Tea at Trianon: Garden of American Heroes

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, January 22, 2021

Garden of American Heroes

From CNA:

The National Garden of American Heroes will include statues of many notable Catholic figures, including five saints and numerous people who are on the path to sainthood. President Donald Trump announced in an executive order Jan. 18 that a garden will be built to “reflect the awesome splendor of our country’s timeless exceptionalism,” and to serve as a response to the spate of vandalism on statues during the summer of 2020.

“On (the National Garden’s) grounds, the devastation and discord of this moment will be overcome with abiding love of country and lasting patriotism,” said Trump. “America is responding to the tragic toppling of monuments to our founding generation and the giants of our past by commencing a new national project for their restoration, veneration, and celebration.” (Read more.)

From Just the News:

Joe Biden on the first day of his term shuttered former President Trump's 1776 Commission that championed "patriot education." Biden ended the project Wednesday with an executive order that also overturned a final report released this week by the group.
The commission was established in September 2020, after the publication of The New York Times' 1619 Project, which attempted to reframe U.S. history by making the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans more central to the "national narrative."

The project's content has also become part of some U.S. high school and college curriculums. Biden's order said the 1776 Commission's 45-page report released Tuesday "sought to erase America's history of racial injustice." Matt Spalding, who was the commission's executive director, said members aimed to "put together a report to address the core question that was asked to the commission, which is to come to give an explanation of America's core principles and how they have shaped and understood in our history." (Read more.)