Where he also had figures such as this but in his case, its peace rielding in ayuchlful chariot. You can see the peace in the center. The partially nude female figure crowned riding the four horses and golden victory figures off to each side. Well, this is what mills had in mind for George Washington. They were thinking of it for George Washington that transposed him from the human, from the everyday, from a general to now a super human almost godlike figure. And so when construction, which had been halted on the Washington Monument for about 20 years in the 1860s and 70s, when construction was started up again, the engineer, thomas casey, who really loved modern inventions, elevators, electric lights, decided no were not going to put that temple at the bottom. He wanted the Washington Monument to stay that would represent america. Moving forward into the 20th century. And so he now saw it as a sleek monument of american ingenuity. So it was his decision, essentially, not to create the
Complicated and controversial building of a memorial to president James Garfield on the u. S. Capitol grounds. Well hear from Matthew Gilmore who edits a washington, d. C. History blog. Those of you probably know matt by name, if not in person. He runs a blog, the matthew b. Gilmore press blog and also hes an author of the column of the intowner. If you follow d. C. History, hes been integrally involved. Anything history in d. C. Oh, you also run the d. C. History list. Thank you for that on behalf of the city. Today hes going to talk about James Garfield, his death and efforts to commemorate his life and death here in washington, d. C. I wont say too much more about it. I dont want to steal his steam. Please join me in welcoming matt. [ applause ] thank you very much. The story im going to tell might be ripped from todays or recent headlines. There was a president ial memorial delayed for years caught up in congressional infighting. Legislation pending. A powerful lobby behind the mem
The most intelligent president s we have ever had. I mean, he is up there in the top half dozen. And when we go through his life, by the end of it, or the middle of it, youre going to start laughing because youre just going to say no, that cant be, he cant be that good in that field, its just not possible. And then well find something else. And youre going to say, no, he is just incredibly bright. And the hope for his presidency was enormous. And so were going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. I was chatting with a friend before. And he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. Its i dont know how you test Something Like that. Its not as if you give president s iq tests. Its a lot easier with things that are easy to measure. Tall and short. I mean, we all know that madison was our shortest president , lincoln was our tallest president. Thats easy. I dont know how you know who the most intelligent. Certainly the two adams, jefferson, madison, lincoln. Garfie
Garfield is one of the most intelligent president s we have ever had. He is up there in the top half dozen and when we go through his life, by the end of the middle of it, and youre going to say no, that cant be. He cant be that good in that field. Its just not possible, and then well find something else, and youre going to no. He is just incredibly bright, and the hope for his presidency was enormous, and were going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. I was chatting with a friend before, and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. I dont know how you test Something Like that, and its not as if you give president s iq tests. Its a lot easier with things that are easy to measure, tall ask short. We all know that madison was our shortest president , lincoln was our tallest president because thats easy. I dont know how you know who the most intelligent. Certainly the two adams, jefferson, madison and Lincoln Garfield is right up there. So one of the reasons
During the presidency of clinton and hw and george w bush. Were going to get started here with round two of president s on whom oliphant was able to bestow his gifts and a country on which oliphant was able to give his gifts to the american citizens. We have a cast to add their voices. Once again we have Miller Center people here. And the Miller Center, one of its main emphases is the focus on studying the presidency in depth, historical depths, with objectivity. In other words were all in the business of doing stuff that an editorial cartoonist is not in the business of doing, which is reacting to p events on a daytoday basis, which pat oliphant did more than 10,000 times in his 60 plus years as a newspaper cartoonist. Whereas we all trooif to be as objective as we can, the job of the editorial cartoonist, and pat oliphant, as well as anybody has ever done it, to provide comment, to provide opinion, to provide something to provoke discussion rather than perhaps to aspire to settle dis