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Politics: Statues coming down II

92tide

92tide

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May 9, 2000
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The Department of the Army has published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to conduct the Section 106 public consultation process under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) to address potential environmental effects associated with the congressionally-mandated removal of the Confederate Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). The purpose of the proposed action is to remove from ANC a monument that commemorates the Confederate States of America. The need for the proposed action is to comply with non-discretionary congressional direction. The EIS will look at the impacts of removal of the statue atop the monument, disassembly of the bronze elements, and disposition of both. The Army intends to leave the granite base and foundation in place.
 
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92tide said:

The Department of the Army has published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to conduct the Section 106 public consultation process under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) to address potential environmental effects associated with the congressionally-mandated removal of the Confederate Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). The purpose of the proposed action is to remove from ANC a monument that commemorates the Confederate States of America. The need for the proposed action is to comply with non-discretionary congressional direction. The EIS will look at the impacts of removal of the statue atop the monument, disassembly of the bronze elements, and disposition of both. The Army intends to leave the granite base and foundation in place.
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Interesting BBC article with pictures of the statue.

www.bbc.com

The fight over a Confederate statue in Arlington National Cemetery

A Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery is coming down. But what happens next?
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
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92tide said:

The Department of the Army has published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to conduct the Section 106 public consultation process under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) to address potential environmental effects associated with the congressionally-mandated removal of the Confederate Memorial from Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). The purpose of the proposed action is to remove from ANC a monument that commemorates the Confederate States of America. The need for the proposed action is to comply with non-discretionary congressional direction. The EIS will look at the impacts of removal of the statue atop the monument, disassembly of the bronze elements, and disposition of both. The Army intends to leave the granite base and foundation in place.
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I wonder if they are going to dig up the bodies as well.
 
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Here is an excerpt from the speech given by President Wilson in accepting the monument in June 1914.
I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of the thing that has now taken place. The Daughters of the Confederacy have presented a memorial of their dead to the Government of the United States. I hope that you have noted the history of the conception of this idea. It was suggested by a President of the United States (Union veteran McKinley) who had himself been a distinguished officer in the Union Army. It was authorized by an act of Congress of the United States. The corner-stone of the monument was laid by a President of the United States (Republican William H. Taft) elevated to his position by the votes of the party which had chiefly prided itself upon sustaining the war for the Union, and who, while Secretary of War, had himself given authority to erect it. And, now, it has fallen to my lot to accept in the name of the great Government, which I am privileged for the time to represent, this emblem of a reunited people. I am not so much happy as proud to participate in this capacity on such an occasion, proud that I should represent such a people. ...
The generosity of our judgments did not begin to-day. The generosity of our judgment was made up soon after this great struggle was over. Men came and sat together again in the Congress and united in all the efforts of peace and of government, and our solemn duty is to see that each one of us is in his own consciousness and in his own conduct a replica of this great reunited people. It is our duty and our privilege to be like the country we represent and, speaking no word of malice, no word of criticism even, stand shoulder to shoulder to lift the burdens of mankind in the future and show the paths of freedom to all the world.
 
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Tidewater said:
Here is an excerpt from the speech given by President Wilson in accepting the monument in June 1914.
I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of the thing that has now taken place. The Daughters of the Confederacy have presented a memorial of their dead to the Government of the United States. I hope that you have noted the history of the conception of this idea. It was suggested by a President of the United States who had himself been a distinguished officer in the Union Army. It was authorized by an act of Congress of the United States. The corner-stone of the monument was laid by a President of the United States elevated to his position by the votes of the party which had chiefly prided itself upon sustaining the war for the Union, and who, while Secretary of War, had himself given authority to erect it. And, now, it has fallen to my lot to accept in the name of the great Government, which I am privileged for the time to represent, this emblem of a reunited people. I am not so much happy as proud to participate in this capacity on such an occasion, proud that I should represent such a people. ...
The generosity of our judgments did not begin to-day. The generosity of our judgment was made up soon after this great struggle was over. Men came and sat together again in the Congress and united in all the efforts of peace and of government, and our solemn duty is to see that each one of us is in his own consciousness and in his own conduct a replica of this great reunited people. It is our duty and our privilege to be like the country we represent and, speaking no word of malice, no word of criticism even, stand shoulder to shoulder to lift the burdens of mankind in the future and show the paths of freedom to all the world.
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I'm not trying to start anything here, and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Wilson a racist, so much so that Princeton doesn't want to have anything to do with him?

It's a nice speech, but there's a lot in there that I disagree with in this day and age. I may have agreed at the time, but certainly not now.

I doubt Wilson wrote the speech for a monument dedication. Perhaps I'm wrong.

I would leave anyone interred in Arlington where they are.
 
President Taft said this on the groundbreaking for the Arlington Confederate monument in November 1912: "You are here to celebrate, and justly to celebrate, the heroism, the courage and the sacrifice to the uttermost of your fathers and your brothers and your mothers and your sisters, and of all your kin, in a cause which they believed in their hearts to be right, and for which they were willing to lay down their lives. ... now when all the bitterness of the struggle on our part of the North has passed away, we are able to share with you of the South your just pride in your men and women who carried on the unexampled contest to an exhaustion that few countries ever suffered. The calm observer and historian, whatever his origin, may now rejoice in his heart that the Lord ordained it as it is. But no son of the South and no son of the North, with any spark in him of pride of race, can fail to rejoice in that common heritage of courage and glorious sacrifice that we have in the story of the Civil War and on both sides in the Civil War. ... I speak for my immediate Republican predecessors in office when I say that they all labored to bring the sections more closely together. I am sure I can say that, so far as in me has lain, I have left nothing undone to reduce the sectional feelings and to make the divisions of this country geographical only. ...
While I rejoice in the steps that I have been able to take to heal the wounds of sectionalism and to convey to the Southern people, as far as I could, my earnest desire to make this country one, I can not deny that my worthy and distinguished successor has a greater opportunity, and I doubt not he will use it for the benefit of the nation at large.

It fell to my official lot, with universal popular approval, to issue the order which made it possible to erect, in the National Cemetery of Arlington, the beautiful monument to the heroic dead of the South that you founded today. The event in itself speaks volumes as to the oblivion of sectionalism. It gives me not only great pleasure and great honor, but it gives me the greatest satisfaction as a lover of my country, to be present, as President of the United States, and pronounce upon this occasion the benediction of all true Americans."

This, I think shows the spirit of reconciliation that dominated the groundbreaking and the dedication.
 
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OakMtn4Bama said:
IIRC all statues that have been pulled down nationwide have been Democrats. Somewhat funny.
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I noticed that, too…..which is why I’ve always been okay with it. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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I'm having a hard time not hating the people who did this. I try not to hate anyone.
This just looks like spite. Charlottesville said to its opponents, "We have the power to hurt you and there's nothing you can do to stop us, so we're going to do it." It is not like there is a shortage of bronze ingots in Virginia. Other groups sued to get the monument and move it elsewhere and agreed to pay for the transportation, but Charlottesville declined to allow it.

And lest we say, "it's for the symbolism of 'swords into plowshares,' there is another monument that has these exact words cast into bronze that we are destroying at about the same time, and not too far away.

At the ceremony at which this statue was dedicated, Henry Louis Smith of Washington and Lee, said:
"In these troubled times of waning faith and restless uncertainty, may Lee the Christian saint teach us and our children this lofty lesson: that living, loving, personal faith in a living, loving, personal God is at once the source and inspiration and the measure of all true human greatness.

None but Lee the Christian after four years of war's devilish cruelties, when his armies had been crushed and his home land swept by fire and drenched in blood, could say of his enemies 'I have never seen the day when I did not pray for them.'

It was due to his overwhelming influence that the war ended at Appomattox and the nation was spared the endless horrors and hatreds of guerrilla warfare. To his efforts and example, more than to those of any other leader, North or South, we owe the obliteration in a single generation of sectional bitterness, and the present harmony of our reunited nation under the flag of our fathers."

It truly was a monument to the idea of reconciliation. I guess we have too much reconciliation in these United States today. Charlottesville said, "we'd rather hurt those we disagree with."
So be it. The South has suffered worse before. I fear the South will suffer worse in the future. Truly, I fear, having sowed the wind, Charlottesville will reap the whirlwind.
 
Am I the only one who wasn’t offended by the statue’s existence but also isn’t offended by its removal and destruction?
 
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Crimson1967 said:
Am I the only one who wasn’t offended by the statue’s existence but also isn’t offended by its removal and destruction?
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Statues are all about discussion between the past, the present, and the future.
Henry Smith was fairly explicit in the ideals he hoped the statue would convey to future generations.
 
Bazza said:
View attachment 38209

www.worldatlas.com

10 Tallest Statues In The United States

ural heritage. Several massive statues have been made in the United States and installed in public places for the common people to appreciate.
www.worldatlas.com www.worldatlas.com
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The 50’ tall Dignity statue in South Dakota does not qualify for the top ten tallest, but it is beautiful nonetheless. It honors the Lakota and Dakota people rather than any one individual. It is at a rest stop on I-90 on the east side of the Missouri River.

Dignity Statue
 
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