Benjamin Henry Latrobe

“ It appeared desireable that a monument erected to the memory of the Founder of American Liberty should be as durable as the nation that erected it. Single statues either in marble, Basaltes or bronze, and indeed any species of sculpture is liable to injury and destruction, I believe not a single statue has come down to us from antitiquity uninjured in many of its most material parts, small projections very soon are broken off, by the wantoness of the spectators,—The statue of Wasn in the statehouse at Richmond has already lost several of its smaller parts. ”

“ It appeared therefore to me more proper that I should offer to the Committee the designs of a building, the constitution of which should secure it, against the slow effects of time & weather as well as against violence, and which by the simplicity of its form and the plainess of its decoration should defy the criticism of fashion, to which all complicated works must submit,—as well as concord with the character of the progress in art which at present exists in America. ”

“ Bronze is not so easily broken but it has nothing but durability to recommend it, the utmost skill cannot render its appearance agreeable and the value of the material has in all revolutions devoted the bronze of ancient statues either to the purposes of money or to the manufacture of military implements,—More Roman marble buildings have been destroyed for the sake of the bronze cramps, than have been spared, and very few statues indeed remain. ”