OHIO'S MONUMENT TO GENERAL ANTHONY
WAYNE UNVEILED
[September 14, 1929, is a date long to
be remembered in the annals of
Ohio and other states represented at the
dedicatory ceremonies incident to
the unveiling of a monument to Major General Anthony
Wayne, a hero of
the Revolution and the border wars with
the Indians in the valleys of the
Miami and Maumee Rivers. The sites of
his major achievements in the
post-Revolutionary period of his
career-the battle of Fallen Timbers and
the Treaty of Greenville -are
in what is now western Ohio. If our state
is a little tardy in her memorial
tribute for his distinguished services, ample
amends have at last been made in the
memorial of granite and bronze un-
veiled on the afternoon of September 14,
1929, in the presence of thousands
of people on the elevation commanding a
view of the site of the battle of
Fallen Timbers where Wayne defeated the
Indians August 20, 1794.
On the speakers' stand near the monument
were representatives of
state and nation and men eminent in
military, civic and patriotic organiza-
tions. Ohio and Governor Myers Y. Cooper
were represented by State
Treasurer H. Ross Ake and Assistant
Adjutant General Colonel Wade
Christy; Michigan, and Governor Fred
Green by Walter C. Peters; Indiana
by James A. Woodburn, president of the
Indiana Historical Society;
Pennsylvania by Frederick A. Godcharles,
director of the Pennsylvania
State Library. William Wayne, the
great-great-grandson of General
Anthony Wayne was an honored guest.
Secretary of War James W.
Good, representing Herbert Hoover,
President of the United States, was
on the speaker's platform. Bruce Wilder
Saville, the sculptor who de-
signed the monument, W. J. Sherman, who
inaugurated the movement for
its erection, and other notables were
present.
The weather was somewhat chilly and a
bracing breeze carried an
autumnal suggestion, but 5,000 auditors
listened with rapt attention to
every word that was uttered from the
speakers' stand. Long-continued
applause marked the close of the
dedicatory address by Mr. Johnson.
Mr. H. C. Shetrone, director of the Ohio
State Archaeological and
Historical Society presided. Miss
Imogene Van Camp, of Columbus, a
descendant of William Sloan, bugler in
Wayne's army, unveiled the mon-
ument. - Editor.]
ADDRESS OF ARTHUR C. JOHNSON, SR.
President
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
One hundred and thirty-four years have
passed since
Major General Anthony Wayne, organizer
and Com-
mander-in-Chief of the first American
Legion. stood
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
here on the north bank of the Maumee
where we are
gathered today to do him this belated
honor, and saw
hard-earned victory perch upon the
banners of his
scanty army in the decisive battle of
Fallen Timbers.
Here on this ground where we now stand,
after his
long and painstaking preparation for
the supreme test
in which others had met with disastrous
failure, he broke
the strength and humbled the spirit of
the Northwestern
Indians for all time, contributed
largely to the transfor-
mation of the Treaty of Paris from a
scrap of paper
into a vital instrument, helped push
back the interna-
tional boundary from the Ohio River to
the Great Lakes,
made safe for American settlement this
vast empire
lying west to the Mississippi, and
restored a waning pub-
lic confidence in the administration of
the First Presi-
dent.
It was twelve years after the close of
the Revolution,
twelve years of political and economic
groping for the
infant Republic which was muddling
through the Great
Experiment of self-government to take
its proud place
in the family of nations.
At the close of the Revolutionary
struggle, an army
disbanded found itself unfitted for the
immediate duties
of civil life.
The vicissitudes of war had
impoverished countless
numbers of the officers who had clung
tenaciously to
the cause of Independence, and had left
a majority of
the rank and file without the capacity
or the inclination
to adapt themselves to peaceful
vocations, or the capital
to set themselves up on the land in the
more developed
parts of the country.
"Their feelings rebelled,"
says Burnet, "at the
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Vol. XXXVIII-37. (577) |
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
thought of living in poverty among
people of compara-
tive wealth for the protection of which
their own pov-
erty was incurred."
For this and other more practical
reasons, hun-
dreds of Revolutionary veterans turned
their faces to-
ward the frontier where lay the bounty
lands which
were in part their compensation; where
adventure and
romance lured them, and where
opportunity for a new
start in life with that precious
freedom for which they
had fought so long, was to be had for
the effort of
emigration.
George Rogers Clark, between whom and
Wayne
run many singularly parallel lines, had
saved the Ohio
country from the grasp of the British
aggressors who
were unable to shake off the fact of
his conquest when
they came to negotiate the Treaty of
Paris, but who
clung doggedly to the wilderness
outposts and used the
Indians as their tools for ruthless
bloody resistance
against the oncoming tide of American
settlement.
Could the boundary have been held back
along the
Ohio, the vast natural resources of the
Ohio country
would have flowed eventually into
British channels.
These resources constituted the coveted
prize.
In any event the Indians were doomed to
lose what
they claimed as their ancestral
homelands.
At the foot of the Maumee Rapids--that
cross-
roads of prehistoric travel and meeting
place for inter-
tribal councils-there almost within the
sound of my
voice, stood old Fort Miami which was
one of the key
nests of British influence, one of the
hell-holes of fer-
ment from which the deluded savages
went out fired
Monument to General Anthony Wayne
Unveiled 579
by false courage and carrying British
arms, to spread
blind terror along the border.
There was flying over its bastions on
the battle day
of Fallen Timbers the blood-red flag of
a civilized
Christian nation, and the cannon which
peeped from
its embrasures were, no doubt,
double-shotted for ac-
tion.
Only the consciousness of an
unwarranted occu-
pancy and a knowledge of the character
of the man with
whom he would have to deal, led Major
Campbell to
deny refuge to his defeated proteges
after the battle,
and to withhold his fire when Wayne
laid waste the In-
dian cornfields and burned the British
agent's establish-
ment within pistol shot of the fort
itself.
The Ohio country became the Northwest
Territory
by the Ordinance of 1787, and law, with
little or no
means of enforcement, was proclaimed in
the land.
Speculation in privately-purchased
public domain
gave birth to such projects as the Ohio
Company and
the Miami Purchases, the promotion of
which stimu-
lated emigration. When the Territory
was but seven
years old and the Constitution of the
United States in
force but six, more than forty thousand
white settlers
were already living within the
territorial borders and
calling it their home.
These people, dominated largely by the
unpaid and
unpensioned veterans of the Revolution,
though remote
from the seat of Federal government,
nevertheless de-
manded at its hands an adequate
protection against
the Red Terror, and by the growing
strength of their
numbers created a political situation
which weighed
heavily upon the Federal
administration.
580 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications Desultory punitive expeditions either aggravated the situation or resulted in failure, and many attempts to enter into treaty agreements with the Indians were |
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frustrated by pressure of the deceptive policy from the British headquarters at Detroit. Both added to the fear on the one side and to the hate on the other. Driven to action, the government |
Monument to General Anthony Wayne
Unveiled 581
at Philadelphia ordered the ill-fated
St. Clair into the
field. His campaign was fairly
conceived, but was in-
adequately prepared, indifferently
conducted, badly
executed and ended in notorious
disaster.
Still hoping and laboring for a
peaceful conclusion
--hoping and laboring 400 miles away
from the focal
points of infection out here in the
wilderness, Presi-
dent Washington realized that the
impatient young
nation would not stand for another
costly failure. The
job must be done.
Knox, Secretary of War, issued the
order for the or-
ganization of a legionary army to
supplant the regimen-
tal establishments, and the President
appointed Anthony
Wayne major general and
commander-in-chief.
But so reluctant was the Administration
to abandon
moral suasion and so obstructive were
Secretary Knox's
admonitions which amounted almost to
timidity, that
more than two years were to pass before
the Hero of
Stony Point was to close with the enemy
here on the
bank of the Maumee and add new laurels
to his undying
Revolutionary fame.
The importance of the triumph which
came to the
American arms on that 20th of August,
1794, was
boundlessly greater than the magnitude
of the battle
itself as a military event.
General Wayne himself, thrilled as he
must have
been by the victory after twenty months
of discouraging
delays and snail-like progress, and
burning with a desire
to lay the laurels at the feet of his
beloved commander-
in-chief of other days, told the whole
story to the
Legion's best advantage, in but 1500
words which com-
prised the text of his official report.
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
In that unvarnished tale, couched
though it was in
the stilted language of the times, he
credited the com-
bined forces of the enemy, warriors and
British irregu-
lars, with but 2000 fighting men, while
fewer than 900
of his own legionnaires participated in
the actual con-
flict.
Sixty minutes after the opposing lines
came to grips
in the difficult wilderness which has
given its pictur-
esque name to history, the enemy had
been driven a dis-
tance of two miles, leaving the
victorious legion in full
and quiet possession of the field and
the dead.
Not much of a battle, we say, as wars
go now! Not
much of a battle in which 900 trained
American regu-
lars overwhelmed 2000 untrained savages
and their
wilder white allies, and in which fewer
than 100 men
all told gave up their lives in the
hand-to-hand conflict.
I would not have you think that I have
come here
today to belittle the battle of Fallen
Timbers, to detract
one whit from the glory to the American
arms so hard
won on that August day, nor to dim in
any degree the
brilliance of the halo which has shone
for more than a
century around the name of Anthony
Wayne.
In the revered names of history must we
find the
inspiration for carrying on. The lives
and deeds and
experiences of those who builded so
largely in the past,
established the principles of human
rights and strove
to apply them in a practical way to
everyday human
relationships, those lives and those
deeds and those ex-
periences must constitute the lamp by
which our feet
must be guided.
From this comprehensive military
campaign of
major importance for its time, then,
let us learn a
lesson in preparedness. That the battle
of Fallen Tim-
Monument to General Anthony Wayne
Unveiled 583
bers was a decisive American victory
instead of a dis-
aster such as overtook St. Clair, was
due to the mili-
tary mindedness of Washington, and to
the foresight,
the caution, the extreme care which
marked the work
of General Wayne in equipping and
training his Legion
during the 20 months which he devoted
to the prepara-
tion for 60 minutes of fighting in the
far wilderness.
It was a preparation which taxed the
lean treasury
of the infant Republic and drained dry
its scanty avail-
able military resources.
But it meant success and it solved one
of the major
problems which so vexed the
administration of the
First President, a problem the chief
phases of which
were economic as well as political.
Let us turn back for a moment and
consider why
President Washington selected General
Wayne for this
mission of grave responsibility. From
out of the
depths of his wisdom he chose finally
the man who, he
must have felt, would be sure to
succeed where others
had failed.
It was an oversize job which the
President wanted
done out here in the Northwest, and he
made his choice
only after exhaustive consideration
which was un-
affected by great political pressure in
behalf of other
applicants some of whom were close
personal friends.
In the voluminous writings of
Washington is to be
found a file purporting to be notes in
his own hand, on
the characteristics of the various
candidates--notes
presumed to be for his own guidance.
Mark what he
wrote about the Hero of Stony Point,
one of his great-
est generals of the Revolution and a
comrade-in-arms
of twelve or more years before:
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
"More active and enterprising than
judicious and
cautious; no economist it is feared;
open to flattery-
vain--easily imposed upon and liable to
be drawn into
scrapes; too indulgent with his
officers; whether sober
or addicted to the bottle I know
not."
Instantly one exclaims "MAD
ANTHONY!"
How that term of popular endearment,
misnomer
that it is, has clung to one of the
finest soldiers and
most capable officers of the
Revolution!
If intense patriotism is madness, then
Wayne was
mad.
If capacity for leadership is madness,
then Wayne
deserved the name.
If military instinct is madness, then
Wayne was an
afflicted man.
If strict obedience to the orders of
his superiors
is madness, then Wayne was a madman.
If wisdom in council, if
self-sacrifice, sympathy for
human frailties, if integrity,
dependability, energy, en-
terprise, honor and courage--if all
these are symptoms
of madness, then Anthony Wayne deserves
to be
classed with the madmen of history.
No general officer of the Revolution
served longer,
was more often in the thick of the fray
or suffered as
many wounds. No general officer of the
Revolution
saw service covering so great an extent
of territory.
From Three Rivers beyond the border
where flows
the St. Lawrence, to Savannah where
Georgia touches
the southern sea, Anthony Wayne marched
and fought
to press back the invader from the land
and plant firm-
ly the banner of American Independence.
Monument to General Anthony Wayne
Unveiled 585
Three Rivers, Ticonderoga, Brandywine,
German-
town, Valley Forge, Monmouth, Stony
Point, Green
Spring, Yorktown, Savannah,
Charlestown--and then
more than a decade later--Fallen
Timbers.
What an imposing array of names which
have
thrilled the hearts of American school
boys for more
than a century.
Wayne's feet trod the soil of those
battlefields;
Wayne's voice was raised in command of
his faithful
brigades; Wayne's sword pointed the way
to the
enemy; Wayne's judgment drove home when
victory
offered or drew away when the tide of
battle turned.
So it must have been activity and
enterprise rather
than judgment and caution that
Washington was seek-
ing in a commander; a spender for
preparation rather
than a pinch-penny or a grater; a
handsome soldierly-
looking scrapper rather than a book
militarist; an in-
dulgent or considerate chief rather
than a martinet--
and he took his chances on the
"little addicted to the
bottle" rather than insist upon an
abstainer who might
likewise be a dullard.
One is led to suspect that President
Washington's
file was made up of the objections or
criticisms which
came to him from enemies of the various
candidates, or
from the backers of rivals in the
contest for the ap-
pointment.
If General Wayne was vain and subject
to flattery,
his return to Philadelphia after his
triumph on the
Maumee, must have been the high spot of
his life, not
excepting the adulation he received
after the capture
of Stony Point.
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Demonstrations in his honor almost
exceeded the
bounds of reason.
But his was now a troubled life. During
those
days of wild acclaim in Philadelphia,
the commander-
in-chief of the victorious Legion bore
a sad heart and
a troubled mind.
Polly was dead, beloved Polly Penrose
who had been
such a brave life-mate and the mother
of his children;
who had endured the hardships wrought
by the Revolu-
tion--Polly who sickened suddenly and
died while he
was heading into the Wilderness
campaign beyond the
mysterious mountains.
Greene was dead, General Greene whom he
loved
and for whom he named his winter
quarters at Green-
ville--Greene who was not always fair,
not always
kind to him; Mother Wayne had gone to
her reward; he
had suffered financial reverses, and
Margaretta, his little
Margaretta about whose education he had
fretted so
much during those long years when he
was from home,
had grown up and married away.
It was a bleak and lonely home to which
he went
from the gaieties of Philadelphia, that
chill February in
1795.
If President Washington really
believed that
Wayne was more active than judicious,
easily imposed
upon and liable to be drawn into
scrapes, he must have
changed his mind after Fallen Timbers,
for he sent
our hero back into the Territory to
negotiate single-
handed the now famous Treaty of
Greenville.
If Fallen Timbers was a triumph of war,
Green-
ville was a triumph of diplomacy and
peace. Fallen
Timbers made Greenville Treaty
possible, but Green-
Monument to General Anthony Wayne Unveiled 587
ville brought out hitherto unknown and
untried phases
of Wayne's character and
capacity--phases other than
military genius or madness.
Who could have envisioned the Hero of
Stony
Point and Fallen Timbers going through
the mummery
of Indian councils day after day, week
after week,
month after month; firm, kind,
sympathetic, persua-
sive, indulgent, patient,
understanding, diplomatic,
statesmanlike and just.
And now for the final scene:
Seven long years of heartbreaking
campaigning in
the Revolution; two years of
preparation and cam-
paigning in the Northwest Territory;
months of nego-
tiation with the Indians of the
Northwestern tribes at
Greenville; memorialized by Congress,
praised by the
President of the United States; adored
and acclaimed
as a hero by the people of his country.
So it came about that the last public
duty which
he was asked to perform must have been
among the
pleasantest of his career and given him
the greatest
satisfaction; it was to receive from a
reluctant British
government, albeit at the hands of
British commanders
who no doubt had had their fill of the
American wil-
derness and the Indians, the possession
of the border
military posts, among them this same
Fort Miami here
at the foot of the Rapids where Major
Campbell had
shown the kind of discretion which is
the better part
of valor, sometimes.
This duty promptly and effectively
accomplished,
Anthony Wayne turned his face towards
home for the
last time, hurrying down the lake from
Detroit by the
shortest route to Philadelphia.
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
He had made good.
He had justified the President's choice
of a military
commander-in-chief and as an ambassador
of peace.
He had staged such a comeback as to
make a figure
almost unique in military history
"which is strewn with
the wrecks of reputations made in one
war and lost in
another."
He had won success and the plaudits of
his fellow
countrymen in two wars of major
importance but he
was hurrying home to defend himself from
the mali-
cious jealousy of certain of his
comrades-in-arms who
sought to belittle his success and to
besmirch his per-
sonal and military character.
One can well hark back to that note
jotted down by
Washington, "Too indulgent to his
officers."
Charges had found their way out of the
wilderness
and back to Philadelphia. It was the
story of the green-
eyed monster. But he would vanquish the
new enemy
from within as he had those from
without at Stony
Point and at Fallen Timbers.
Troubled in mind and sick in body he
pressed on to
Erie. But that was the end of his
journey.
Weeks of physical torture ensued as his
malady
grew, and then at last in the dead of a
long December
night before the hint of another day
had come, the com-
mander-in-chief of the American army
gave his last
order to the faithful pair who watched
over him--
"Bury me at the foot of the
flagstaff, boys."
And so we have come here today to see
unveiled an
imposing memorial and to dedicate it to
his memory.
There it stands, shrouded from view as
yet by the
emblem which he followed in almost a
decade of war
Monument to General Anthony Wayne
Unveiled 589
and under which he was given a
soldier's burial at
Presque Isle.
We are told that this memorial is a
splendid example
of the sculptor's art, erected on this
commanding emi-
nence overlooking the battlefield of
Fallen Timbers, and
done in such permanence as men can
achieve.
But all of this bronze and all of this
granite pile
upon which it stands, would mean little
to us now and
less to the oncoming generations as the
years roll on, if
what we have erected here and what we
have said here,
did not serve to teach a lesson by
which we ourselves may
profit in capacity for self-government,
and which may
prove a blessed heritage to those who
must carry on in
the hopeful but uncertain future.
We are told that you will see the
figure of an Indian
warrior bearing the peace pipe,
typifying the weaker
race which knows no persuasion but
force and which in-
evitably gave way before the needs of
the stronger race.
Just or unjust, such has been the way
of mankind from
the beginning.
On the other hand you will see the
figure of the
pioneer, that sturdy type which has
ever been the fore-
runner of civilization and development
and culture and
progress; which ever has dared to cross
the border,
braving the unknown to plant out there
the seeds of
human rights in clean new ground.
That figure represents the pioneer who
brought into
the Northwest Territory the principles
upon which this
nation is founded, and if, before God,
it is to endure, we
must take stock of ourselves to see
that we do not depart
from those principles.
If that bronze pioneer could take voice
and preach
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
the gospel of a sane true Americanism
he would urge us
to emulate the integrity of a
Washington; to cherish the
precious gift of human rights and
personal liberty enun-
ciated by a Jefferson; to practice the
thrift of a Frank-
lin; to strive for the solvency of a
Hamilton; to develop
the ruggedness of a Jackson; to pray
for the faith and
the patience and the understanding of a
Lincoln; to be
ever alert to the necessity of the
rational preparedness
of a Roosevelt, but above all, that we
may preserve our
God-given heritage for ourselves and
for those who are
to come, to have in such measure as we
may, the SUB-
LIME COURAGE of an Anthony Wayne.
We can well believe that he would have
each genera-
tion pledge itself anew to these
fundamental principles,
and, enlisting in the cause of right,
march unafraid into
the wilderness of the future.
He would have them gird their strength
about with
a determination to be just to our world
neighbors, but,
thrusting aside mawkish sentimentality,
serve notice to
one and all that this is OUR America to
be defended
against all comers and to be maintained
for Americans
just so long as they deserve the freedom
and the happi-
ness that is theirs by virtue of their
Independence.
If then the dominating figure of the
group could step
out of the bronze and take leadership
in the nation he
did so much to make secure, we would
have him show
us better how to search out and put to
rout that form
of special privilege which is ever the
enemy of public
right, and then protect that human
right from behind
the bastions of a new Fort Recovery.
It would require such courage as his to
combat those
forms of fanaticism which lead us
floundering in un-
Monument to General Anthony Wayne
Unveiled 591
tried paths; the kind of courage by
which we can main-
tain our self-respect after it is
restored, and by which
we can defend it from behind the walls
of a new Fort
Defiance.
Sustained by such courage we can go on
and on in-
vincible against whatever evil may be
lurking in a new
Fallen Timbers.
Let us then accept this bronze figure
which you are
soon to see, as a symbol of civic
courage--this figure of
Anthony Wayne--Mad Anthony if you must
have it
so--
Hero of Stony Point
Hero of Fallen Timbers
Man of action
Glorious American.
[H. C. Shetrone, chairman of the
occasion, after felicitating the people
of Ohio on the consummation of the
project and expressing the appreciation
of the Society for the generous manner
in which Walter J. Sherman, his
committee and the residents of Toledo
and vicinity had co-operated in the
undertaking.]
ADDRESS OF H. C. SHETRONE,
Director of Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The atmosphere of this impressive
occasion is dis-
tinctly historic and military in its
importance. You
will hear much that is interesting,
instructive and enter-
taining this afternoon and this evening
from historians
and military experts. Seeking for an
anthropological
lesson in this rich historic complex, I
find myself asking
the question "Just what does this
ceremony mean, and
why are we observing it?" I
venture to assume that
the answer lies in the fact that we, as
a state and as a
OHIO'S MONUMENT TO GENERAL ANTHONY
WAYNE UNVEILED
[September 14, 1929, is a date long to
be remembered in the annals of
Ohio and other states represented at the
dedicatory ceremonies incident to
the unveiling of a monument to Major General Anthony
Wayne, a hero of
the Revolution and the border wars with
the Indians in the valleys of the
Miami and Maumee Rivers. The sites of
his major achievements in the
post-Revolutionary period of his
career-the battle of Fallen Timbers and
the Treaty of Greenville -are
in what is now western Ohio. If our state
is a little tardy in her memorial
tribute for his distinguished services, ample
amends have at last been made in the
memorial of granite and bronze un-
veiled on the afternoon of September 14,
1929, in the presence of thousands
of people on the elevation commanding a
view of the site of the battle of
Fallen Timbers where Wayne defeated the
Indians August 20, 1794.
On the speakers' stand near the monument
were representatives of
state and nation and men eminent in
military, civic and patriotic organiza-
tions. Ohio and Governor Myers Y. Cooper
were represented by State
Treasurer H. Ross Ake and Assistant
Adjutant General Colonel Wade
Christy; Michigan, and Governor Fred
Green by Walter C. Peters; Indiana
by James A. Woodburn, president of the
Indiana Historical Society;
Pennsylvania by Frederick A. Godcharles,
director of the Pennsylvania
State Library. William Wayne, the
great-great-grandson of General
Anthony Wayne was an honored guest.
Secretary of War James W.
Good, representing Herbert Hoover,
President of the United States, was
on the speaker's platform. Bruce Wilder
Saville, the sculptor who de-
signed the monument, W. J. Sherman, who
inaugurated the movement for
its erection, and other notables were
present.
The weather was somewhat chilly and a
bracing breeze carried an
autumnal suggestion, but 5,000 auditors
listened with rapt attention to
every word that was uttered from the
speakers' stand. Long-continued
applause marked the close of the
dedicatory address by Mr. Johnson.
Mr. H. C. Shetrone, director of the Ohio
State Archaeological and
Historical Society presided. Miss
Imogene Van Camp, of Columbus, a
descendant of William Sloan, bugler in
Wayne's army, unveiled the mon-
ument. - Editor.]
ADDRESS OF ARTHUR C. JOHNSON, SR.
President
Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
One hundred and thirty-four years have
passed since
Major General Anthony Wayne, organizer
and Com-
mander-in-Chief of the first American
Legion. stood
(575)