‘Whatever happened to? …’: Replacing Ohio’s statue of William Allen in the U.S. Capitol
February 16, 2009 by EVE · Comments Off
Published on February 16, 2009 in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
The matter is dead for now, but could be reconsidered “if there is interest on the part of any member or members of the Ohio House” said Keary McCarthy, communications director for Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish.
History hasn’t been kind to former Ohio Gov. William Allen of Chillicothe. Political stands that he took in the 1800s — backing slavery and criticizing Abraham Lincoln — didn’t exactly wear well with time.
Two years ago, a group of state legislators in Columbus decided that Allen’s marble likeness should no longer represent Ohio in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall Collection, where each state contributes two sculptures of native sons and daughters. Ohio’s other representative in the collection is former President James Garfield.
A committee was formed to discuss whose statue should replace Allen’s and how to raise the more than $250,000 that a new statue would cost. It met several times but reached no decisions before the last legislative session adjourned. Allen isn’t the only figure in the collection who took political stances that weren’t vindicated by history.
Read the full article at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
