Washington, DC, 1999.
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PROGRAM OF CEREMONIES
ATTENDING THE UNVEILING
OF THE STATUE OF
1722 SCOTLAND
JOHN WITHERSPOON
PRINCETON
1794
THURSDAY AFTERNOON
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MAY 20, 1909
DR. JOHN WITHERSPOON
PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STATUE
HISTORY
John Witherspoon, born in Scotland in 1722, was a lineal descendant of John Knox. He entered the University of Edinburgh at the age of fourteen, graduated in its classical and divinity schools, and began his work as a minister at twenty-one. His high standing in Scotland as a preacher and scholar led to his election as president of Princeton College in 1768. In 1774 he was chosen a delegate to the New Jersey provincial convention, and the year following to the Continental Congress, in which body he remained almost continuously to the close of the Revolutionary War. He was one of the first of its members to favor independence, and gained great celebrity for his speech in Congress on July 4, 1776, urging the immediate adoption and proclamation of the Declaration of Independence. He was the only clergyman a member of that body and a signer of the Declaration. He filled prominent places on many committees of Congress, and was a constant and devoted friend of Washington. He early predicted that the American Revolution “would be an important event in the history of mankind;” and as the triumph became apparent, he advocated “a permanent and well-planned confederacy among the states of America that may hand down the blessing of peace and public order to many generations.” Horace Walpole declared in parliament that the American Colonies had “run away with a Presbyterian minister;” and a British officer at the close of the war wrote of Witherspoon as “this political firebrand, who perhaps had no less share in the Revolution than Washington himself.” After the war he resumed his duties as President of Princeton College. He died in 1794.
ORDER OF EXERCISES
Music
United States Marine Band
Invocation
Rev. Jeremiah Witherspoon, D.D., Richmond, Va.
Hymm—“For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest”
Hymnal, 409
A Sketch of the Memorial
Hon. John W. Foster
Chairman of the Memorial Association
Address
Right Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador
Music
United States Marine Band
Address
President Woodrow Wilson, LL.D., Princeton University
Address
Vice-president James S. Sherman
Hymn—“My Country, 'Tis of Thee”
Hymnal 665
Address
Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland
President of Board of Commissioners, D. C.
Unveiling of the Statue
By Master William Banks Withers, Raleigh, N. C.
(Descendant of Dr. John Witherspoon in Sixth Generation)
Music
United States Marine Band
Benediction
Rev. David W. Woods, Gettysburg, Pa.
(Descendant. Author of
Life of Dr. John Witherspoon)
Concluding Music
United States Marine Band
In addition to signing the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Witherspoon was a member of the Continental Congress when the American flag was adopted as the nation's emblem. As a part of the unveiling ceremonies the flags will be dipped and raised in his honor.
THE WITHERSPOON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
TRUSTEES
John W. Foster,
Chairman
E.
Southard Parker,
Treasurer
Henry B. F. Macfarland,
Secretary
Andrew Carnegie, New York
Morris K. Jessup, New York
Stephen B. Elkins, U. S. S., West Virginia
William B. Mckinley, M.C., Illinois
Mrs. Stanley Matthews, Washington
John Wanamaker, Philadelphia
William Couper, New York
Sculptor
RECEPTION COMMITTEE FOR THE UNVEILING CEREMONIES
MEMBERS LARGELY FROM THE
D. C. SOCIETY
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, PRINCETON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
AND SONS OF THE REVOLUTION
FREDERICK D. OWEN
Chairman
Frank L. Biscoe, M.D.
Frederick C. Bryan
John D. Carmody
Chester A. Clark
Andrew B. Graham
Henry O. Hall
Samuel Herrick
Edwin A. Hill
Caleb C. Magruder, Jr.
Henry W. Samson
Edmund Brady
G. Thomas Dunlop
Dr. John Dunlop
Wallace D. McLean
Oliver Metzerott
James L. Norris, Jr.
Henry V. Tulloch
Max C. J. Wiehle
John E. Fenwick
Wm. W. Ayres
Philander Betts
U. S. J. Dunbar
F. F. Gillen
Frederick B. Hyde
William S. Knox
W. P. Kyle
S. B. Muncaster
B. H. Warner, Jr.
W. D. Wirt
Designs for the
Court, Decorations and the Unveiling, Contributed
by Frederick D. Owen
George C. Hough, Assistant
GEO E. HOWARD PRESS
WASHINGTON
DUPLICAT
E EXCHANGED.
SEP 16 1911
COMMISSION LIBRARY.
INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA
“For my own part, of property I have some, of reputation more. That reputation is staked, that property is pledged, on the issue of this contest; and although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country.”
Dr. Witherspoon in Continental Congress, July 4, 1776
NASSAU HALL, PRINCETON, N. J.