9781422287606

11 “Without Parallel in the World”

sculptor Horatio Greenough to fashion a statue of Washington. Greenough created a statue of the general dressed in a Greek toga and stripped to the waist, stern- ly gazing ahead and holding his right arm aloft. The stat- ue shocked Americans. It was displayed for just two years on the Capitol grounds. By 1833, it was clear that Congress had little idea how to honor the nation’s first president. And so, a group that called itself the Washington National Monument Society formed with the intention of building a huge memorial to honor Washington. George Watterston, a former director of the Library of Congress, led the effort to orga-

nize the society. He con- vinced John Marshall, now the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, to serve as the society’s first president. The soci- ety announced its inten- tions to erect a monu- Horatio Greenough’s sculpture of George Washington depicted him dressed as a seated emperor wearing a toga. The statue is now part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection.