An Appeal for Funds for a Monument to Commemorate the American Revolution, 14 February 1795
An Appeal for Funds for a Monument to
Commemorate the American Revolution1
Philadelphia, February 14, 1795. “Herewith you will receive the description of a monument proposed to be erected to the American Revolution, and the plan by which the means for the undertaking are to be provided…. The Artist, contemplated for the work, is Mr. Ceracchi,2 of Rome….”
D, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; D, Sol Feinstone Collection, Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
1. This is a printed letter, both copies of which are addressed in an unidentified handwriting to H. The letter is signed by George Washington and sixty other prominent men, including H. The managers of this subscription were Edmund Randolph, William Bradford, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Timothy Pickering, and Samuel Meredith. Enclosed in the letter are the “Articles of Subscription Towards Erecting a Monument to the American Revolution,” February 14, 1795, and the plan of the monument, which is entitled “A Description of the Monument Consecrated to Liberty.”
2. Giuseppe Ceracchi was a sculptor. For Cerrachi’s earlier plan for a monument to commemorate the American Revolution, see H to Richard Harison, March 7, 1792, note 2, and Ceracchi to H, July 16, 1792.
No action was taken on Ceracchi’s second plan for a monument. Ceracchi returned to Europe, became involved in a plan to assassinate Napoleon, and was guillotined in 1801 (, XXXIV, 136, n. 17).