Wisconsin Magazine of History
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Wisconsin Magazine of History The Capitol Fence of 1872 JOHN O. HOLZHUETER New Leftists mid Abolitionists: A Comparison of American Radical Styles BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN The Attempted Assassination of Teddy Roosevelt STAN GORES A Brief History of Oneota Research in Wisconsin GUY GIBBON Milwaukee in 1836 and 1849: A Contemporary Description Edited by BAYARD STILL Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 53, No. 4 Summer, 1970 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Director Officers THOMAS H. BABLAND, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Treasurer CLIFFOBD D. SWANSON, Second Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Secretary Board of Curators Ex-Officio WARREN P. KNOWLES, Governor oj the State HAROLD W. CLEMENS, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University MRS. GEORGE SWART, President of the Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 1970 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Middleton Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBEBT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Term Expires, 1971 ROGER E. AXTELL KENNETH W. HAAGENSEN MOWRY SMITH MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Oconomowoc Neenah Madison MRS. HENRY BALDWIN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Wisconsin Rapids Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander HORACE M. BENSTEAD FREDERIC E. RISSER WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Madison Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 1972 E. DAVID CRONON MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GRI;ENE WAYNE J. HOOD Madison Hartland Genesee Depot La Crosse SCOTT M. CUTLIP ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Ripon Lac du Flambeau Milwaukee W. NORMAN FITZGERALD JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. R. L. HARTZELL CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee Milwaukee GRANTSBURG Stevens Point Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison Felkiws VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, President MISS MARIE BARKMAN, Sheboygan, Vice-President MISS RUTH DAVIS, Madison, Secretary MRS. RICHARD G. ZIMMERMANN, Sheboygan, Treasurer MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, Ex-Officio VOLUME 53, NUMBER 4 / SUMMER, 1970 isconsin JLlfJLdic^ €^ij^ JL JL Jit? of History WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MARTEN, Associate Editor The Capitol Fence of 1872: A Footnote to Wisconsin Architectural History JOHN O. HOLZHUETER 243 New Leftists and Abolitionists: A Comparison of American Radical Styles BERTRAM WYATT-BROWN 256 The Attempted Assassination of Teddy Roosevelt STAN GORES 269 A Brief History of Oneota Research in Wisconsin GUY GIBBON 278 Milwaukee in 1836 and 1849: A Contemporary Description Edited by BAYARD STILL 294 Book Reviews 298 Accessions 318 Contributors 320 Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Wis. Copyright © 1970 by the State Historical Society of 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. $7.50; Family membership, $10; Contributing, $25; Busi Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ness and Professional, $50; Sustaining, $100 or more an the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the nually; Patron, $500 or more annually). Single numbers, story carries the following credit line: Reprinted from the $1.75. Microfilmed copies available through University State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History Microfilms, 313 North F'irst Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. for [insert the season and year which appear on the Maga Commimications should be addressed to the editor. The zine]. Society does not assume responsibility for statements made J^/»^j^ Cofnfs///'(iri B.tlMO-k'Sv,.^,^ This landscape design for ihe capitol park was very likely executed by Horace William Shuler Cleveland, a noted landscape architect hired by the capitol park commission in 1872. The original plan is in ink with colored shadings. It features fountains, statuary, a summer house, and a music stand. The plan was discovered in the Society's Archives-Manuscripts Division. 242 THE CAPITOL FENCE OF 1872 A Footnote To Wisconsin Architectural History BY JOHN O. HOLZHUETER OMETIME IN THE 1960's a story circu several governors, a political boss, a reform S lated in high circles of Wisconsin govern minister, and the most famous landscape archi ment to the effect that the fence around the tect in the West. In a somewhat larger sense, Wisconsin Child Center at Sparta had been the fence can be seen in the tradition of internal given by King Oscar II of Norway in the 1880's improvements, a notion that conjures up ideas to beautify the Capitol Square in Madison. On of railroads and canals but which can be its face, the story has plausibility. By the stretched to include public institutions and 1880's, thousands of Norwegians had em structures, including such mundane ones as a igrated to the state and many had found fence. Items in the latter category frequently prosperity. Gratitude to Wisconsin and her created as much emotional fervor as railroads people might well have prompted a gift of a and canals, and the capitol was no exception. substantial stone and iron fence. The story has Milwaukee and other cities coveted it; it sym the attributes of logic and simplicity. Unfor bolized power to politicians; and its presence tunately, there is not a shred of truth in it. meant potential economic prosperity to the host For one thing, the fence was erected in 1872. community. In 1872 it was brand new, having For a second, 1872 was a very unlikely time for received its dome in 1869, twelve years after a Norwegian king to make a present to any it was begun. Madisonians were universally country, save his own, for in 1872 the throne proud of it. They divided politically on many passed to Oscar II on the death of Charles XV. topics, but the issue of the capitol transcended Further, the country was in the midst of polit party affiliation. Republicans and Democrats in ical turmoil. The nation had been struggling the city united in their pride of the statehouse. for decades under an uneasy union with The new three-story structure was made of Sweden, and that year the storting heard bitter yellow-brown Prairie du Chien stone, with debates about the admission of the king's semi-circular, columned porticoes facing State ministers to its halls. The proposal lost. Under and King streets, and two wings decorated with the circumstances, international philanthropy turrets at the corners, which faced North and was an unlikely gesture. South Hamilton streets. The dome had been The real story of the fence is vastly more designed by a local architect and war hero, complicated. It begins in 1872 and continues Stephen Vaughan Shipman.' For the next two through 1970, and it involves controversy. years after the dome's completion, finishing touches continued to be put on the interior of the building, and on January 11, 1872, Gov- Author's Note: Readers desiring more information about the history of Wisconsin's capitol building are referred to the Blue Book, which carries a brief '^ Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography (Madison, sketch. No thorough-going history of the state's four 1960), 326; Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy Capitols has been written, although popular versions of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 15, part 2 (1904), abound, written for school children and tourists. 927-931. 243 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1970 •m T/je hitching rail and whitewashed board fence which appear clearly in this photograph were replaced in 1872. The presence of the hitching post had created stableyard conditions along the inner perimeter of the Square. The photograph is one half of a sterescopic view taken about 1868 and is probably the Pinckney Street side of the Square. ernor Cadwallader C. Washburn told the as trict.^ Gurnee's espousal of the fence proposal sembled houses of the state legislature, "The indicates the bipartisan support the idea re State Capitol is now finished at a total cost of ceived from Madisonians. Gurnee's bill called $550,000." He visualized one last improvement for the governor, secretary of state, state treas — a fence to replace the whitewashed, simple urer, and attorney general to act as a board of board one and a drab hitching rail with a building commissioners to oversee construction sidewalk between them that circled the Square. of a $40,000 fence. On March 5, the Assembly Washburn called the board fence "temporary," accepted changes made by the Senate in the but it or one like it had been there since at bill, granting authority to the governor alone least 1842. He also suggested that the state im to oversee construction. Attempts to reduce the prove the capitol grounds generally, but he left appropriation to $30,000 failed. A spokesman initiation of legislation to the representatives.^ for the Committee on State Affairs defended Eleven days after the governor suggested a the higher figure, saying "that we had a fine fence, a bill for constructing a stone and iron State Capital [sic], with a poor dilapidated old enclosure was submitted by Assemblyman John fence and the two did not correspond."* The D. Gurnee of Madison, a Democrat from Dane fence was to be an internal improvement, de- County's traditionally Democratic second dis- * Wisconsin Assembly Journal, 1872, pp.