07 LC 96
2670
House
Resolution 705
By:
Representatives Geisinger of the
48th,
Wilkinson of the
52nd,
Lindsey of the
54th,
Amerson of the
9th,
Franklin of the
43rd,
and others
A
RESOLUTION
Celebrating
the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the General John Brown Gordon memorial
statue on the grounds of the state capitol; and for other purposes.
WHEREAS,
remarking on the unveiling ceremony of Saturday, May 25, 1907, when the
equestrian statue of General John Brown Gordon was opened to a vast throng of
attendees at the state capitol, the
Atlanta
Constitution wrote, "Never before have the
capitol grounds been so packed with an animated mass of humanity as that
gathered around the Gordon monument yesterday"; and
WHEREAS,
General John B. Gordon, whose sobriquets include "the hero of the Appomattox,"
was one of Georgia's greatest soldiers, lawyers, journalists, railroad
executives, and statesmen who served as a commander in the Civil War, a three
time United States Senator, and Governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890;
and
WHEREAS,
even though Gordon had no military experience previous to the Civil War, he was
elected captain of his company of mountaineers and rose through the Confederate
ranks with lightening speed, rising to the rank of Major General following the
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in 1864; and
WHEREAS,
at six feet tall, Gordon had austere features, black hair, and a striking
profile as "straight as a sword blade and just as wide," and his imposing
soldierly bearing and galvanizing voice made him an inspirational officer
equaled by few; and
WHEREAS,
as a field commander, General Gordon combined intelligent strategy with an
audacious bravado that proved irresistible to the soldiers in his charge, and
President Theodore Roosevelt remarked that "a more gallant, generous, and
fearless gentleman and soldier has not been seen by our country"; and
WHEREAS,
immediately following the war, General Gordon was a champion of reunification
efforts who sought aggressively to heal the wounds of war and to remove
sectional antagonisms; and as the leader of the United Confederate Veterans, he
advocated a patriotism that could "cherish the past glories of the dead
Confederacy and transmute them into living inspirations for the future service
to the living republic"; and
WHEREAS,
General Gordon embodied the living ideals of an era, and after he passed away
peacefully at his winter home in Miami, his body was placed in the center of the
state capitol rotunda, where the gathered crowd was so massive that two lines
had to be formed at the capitol doors; and
WHEREAS,
in 1906, the General Assembly appropriated $15,000 in addition to the more than
$10,000 collected by the Gordon Monument Association and other contributors to
erect a commemorative statue of General Gordon to be executed in bronze by
sculptor Solon H. Borglum, the brother of the artistic mastermind behind Mount
Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum; and
WHEREAS,
Solon Borglum, who studied in Paris and at the Cincinnati Art Academy and whose
works are in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the University of
Iowa, the Detroit Institute of Art, and the National Gallery of Canada,
submitted a final design that boldly depicts the General as a dignified
statesman astride his warhorse; and
WHEREAS,
the unveiling ceremony in Atlanta was met by such a crowd that young men and
boys perched on convenient telephone poles "like so many blackbirds," as
speeches were given by General Clement A. Evans, Captain Tip Harrison, Colonel
Nat Harris, and the Honorable Joe Hill Hall; "Sunny South" was performed by a
choir of 100 voices; and a poem was performed by Governor Joseph M. Terrell who
commented that the ceremony was an "epoch-making" occasion; and
WHEREAS,
General Gordon was admired throughout the South as well as the North as a man
who symbolized the greatest virtues of his homeland, and his memorial at the
state capitol remains one of the State of Georgia's finest
monuments.
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that the members of
this body honor the memory of one of Georgia's finest leaders, General John
Brown Gordon, and express their sincere appreciation for his memorial statue on
the occasion of its 100th anniversary.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized
and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the Georgia
Capitol Museum.