Gutzon Borglum Quotes
Stone Mountain Memorial is the greatest project of its sort ever conceived. It should be finished, because it represent an idea as deep, as basic as the rocks on which our wonderful continent rests.
The song glorified plantation slavery and was insulting to many modern Virginians including some legislators. See {590370}. It became the State Song in the 19th century when Virginia itself was much more racist than it was in 1997. However, the racists in the state wanted to keep the old traditional song. They were joined by Virginia cultural sentimentalists and historical preservationists causing the legislature a dilemma. By an act of the legislature the song was “retired” so that it would never be played or sung at official state functions and yet it was recognized as a cultural part of Virginia’s history.
It (the proposal to build the Erie Canal) is a splendid project and may be executed a century hence.
Jefferson was usually far in advance of most men in his understanding of science and technology. However, he missed the boat literally and figuratively on this project. He did not think that the technology and engineering of the day were sufficient to complete such a huge a complicated project. His experience in the South was that large projects would require large numbers of slaves who had to do highly technical work that was also very challenging physically. The great problem was that the New York area was filled with huge, deep rooted trees. The canal would have to wind around the giant trees and still be navigable. This was a case where Jefferson’s Southern insularity hampered him. He did not count on two things: First was the engineering technology of New York where there were very few slaves and labor saving technology was valued and well developed. New York engineers had huge horse powered machines that could remove the stumps of the largest trees in less than an hour. The Erie Canal would not go around the large trees but straight through the forest shortening the canal digging substantially. Second, he did not realize what free Irish labor was capable of in terms of productivity and mixing brain and brawn. Although he rejected the idea, De Witt Clinton convinced the NY State legislature of the feasibility and the legislature appropriated the then enormous sum of $7 million. The Erie Canal was the most important development project in the nation until the railroad. New York became the richest and largest state as a result and New York City went from a medium sized city to the largest city and the largest port in the country.
John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was an American sculptor most widely known for the colossal sculpture Mount Rushmore National Memorial. He was also associated with various other public works of art, including Stone Mountain in Georgia, the statue of Union General Philip Sheridan in Washington, D.C., as well as a bust of Abraham Lincoln which was exhibited in the White House by Theodore Roosevelt and which is now held in the United States Capitol crypt in Washington, D.C. Borglum was also deeply involved in Ku Klux Klan politics.
