Lincoln Statue Subjected to Unusually Undignified Vandalism

Civil War Interactive ^ | 12/15/01

[shuckmaster]

A statue of Abraham Lincoln in Carle Park in Urbana, Illinois, was hit with an act of vandalism which, while not particularly damaging to the materials of the sculpture, did nothing for the image of dignity associated with our 16th president.

The vandals painted Lincoln's face white, then daubed the eyes with black paint. Local officials described the effect as looking as if Lincoln was auditioning to join the rock band KISS.

The bronze statue was installed in the park in 1927 and is green in color from the patina bronze acquires when exposed to the elements. It was created by famed sculptor Lorado Taft and depicts Lincoln as he looked as a young circuit-riding lawyer.

The statue has been a frequent target of misguided mischief in the past, according to Urbana Park District Superintendent of Operations Joseph Potts. It is located directly west of Urbana High School as well as being fairly close to the main campus of the University of Illinois.

"We've had people put a Santa hat on it or hang plastic breasts on it," he said. "It's more funny than it is destructive sometimes."

Potts said that the current attack involved only water-based paint, which was easily removed with soap and water. He added that occasional inscriptions of vulgarities with markers are considerably more difficult to remove.

The park district and city officials have had off-and-on discussions for several months over relocating the statue from Carle Park to another site, possibly downtown or to a historic site associated with Lincoln's activities in Champaign-Urbana. School officials have said they favor the move since the statue attracts students and others who gather there to smoke, forcing school janitors to clean up discarded filters on a regular basis.

A committee is being formed to look into ways to improve Carle Park, including possibly better protecting the statue, according to Renee Pollock, a member of the Urbana Park District advisory committee. Park District Executive Director Robin Hall said the neighborhood committee might want to add lighting for the statue, which he said could help deter vandalism.

Courtesy of: Civil War Interactive: The Daily Newspaper of the Civil War www.civilwarinteractive.com

[Non-Sequitur]

BTW, what is your basis for slavery being wrong? Do you just 'feel' it's wrong?

I feel it is wrong for one human being to own another as if they were just another piece of property. You don't see anything wrong with that?

However, I responded because of your charecterization of Lincoln as a 'white supremist' and assumed, rightly or wrongly, that you disapproved of him as a result. My question is that since Lincoln's views towards Blacks in general was certainly no worse than the views of the southern leaders I mentioned (and probably a bit better since those gentlemen didn't have a problem with slavery) then why aren't you labeling them 'white supremists' too?

[Non-Sequitur]

With that said, IMO, the South seceded over States Rights, a defining issue with basis in law.

Unfortunately a lot of the southern leadership of the time made it clear that slavery was an overriding reason for the rebellion.

[MeekOneGOP]

GW is holding non-citizens in indefinite detention without charges, not Americans. He has not lied. He has not shown himself to be a hypocrite. He has not started shutting down newspapers. Again, he has not arrested American citizens just to arrest them; charges are being filed against those who are actually citizens. He has not forced people to work for slave labor. Explain to me how there is a correlation at all, as Lincoln did all these evil things.

---

Let me be honest with you, friend. My first response was not to you but to a reply to your comment in which you called Lincoln a bastard. I was taken aback that anyone would do that. When you came back to me with the charges regarding things that Lincoln did during the time when our country was torn apart, and I commented to you to the effect do you think that Reagan and George W. Bush are bastards also, I was trying to establish whether your position was one of contempt for modern day conservatives as well or just contempt for Lincoln.

Being brutally honest with you and with myself I really cannot debate Lincolns actions during the 1860s, so I'm just going to have to leave it at that. As a result of a number of posts here on this thread (some directed at me, and some not), it is apparent to me that my detailed knowledge of those particular issues you bring up is lacking, and I'll have to chalk this up as a lesson in humility I guess.

I hope this is honest enough for you and any others that have posted to this thread, especially those that have posted directly to me. Thanks to all of you for your input and consideration.

Last, so as to make this a debate in which I might actually learn something meaningful, if anyone can point me to a brief summary of the actual actions Lincoln took that you have described, I would appreciate it.

[rwfromkansas]

Oh really....perhaps you should read some Lincoln. He said he always wanted to keep the white man in the superior position.

[rwfromkansas]

I have not looked much into the southern actions in teh war by the CSA upon its people, so I can't either confirm or deny this. But, if you are right, I condemn Davis just as much as I would Lincoln.

[rwfromkansas]

I think Bastard is a bit too far. I take that back. I stand by using tyrant in its place, however. I do not have any links handy here, but hopefully someone does.

[MeekOneGOP]

I think Bastard is a bit too far. I take that back. I stand by using tyrant in its place, however. I do not have any links handy here, but hopefully someone does.

Fair enough. Thanks for your courtesy. . .

[Alabama_Wild_Man]

The vandals painted Lincoln's face white, then daubed the eyes with black paint. Local officials described the effect as looking as if Lincoln was auditioning to join the rock band KISS.

Whew - I thought, there for a second, that they were going to give ol' King Abe a "White Face" and pipe some music of Al Jolson singin' "Mammie"....

[shuckmaster]

You can't expect people who worship a statue of Lincoln to be butt so smart...

[WhiskeyPapa]

And the yankees are desperate to justify the "War of Northern Agression" and the actions of folks like Lincoln and Sherman.

Desperate how? The record is plain for all to see.

Walt

[Colt .45]

"That snake on the flag you wave is not a copperhead but a rattlesnake, indigenous only to the United States. The flag was flown on the first battleship of the continental congress as the Marine Corps flag. I presently fly a 3' x 5' version of that flag on my truck."

WELL ... NO SH*T! I already knew that the snake was a rattlesnake; and the flag was Gen. Gadsden's own creation that was flown over (read carefully here) Charleston, South Carolina during the Revolutionary War. But the copperhead is another snake that is indigenous to North America, and those who knew the truth of Southern seccession and sympathized with the South, but lived in Maryland or other "free" States were called that. That is my flag as an American, and my flag as a Confederate. I fly what I choose to, and believe what I choose to, and normally I search for the truth to believe and follow. Not what canned version is handed to me by revisionist historians with some modern socialist agenda to destroy what the Founding Fathers gave me. I've given 19 years of my life in defense of this Country and its freedoms, and I'll not have some pinhead, new age, socialist, PC thinking, big mouth telling me what is right, and correct to believe because the State says so!" With liberty you will have people that get offended, but they have the right not to look at a Confederate Flag, or the right to believe what they want. They don't have the right to try to force me to accept their brand of BULLSH*T!

This country was founded on individual liberty, and the rights of man! These are the two shining star ideals of liberty, and the cornerstone of them is the Second Amendment.

[WhowasGustavusFox]

This about sums up what Lincoln did in the words of people of the time:

New Jersey Peace Resolutions

March 18 1863

And be it resolved, That it is the deliberate sense of the people of this State that the war power within the limits of the Constitution is ample for any and all emergencies, and that all assumption of power, under whatever plea, beyond that conferred by the Constitution, is without warrant or authority, and if permitted to continue without remonstrance, will finally encompass the destruction of the liberties of the people and the death of the Republic; and therefore, to the end that in any event the matured and deliberate sense of the people of New Jersey may be known and declared, we, their representatives in Senate and General Assembly convened, do, in their name and in their behalf, make unto the Federal Government this our solemn

PROTEST

Against a war waged with the insurgent States for the accomplishment of unconstitutional or partisan purposes;

Against a war which has for its object the subjugation of any of the States, with a view to their reduction to territorial condition; ...

Against the domination of the military over the civil laws in States, Territories, or districts not in a state of insurrection;

Against all arrests without warrant; against the suspension of the writ of habeus corpus in States and Territories sustaining the Federal Government, "where the public safety does not require it," and against the assumption of power by any person to suspend such writ, except under the express authority of Congress;

Against the creation of new States by the division of existing ones, or in any other manner not clearly authorized by the Constitution, and against the right of secession as practically admitted by the action of Congress in admitting as a new State a portion of the State of Virginia;

Against the power assumed in the proclamation of the President made January first, 1863, by which all the slaves in certain States and parts of States are for ever set free; and against the expenditures of the public moneys for the emancipation of slaves or their support at any time, under any pretence whatever;

Against any and every exercise of power upon the part of the Federal Government that is not clearly given and expressed in the Federal Constitution - reasserting that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" ...

4. And be it Resolved, That ... while abating naught in her devotion to the Union of the States and the dignity and power of the Federal Government, at no time since the commencement of the present war has this State been other than willing to terminate peacefully and honorably to all a war unnecessary in its origin, fraught with horror and suffering in its prosecution, and necessarily dangerous to the liberties of all in its continuance

[WhiskeyPapa]

Lincoln was a statist pig and got what he deserved.

"...in the wake of the assasination, editors, generals and public officialsacross the South voiced the opinion that the region had lost its best friend.Indignation meetings, so-called, were convened in many places. Lincoln stoodfor peace, mercy, and forgiveness. His loss, therefore, was a calamity for thedefeated states. This opinion was sometimes ascribed to Jefferson Davis, eventhough he stood accused of complicity in the assasination....He [Davis] readthe telegram [bringing news of Lincoln's death] and when it brought an exultantshout raised his hand to check the demonstration..."He had power over the Northern people," Davis wrote in his memoir of the war," and was without malignity to the southern people."...Alone of the southern apologists,[Alexander] Stephens held Lincoln in high regard. "The Union with him insentiment," said the Georgian, "rose to the sublimnity of religious mysticism...in 1873 "Little Elick" Stephens, who again represented his Georgia district in Congress, praised Lincoln for his wisdom, kindness and generosityin a well-publicized speech seconding the acceptance of the gift of Francis B. Carpenter's famous painting of Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation."...[in 1880] a young law student at the University of Virginia,Thomas Woodrow Wilson, speaking for the southern generation that grew tomaturity after the war, declared, "I yield to no one precedence in love of theSouth. But because I love the South, I rejoice in the failure of the Confederacy"

...the leading propenent of that creed was Henry W. Grady, editorof the Atlanta Constitution. In 1886 Grady, thirty-six years old, was invitedto address the New England Society of New York, on the 266th anniversary to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. General Sherman, seated on the platform,was an honored guest, and the band played [I am not making this up] "Marching Through Georgia" before Grady was introduced. Pronouncing the death of the OldSouth, he lauded the New South of Union and freedom and progress. And he offered Lincoln as the vibrant symbol not alone of reconciliation but ofAmerican character. "Lincoln," he said, "comprehended within himself all thestrength, and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of the republic." He was indeed, the first American, "the sum of Puritan and Cavalier, in whose ardentnature were fused the virtues of both, and in whose great soul the faults ofboth were lost."

--From "Lincoln in American Memory" by Merrill D. Peterson P. 46-48

Walt

[WhowasGustavusFox]

Let's don't mislead people, Non.

Since Jefferson Davis refused to free the slaves down south;Lincoln did not free the slaves in the North.

forced through legislation that suspended habeas corpus throughout the south; Davis legally and duly submitted it to a vote, Lincoln did not.

initiated conscription; So did Lincoln.

proposed income taxes at levels far above those up north; Lincoln's taxes were much higher, remember the tariffs?

and forcibly appropriated slave labor and agricultural goods for the war effort (something Lincoln never dreamed of...

His man, Sherman, did, and with Lincoln's permission.

[southern rock]

Lincoln Statue Subjected to Unusually Undignified Vandalism

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

[southern rock]

Lincoln made tough choices during a terrible time and we are ONE country now

You can join, but you can't leave. Isn't that how the mafia and street gangs operate?

[MeekOneGOP]

Lincoln made tough choices during a terrible time and we are ONE country now

---

You can join, but you can't leave. Isn't that how the mafia and street gangs operate?

---

Thanks. Please see my post #63, also. . .

[stlrocket]

Hey - it Could have been worse - look what happen to Ronald.

RONALD - HUNG?

[breakem]

Your repmarks are very patronizing, since you are totally unaware of my knowledge of history given these few flippant remarks I have made her. Does you characterization of Lincoln change the fact that those who continue to hoist the confederate flag are in fact decendants of a vanguished people?

[breakem]

I guess I don't know the symbol for sarcasm. Could save us all some time and bandwidth.