The stars on that bright azure field, Which proudly wave o'er land and sea, Were fitly taken from his shield To be our common heraldry. We need no trappings worn and old, No thin veneer, but heart of oak. No aping after foreign ways Becomes a son of noble sire; Columbia wins the sweetest praise When clad in simple, plain attire. In science, poesy, and art, We ask the best the world can give; We feel the throb of Britain's heart, And will while Burns and Shakespeare live. But oh! the nation is too great To borrow emptiness and pride; The queenly Hudson wears in state Her robes with native pigments dyed. October lifts with colors bright Its mountain canvas to the sky; The crimson trees, aglow with light, Unto our banners wave reply. Like Horeb's bush, the leaves repeat From lips of flame with glory crowned: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, The place they trod is holy ground." O fairest stream beneath the sun! Thy Highland portal was the key, That Ridge along our eastern coast, And heroes at each pass were found. A vast primeval palisade, With bastions bold and wooded crest, Along its heights the beacons gleamed, These hills shall keep their memory sure; And speak their glorious deeds for aye. And oh! while morning's golden urn Around the emerald valley's rim; So long preserve our hearth-stone warm! DESIGN OF THE MONUMENT. In the selection of a design for the monument the Joint Select Committee encountered many difficulties. It was hardly possible to have the monument erected in time for the Centennial Celebration, but it was hoped that the plan at least might be agreed upon and the corner-stone laid. With this object in view the Secretary of War, at the request of the committee, at once caused an advertisement to be duly published, inviting proposals for a design. In response, several designs were submitted, but Congress had in the mean while adjourned, and the members of the Joint Select Committee had scattered to their respective homes. In pursuance of a call issued by the chairman, the Executive Committee met at the residence of Mr. Beach, at Cornwall, New York, on September 7, 1883. Present: Senators Bayard, Miller, and Hawley, and Representatives Ketcham, Townsend, and Beach. The plans, bids, etc., forwarded by the Secretary of War were opened and examined. There were also present, of the Newburgh Committee of Five, its chairman, Hon. Peter Ward, Mayor of the city; Hon. Joel T. Headley, Hon. M. H. Hirschberg, Hon. John J. S. McCroskery, and Dr. R. V. K. Montfort, its secretary. After listening to the remarks of the Newburgh representatives, the committee went into executive session. It was decided that, before coming to a conclusion, an inspection of the grounds about the Headquarters would be advisable. The committee thereupon proceeded in carriages to Newburgh. Having examined the grounds and surroundings at Headquarters, the committee re-assembled in the room once occupied by Alexander Hamilton. Senator Bayard moved that the committee approve of a monolithic obelisk for the Newburgh Monument at Washington's Headquarters, of the proportions and measurements and of light-colored and fine-grained granite, as required by the Secretary of War in his specifications to bidders, the obelisk to be the largest obtainable for the money in hand, and to possess the requisite qualifications. Adopted, Mr. Beach then moved that the matter of inscriptions be deferred to a future meeting of the committee; which motion was adopted. The committee thereupon adjourned. The money at the disposal of the Secretary of War for the erection of the monument was not adequate to excite competition among artists of established reputation. With a single exception, none of the bidders were artists or sculptors whose previous efforts would afford a reasonable guaranty that their plans, when wrought into execution, would be either creditable to themselves or satisfactory to the public. For this reason the Executive Committee decided in favor of an obelisk. The decision of the committee was criticised severely in the public press, and was in apparent opposition to the wishes of the residents of the city of Newburgh. The Trustees of Washington's Headquarters, at a meeting held on October 26, 1883, unanimously adopted the following resolution: Resolved, That, in the judgment of the Trustees of Washington's Headquarters, the erection of an obelisk upon the Headquarters grounds would be incongruous and inartistic; and the Hon. Lewis Beach is earnestly urged by this Board to press upon the committee of which he is chairman, and which is in charge of the contemplated National and State memorial, the adoption of some design for a monument more in accordance with propriety and public taste and opinion. The Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, at a meeting held in the city of Newburgh, on Friday evening, February 22, 1884, adopted a resolution, of which the following is a copy: Resolved, That, in the judgment of this society, the proposed centennial memorial to be erected at Washington's Headquarters, in Newburgh, should be in the form of a statue, with Washington either as the sole or principal figure; and that it should be designed by an American artist of national reputation, and should be erected for the purpose of showing a nation's regard for the devoted patriotism and domestic virtues of the illustrious commander, statesman, and citizen, as here developed at the close of the Revolution, and that it should be so placed as to awaken increased interest and regard for the picturesque stone house, now consecrated by so many memories of the past. The Hon. Benson J. Lossing, the historian, sent a letter to the committee, from which the following extract is made: The erection of a shaft or other monument of marble or granite is only an imitation of the rude commemorative structures of barbaric nations—a cairn-a mere "heap of stones" that tell you nothing without an inscription, which time and the elements will efface. Let us have a Christian statue; not a heathen "heap of stones." * |