From the Richmond Dispatch, 2/28/1888

THE LIBBY DEED RECORDED.
A Number of Chicagoans Opposed to the Scheme.

The deed of sale to Libby Prison was put on record yesterday. The price named is $23,300, of which the first payment ($5,825) has been made. W. H. Gray, of Chicago, is the buyer, and the Southern Fertilizing Company (Colonel W. H. Palmer, president) is the seller.

A telegraphic dispatch from Chicago says: There is a great deal of quiet discussion going on in Chicago over the proposed removal here from Richmond of the Libby-Prison building. It is pretty nearly a one-sided question, the only difference of opinion observable being as to the reasons against the removal.

“What do you think about the plan to bring Libby Prison to Chicago?” was asked of Controller H. A. Burley.

“I think it would revive the sectional feelings and prejudices. I do not think that Chicago is going to be a gainer, and I have not seen in any paper a good reason for bringing it here.”

Judge Tuley said: “I do not think it a politic thing to do. As soon as we can burn up those mementoes of the war, both North and South, the better it will be for the good of the country. It is not advisable from any point of view to keep alive any of the worst memories of the war, such as Libby and Andersonville prisons.”

United States Attorney W. G. Ewing: “I think that Libby Prison ought to have been blown to atoms twenty-five years ago. There can be no possible public good result from bringing it here or taking it anywhere. Architecturally it is an abortion, and it would be a disgrace from that point alone for any part of Chicago within eight miles of the court-house. Do you think anybody is really seriously thinking about it? The only result of such a thing would be to bankrupt the men who undertook it.”

John B. Drake: “I think the whole thing is absurd. It ought not to be done. It is only a speculation and ought to be a failure. It only keeps alive the sectional feeling, and the people of Richmond should not allow it to be done and the people of Chicago should not do it.

Mr. W. H. Gray, the Chicago purchaser of Libby, left here on the 6:25 Chesapeake and Ohio train yesterday evening for home.

• Prev
• Next