Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The last change is most signifi cant in its infl uence on the development of the
capital's central axis line. It was on the reclaimed land on the western extreme of the
central axis that the Lincoln Memorial was constructed in 1922. This signifi ed
graphically the starting point of the axis line from west to east of the capital. This
horizontal axis of Washington from west to east is less than one kilometer shorter
than the perpendicular axis of Old Beijing from north to south. In 1976 the
Constitution Gardens on the north side of the long narrow “Refl ecting Pool” in front
of the Memorial, were opened to the public in order to celebrate the 200th anniver-
sary of Independence Day.
It should be highlighted the construction of the Lincoln Memorial for it has not
only further developed the original central axis designed by L'Enfant, but also fur-
nished the underlying theme embodied by the central axis line with a new implica-
tion. The Lincoln Memorial is a structure of white marble, simple and dignifi ed.
Mounting the many marble steps in front of the Memorial, one comes to see an
immense white marble sculpture of President Lincoln sitting and meditating in the
middle of the hall. There is no other thing or decoration around except that in the far
end of the hall the two famous speeches by Lincoln were carved on the north and
the south sides respectively. One contains the phrase he used to describe a govern-
ment which has “a new rebirth of freedom”, that is, “of the people, by the people,
and for the people”. When one comes to pay his/her respect to the Memorial, stands
before the statue and looks back eastward beyond the tall Washington Monument
and the great span of green lawn of the Mall to the big white vault of the Capitol, he/
she cannot help thinking of the great contribution President Lincoln made to the
United States of America.
In spite of all these, we must also see that since the establishment of the
Federal Government, the principles of human rights and the ideal that all men are
born free and equal as expressed in the Declaration of Independence not only had
not been truly realized, but the internal confl icts had become even more serious.
Among them the major one was the rivalry between the North as represented by
the employers of laborers, and the South as represented by the owners of slaves.
When Lincoln was elected President of America in 1860, he declared his strong
opposition to slavery, and issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in
September, 1862. By that time the Civil War had broken out, and the issue of the
Proclamation made the situation increasingly tense. Although the North army
won the fi nal victory, Lincoln, after being elected President for the second time
in November, 1864, was assassinated by a killer sent by Southern slave owners
in April, 1865.
Although the struggle led by President Lincoln saved the United States from fall-
ing apart, the problem of racial discrimination still existed. In 1866, the year after
Lincoln was assassinated, a group of Southern racists established a reactionary
organization called the KKK (Ku-Klux-Klan), which brutally attacked and mur-
dered black people. In August, 1963, the well-known anti-racism activist, Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous speech “I have a Dream” before
200,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the signing of the
Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, he got assassinated by racists in April,
