Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/161

 1868.] The Penn Treaty-Ground and a Monument to William Perin. 133 thoroughly traverse and refute his gra- tuitous slanders, that, more than ever lustrous, William Penn, sun-like, beams upon an admiring world with scarcely a spot. THE EXEMPLAR. It is, therefore, in English and Ameri- can history — in all history — as the only worthy successor to Alfred, and the only worthy antecessor of Washington — the lives of all three of these men having been throughout and thoroughly based upon the everlasting principles of truth and right — among the few born leaders of mankind in all good and deterrers in all evil, that we have to number Wil- liam Penn. If the memory of Washing- ton rightly demands, from his revering countrymen, the erection of a monument, and it does demand the erection of many, we must ponder this significant fact : Washington's last, pure, great exemplar, was William Penn. In the light of this pregnant fact, what excuse can Pennsyl- vania offer to herself, for not erecting as lofty a monument to her modest, but exalted Founder ? As a means of educa- tion in purity of life, apart from the mental instruction procured from books, it will be an invaluable aid to the system of common schools, whose great advo- cate in this commonwealth, newly rests beneath the sod. It is idle to say that the permanent public commemoration of individuals partakes of idolatry. It is a thing only possible to the rare few, and to them, it is only the recognition of benefits bestowed b} r the distinguished dead, upon their own and sequent gen- erations — the acknowledgment that in a world of many dangers and much temp- tation, this or that man determined to do good, and was enabled to do it. Monuments raised to such great souls, have a constant tendency, while, from self-introspection they improve the whole community, to reproduce similar heroes. It is by such means that true patriotism is kept alive ; and liberty and union are preserved against insidious foes forever. ACTION. We ask, then, the good citizens of Philadelphia, to enter into this work with heart and soul. Action, organiza- tion, and an united aim accomplish much. We hope and expect to see, ere long, a mighty, an effectual movement. The site ordered by the General Assembly once procured, and the popular subscrip- tion for the chief memorial and the ac- companying embellishments of Saki- maxing realized, we may be tempted to give our ideas of the proper method of managing the work. But never, until the general points of this long continued and widely extended day-dream, con- stantly filling the minds of a multitude, shall become a reality, will Pennsylvania accord due honor to the memory of her illustrious founder; and never, until then, will our citizens feel satisfied with the city of his love and theirs. When haply this dream does become a tangible realit} -, the commonwealth and the me- tropolis need blush no longer for justice deferred. Then shall Shackamexing be resolved into Sakimaxing. Then shall the Place 9e the Eels become once more the Place of the Chiefs. Then as the citizen — or the sojourner, glances admiringly along up the sky- piercing taper of its stately pile, reads its exterior inscriptions and ponders its interior tablets, walks beneath the elmen shade of its grassy plots; scans the rightward incurving river, and views afar the spire of Swedes church, upon the shore of Wicacoa — will the mind recur to the scene in the earlier days of the proprietary. Then will the heart recall " The only treaty between the whites and the red men, never sworn to, and never broken."* And then will the soul feel — that the entire offering — however rich, however noble, however massive, however lofty, however superb, and however it may have drained the fount of sacrifice — is but a slender ac- knowledgment of thanks to the GIVER — for the life — the name — the fame — of William Penn.
 * Voltaire. Dictionnaire Philosophique — verbo, " Quaker."