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ally known, and some explanation for its non-execution may be deemed necessary. It was published in the London Art Journal and other journals in this and other countries. I trust yet the gratitude of the freed people will prompt them to execute this grand design. I now proceed to give you the history of the Lincoln monument as adopted and executed. 

One of the members of the Western Sanitary Commission, Rev. Wm. G. Eliot, being in Florence in the autumn of 1869, when visiting the studio of Mr. Thomas Ball saw the group subsequently adopted, and was so much pleased with it that he spoke strongly in its praise after returning to St. Louis. He had learned from Mr. Ball that the work was conceived and executed under the first influence of the news of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. No order for such a group had been received, but Mr. Ball felt sure that the time would come when there would be a demand for it, and, at any rate, he felt an inward demand to produce it. His aim was to present one single idea, representing the great work for the accomplishment of which Abraham Lincoln lived and died; and all accessory ideas are carefully excluded. Mr. Ball also determined not to part with it, except under such circumstances as to insure its just appreciation, not merely as a work of art but as a labor of love-a tribute to American patriotism.

For several years it has stood there in its place, greatly admired, but not finding the direction of its rightful destination. But, when the artist heard of the possible use to which might be put as the memorial of freedom by the emancipated slaves themselves, he at once said that he should hold it with that view until the commission were prepared to take action, and that the price to be paid would be altogether a secondary consideration. When the description was given to the other members of the Western Sanitary Commission they sent for photographs, four of which, presenting the group at different points of view, were taken in Florence and forwarded to them. They at once decided to accept the design, and an order was given for its immediate execution in bronze, in accordance with the suggestions made by Mr. Ball. The original group was in Italian marble, and differs in some respects from the bronze group now to be inauguarted [[inaugurated]]. In the original the kneeling slave is represented as perfectly passive, receiving the boon of freedom from the hand of the great liberator. But the artist justly changed this, to bring the presentation nearer to the historical fact, by making the emancipated slave an agent in his own deliverance. 

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He is accordingly represented as exerting his own strength with strained muscles in breaking the chain which had bound him. A far greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical accuracy, is thus imparted. The original was also changed by introducing, instead of an ideal slave, the figure of a living man-the last slave ever taken up in Missouri under the fugitive slave law, and who was rescued from his captors (who had transcended their legal authority) under the orders of the Provost Marshal of St. Louis. His name was Archer Alexander, and his condition of servitude legally continued until the emancipation act became the law of the land. A photographic picture was sent to Mr. Ball, who has given both the face and many bearing of the negro. The ideal group is thus converted into the literal truth of history without losing anything of its artistic conception or effect. The monument, in bronze, now inaugurated was cast at the Royal foundry, in Munich. An exact copy of the original group as first designed by Mr. Ball, has been executed by him in pure white Italian marble for the Western Sanitary Commission, and will be permanently placed, as "Freedom's Memorial," in some public building of St. Louis. Of the eminent sculptor, Thomas Ball, to whose genius and love of country the whole praise of the work is due, it is unnecessary to speak. His design was accepted, after three years diligent seeking, solely on its merits. But it is a source of congratulation to all lovers of the American Union that this monument, in memory of the people's President and the freedmen's best friend, is from the hand of one who not only stands in the foremost rank of living artists, but who is himself proud to be called an American citizen. 

The amount paid Mr. Ball for the bronze group was $17,000, every cent of which has been remitted to him. So you have a finished monument, all paid for. The Government appropriated $3,000 for the foundation and pedestal upon which the bronze group stands, making the cost, in all, $20,000. I have thus given you a brief history of the Freedmen's Memorial Monument, and how and why the Western Sanitary Commission came to have anything to do with it. To them it has been a labor of love. in the execution of the work they have exercised their best judgment- done the best that could be done with the limited means they had to do it with. It remains with you and those who will follow to say how wisely or how well it has been done. Whatever of honor, whatever of glory belongs to this work, should be given to Charlotte Scott, the poor slave woman. Her offering of gratitude and love, like that of the widow's mite, will be re-

Transcription Notes:
Page 8 and 9 are separated by the number - REVIEWED and minor corrections made. Should be marked "Complete and Pending Approval" 4-14-21