After years of hard work, the day of the unveiling came. The newspapers covered the event in full! What
a day it turned out to be. Today's post is only the articles that appeared in the newspapers the day after the event. I found the address by Snowden to be particularly interesting in regards to how these three generals, for which the monument recognized, were neglected by history. Also, Snowden saw that the DAR was the group to rectify the neglected from the Revolutionary War. I am looking forward to seeing just how many that he brought to the forefront have been memorialized by the DAR.
1913 Nov 12 The Columbia Record
On November 11 at the unveiling of the monument, Mayes
gave the following address in presenting the memorial shaft to the partisan
generals to the custody of the state of South Carolina. The address was also printed in The State and will be included in full below.
1913 Nov 12 The State
STATE NOW GUARDS PARTISAN MEMORIAL
Ruckstuhl’s “Victory Proclaims Glory of Marion, Sumter,
and Pickens, Carolina Patriots
SHAFT PRESENTED TO COMMONWEALTH
Descendants of Three Generals Draw Veil From Monument
Erected by Daughters of American Revolution – Yates Snowden Orator.
Yesterday, the monument to the partisan generals which
the SCDAR has labored through disappointments and discouragements of yesterday
was presented to the state. Mayes
graciously handed it over to the state and city a token of the SCDAR’s loyalty
to South Carolina’s past, of confidence in the future, and of faith in the
state’s future.
The ceremony, which was the opening event of the 17th
annual state conference, was simple yet impressive and fitting for the
occasion. It included an eloquent
address by USC Professor of History Yates Snowden and the presented by Mayes
delivered “with her characteristic quiet, womanly dignity, and directness.”
A large crowd had gathered around the monument. A stand draped in United States and South
Carolina flags was positioned in the rear.
The shaft was wrapped with a huge Palmetto State. The Victory was unveiled and stood clearly against
the cloudless sky. Rev. J.O. Reavis,
D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church gave the invocation followed by
the singing of “Carolina” and “America” by a chorus of school children, girls
from the College of Women, and university students.
Bacon and Richardson (members of the original committee)
along with Mrs. David Henning, and Mrs. A.E. Legare (representing her mother,
Annie Robertson) descended the rostrum and made their way through the crowd to
the enclosure of the monument. They were
accompanied by the four little boys representing the families of the partisan
generals. “The women held the cords
while the little boys drew the puller which freed the stately shaft of its
covering and revealed it in all its stately grace to the admiring gaze of an
applauding assemblage.”
By special request of both the state regent and monument
committee, George W. Dick, the chair of the ways and means committee
responsible for reporting to the house in favor of the request for an
appropriation to secure the monument presided at the ceremonies. After congratulating the SCDAR, he introduced
Mr. Snowden stating that “in all matters pertaining to the history of our
beloved State he is a master” needing no introduction to an audience made up of
those who labored to preserve and protect history. Snowden felicitated the SCDAR for their work
and indirectly made suggestions for future projects of other heroes whom had
yet to be recognized. His speech was
published in full in another section of The State.
Mayes then presented the monument to the State with the
following address:
“We have just
listened to the impassioned recital of the story of the lives of these three
great Carolinians, and surely there isn’t a son or daughters of this grand old
commonwealth present whose soul is so dead to the higher impulse of patriotism
as not to exclaim with a thrill of pride, ‘This is my own, native land!’
“And now it
becomes my proud privilege, as the representative of the South Carolina
Daughters of the American Revolution, to turn over to your excellency, the
governor, and your honor, the mayor of Columbia, this recently embodied
expression of our loyalty to South Carolina’s past history, ot [to] our
confidence in her present achievements and or our faith in her future progress.
“The
completion of this monument marks a glad day in the history of our State
organization. This was the first State-wide
work undertaken by the South Carolina Daughters. It was projected 17 years ago during the
regency of our first State regent, Mrs. Rebecca Pickens Bacon,
great-granddaughter of one of the heroes whom we seek to honor today. We have worked intermittently all these years
to see the glorious consummation of this hour.
The work has been set aside from time to time by local and national
issues, but a few devoted spirits from Columbia, two of whom have been called
up higher and one of whom is sitting under the shadow of deep sorrow, have kept
the spark of interest alive, until the cause found an advocate in the present
regency. Her efforts have been loyally
supported by every section of the State and today it is with proud hearts and
high purpose that we donate to South Carolina and our capital city this vision
of our gratitude to our patriot sires – a vision which has been interpreted by
South Carolina’s favorite sculptor, F. W. Ruckstuhl, and fashioned by him into
enduring beauty.
“While
presenting the monument we wish to express our appreciation of the handsome
embellishments furnished for the proper setting of the monument by the general
assembly of 1913 – through the recommendation of your excellency, the ways and
means committee, and the State house ground committee.
“These
embellishments though material have a moral significance – these handsome Roman
seats will so add to the beauty and comfort of environment, that the spot will
become the trysting place for young and old.
Here, as the evening shadows gather in the graciously tempered climate,
full many a sire or matron will recount to inquisitive youth the story of South
Carolina’s generals and her patriot sons and thus the spirit of lofty
patriotism and devotion to principle will be inculcated, unconsciously perhaps
but none the less surely in each on-coming generation.
“Who can tell
how many of her sons, as they sit in dreamy inertness beneath the shadow of
this inspiring figure, will catch the vision that through the sword has been
beaten into the pruning hook that ‘peace hath her victories no less than war’ –
and, buckling on the fighting spirit, will go forth determined to wage
unceasing war against whatever evil is preying, like some monster vulture upon
the vitals of South Carolina?
“Into your
keeping gentlemen we commit this monument, a tangible expression of our
devotion to our State and her historic past, and we trust it will become to our
sons and daughters a prophecy of future achievements.”
The governor then accepted the monument on the State’s
behalf. The ceremonies concluded with
prayer given by Rev. Kirkman G. Finlay, rector of Trinity church. Then, tributes from the Columbia and William
Capers Chapters of palm leaves with DAR colors were placed by the granddaughter
of Annie Robertson (Isabel Legare) and niece of Isabella Martin (Sarah Martin) in
memory of Annie and Isabella who were members of the original committee who had
passed away months before seeing the monument completed.
Admiration for the beauty of the monument were expressed,
and Ruckstuhl, who was seated on the platform, was heartily congratulated for
his latest work. This was the third
monument created by Ruckstuhl, all different in design and purpose, that would
enrich the grounds of the State house.
Bacon, “a charming old lady to whose countenance time has given a calm
content,” was also seated on the platform as an honored guest of the state
conference, as the great-granddaughter of one of the partisan generals, as the
one who brought the DAR to South Carolina, and as the regent who “put on foot”
the movement for the monument.
1913 Nov 12 The State
LEADERS’ NAMES WILL ECHO DOWN THE HALLS OF TIME
Sumter, Marion and Pickens Fought the Good Fight Against
Overwhelming Odds – Other Sterling Soldiers They Repelled the Hordes of British
Troops in South Carolina During the War of the American Revolution – Partisan
Generals’ Fame is Secure, But Their History is Yet to Be Written as
Comprehensively as Their Deeds Deserve.
By Yate’s Snowden (His address is presented as printed.)
Last winter I visited one of the greatest, in some
respects, the greatest of American cities, in company with one of the most
scholarly and best informed South Carolinians.
We wandered apart for the day, but at night over the tea-cups he said to
me, “Ancient Rome had, I believe, 50,000 statues: but, surely this is the most
wonderful American city of monuments, these people commemorate in stone or
bronze all the great and near-great men of their own, or from foreign climes,
who figured in their history, from Lief Ericson, who may have landed hearabout
in the year 1000, down to the men of our own day – and then he mentioned more
than one man whose counterfeit presentment he had seen; names with which
neither of us were familiar, and for which we had to consult a biographical
encyclopedia.
It is true
that that historic city was founded 40 years before there was any permanent
European settlement in South Carolina, but that does not atone for our
disregard, or apathy, or neglect, call it what you will – for our great of
elder times.
Our colonial
and provincial annals tell of several men whose services should be commemorated
objectively, outside of the little-read books of history, and our revolutionary
annals teem with deeds of heroism. There
is not a statue or memorial bust anywhere in South Carolina of the three
generals whose portraits in bas-relief appear on the monument! We have literally only a pen picture of
Marion, there being no genuine portrait extant, and but for the patriotic devotion
of one of his descendants we would have not authentic portrait of Pickens, the
original having been burned at a railroad station; but, happily, after two
copies had been made in oil by an eminent artist.
I do not think
I will be accused of provincialism in claiming that the three great preeminent
States of the old thirteen, which lead and controlled the War of the Revolution
were Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina. George Bancroft of Massachusetts said at
King’s Mountain in October1855:
“No State may
celebrate the great events of the American Revolution with juster pride than
South Carolina. At the very beginning of
the struggle in 1765, she was the first to adhere to general union, and to her
it is due that the colonies then met in congress… The victory gained at the
Palmetto Fort, by Moultrie was the bright and morning star which went before
the Declaration of Independence.
Wherever the
struggles of brave men in the cause of humanity are respected, high honor will
be rendered to the triumph at King’s Mountain and Cowpens and to that sad
victory at Eutaw Springs where the voice of exultation is chastened by the
sorrow for the brave who fell.”
History as She is Made.
I have cited
the great New England historian, you will pardon me for quoting him again. In the 5th volume (edition 1852)
of his History of the United States he puts at the top of the eleven pages of
the 14th chapter these words ‘South Carolina found the American
Union.’
On the last
pages are these words
‘As the united
people spread through the vast expanse over which their jurisdiction now
extends, be it remembered that the blessing of the Union is due to the
warm-heartedness of South Carolina.”
In the edition
of his great work in 1878 and “in the author’s last revision.” 1893, Bancroft
omitted this tribute to South Carolina.
In 1874, J. P. K. Bryan, then a brilliant young graduate of Princeton,
and now a leader of the bar in Charleston, met the historian in Berlin, and
asked why this extraordinary change in the editions of his work. “His only answer, says Mr. Bryan, was “The
time was inopportune.” Apropos of this
meaningless explanation, Mr. Bryan very aptly remarks “I recall in that volume
(edition 1852) a magnificent passage upon the impartiality of the historian and
the truth of history is indelible.”
There are not
State lines in the republic of letter, but the republic of history is often
marred by “his-story.” I hope I am too
broad to condemn an historian whose views and opinions differ from mine; as
Bunsen said, “I take no man’s liberty of judging from him,, neither shall any
man take mine.” I only tell you of Mr.
Bancrofts’ [Bancroft’s] complete volte face to show that the Daughters of the
American Revolution as well as their Southern sisters, the Daughters of the
Confederacy, sometimes have just cause of complaint against some of the history
makers and book makers and book writers of the North, not excepting the
illustrious Bancroft. We may assume,
then, that our State played a conspicuous role in the great war for
independence.
What evidence
would the visiting stranger who walks our city streets and explores the
country-side find that these great men lived and did the State some service?
To Die and Be Forgotten
Maj Gen
William Moultrie, the ranking officer from South Carolina under the Continental
establishment, lies in an unmarked grave, probably at “Windsor Hill,” the
family seat near Summerville. There is
great doubt even as to the place of his sepulture, for a committee of citizens
of Charleston in the early ‘50s reported that the place of burial could not be
ascertained, and his grandson told me the same thing about 30 years ago.
The grave of
Gen Thomas Sumter near Stateburg was identified, but not fitly marked until six
years ago when the State erected a handsome, massive granite monument to mark
the spot. But the appropriation was not
sufficient to warrant any other inscription than the bare record of his birth and
death and the distinguished offices he filled, and so, the committee of
gentlemen, with grim humor, added one line, which you will find on the tomb of
Machiavelli ‘Tanto nomine nullum par elogium;” that is ‘eulogy can add nothing
to so great a name.’”
The grave of Francis Marion at Belle Isle
plantation, in St. Stephen’s Parish, was marked by a substantial marble tomb
which I remember often seeing when a boy.
In 1890, in a violent storm a tree fell
across and smashed the marble slab, and at the instance of the late
Capt. W.A. Courtenay, the legislature by special act, erected there a granite
sarcophagus with bronze panels bearing the original inscriptions.
A simple head
stone at the “Old Stone (Presbyterian) church” yard, near Pendleton, erected by
the family marks the last resting place of Gen. Andrew Pickens
No stone marks
the grave of Gen. Christopher Gadsden, in the family cemetery in the western
church yard of St Phillip’s, Charleston.
In compliance with the instructions contained in his will the grave was
leveled. No monument of any kind,
statue, bust or even memorial tablet, so far as I know, perpetuates the name
and fame of this Carolinian of whom Bancroft says in all editions of his
history “And when we count up those who above others contributed to the great
result (the founding of the Union) we are to name the inspired ‘madman’ James
Otis, and the great statesman, the magnanimous, unwavering faultless lever of
his country, Christopher Gadsden!”
Horry and Hampton
In yonder Gods
acre, within the circle of my vision, is buried another partisan leader of
distinction, the friend and comrade of Francis Marion, Gen Peter Horry The spot is marked by a head stone, with
modest inscription, erected by his kinsfolk, when he died here in 1815. A few yard away is the grave of a
distinguished soldier of the Revolution, Col Wade Hampton, afterward a general in
the army of the United States and the grandfather of the greatest soldier ever
born in South Carolina
It was
announced recently that Miss Flue, one of the officers of your organization,
had furnished markers for the graves of several soldiers of the
Revolution. Let us hope that this good
work will be pushed vigorously, whenever sufficient proof is available
Whether the
last resting places of Gen. Wm. Henderson, Gen. Isaac Huger, Gen. Barnwell and
Gen. Stephen Bull are fitly marked, I do not know; indeed, I do not know where
they are buried.
Ten or more
years ago, the irrepressible Edward W. Bok of The Woman s Home Journal sought
to have a series of articles written upon the graves of South Carolina’s
generals of the Revolution. Surely what
appeals to that Philadelphia editor as a matter of national interest should
appeal trumpet-tongued to South Carolinians.
And may we not hope that the Daughters of the American Revolution will
investigate and report as to the place and conditions of the graves of partisan
leaders, and those under the Continental establishment of a lower grade than
general, but none the less gallant and patriotic?
Colonel,
afterwards, General, Edward Lacey of Chester county, one of the most dashing
partisan leaders, was probably buried at his adopted home in Kentucky, and the
gallant Col. Thomas Taylor, who served with distinction under Sumter, sleeps
his last sleep in the family burying ground at the corner of Barnwell and
Richland streets, in this city, but where lie Colonels Brandon, Thomason,
Roebuck, Henry Hampton, Wilkinson, Kolb, Bratton, Winn, Myddleton, Irvin,
Harden, Hugh Horry, Motte, Maham, Richard Richardson, father and son, Thomas, Kershaw,
McDonald, Samuel Hammond, LeRoy Hammond, Manning, Benton, Beckman, White,
Elliott, Hill, Anderson, Mayson, Baxter, Singleton Ancrum, Postell and many
others whose names and services should be held in everlasting remembrance?
Before
dismissing this matter of monuments already erected, all of which unhappily can
be told in a few brief paragraphs, I must pay faint tribute to that
enthusiastic monument builder and devoted lover of his State and country, the
Hon W A Courtenay It was due to his
initiative that the Cowpens monument was erected in 1881, and he itw was that enlisted
the hearty cooperation of the citizens of Spartanburg, the aid of the State
legislature, and the appropriation by congress of $20,000 for the bronze statue
of Morgan which surmounts the granite column, nor can I forbear mention of the
patriotic ardor of your sisters of Rebecca Motte chapter of Charleston, who
have erected three bronze tablets in that city, marking spots famous in
Revolutionary annals
“But, why,”
some of you may ask, “this long and perhaps labored introduction?” We did not come here for an essay on
monuments or “Urn Burials?” I answer,
“Because our past apathy emphasizes all the more the significance of the
gathering and of the beautiful and artistic monument just unveiled Do you
recognize that that is the first great memorial to heroes of the Revolution
ever erected by the women of South Carolina, and do you not, fellow citizens,
join me, today, when “The end crowns the work,’ in heartily applauding the
labor and self-sacrifice of our glorious women?”
Another
thought, full of pathos, surely must spring in many minds today. There stand the first monument, built by
popular subscription – (since the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston
raised a beautiful shaft to the memory of Col. William Washington and Jane
Elliott, his South Carolina wife, in May, 1853) – which could be surmounted by
a statue of Winged Victory!
After burying
their dead, and binding the wounds of the living, your mothers and your
sisters, to prove “how far high failure overleaps the bounds of low ambition,”
spent all their thoughts and energies in raising monument to heroes of a cause
which went down in defeat and disaster, but which we still hold, in Hampton’s
words, “In boundless love and reverence and regret.”
McCrady’s Splendid Work
Neither the
circumstances under which I was invited to make a short address, nor the time
at my disposal warrant even a brief resume of the services of Sumter, Marion
and Pickens, nor will I attempt a critical estimate of the value of those
services Since the publication of the
late Gen McCrady’s History of South Carolina, the last of four volumes
appearing in 1902, no unprejudiced reader can doubt that the surrender at
Yorktown was brought about mainly by the brilliant services of those three
generals, (guerilla” leaders the British historian, Percy Greg, call them) and
the partisan soldiers who followed them and “who came and went and fought as
the occasion demanded, without the prospect or hope of pay or reward.” McCrady has critically examined the relative
claims of Greene and Lee, of Sumter Marion and Pickens, as he promised to do in
his first volume. It was a serious
task, for Ramsay and Johnson, our own historians, had given the palm to Gen.
Greene, and the very legislature of South Carolina in January, 1782, and John
Rutledge himself regarded him as the “Deputy Savior of the South,” in the
almost blasphemous language of laudation of that day. But nobly has the promise been fulfilled;
indeed so thoroughly has be [been] vindicated and established the fame of the
partisan leaders that it is probable he has overlooked or underestimated some
essential services rendered by Gen. Greene.
There is no necessity then for vindication of or [our] eulogy upon the
partisan leaders
A few comments
as to their biographies, or lack of biographies, certainly as to two of them,
may not be out of place. Although
McCrady has done full justice of Gen. Sumter and has had access to all
available manuscript material, necessarily he does give the connected story of
his life, and barely hints at the genera’s active participation in politics,
State and nation; to the close of his life in the very midst of the
nullification controversy. He died June
1, 1832, in the 98th year of his age. Much the best sketch is the scholarly and
carefully prepared address by the Hon. Henry A. M. Smith, delivered at the
unveiling of the Sumter monument in 1907, Judge Smith deplores the “exceedingly
scanty information” available and declares that “there does not exist a single
sketch even of his life worthy of the title of a life of him.” The only man to my knowledge who essayed to be
the biographer of Sumter was the late Lyman C. Draper, of Wisconsin, an
indefatigable collector of manuscripts.
That he collected considerable material on Sumter is certain, and some
of it, perhaps the best, has been published.
I have a letter from Dr. Draper, dated June 1873 in answer to inquiry as
to his forthcoming work. He says: “I
dare not specify any particular time when my work on Sumter will appear. I am ‘hastening slowly’ endeavoring to do my
part well.” He died in 1891 and if his
life of Sumter had ever been finished, and had been comparable to devotion to
truth and circumstantial detail with his big book on “King’s Mountain,” we may
assume that historical biography would have had another valuable if not
brilliant volume
Francis Marion and Parson Weems
Francis
Marion, unlike his two great compatriots, was born in South Carolina, and in
his case, as Sumter’s, the date and place of his birth are not known with
absolute certainty, although Mr. Richard Yeadon, editor of the Charleston
Courier, investigated the subject with extraordinary pertinacity and
thoroughness. Mr. Yeadon fixed, with
good reason, upon 1732 as the year of his birth, and after lengthy consideration
of the rival claims of the parishes of Prince George Winyah and St James Creek,
declares Chaechan (possibly misspelled as letters were not legible) Plantation
in St John’s Berkeley to have been the birthplace of Marion. The scope and importance of Sumter’s military
operations in the opinion of McCrady, Judge Smith, Salley and some other
historical scholars, exceed all that can be claimed for the gallant Mation, and
yet three of four men have written ‘the life’ of Marion, while Sumter has had
“literally no biographer” and Pickens is in even worse plight.
I think this
strange anomaly can be reasonably explained
Gen. Marion, one of the most modest and least pretentious of men, a
soldier who in modern times, would not have tolerated an army correspondent at,
or near, his headquarters, a man who probably never made a public speech in his
life, was fortunately, we may say, the hero of “a military romance,” by the Rev
Mason L Weems of Virginia Weems in his
frequent bookselling visits to South Carolina was a visitor at the home of
Bishop Gadsden who “had a kindly regard for him, thought him a genial, pleasant
companion and a kind hearted man,” and
in the light of all the evidence, Bishop Gadsden was right But the good bishop had read Weems life of
Washington and on one of the parson s visits, asked him where he “learned the
hatchet.” The answer was, “I just made
it up” when the bishop expressed
surprise Weems replied “Why isn t it a good thing for the boys, it teaches a
moral lesson better than any fable”
That account
is based upon a statement of the late Rev J D McCullough, a saintly priest, and
learned divine, who more than any man perhaps, built up the Episcopal church in
his upper South Carolina, and Mr McCullough got it from the kips of Bishop
Gadsden
All that means
that Parson Weems anticipated the great dramatic historian Proude, the belief
that “An anecdote, though false, was useful if it had a moral, and useless
though true, if it had none” And so you
can account for Marion’s speech on public education in the Jacksonborough
assembly and his interview with the British officers over the dinner of
potatoes, and a thousand and one deals and dialogues which would have astounded
Marion had he been alive and which caused gallant, bluff, old Peter Horry, (who
had lent Weems his manuscript life of Marion) to write the parson “Most
certainly tis not my history but your romance
The one as a
history of real performance would be always read with pleasure. The other as a fictitious invention of the
brain, once read would suffice, etc.
Mrs. Marion,
the widow of the general, threatened the transgressor with stripes, and Weems
never visited that parish again.
Judge W.
D. James, who had served under him,
wrote and published a life of the great partisan leader. There were two other biographers of the
“Swamp Fox” which added, more or less, to his fame, and William Cullen Bryant,
the then young poet, published his stirring lyric, “The Song of Marion’s
Men” You will recall lines:
“Brave men there are on board Santee…
The women are with Marion, with Marion are their prayers,
“ etc.
But Parson
Weems set the page, and so Wroth, his biographer, can truthfully say, “The
author has preserved anecdotes and stories of achievement of Marion and his
Paladins which have become a part of our Revolutionary tradition. His book in an American ‘Morte d’
Arthur.’ It is the roll of the Battle
Abbey of South Carolina.
 |
| Mason Locke Weems also known as Parson Weems |
Andrew Pickens
Although
Sumter and Marion had both served with distinction in wars with the Indians
before the Revolution, Pickens was preeminently the greatest leader against the
savages which South Carolina produced, since Tuscarora (may be misspelled due
to illegible print) John Barnwill, before, during and after the great struggle
for independence. Owing to the machinations
of John Stuart and other British agents among the Indians, the Whigs in the
Piedmont section were constantly beset by redskins, as well as red coats, and
but for Pickens signal victory over the Cherokees in the battle of Tomassee in
1779, South Carolina might have suffered a bloody Indian invasion far more
terrible in its consequences than British or Tory warfare.
It is
impossible even to name here the important battles and campaigns in which
Pickens was the leader and victor, but history has dealt less fairly with him
than with any South Carolina leader of equal distinction There is no adequate sketch of his life
extant and it is possible that available data are meagre and unsatisfactory Lossing minimizes Pickens’ extraordinary
services even at Cowpens Courtenay in
his sketch of the unveiling ceremonies at Spartanburg briefly but forcibly
reviews the entire life of the great partisan of the Piedmont, but seven years
later McCrady for the first time proves that the distinguishing feature of the
battle of Cowpens was undoubtedly the effective work of Pickens’ marksmen. “It was this deadly fire” in the very
commencement of the action “which carried terror into the hearts of Tarletons
veteran Dragoons, and it was this which disorganized the British line to such
an extent as to render it only a mob when the critical moment of the onslaught
had arrived How important this
vindication of Pickens is may be imagine when you recall that Gen Morgan, in
his old age, with ill concealed contempt for the militia, claimed that hd had
to place his own men in the rear to shoot down those (militia under Pickens) if
they broke, and all this in spite of the fact that it was to Pickens himself
that McArthur, the gallant commander of the Seventy-first regiment, surrendered
his sword” Congress awarded Morgan a
gold medal, Howard and Washington a silver medal each, while Pickens, without
whom victory would have been impossible, received only a sword! I am glad to say that among a few of the
Pickens family papers which have recently come into the possession of the
university are some ten or 12 closely written pages in the handwriting of Gov
Andrew Pickens, sketching the life of his father, the general. It is probably that these papers are only
data furnished Longacre of Philadelphia for the sketch of the general in “The
Gallery of Distinguished Americans,” a series of volumes which had a great
vogue of 50 or 60 years ago. Mayhap they
will furnish some new material for a brief biography of Pickens which I hope to
see issued by our University Press before many years. So mote it be.
 |
| Governor Andrew Pickens, Jr. |
An Echo From the
School Room
When I went to
school, many years ago, one of the famous selections for declamation on Fridays
was from Haynes Eulogy on South Carolina.
In his great debate with Webster, constant iteration made it a little
tiresome after a while – just as Henry Grady s eloquent speech on “The New
South,” and Rudyard Kipling’s glorious “Recessional” sometimes fall on dull
ears Today I need not tell you how
pleasant it was last year, at a declamation contest in Columbia, to hear a very
bright, spirited fellow are his auditors and win the prize with a speech which
ended with the words
“Never was
there exhibited in the history of the world higher examples of noble daring,
dreadful suffering and heroic endurance than by Whigs of Carolina during that
Revolution. The whole State from the
mountains to the sea was overrun by an overwhelming force of the enemy.”…Driven
from their gloomy and almost impenetrable swamps, even there the spirit of
liberty survived, and South Carolina sustained by the examples of her Sumters and
her Marions proved by her conduct that though her soil might be overrun the
spirit of her people was invincible!
1913 Nov 12 The State
The Poet in the Blacksmith
“Fred
Wellington Ruckstuhl, the designer and sculptor of the monument to the Partisan
Generals which was yesterday unveiled in State House park, describes himself in
his favorite definition of a sculptor as a ‘blacksmith touched with poetry.’
“In all his
work, evidence of which are now each in Columbia in the Hampton equestrian, the
Woman’s Monument, and the newly unveiled memorial to Sumter, Marion and
Pickens, thoughtful observation will discover that the soul of the artist
dominates the fingers of the artisan.
“Sculpture, in
other words, is conception. In this
least understood, because most symbolic of arts, immortality lies in the
idea. Just as in literature there is the
gulf between the brilliant executor of the short story and the novelist of
sustained power, so in art, and particularly that branch of it which has to do
with creating the permanent reminders which visualize a people’s past, there is
a sharp line between the master of technique and the artist who puts into a few
figures of bronze of marble the record of epoch.
“We think it
fortunate that this State should have caught the imagination of a man like
Ruckstuhl. Always and intuitively clever
with his hands, he had the force of character to burn the bridges of commercial
career and follow the call of his art when he was already a mature man. How well he has succeeded numerous
contributions to the newly realize art of this country testify, from the noble
Confederate monument in Baltimore to the modest but exquisite conception which
was unveiled in Columbia yesterday.
Ruckstuhl has the technique which is, in a sense, the foundation of
art. His fingers accomplish, but they
feel in the tingle of translation that transmutes an ideal. Sculpture is called the most difficult of all
arts because it must leave something to the imagination; in other words, like
all great intellectual efforts, it calls for the help of an audience. It begets a birth of thought of mind
otherwise barren. The flight of fancy,
which is the most evident quality of an immortal soul, leaves earth only when
some pioneer among the earth-ridden takes to wing.
“The monument
to the Partisan Generals has an effect of size out of immediate explanation
when its exact proportions are considered.
It has poise, and action, and meaning.
Like so much of the other work of its author, it is somewhat like a
closed classic, making the appeal of pique to an exploring intelligence and
sentiment. It is this arresting quality
which, after all, makes memorial sculpture worth while, which crowns with a
delicately alighting Victory of thought the tangible product of dreams.
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