Description of the Statue

THE statue which was unveiled to-day is the first erected to the memory of the martyr President. It was after the town had held a memorial service in honor of him, that the citizens held a meeting, formed a committee, and prepared plans for a fitting memorial.
     The heroic statue of President McKinley is of bronze and is eight feet high. It stands with uplifted left arm and head slightly thrown back, a characteristic pose of the late President while delivering an address. The right hand rests on a standard conically enveloped by Old Glory.
     The statue stands on a solid granite pedestal which is six feet high and beautifully carved at the top and bottom, while the four sides are panelled with bronze plates or tablets. All the granite is highly polished. The pedestal rests on two heavy squares of granite, and the base of the monument is laid on a foundation of crushed stone and cement.
     Surrounding the monument is a circular plot of green-sward, raised from the street and curbed with heavy granite, unpolished, but of the same kind as the pedestal.
     The four bronze plates on the stone pedestal have been most appropriately selected and significantly inscribed. Each plate is twenty by thirty inches. On [11][12] the front is a plate showing the President in the halls of Congress and inscribed: “William McKinley Addressing the House of Representatives on the Measure which became Famous under his Name,” and refers to the McKinley tariff bill. Beneath this tablet is inscribed in bronze letters the name of him in whose honor the memorial was erected, “William McKinley.”
     The tablet on the west side of the pedestal is inscribed: “William McKinley, Commissary Sergeant at the Battle of Antietam, MDCCCLXII.” It pictures a scene of war, with the late President as a young man driving a commissary wagon, and refers to an incident during his Civil War service.
     The tablet on the north face is inscribed: “Let us remember that our interest is in Concord, not Conflict, and that our real eminence is in the Victories of Peace, not those of War.” These words are taken from his speech at Buffalo, and at the bottom of the tablet is inscribed: “From President McKinley’s Address at Buffalo, September VI, MDCCCCI.”
     On the east side of the pedestal is inscribed: “William McKinley Delivering his address at his first Inauguration as President of the United States, March IV, MDCCCXCVII.” It represents him as standing in a balcony over the steps leading to the Capitol in Washington.
     The statue stands at the junction of Park, Maple, and Columbia streets, and is on a site given by the Rev. L. O. Triganne, pastor of Notre Dame Church of Adams, through Bishop Beavan of the Springfield Roman Catholic diocese. It is in front of the beautiful Memorial Public Library of which President McKinley laid the corner-stone.