Revisiting the Edmund Burke Monument
The Edmund Burke statue on Massachusetts Avenue and 11th Street NW is a perfect case for the Revisiting Series. Not only is the face on the bronze statue unfamiliar, but even if a passerby—vehicular or pedestrian—did somehow recognize Burke’s mug (or could catch a glimpse of the “BVRKE” on the base), they would still most likely be curious as to why one of history’s most vocal anti-revolutionaries has been immortalized in the capital city of one of history’s most famous revolutions.
It was his Reflections on the Revolution in France that established Burke as such a prominent anti-revolutionary. He famously disputed the liberal views of those like Thomas Paine or the abbè Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, who had been campaigning in favor of republican revolution since the Enlightenment.
In fact, Burke’s articulation of the importance of tradition and the danger of rapid change was so strong that it became a major tenet of contemporary conservatism. To some, Burke is the founding father of conservatism.
But for all the passion with which he opposed the French Revolution, Burke had a completely different reaction to the American one. He spoke publicly against the Parliament’s commerce policies with the colony, saying they had been uncompromising when pragmatism was needed, for he felt that authority must be wielded with respect for the temper of the populace. If so much of America was ready to revolt, he said, something was obviously wrong. He advocated measures to restore the colony’s trust in their imperial overseer.
Photo courtesy of dcmemorials.com.
So it is fitting that the Sulgrave Institution—an organization purporting to promote Anglo-American understanding—presented the Bronze statue in 1922. Our version is actually a copy of the statue that stands in Bristol, England, the city Burke represented in Parliament.
To take the connection even further, James M. Goode writes in The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington, D.C. that the Sulgrave Institution was responsible for restoring the Sulgrave Manor in England, where George Washington’s ancestors once lived. And in the entrance to the Manor, you can find the Washington coat of arms, whose three red stars and two red stripes were the inspiration for D.C.’s flag.
So it’s appropriate that this Burke statue was put in D.C. He stands there with arm raised, opining or reproving or even just asking for permission to speak, all while looking down the street towards the Cato Institute and Samuel Gompers Memorial Park—it’s historical irony, but maybe he’s really admonishing them.