G.A.R. CHIEF CONDEMNS GOV. SMITH'S PROMOTION OF STONE MOUNTAIN MEMORIAL
Uniontown, Pennsylvania (JFK+50) On August 4, 1925, L. F. Arensburg, national commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, sent a telegram to Governor Al Smith of New York "protesting against the governor taking any part in a drive to promote interest in the Stone Mountain Memorial*."
Mr. Arensburg adds...
"I hope you may...cancel your engagements...to speak in behalf of the Stone Mountain coinage act*."
In his view, the coin signifies "treason and rebellion" and is a slap in the face of 125,000 Union survivors and their many descendants.
In a letter accompanying the telegram, Mr. Arensburg writes that Governor Smith is committing "political suicide" by lending his support to the Stone Mountain project.
*Stone Mountain Memorial, located 15 miles east of Atlanta, was purchased by the State of Georgia in 1958 as a memorial to the Confederacy. It is the most visited tourist attraction in the state.
**Stone Mountain Memorial Coinage Act (1925) authorized the minting of a commemorative half-dollar to raise funds for the Confederate memorial in Georgia. It allowed 5 million coins to be minted with the likenesses of Robert E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson on the obverse.
The Stone Mountain Commemorative Half-Dollar, containing 90% silver, is selling for $65 on Ebay.
JFK+50 NOTE
My Uncle Ralph White left me a 1925 Stone Mountain Memorial half-dollar which I still have. Growing up in East Tennessee, I have always been interested in the Civil War which so divided our country and my state.
While my ancestors were Unionists, in the 1960s & 1970s we considered ourselves Southerners and did not see anything wrong with displaying the Confederate flag or singing Dixie. The University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Band played the song at home football games.
I attended a Stone Mountain July 4th festival with friends who lived in Atlanta in the late 1970s and never considered it anything but a celebration of America.
Those days are long passed.
SOURCE
"Aiding Stone Mountain Memorial 'Suicide' G.A.R. Head Warns Gov. Smith," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 4, 1925, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
