A National Tribute to a Great Citizen.

White Ribbon, Volume 10, Issue 120, 15 May 1905, Page 1

A National Tribute to a Great Citizen.

Statue of Miss Willard, in the Capitol, Washington. Forty-one years ago, in the U.S.A. £ uate, Senator Morrell proposed a measure dedicating the old Hall of the House of Representatives as a national I Statuary Hall. The measure was I passed, and each state of the Union was thereby authorised to place therein “two statues of deceased persons who have t>een citizens of such state, and illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military service.*’ On Feb 17th of this year the State of Illinois completed its quota by presenting to the Senate a beautiful sUtut of Frances E. Willard. The action was in no wise prompted by the W.C.T.IJ. In fact, until its announcement through the press few knew anything of the matter. The legislators of l>oth houses of the Illinois legislature, by a unanimous vete, set apart the neressary sum for the sculpture and erection of the statue. A little larger than life size, of Carrara marble, thrown into relief against a pillar of dark marble, the statue represents Miss Willard in the act of delivering an address. The face is said to be strong and life-like, and the expression animated; the right arm

rests upon a reading desk and the left hand holds a few pages of manuscript. A competent critic says: “ Miss Mears (the sculptor) has made a distinctive work, one showing in a way that it seems to me only a woman could do, the union of strength with feminine

gentleness.” On the pedestal is inscribed a passage from one of Miss Willard’s own speeches :

It is women who have given the oostheat hostagen to fortune. Out into the battle of life they have s**nt their best beloved with fearful odds against them. Hy the dangers they have dared, by the hours of patient watching over beds where helpless children

lay ; by the incense of ten thousand prayer* wafted from their gertle lips to heaven, I charge you give them fiower to protect along life’s treacherous highway those whom they have so loved.’’ The position of the statue — the only statue of a woman in the Capitol—is beside that of the “ father of America,” George Washington. The School Children. Prior to the official acceptance of the statue, the school children of Washington, to the number of two thousand, gathered in the Statuary Hall for a commemorative service. Mrs L. M. N. Stevens, Miss Anna Gordon, Miss Mears, and representative officials and superintendents of the W.C.T.U. entered the hall and grouped themselves about the statue. The childien closely followed (all carrying beautiful spring flowers), led by Summerfield Baldwin, the grand-nephew of Miss Willard. His bouquet of lilies of the valley was placed at the feet of the statue, while al>out the pedestal were laid the floral tributes of tne other children as they slowly filed past. In commemoration of the event a specially designed medal, the gift of Miss Anna Gordon, was placed in each child’s hand. The Senate. At 3 p.m. came the Senate “exercises.” The chaplain, Rev. E. E. Hale, said: “The Congress has devoted a pari of to-day to memorial

exercises in honour of Miss Frances E. Willard, the distinguished philanthropist, to whom the nation is so largely indebted. Let me read such verses from King Lemuel’s description as are appropriate to this distinguished woman.

“ A virtuous woman who can find ? for her price is far above rubies. She doeth good and not evil all the days of her life. She girdeth her loins with strength and raaketh strong her arms. She spreadeth out her hand to the poor. Strength and dignity are her clothing. She openeth h*r mouth with wisdom and the law of kindness is on her tongue. A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praixed. Oive her of the fruit of her hand and let her works praise her in the gates.'’

Prayer followed, and then was read the letter trom the Governor of Illinois, formally presenting the statue to the Government of the United States, this being succeeded by resolutions accepting the same. After these formalities came speeches by eminent Senators bearing eloquent testimony to the thorough nature and tar reaching worth of the “ illustrious civic service ” rendered not only to the American nation but to the world at large by this whole-hearted woman. For the first time in the history of the Senate, a day was set apart that Senators might talk of a woman. Space only allows a few scant quotations from Senator Dolliver’s speech : “Lord Macaulay said of John Wesley that he was one of the greatest statesmen of his time. What did he mean by that ? He meant that in addition to his preaching the Word he created an institution compact and effective in its methods, which went on long after he was gone in the execution of the beneficent designs which were in his heart. Exactly the same thing can be said for Frances E. Willard .... no man can read her annual messages to the organization of which she was the executive head without perceiving that she had a strong grasp of all the great social and moral problems of our time; a grasp so strong that to day her words seem often like prophecies fulfilled, where twenty years ago they hardly attracted the attention of the world. .

With a profound insight she

perceived that the most difficult problems of civilization, the problems which have brought the statesmanship and philosophy of the modern world to a dead standstill, if they have any solution at all, and she confidently believed they had-they would find it at last in the actual application to the daily life

of the world of the divine precepts which constitute the most precious part of the ; nheritance of these Christian centuries."

The House of Representatives. At 4 p.m., the “exercises” in the House of Representatives began by the Chaplain offering prayer, in the course of which gratitude was expressed for “ this day which marks an epoch in the progress and civilization of our age and nation, by the placing of the statue of a woman in this Capitol, among the noted and illustrious men of our nation.”

Formalities in connection with the

acceptance of the statue were again gone through, and then the Representatives paid their tribute. Representative Foss (juoted and endorsed the eulogism of Ed. E. Hale :—“ Her annual addresses to her constituents are better worth reading than the messages of the President of the United States for the same time." He then went on to say, “ The State of Illinois presents this statue as a tribute to the life of Frances E. Willard, and in a larger and tiuer sense, as a tribute to worn in. . . . . The Illinois legislature, in its wisdom, lielieved that the time had come when woman should be honoured and her statue should be placed in the American Panthenon, and who shall say that woman has no right there ? .

. . . Has all the wonderful development of our country ever since the time when that frail bark landed with its orecious cargo of human freight on Plymouth Rock, been accomplished by men ? Has woman played no part in this tremendous national development ? Has she exercised no influence on our national life ?"

In Representative Rainey’s address occurred these passages: the years which followed the civil war one of the forces most potent to sweep away the mists and let in the sunlight was the army of women, led by Frances E. Wnlard. With c hain* of gold stretching across the gulf which divided the sections, she bound together the homes of the North and the homes of the South, until the dividing chasm disap, eared, and a mighty nation moves forward under one banner with resistless force to the tremendous destiny prepared for it by the omnipotent God .... the woman we honour to-day made her opportunities—none of them were inherited. She did not come to a throne by

divine right, but her purity of put pose her resistless energy won for her the title of 4 The Uncrowned Queen.’ ”

Representative Littlefield concluded his speech with the words :—“ This statue stands, and always will stand, as the highest and truest embodiment of all that is noblest, best and divinest in the womanhood of America, and as

the enduring memorial of whatsoever things are of good report, in our Christian civilization.”

On the adjournment of the House, a return was made to the statue, when Miss Gordon placed at its foot a large wreath of laurel and palms fastened with a beautiful white bow, “ emblematic of the victorious life of Frances E. Willard." Church Service. At a commemoration service held in the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. Dr. J. A. liutler represented the clergy of Washington, but expressed the wish that he might speak for the 150,000 Ministers of the Uni»ed States. Each State sent to this meeting either a representative or message. . Lady Henry Somerset, President of the World’s W.C.T.U., sent a letter in which were these words: “ There are two aspects which I think gladden our hearts in the fact that our Frances Willard stands among the great ones of the land in Statuary Hall at Washington. First, because it is a recognition of woman’s work such as has never l>een given in any other country. For she is forever placed by the American people among the patriots who have helped to build up better laws. . . . The ways of the work may change, the organisations of the future may differ, but ;he gates which she threw open will remain set wide for the philanthropists and homebuilders of all time.” Appreciation by the Press. Many appreciative articles appeared in the daily public Press. A few sentences will serve to show theik trend; 44 Few statesmen have achieved a celebrity as wide as Miss Willard's, and none was ever more devoted to a noble work for the uplifting of humanity. . . To that work she brought abilities of an order rare among women or men. . . She was a dominant personality in any assemblage.” 44 Miss Willard’s mind was as broad as the needs of misery. . . She was the

Chi isticiii conscience of the America of th» last part of the nineteenth century L opt rating through a genius for organisation toward the accomplishment of certain specific reforms.” “ America cannot go very far wrong while it recognises the significance of placing at the right hand of Washington, the architect of the national home, Frances E. Willard, the woman who devoted her life to making that home clean anti sweet and pure.”