Very thoughtful -- and probably unpopular -- counterpoint to the news about honoring President Gerald Ford with a statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. It's by former Senator Tom George, a staunch advocate on behalf of Michigan heritage:
"May 3, 2011
Online commentary: Anti-slavery leader Zachariah Chandler deserves place in historic hall
By TOM GEORGE, DETROIT FREE PRESS GUEST WRITER
Tom George, M.D. served two terms in the state senate and is a former president of the Historical Society of Michigan.
With the removal of its Zachariah Chandler statue from the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Michigan has succumbed to what C.S. Lewis described as “chronological snobbery” — the belief that recent events, because they are fresher in memory, are more important than remote events. The removal has been done to make space for a statue of President Gerald Ford, who is already memorialized in the Capitol by a bust and portrait.
Though not well known today, Chandler is an important historical figure without whom there may not have been a Republican Party, a President Abraham Lincoln, a Civil War or a President Ford.
In 1854, Chandler, who had been a leader of the anti-slavery faction of Michigan’s Whig Party, helped forge a merger with other anti-slavery groups to create the first statewide Republican Party. By crafting a new political party, Michigan’s anti-slavery activists created a template that other Northern states would follow, triggering a series of events that would eventually lead to the election of Lincoln as president and the secession of the South.
Chandler was then elected to the U.S. Senate, where he represented Michigan for the duration of the Civil War. He also served as President Ulysses S. Grant’s secretary of the Interior. Chandler died in 1879 and rests in Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
Prior to Chandler, anti-slavery activists were divided into various camps that sought to end slavery through prayer, civil disobedience, separation from the South or discordant political activities. By leading members of the mainstream Whig Party into a coalition that opposed the spread of slavery, Chandler found the recipe to create an irresistible political force.
Michigan was thoughtful in its selection of Chandler as one of its two representatives in the statuary hall collection. (The other is Lewis Cass). In 1911, 32 years after his death, the state Legislature appropriated $15,000 to commission and erect his statue.
Now, 100 years later, Chandler is being replaced by Ford. (The Chandler statue ends up at Constitution Hall in Lansing.) The Ford statue comes just five years after the president’s passing and has been privately funded by the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. As a former president and vice president, both Gerald Ford’s portrait and bust already reside in the Capitol. He is memorialized by a presidential library, museum, foundation, federal building, airport, aircraft carrier, post office, freeway, field house, amphitheater, conservation center, park, scholastic award, and many other tributes. His image was recently placed on a U.S. postal stamp and, as part of a presidential series, his image will appear on a dollar coin. Ford will not be forgotten.
As the sesquicentennial of the Civil War is observed, we should note the unfortunate passing of a monument to the only battle of that war that was actually fought in Michigan: the battle of ideas fought by Zachariah Chandler and others to convince Michiganders of the need to take action against slavery."
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