Monuments and Reconciliation

 

With the election of Rutherford B. Hayes by a one vote margin in the Electoral College, the Compromise of 1877 ended the era of Reconstruction in the minds of the people.  As Southern States were re-admitted into the Union, Federal troops stood down or returned to the North.  From about 1885 to 1924, before and after the 50th Anniversary of the War Between the States, there was a great sense of need for the spirit of forgiveness and reunification and remembrance of the greatest war Americans ever fought and hopefully ever will.  There was a great desire for conciliation and honor for those now aging and to those who had perished on the battlefields.  This was also the America Beautiful period in our history in which parks, public spaces, sculpture, urban landscaping and rebuilding was going on across the nation with a positive sense of making life more livable, civil and cultured.

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