The Ely Miner

STATUE TO HANCOCK.

Magnificent Bronze Unveiled at Washington-President Cleveland Presides.

Washington, May 13.-On Tuesday afternoon, with President Cleveland presiding at the ceremony, there was unveiled a bronze statue of Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. The statue is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Louisiana avenues with Seventh and C streets. One of the most imposing military pageants ever witnessed in this city followed the ceremony of unveiling. This statue has the distinction of being the first statue of an army officer in Washington to be erected wholly at the expense of the government, the numerous others having been secured through societies of army survivors. It is pronounced by eminent critics to be the finest piece of equestrian art in the city. The sculptor is Henry J. Ellicott. It represents Hancock as the sculptor saw him during the battle of Gettysburg, a picture which Mr. Ellicott declares was indelibly impressed on his memory.

THE HANCOCK STATUE.

The principal address was delivered by Senator John M. Palmer, of Illinois, major general of the United States volunteers during the war. Senator Palmer's address was devoted to an eulogy of the manly and soldierly qualities of Gen. Hancock and contained a beautiful tribute to his wife, who was his biographer. Before the senator spoke President Cleveland made a brief address, in which he said:

"Willingly prompted by patriotic inclination, we have assembled to witness a nation's appreciation of valiant deeds in time of war and its recognition of civic virtues in time of peace. We give this monument to the dead, but the dead endows our gift with a significance which makes it of a priceless value to the living. It is an open book constantly teaching the lesson of sincere and steadfast love of country. Those who look upon its great proportions in years to come will be reminded of such sacrifice and service as have made our nation great and our people happy. With this monument before our eyes those in public station who are charged with the people's interests and with the making and execution of their laws can hardly forget that honest effort to secure the public weal and a stern insistence, at all times, upon a faithful and unselfish discharge of public duty in the places they occupy, are as essential to the safety and preservation of all that Americans hold dear, as bravery and heroism on the field of battle.

"The perpetuity of our popular government is pending upon our fidelity to the principles upon which it rests; the vast interests of a confiding people promoted and guarded only by honesty and faithfulness in their service, and obedience to those national obligations which our membership in the family of nations exacts should be sufficient to enforce upon those trusted by their countrymen the lessons which this monument teaches."