ABOUT THE STATUE:
This 8 ft. x 39 1/2 in. x 39 1/2 in. bronze sculpture of Edmund Burke stands on a rectangular granite base measuring 72 in. in height x 92 in. in width. The sculpture of Burke portrays him standing with his right leg stepping forward and his right hand raised and waving. His left hand is down at his side and is holding a three-cornered hat. He is wearing a long jacket, a vest, and knee breeches. His hair, which is parted down the middle, curls up just above his ears.
The sculpture is signed: J. Havard Thomas MDCCXCIV/CAST A CIRE PERDUE H.H. MARTYN Co. Ltd. Cheltenham 1922.
The front side of the base is inscribed with:
BVRKE
1729-1797
"MAGNANIMITY IN POLITICS IS
NOT SELDOM THE
TRVEST WISDOM"
The east side of the base is inscribed with:
THIS STATVE
A COPY OF THE WORK
OF HARVARD THOMAS IN
THE CITY OF BRISTOL/ENGLAND WAS PRESENT-
ED THROVGH THE SVL-
GRAVE INSTITVTION TO
THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA
BY SIR CHARLES CHEERS
WAKEFIELD BARONET
FORMERLY LORD MAYOR
OF LONDON/ERECTED A.D. 1922
ABOUT THE MAN:
"Edmund Burke PC (12 January [NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party.
He is mainly remembered for his support of the cause of the American Revolutionaries, and for his later opposition to the French Revolution. The latter led to his becoming the leading figure within the conservative faction of the Whig party, which he dubbed the "Old Whigs", in opposition to the pro–French Revolution "New Whigs", led by Charles James Fox.
Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century. Since the 20th century, he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of modern Conservatism, as well as a representative of classical liberalism."
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"Like most strongly intellectual thinkers and writers, Burke is hard to characterize. He was born in Ireland of a Protestant father and Catholic mother. Reared a Protestant, Burke studied law for a while but abandoned it for a career of writing and intense activity in public life. Entering the Commons in 1765 as a Whig at the time of the Stamp Act, Burke earned popularity among the American colonists through championing their cause, along with Pitt and his associate John Wilkes, all strongly pro-American. His career is marked by a strong advocacy of individual freedom, emancipation of slaves, free trade, and aid to Catholics in Ireland. His writings on the French Revolution (which he condemned for its excesses), and his opposition to imprisonment for libel, showed a strong bent for individual freedom as opposed to statism and government power. Today, Burke would be typecast as a libertarian conservative. Masonically, there is no sure evidence of Burke's membership, though he is thought to have belonged to Jerusalem Lodge No. 44, Clerkenwell, London, sometimes referred to as "Burke's Lodge." Members of this Lodge made John Wilkes a Mason while that worthy was in prison, in 1769.
His treatise on Defence of the Colonists in America was required reading in public high schools in Washington, DC in the 1930s."
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