STATUE OF JOHN WITHERSPOON
This statue stands in front of the Church of the Covenant, on Connecticut Avenue, near that of Longfellow. Congress provided the site and pedestal at a cost of $4,000. It is the work of William Couper, sculptor. It was presented to the United States by the Witherspoon Memorial Association, and unveiled May 20, 1909.
John Witherspoon was a Presbyterian clergyman, at one time president of what is now Princeton University, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the only clergyman among the signers of that famous document.
STATUE OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE
STATUE OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
STATUE OF JOHN WITHERSPOON
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC MEMORIAL
On the north side of the pedestal is a quotation from Witherspoon, made during the War for Independence, as follows:
FOR MY OWN PART, OF PROPERTY I HAVE SOME, OF REPUTATION MORE. THAT REPUTATION IS STAKED, THAT PROPERTY IS PLEDGED ON THE ISSUE OF THIS CONTEST, AND ALTHOUGH THESE GREY HAIRS MUST SOON DESCEND INTO THE SEPULCHRE, I WOULD INFINITELY RATHER THAT THEY DESCEND THITHER BY THE HAND OF THE EXECUTIONER THAN DESERT AT THIS CRISIS THE SACRED CAUSE OF MY COUNTRY