Tea at Trianon: The Castleman Statue

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, May 10, 2019

The Castleman Statue

From Leo Weekly:

So, if Castleman is removed, shouldn’t logic follow that we also remove the statues of Thomas Jefferson in front of Metro Hall, King Louis XVI at the corner of Jefferson and Sixth streets, chained slaves at the Lincoln sculpture, George Rogers Clark on the Belvedere, Charles Farnsley on West Main Street and the Yandell banner and rename the Watterson Expressway and J. B. Speed Art Museum? And, some might argue that the banners of local icons Colonel Sanders and Muhammad Ali should be reviewed. The criterion of would these statues be welcome in all parts of Louisville sets an impossible standard to uphold in this politically-correct cleansing of history. (Read more.)

This is one of the several articles about the John B. Castleman statue that appeared in the May 8 issue of LEO Weekly. To read the rest, go here. Share