Photo of the Day: St. Andrew Kim Taegon Statue, St. Raphael's Church, Long Island City, NY

 

A post of mine earlier this month briefly summarized the history of St. Raphael's Church, a mainstay of Long Island City, NY for 140 years. But I left for a later date a discussion of the white statue in front of the church honoring St. Andrew Kim Taegon, a source of great interest and pride for the parish, especially its Korean congregants.

The son of Christian converts, St. Andrew studied in Macao before his 1845 ordination as a Roman Catholic priest—Korea’s first. He did not last long, falling victim to persecution by the Josean dynasty. He was only 25 when he was beheaded for his evangelism efforts a year later. Religious freedom would not be granted in Korea until 1883.

Fr. Andrew, together with 102 other Korean martyrs, was canonized by Pope John Paul II on a trip to the nation in 1984. He is now the patron saint of Korean clergy.

Photo of the Day: Daniel Webster Statue, Washington DC

When I visited Washington in November 2013, I didn’t have to look at the base of this standing bronze statue at Bataan Street NW that I photographed to know that it depicted the great American orator and Union advocate Daniel Webster.

It wasn’t only in the great sweep of the folds of his clothing captured by sculptor Gaetano Trentanove, but the details of the craggy face that I’ve focused on in this closeup: the penetrating eyes and fierce demeanor that froze listeners in their place even before he uttered a single word.

One of the bronze relief panels on the granite pedestal shows the audience in the speech for which he is best known, the 1830 “Reply to Hayne” that included these words once memorized by countless American schoolchildren: “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”

Despite his faults (a fondness for liquor, a too-close financial attachment to the Second Bank of the United States), Webster was a more towering figure in the life of the nation than even many Presidents. In a way, I wish some author would write an extended essay/short biography titled, Why Webster Still Matters.

If pressed, I would start by saying his career offers an example to Americans of our time of how what Senators say and do can make a difference in the life of the nation—if only Senator do not engage in gridlock and senseless posturing.

But equally important, I would point to his remarkable recognition in a June 1, 1837 address in Madison, Ind., of where damage to our country might come from:

“I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe…. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing.”

Photo of the Day: 'Rebelmen’ Statue, Monument Park, Fort Lee NJ

Monument Park, the only park in the U. S. dedicated to the soldiers of the American Revolution, opened in 1908, with future WWI hero General John "Black Jack" Pershing among the 20,000 people on hand for the ceremonies.

Among the sites at this 727-acre space in Fort Lee NJ (which I photographed in July 2018) is this statue by Charles Tefft that evokes one of the most famous passages in Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis:

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”

Every age has its “times that try men’s souls.” These days are ours—maybe not as dramatic as when Paine published his lines in December 1776, just 72 hours before Battle of Trenton, but still a time when the spirit of freedom needs to be defended.

Photo of the Day: ‘Hancock the Superb,’ War Hero—and Presidential Also-Ran

In thinking of an image for today, Election Day, I thought of sites in Washington, DC, that might represent the stakes this country has faced and its best values. The usual buildings—the Capitol Dome, the Supreme Court, the Washington Monument—didn’t quite do it for me.

Then, in sorting through photos I took in November 2015 while on vacation, I was struck by this bronze equestrian statue at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th St., N.W. From everything I’ve read, sculptor Henry Jackson Ellicott captured the inspirational presence of General Winfield Scott Hancock on the battlefield.

It has been over 30 years since I visited Gettysburg, so I don’t recall the statue in his honor there. And I have never seen the bust of him in New York’s Hancock Park, at St. Nicholas Avenue, Manhattan Avenue, and West 123rd Street. But it’s hard for me to imagine a more uplifting tribute than the one I saw in DC.

Have you ever heard of a more laudatory nickname than “Hancock the Superb”? In Civil War battlefields stretching from the Peninsula Campaign to the Siege of Petersburg, this career U.S. Army officer lived up to his reputation. Brave but not rash, confident but not egocentric, he gave heart to men with the deafening din of cannons and crack of rifles in their ears.

If you’ve seen the epic 1993 movie Gettysburg or read the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel it was based on, The Killer Angels, you might know of his part in that pivotal battle of the war: how he scouted out the terrain, prepared the “fishhook” defense of the Union Army, and rallied his II Corps to make its crucial stand against Pickett’s Charge.

As that furious assault took place, Hancock was wounded—badly enough that he had to recuperate for six months afterward—but he remained on the field until victory was secured.

Cool-headed in victory, Hancock displayed equanimity in defeat. In 1880, he was beaten decisively by another former Union general, James Abram Garfield, in the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote by only 7,000—the slimmest margin ever for an also-ran.

At least one candidate today might regard Hancock as a “loser,” but he was unfazed by what others would perceive as heartbreaking. “It has been a complete Waterloo for you,” his wife said the next morning in waking him with the bad news. “That is all right,” he responded. “I can stand it.”

Hancock died five years later. In 1889, the appropriation for the proposed DC statue in his honor—$50,000—was considered steep for the time. But a grateful Congress thought the tribute worth it, and allocated the sum.

Ulysses S. Grant gave a characteristically concise but astute assessment of his corps commander in his Personal Memoirs:

“His name was never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. He was a man of very conspicuous personal appearance. Tall, well-formed and, at the time of which I now write, young and fresh-looking, he presented an appearance that would attract the attention of an army as he passed. His genial disposition made him friends, and his personal courage and his presence with his command in the thickest of the fight won for him the confidence of troops serving under him. No matter how hard the fight, the 2d corps always felt that their commander was looking after them.”

Throughout most of American history, losing candidates are often forgotten. This is one who should not be. It was because of him and service personnel of similar fiber that you and I still have a country.