Statue of By ELMO SCOTT WATSON HEY call her "The First Lady of Washington,” and they don't mean the wife of the President of the United States. They say she is “Washington's best known girl,” and they don't mean some reigning belle in Capital society. They speak of her as “Uncle Sam's Wife,” but that isn't possi »¥T8,Y ble because “Uncle Sam” Is only wt > a personification, a fiction created by the imagination, while she is a tangible, visible figure. She is variously (and erroneously) known as the “Goddess of Free- dom,” the “Goddess of Liberty” and the “Indian Goddess” But her real name Is the statue of Freedom and for 70 years she has stood atop the dome of the Capitol In Washington. The statue of Freedom Is the product of the efforts of two sculptors, famous in thelr day but now almost forgotten by a generation of Amer. feans who know the names of Lorado Taft. Gut- zon Borgium and Jo Davidson better than they do those of Clark Mills and Thomas Crawford. Insofar as this article has most to do with Mills and Crawford, let us consider their careers and their claims to distinction before expanding the theme of the statue of Freedom. Mills’ fame rests chiefly upon his being the sculptor of the first equestrian statue erected In this country, the famous “rocking horse statue” of Andrew Jackson in Lafapette park, near the White House, in Washington: his having also executed the equestrian statue of Washington, depicting him at the Battle of Princeton, which stands at Twenty-third street and Pennsylvania avenue; his part In giving to the nation the statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol: and the fact that he was a sculptor whose only les sons were those he gave himself. Mills was born in Onondaga county, New York, December 1, 1815. His parents died when he was five years old and the youngster went to his uncle's home to live, Even as a eh’ld he was restless and unhappy. At thirteen he ran away, doing odd jobs here and there as he traveled farther and farther from Onondaga county. He worked on farms ; he cut cedar posts In swamps; he learned to mill He reached Charleston, 8. CO. after a great deal of traveling and there he settled, There, too, he learned a new trade that appealed to him—stuccoing. At the age of twenty he had little schooling and less training In art and sculpturing. His education was the study of human nature that he had gathered during his travels and a keen interest In faces. It was while working with stucco that he wondered why a cast could not be made from living faces. This would assure realism and would be inex. pensive, He experimented on his friends and the results were so good that he soon had a number of orders, This local success stirred young Mills, He must try to cut a bust in marble. Night after night he worked out his new idea, earving the features of John ©. Calhoun, When he com- pleted his work he brought it to the city council and waited, Iaughing at himself for thinking that his untutored hands and mind would pro- duce anything great. In 1835 the council of Charleston awarded & gold medal to his bust of Cathoun and appropriated money to purchase it, With the money thus earned Mills planned to go to Europe to study his art, but a friend ad. vised him to go first to Washington and view the statuary in the Capitol, His visit to Washington became an important eveut of his life. He was Introduced to Cave The “Ro © HARRIS 8 Ewin Johnson, then postmaster general and presi. dent of the Jackson monument committee, who asked him to submit a design for a bronze eques. trian statue of General Jackson and who as sured him that “the committee would furnish the bronze” which they later did In a curious historical way. Not having ever seen General Jackson or an equestrian statue of any kind, Mills hesitated, in doubt of his own abilities, but his Yankee enterprise came to his rescue He produced a design which was acceptable to the committee and after nine months of dis heartening labor, he finally brought to the com- mittee a miniature model of rather startling originality. The hind legs of the horse were brought ex. actly under the center of the body, while his front legs pawed the air, imparting both a sense of marvelous balance and motion. Two years were required to finish the plaster model and another year elapsed before the committee came forward with the bronze. They got the stock by appropriating all the old cannon captured by General Jackson at 1'e battle of New Orleans which were broken up and melted. After many failures In balancing the horse in bronze, the statue was finally finished. On the thirty-eighth anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, In 1858, the statue was unveiled in the presence of a vast crowd and Clark Mills himself, Stephen A. Douglas, master of ceremo- nies, made an eloquent address and called on Mills to speak, But Mills had never been an orator, and his first public success awed and frightened him. He faced the audience and opened his mouth, but words would not come. Si lently he pointed to the veiled statue and at his gesture, instead of the awaited spoken word, the vell was withdrawn, Andrew Jackson, seated on his mount, stood before his people, There was silence, then prolonged applause, For Mills that occasion meant nationwide fame. He was asked to cast a statue of Washing- ton at the battle of Princeton for the Capital. He did, using guns donated by congress, Mills spent the last years of his life making busts of prominent citizens, He was not a pub- licity seeker during his fe, and after his death in 1883, at the age of sixty-eight, his fame les. sened. Today he is virtually forgotten by that group, notorious for short memory--the Public. jut If Mills could not win enduring fame by his own efforts as a sculptor, he does have some reflected glory from another sculptor for his part in giving to the nation the statue of Free. dom which looks down upon the country which she Is supposed to symbolize from her lofty ped- estal in the Capital of that country. That other sculptor was Thomas Crawford, also a native of New York where he was born March 22. 1814, After studying In New York he went to Italy in 1834 for further study and he remained In Eu. rope for 15 years. Returning to this country in 1849 he was commissioned by the state of Vir ginia to execute an equestrian statue of Wash- ington for the city of Richmond. At about this time plans were going forward for the completion of the Capitol bullding and President Plerce placed it In charge of Jeffer- son Davis, who was secretary of war in his cab. inet, Davis supervised the extensions and com. missioned Crawford, then residing In Italy, to execute the colossal statue which was to sur. mount the dome, In March, 1850, Crawford forwarded to See retary Davis photographs of the model of the statue as originally designed by him, The figure of Liberty in the photographs represented a fe. male crowned with a laorel wreath, bearing In her hand a huge olive branch, The war secretary objected to the wreath, and the sculptor sug. gested that a liberty cap be substituted. To this Davis even more stre objected “because it was the historical emblem of a freed slave re PR by Clark Mills and ought mot to be there,” the slavery question being then at its wost crucial stage, As finally approved by Davis, the mode] of the statue bore a coronal of nine stars, The statue originally had represented Armed Liberty, but after the minor changes it was decided to eall {t the statue of Freedom On April 1, 1807. n to have the Crawford wrote to Davis asking permissio statue east In bronze under his personal supervision nt the Royal Bava Munich, thes the most famous foundry in the world, But Crawford was destined never to see his work completed for he died five wonths later in London, on Sep tember 10, 1857 The price for the model had been set at $5,000 and after Crawford's death his wife unaertonk to complete his contracts, On April 19, 1858, the plaster model of the statue of Freedom was loaded on the bark Emily at Leghorn, Italy, and started Its voyage to the United States Three days from port the vessel sprung a leak At Bermuda the vessel was condemned and the precious statuary for the United States Capi. tol was stored on the island for several months The sections of the model were shipped to Amer. ica plecemenl on various boats, and the last of the statuary finally arrived in Washington about a year after it had started across the stormy Atiantie from Italy, Almost six years now elapsed since the com years had passed since the design had been pass before the bronze and placed into position, growing louder and work on the Capitol was suspended, the plaster model of the statue in Washington, an adroit Italian who worked about the Capitol were perceptible at the Joints, the bolts were all firmly riveted inside and thelr location deftly concealed by the plaster covering. Then the mod. house of representatives, the present Statuary hall, signed for the tomb of George Washington, Many years later the model was moved to the Smith- today. miles from Washington and he was given the contract for casting the statue, But now another struction and to attempt to separate the soe. destruction of the model called that he owned a highly intelligent mulat- employed about the foundry as an expert and was a extremely skillful workman, Reed made a critical examination of the figure and at length announced that he could solve the mystery and dismember the plaster model without damaging it. He first Inserted a pulley Into an iron eye affixed to the head of the model, then gently strained the rope until joint after Joint became visible, The inside bolts were then discovered. scraped of plaster and carefully removed, The model was again reduced to sections and sent to the Mills foundry for casting. Soon after the casting began the Civil war opened and all such work was ordered suspended. But, deaf to the thunder of the guns of war, Mills persisted In his work until he had produced a perfect bronze cast of the statue. This was some time In 1861 or 1862. The statue was taken to the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds, where it remained for many mouths, Precisely at 12 o'clock noon on December 2, 1863, the colossal figure was hoisted by the steam apparatus that had been employed in the con- struction of the dome and In 20 minutes it had reached its lofty pedestal In safety. As soon as it was properly adjusted the American flag was unfurled over its head, The statue Is the most striking symbol In the whole country of the principle upon which this nation was founded, It is also an enduring memo- rial to two sculptors whose names are all but forgotten but should be remembered by thelr fellow-Americans—Clark Mills acd Thomas Crawford. (® by Western Newspaper Union.) 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers