Congress appropriated $4,000 for the pedestal.
A splendid white marble memorial to Columbus stands in front of the Union Station. This monument was erected by Congress at a cost of $100,000. The architectural work was designed by Daniel H. Burnham and the sculptural work by Lorado Taft. It was dedicated June 6, 1912, by the Italian Ambassador.
The idea of erecting this tribute to the great discoverer was originated by the Knights of Columbus.
The work extends seventy feet wide east and west. In the center is a shaft forty-five feet high, surmounted by a
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sphere representing the world. Before this shaft is the figure of Columbus standing on the prow of a ship. He is wrapped in the folds of a cloak and looks ahead, over the carved head of a woman on the prow of the vessel, representing Discovery. On one side of the shaft is the hulking figure of an early Caucasian, representing the Old World, while the opposite side has the figure of an Indian, which represents the New World. On the side of the shaft opposite Columbus is a medallion con- taining the figures of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
At the foot of the 17th Street Speedway on the edge of . the Tidal Basin has been erected a standing heroic bronze of John Paul Jones, by Charles H. Niehaus for which Congress appropriated $50,000. It was unveiled April 17, 1912.
In Rock Creek Cemetery are several monuments which are notable works of art. The most striking of these is that by Augustus Saint Gaudens, erected to Mrs. Adams. A woman's figure heavily draped, sits on a granite boulder, with closed eyes and saddened face. The work is intended to be symbolic of Grief or Despair.
Near the southeast corner of the new National Museum building in the Smithsonian grounds stands a vase erected by the Pomological Society to the memory of Andrew Jackson Downing who laid out the entire Mall, as well as the grounds of the White House and Lafayette Park in 1852, and who perished in the wreck of the steamer Henry Clay while the work was in progress.
At the time that Congress made its appropriation for the Paul Jones monument, a similar amount was appropriated for the erection of a monument to Commodore John Barry, to stand facing 14th Street at the west end of Franklin Park. This monument was unveiled May 16, 1914. It was designed by John J. Boyle.
One war hero not connected with our own country, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, is commemorated by a statue, presented to America by Emperor William of Germany, which stands in the grounds of the War College, at the Washington barracks.
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A graceful little fountain has lately been erected on the northwest margin of the ellipse south of the White House, to the memory of two of the victims of the terrible Titanic catastrophe of April 15, 1912, Francis D. Millet and Major Archibald W. Butt of the United States Army. Mr. Millet was a member of the Commission of Fine Arts. The little fountain was designed by two members of the Art Commission, Daniel C. French and Thomas Hastings.
The sedent statue of Archbishop John Carroll, the founder of Georgetown University, located in front of the entrance to the main college building was erected by the alumni of the University and unveiled on May 4, 1912. It was the work of Mr. Jerome Conner of Washington.
In the terraced grounds of the filtration plant stands the memorial fountain erected in 1913 by the citizens of Michigan in honor of Senator James McMillan of that State, who died in 1902, and who was for ten years the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia.
Congress has appropriated $240,000 for a monument to General U. S. Grant. The commission for the sculptural work was given to Henry M. Shrady, and that for the architectural work to Edward Pearce Casey. The elaborately planned memo- rial was begun at the eastern end of the Botanical Gardens in the Mall. The long pedestal has been erected, and on one wing of it has been placed a spirited group of field artillery.
For many years the question of creating some adequate memorial to Abraham Lincoln of a national character has been under consideration by the American people, and numerous and varied projects having this purpose in view, have been from time to time advanced. This problem was thoroughly consid- ered by the Park Commission in 1901 and the results of the deliberations of that body were a recommendation in favor of a memorial structure of a Grecian type to be erected on the west end of Potomac Park on the central line of the Capitol and Washington Monument, the connection between the Monu- ment and the Memorial to be a setting of parkways, basins, fountains, and trees in continuation of the parkway proposed
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by the Commission to connect the Monument and the Capitol. By act approved February 9, 1911, Congress created the Lin- coln Memorial Commission to consist of William H. Taft, then President of the United States, Shelby M. Cullom, Senator from Illinois who had been mainly instrumental in bringing this legislation to a head, Joseplı G. Cannon, of Illinois, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senator Peabody Wetmore, of Rhode Island, Representative Samuel Walker McCall, of Massa- chusetts, Senator Hernando D. Money of Mississippi, and Representative Champ Clark, of Missouri. This Commission was directed to determine upon a location, plan and design for a monument or memorial in the City of Washington to the memory of Abraham Lincoln to cost not exceeding two million dollars. Senator Cullom was made Resident Commissioner. He died January 28, 1914, and Ex-Senator Joseph C. S. Blackburn was appointed to succeed him. Senator Money died on Septem- ber 18, 1912, and his place was filled by the appointment of Senator Thomas S. Martin of Virginia.
At its first meeting the Commission passed a resolution calling upon the Commission of Fine Arts to make suggestions to the Memorial Commission as to the locations, plans and designs for the memorial and particularly that it give its advice as to the following locations: the axis of Delaware Avenue at some point between the Capitol and the Union Station Plaza; the axis of the new avenue authorized to be constructed between the Peace Monument and the Union Station Plaza ; some portion of the proposed plaza between the Capitol and the Union Station ; the site in Potomac Park recommended by the Park Commis- sion in 1901; and also any other location which they might dcem suitable. The Commission of Fine Arts was also requested to make suggestions in connection with each location as to a memorial suited to it and within the limit of cost authorized by the act, and also as to the best method of selecting the artists, sculptors and architects and making and executing the proper designs.
To the questions thus submitted to it, the Commission of Fine Arts gave most attentive study for a period covering four
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months. In its report, which it submitted on July 17, 1911, the Commission recommended the Potomac Park site. With refer- ence to the type of memorial to be erected the Commission advised that to avoid competition with the Capitol or the Wash. ington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial should not include a dome and should not be characterized by great height but by strong horizontal lines.
Pending the consideration of the questions submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts, the Memorial Commission, on the advice of the former, selected Mr. Henry Bacon, an archi- tect of New York City, to prepare designs for a memorial with the view to its location on the site at Potomac Park, and soon after employed Mr. John Russell Pope, an architect of New York City, to prepare designs contemplating the placing of the memorial on the Soldiers' Home Grounds on the axis of North Capitol Street, and also for a memorial suitable to be located on the crest of 16th Street hill.
In December, 1911, these architects submitted complete designs, including prospective plans and models for the 3 sites mentioned. After the submission of these designs the Memorial Commission on February 3, 1912, adopted the site on the axis of the Capitol and Washington Monument in Potomac Park at a point near the river bank as best suited for the location of the memorial. The two architects above nominated were then requested by the Commission, after conference, to prepare and submit new designs or modifications of those already submitted, all having in view the site in Potomac Park, and in response to this request Mr. Bacon submitted three designs, one of them a slight modification of his first design, and Mr. Pope submitted a modification of his original design for the memorial contem- plating the location in the Soldiers' Home Grounds, which he adapted to the site in Potomac Park. Mr. Pope also submitted a number of sketches of alternate designs for the latter site.
These designs were submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts which reported on March 23, 1912, recommending the adoption of one of the three submitted by Mr. Bacon, and recom- mending also the employment of Mr. Bacon as architect for the
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memorial. These recommendations were adopted by the Memo- rial Commission on April 16, 1912. Certain modifications were suggested to Mr. Bacon in the design submitted by him and he prepared a new design embodying these modifications and sub- mitted it to the Commission which unanimously recommended that Congress approve the construction of the memorial upon the Potomac site in accordance with Mr. Bacon's last design.
CHAPTER XV
The Press
The earliest paper published in what is now the District of Columbia is believed to have been the Weekly Ledger, a George- town publication which was started in 1790. In 1796, a second Georgetown paper, the Sentinel of Liberty appeared, the pub- lishers being Green, English and Company.
The first newspaper to be published in the City of Wash- ington was the Washington Gazette, a semi-weekly paper first published on June 15, 1796 by Benjamin More, a bookseller. On July 26, 1797, this paper was discontinued for lack of support. It re-appeared on the 16th of the following September as a week- ly, but laek of patronage foreed its final discontinuance on March 24, 1798.
On October 31, 1800, appeared the first publication of the National Intelligencer. The editor and proprietor was Samuel Harrison Smith and the paper was published in one of a row of brick buildings on New Jersey Avenue, erected by Thomas Law. The paper from its first publication until January 1, 1813, ap- peared three times each week. It early announced and through- out its career maintained a policy, at varianee with the custom of the times, of abstinance from unnecessary personal abuse joined with the fullest publicity concerning public men and measures.
It is due to the enterprise of Mr. Smith that the early de- bates of Congress have been preserved to posterity. At first Mr. Smith was denied by the Speaker of the House, Theodore Sedg- wiek, of Massachusetts, permission to publish other than pro- ceedings which had reached a matured state and upon which the House had come to a conclusion. In 1809, however, Mr. Joseph Gales, Jr., afterwards Mayor of the city, removed to Washing- ton from Raleigh, North Carolina, and entered the employ of Mr.
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Smith as stenographic reporter of the proceedings in Congress. Mr. Gales was shortly afterwards taken into partnership by Mr. Smith, and in September, 1810, he purchased Mr. Smith's inter- est in the paper. In October, 1812, Mr. Gales associated with himself in the publication of the Intelligencer his brother-in-law, William Winston Seaton, of King William County, Virginia, who had previously been connected with the Virginia Patriot at Rich- mond, and on the first of the following year the paper came out as the Daily National Intelligencer. Mr. Seaton aided greatly in the work of reporting the debates of Congress, he taking one branch and Mr. Gales the other. Among the famous speeches for which the country is indebted to these men are those which occurred during the debates between Webster and Hayn in 1830.
Owing to the partial destruction of the office of the paper by the British in 1814, the paper was discontinued from August 24 to October 1 of that year.
The paper continued under the ownership of Messrs. Gales and Seaton until the death of Mr. Gales at Eckington, his country home, on July 21, 1860. On August 31 of that year, Mr. James C. Welling, who had been associated with the paper for about ten years, became associated with Mr. Seaton in the editorship of the paper. On December 31, 1864, Mr. Seaton and Mr. Welling were succeeded as editors and proprietors by Messrs. Snow, Coyle and Company. The new proprietors on April 1, 1865, enlarged the paper to a seven column sheet and later consolidated with it the Express, changing the name to the "Intelligencer and Express." On November 30, 1869, the paper was purchased by Alexander Delmar, then late Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the Treas- ury Department. The publication of the paper was discontinued under Mr. Delmar's ownership on January 10, 1870.
The Intelligencer supported Mr. Jefferson for the presidency to succeed President John Adams. It continued to support the various administrations in power until President Jackson's time, when it opposed President Jackson on account of his political ap- pointments. Although supporting President Harrison, it op- posed Tyler on account of his alleged abandonment of the prin-
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ciples on which he was elected, and took sides with Henry Clay and the Whig party. It vigorously opposed the annexation of Texas and in consequence incurred the enmity of John C. Cal- houn, then Secretary of State. It opposed President Taylor and espoused the cause of Daniel Webster, but upon the succession of Vice-President Fillmore to the presidency after the death of President Taylor and the appointment of Daniel Webster as Sec- retary of State, the National Intelligencer again became the organ of the administration. It was the last of the Whig organs and with the incoming of President Pierce was succeeded as the representative of the administration, by the Union. In 1860 it supported John Bell for the Presidency against Abraham Lincoln on account of Lincoln's anti-slavery views, and again in 1864 supported General McClellan as against President Lincoln on the same grounds. It was at all times loyal to the Union but advo- cated the restoration of "the Union as it was" without the abol- ishment of slavery. Throughout the reconstruction period the Intelligencer was an ardent supporter of Andrew Johnson and championed the reconstruction methods instituted by Johnson until its discontinuance in 1870.
On August 18, 1834, the Washington Mirror was first pub- lished by William Thompson, an Englishman. The name was afterwards changed to the Metropolitan, and under the editor- ship of Rufus Dawes the paper acquired a considerable degree of popularity. In 1836, it was merged into the United States Tele- graph which had been established in 1826 by Duff Green. The Telegraph was the organ of the administration during the presi- dency of Andrew Jackson, though it was said by Thomas H. Benton that it was more the organ of John C. Calhoun than of President Jackson.
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