Harriet Martineau

Account of the unveiling of a statue of Harriet Martineau. Drawing of the statue by M.M.Gilchrist. The eight-foot-high statue was by Anne Whitney and was commissioned by Harriet's friend and admirer Maria Weston Chapman, as a permanent monument that had an appeal to an even wider audience than did  her writings. It was destroyed in a dramatic fire that swept through Wellesley College in the USA in 1914.

STATUE OF HARRIET MARTINEAU

The statue of Harriet Martineau, by Miss Whitney, will be unveiled in the Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Livermore and others will make an address. The committee having the matter in charge are Mary A. Livermore, Samuel May, George W. Curtis, Mrs. Charles Francis Adams, Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson, William L. Garrison, Jr., Mary Heminway, and John Jay. Mr Jay has sent the following interesting letter in reference to the subject of the statue:

No. 191 SECOND-AVENUE,
NEW-YORK, Nov.20, 1883.
I well remember when Harriet Martineau came among us in the heroic days of the contest with slavery, and I honored her for the noble courage with which she uttered God's truth when the pulpit was dumb, and did openly a Christian's work for the American slave, when priest and Levite often passed throwing stones and curses as they went. I recall her words when she wrote of "the great cause in which you work and endure." Whatever questioning may have disturbed her faith, she held fast to the golden rule, to which the American church did such dishonor when it failed to stand, as Bishop Wilberforce said, "between the living and the dead, and stay the plague," giving by its faithlessness and cowardice an impulse to unbelief, and invoking upon our land a bloody retribution. Had Miss Martineau done nothing more for humanity than what she did in America, we might well remember her with gratitude, and honor what was divine in her brave example. Let this be a simple tribute to her memory. Believe me always faithfully yours.
JOHN JAY

The New York Times

Published: December 25, 1883
Copyright: Copy kept at the Norfolk Millenniun Library

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