History and Memory > A Statue Worthy
On April 30, 1789, George Washington stood before Federal Hall, at the intersection of Wall and Broad streets, to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States.
As the hundredth anniversary of this event approached, the members of the Chamber proposed a monument of commemoration and promised “to spare no expense to secure a statue worthy of Gen. Washington and of the Metropolis.” It would be financed by public subscription – with leading merchants expected to pay the bulk of the cost, estimated at between $30,000 and $50,000.
After a month, progress had been made. Congress had passed a law allowing the alteration to the Sub-Treasury Building’s front steps. A sculptor, John Quincy Adams Ward, had been commissioned. But, donations were disappointingly scanty; the fund had raised less than $14,000. All the money, so far, had come from members.
“The Chamber of Commerce is the godfather of the proposed monument, and it intends to see it erected,” explained Royal Phelps, the exasperated head of the special committee to build the statue. “But it is not going around, with my sanction, begging for subscriptions to a monument to George Washington. That would not be worthy of the citizens of New-York or of the father of his Country. I am sure you will agree with me that if this money is not sent in voluntarily we had better drop it and leave it to some generation more patriotic than the present.”
“Perhaps,” suggested another member, “the committee had lost sight of one mode of raising money much in vogue in these times – [stock] watering.”
It was no time for jokes, stormed Phelps, apoplectic amidst general laughter.
Two and a half years later, a mollified Phelps stood on the Sub-Treasury Building steps near the President of the United States and the Governor of New York, for the unveiling ceremony. “We erect this statue just here,” the head of the Chamber said, “in this money making center, as a reminder that it takes something greater than money, not only to endear a man to his contemporaries, but to carry his name with honor through succeeding generations.”
The bronze monument, pedestal, and rostrum had cost $35,000. The Chamber of Commerce presented it, as a gift, to the federal government. President Arthur accepted – pursuant to act of Congress.
On the 150th anniversary of Washington’s inauguration, the Chamber’s members again gathered on Wall Street, beneath the statue their predecessors had commissioned with such difficulty. Mellowed by a generation’s patina, it was generally acknowledged as a success, “well-composed, well-constructed, and well-modeled.” According to Herbert Adams, a sculptor, “Its virile dignity impresses the beholder with the idea of Peace on Earth. Fads and mannerisms in art will come and go, but Ward’s Washington will endure.”
It was April 30, 1939, and the assembled merchants and industrialists had war and peace very much in mind. Surrounded by cameras and microphones, the President of the Chamber spoke of the present, and the imminent future, not of revolutionary history:
“As we look about the world today each of us can say ‘Thank God I live in America!’ Elsewhere we see democracy struggling to survive. We have witnessed the shameful spectacle of small, helpless countries being ruthlessly robbed of freedom, resources and even identity. Peaceful nations, menaced by the demands and encroachments of dictators, lusting for greater power and fresh fields to despoil, are forced for self-preservation to conscript their youth as the shadow of threatened conflict darkens the map of Europe.”