PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. THE WEBSTER STATUE AND ITS HISTORY. BY B. W. BALL. WE have as a nation reached a period of commemoration of our historic men. Although our national existence involves but a single century, still that century in connection with the colonial period has been illustrated by a long list of memorable Americans. The capitol at Washington and the various state capitols are being transformed into valhallas for commemorative purposes. These edifices and their precincts, together with the city parks of our great cities, are the appropriate sites for the erection of memorial statues of the illustrious dead, and for this purpose they are being rapidly utilized, Central Park, New York, conspicuously so. The nation is now amply able, by reason of its wealth and its multitude of artists and persons of fine æsthetic culture, to fitly honor its great men departed. As has been said, brief as has been our national existence we have plenty of subjects for the commemorative sculptor and artist in stone, bronze, or pigments. All the periods of American history, from that of discovery and exploration down to the present time, have abounded in such subjects. Prim itive Greece, in city and country both, was literally populous with statues in stone and bronze of its famous men. Primitive Athens, in particular, was full of carven forms "that mocked the eternal dead In marble immortality.” No objects are so impressive as the statues of great men, and none exert so salutary and potent an influence on the younger generations. In all the metropolitan cities of Europe the traveler is confronted by memorial statues of the great men whose words and deeds have been a part of his education; and already in our chief American cities the eye is attracted by the carven semblances of the most famous men of this new world republic. Central Park, New York, as the pleasure-ground of that polyglot, many-nationed metropolis, is appropriately enough hospitable to the memorial statues of the great men of all countries, whether European or American. as Bayard Taylor calls it, a statue of the world-poet, Shakespeare, who, by the way, belongs to this American division of the great English-speaking world as much as he does to the home branch of our race, was dedicated in 1872. "There in his right he stands ! No breadth of earth-dividing seas can bar What Shakespeare was in the domain of poetry and the imagination, that was Webster in the field of statesmanship. Thus much by way of general remark on the subject of permanent memorials of historic men. The centennial anniversary of the birth of Webster, which occurred January 18, 1882, was generally celebrated throughout the country. The Webster legend, so to speak, was everywhere revived. After an interval of thirty most eventful years, full of change, the country seemed again to have fallen under the spell of Webster's genius. The younger generation, to whom he was purely a historic character, had an opportunity to listen. to eloquent speakers who had lived in Webster's day, and who could testify of their own personal knowledge to his marvelous influence and power. Webster clubs and Webster historical societies, which had been organized to keep his memory fresh, everywhere caused the occasion to be fitly celebrated by public meetings and memorial addresses. The Webster Club at Concord, N. H., observed the centennial anniversary of Webster's nativity by a public meeting at White's Opera House. The orator of the occasion was Col. John H. George. His address was noteworthy among the numerous addresses which were delivered, because it called the attention of the people of New Hampshire to the fact that the native state of Webster was without a single memorial statue of her greatest son. The following is the passage in Col. George's address which, by eloquently pointing out the above deficiency, was the initial step in the history of the erection of the Webster statue, now so conspicuous an object in the state-house grounds of his native state: "There is a bronze statue of Webster," said Col. George, "by Pow ers, which was lost at sea. It lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere in the vicinity of the telegraphic cable, as we are told. A duplicate of it is standing in the state-house grounds in Boston. Of this lost statue Hawthorne remarks in his 'Italian Notes': 'There is an expression of quiet, solid, massive strength in the whole figure; a deep, pervading energy which any exaggeration of gesture would lessen and lower. He looks like a pillar of state. The face is very grand, very Webster, stern and awful, because he is in the act of meeting a crisis, yet with the warmth of a great heart glowing through it. Happy is Webster to have been so truly and adequately sculptured. Happy the sculptor in such a subject, with which no idealization of a demi-god could have supplied him. Perhaps the statue at the bottom of the sea will be cast up in some future age, when the present race of man is forgotten, and, if so, that far posterity will look up to us as a grander race than we find ourselves.' Apropos of this extract, we are reminded that the state of Webster's nativity lacks to this day a monumental statue of her greatest son. It is a lack that should no longer be permitted to disgrace us. While Boston and New York have erected on most conspicuous sites colossal bronze statues to the memory of Webster as among the worthiest of great Americans, to stand carved or cast in enduring material for the inspection of posterity, this his native state has erected no monument illustrative of her appreciation of the services of her ablest son in the cause of constitutional liberty. There should be a monumental statue here at the state capital, and also at his birthplace, where his form would most appropriately stand, sweeping with its gaze the broad intervals which he loved so well, and so often frequented for rest and recreation during his arduous career as a public man. His sublime form would be the most appropriate genius loci of our sublime local scenery." It was these eloquent words which, falling under the eye of Mr. Cheney, determined him to carry into effect a purpose which he had long entertained of presenting to his native state a statue of her greatest citizen, whom Mr. Cheney not only admired in common with the rest of his countrymen as a great statesman, but whom he also loved as a personal friend who had interested himself in his own welfare as a business man. The commission to execute the statue was at first given to the wellknown Boston sculptor, the late Martin Milmore, but he died before the completion of his model. His brother Joseph was employed to finish the work, but he too was prevented by death from putting the finishing touch to the model. Thus the business of carrying into effect Mr. Cheney's plan had to be commenced de novo. Meantime, to secure the final consummation of his plan, and prevent its failure in any contingency, Mr. Cheney placed its execution in the hands of three trustees, viz., Hon. George W. Nesmith, John M. Hill, Esq., and Col. John H. George, by the following deed of trust: WHEREAS, It is now and long has been the desire and intention of the undersigned, Benjamin Pierce Cheney, formerly of Hillsborough, in the county of Hillsborough and state of New Hampshire, and now of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and commonwealth of Massachusetts, to procure a bronze statue of Daniel Webster, and, with the permission of the state, to erect the same upon a fitting pedestal with permanent granite foundations, in the state-house yard in Concord, New Hampshire; and |