39 



And especially the Committee bear testimony to the skill and abili- 

 ty of the sculptor, H. K. Brown, whose works of art adorn Greenwood 

 and Union Square and the national Capitol at Washington, and many 

 other places of lesser note, and who with long and patient labor has 

 produced this bronze statue, which portrays the likeness and character- 

 istics of our late and lamented President to such a degree as to excite 

 the admiration and high satisfaction of our best critics. 



And now it becomes my duty — as it is my pleasure — in the name of 

 the War Fund Committee, formally to request the Brooklyn Park 

 Commissioners, of whom (to Mr. Stranahan), you, sir, are the honored 

 President, to accept in perpetuity the custody of this statue of Abra- 

 ham Lincoln, to love and to cherish and protect during all the days 

 of your authority. 



May it ever stand here, looking out over our fair city, where it will 

 hold in review the millions who will visit this beautiful Park, and 

 where our citizens, and the people of every name, as they come up 

 those broad avenues, and look toward the rising sun, will ever be 

 reminded of the pure, the noble, the patriotic Abraham Lincoln. 



May his life and character be a model to ourselves and to our chil- 

 dren, and to all who would aspire to influence and position in our land. 

 May the union of all the States, and universal liberty — which he loved, 

 and which was his highest earthly aim to preserve — ever be dear to 

 the hearts of his countrymen, and may all the people of the East and 

 the West, of the North and the South, feel themselves to be one peo- 

 ple, with one common interest, only emulating each other by their love 

 for the old flag, and for the whole country, and for the whole country's 

 2;ood. 



ME. STRANAHAN's ACCEPTANCE ON BEHALF OF THE PARK COMMISSION. 



Gentlemen of the War Fund Committee : — The Park Commis- 

 sioners have selected in this, the main entrance to Prospect Park, three 

 positions, as, in their judgment, affording appropriate localities for the 

 erection of as many statues, as memorials of three of the eminent men 

 whose lives are intimately identified with three great struggles in our 

 country's history. In one of these positions they hope to see a statue 

 of George Washington, who on this ground fought his first battle in 

 the war of the Revolution, and whose services as Commander-in-chief 

 of the Revolutionary army, and subsequently as President of these 



