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our Allstons, Coles, Vanderlyns, Doughtys, Creenoughs, and Powers 

 will live and flourish, and the melancholy fate of many a Clevenger be 

 avoided, by a proper appreciation of his merits when living, and not by 

 those posthumous tributes which reach not the poor artist in his early 

 grave. That gifted son of the West has gone down to the tomb, with 

 all his capacities and unsated aspirations about him. And now, alas ! 

 too late, subscriptions are being made up for the benefit of the bereaved 

 widow and her children, and to secure for his own country the creations 

 of his magic chisel. I wish not to reflect upon the acts or motives of 

 those charitable gentlemen, nor to detract one iota from the credit which 

 is due them for their liberality; but I want this instance of too tardy 

 justice and encouragement to prove a warning to the community, so 

 that another case of similar neglect may not sit upon their consciences. 

 An ounce of patronage when the artist is alive, or endeavoring to live, 

 is worth a pound of such as poor Clevenger encountered, and it is too 

 much the fashion of the day to apply when the broken-hearted and 

 starved son of genius has gone " to that bourne from whence no traveller 

 returns." 



I know that we are yet a young people, intent on providing for our 

 animal wants and propensities ; that the time for general refinement is 

 not yet arrived ; and that individual fortunes are too small and uncertain 

 in their tenure to allow much individual patronage of belles-lettres and 

 the fine arts. I know that in the roar and explosion of political excite- 

 ment, the mercenary struggles for place, and President making, it is 

 difficult to be heard on any other subject, and harder still to produce 

 much effect. I know and confess all these things, and still I say, if ye be 

 wise men, men possessed of hearts and minds, men capable of sympathy 

 and feeling, loving your own country and desiring that it be honored, 

 spare a little of your superfluous time and means to the- encouragement 

 of intellectual pursuits. Do in a body what you cannot as individu- 

 als. Tell your Representatives that you do not consider money so 

 employed as thrown away. Tell them that the best way to encourage 

 patriotism and a right public spirit is to place before your eyes graphic 

 scenes of great national events and statues of patriotic men ; that no 

 eloquence of language or description, no force of argument and example, 

 speaks more directly to the head and heart than the creations of the 

 artist who pours upon his canvass the light and glory of his genius, 

 gives existence to the memory of departed worth, and perpetuates living 

 merit by the magic touches of his chisel. 



