179 



merely, or as a testimonial to be preserved in a family cabi- 

 net like the Copley medal or the medals of our agricul- 

 tural and mechanics' institutes, but as a record, to be multi- 

 plied for wide diffusion and permanent endurance. 



It is the question of practical utility whether, in our reso- 

 lutions ordering medals to be struck, we aim to obtain or 

 succeed in obtaining thereby, the perpetual remembrance of 

 the event. 



Let us look at some facts close at hand, and if the facts 

 were equally accessible regarding other cases, we should 

 probably show similar results. The state of New York 

 has within a few years ordered medals to be struck in honor 

 of the public services of Col. Bliss, Dr. Kane and Lieut. 

 Hartstene. The grand oversight was made in the case of 

 each one of these, that simply a single medal was ordered 

 to be struck, except that two copies were ordered to be 

 made of the one for Col. Bliss. Those ordered were to be 

 of gold, and to be given to the persons in whose honor they 

 were voted. No provision was made for securing the dies 

 to the state, or having a single copy made in silver or 

 bronze for any other person, or for any institution. 



The chances, therefore, that a perpetual memorial has 

 been created in these cases, are, so far as these facts go, 

 very small ; and these chances are diminished from the fact 

 that the medals are in gold, which from its intrinsic value 

 offers so great temptation to destroy them. In the multi- 

 plication of medals, copper and bronze are much more ap- 

 propriate to the ultimate object of a medal, the perpetuat- 

 ing the remembrance of great actions, than either gold or 

 silver. Covetousness or ignorance will recklessly destroy 

 a gold medal for the sake of gain, while an inferior metal 

 would be exempt from injur} 7 . Medals do not receive their 

 value from the preciousness of the metal. 



The true course to pursue would be, first to order a medal 

 to be struck in honor of an achievement, then to provide 

 that a copy in gold should be given to the hero, and finally 



