(FreedomBeacon.com)- According to a professor there, a figure of President Abraham Lincoln and a bronze plaque commemorating the Gettysburg Address have been taken down from Cornell University’s library.
Professor Randy Wayne of Cornell Campus informed the College Fix that a Gettysburg Address plaque and Lincoln bust that had been on display at the Kroch Library of the Ivy League university since 2013 had been removed because “someone complained.”
The professor said that he had visited the library a few weeks prior and observed that they were missing. He added that when he inquired about it with the librarians, they could not provide any further information beyond stating that it had been taken down as a consequence of a complaint.
The professor allegedly sent the following email to Cornell University President Martha Pollack on Thursday:
Do you know that the bust of Abraham Lincoln that Ezra Cornell bought and the bronze plaque of the Gettysburg Address that stood next to it has been taken out of the RMC at Kroch Library, and nothing has been put in their place? Can you explain why, if you are aware? Thanks.
According to Wayne, President Pollack still hasn’t responded to him as of Tuesday.
Wayne told the College Fix that the Gettysburg Address is an incredible speech. Cornell has a copy that Lincoln wrote by hand. The Bancroft Copy is what people call it. It comes with an envelope signed by Lincoln and a letter to Bancroft thanking him for asking for a copy of the address to be sold for charity.
The professor said he displays these documents to his students and the massive iron manacles used to enslave people. It said something about our love of liberty when we took his words— and his bust ut of the hallway.
In response to Breitbart News’ request for comment and explanation, Rebecca Valli, director of media relations at Cornell University, sent the following statement:
A temporary exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address included a bust of President Lincoln. From 2013 until 2021, the statue was exhibited at the Rare and Manuscript Collections.
One of the five known copies of the Gettysburg Address written by Abraham Lincoln is proudly kept at Cornell. A digital facsimile is always visible, but the original is safely hidden away. Five electronic Lincoln displays are also accessible online around-the-clock.
Although the reason for removing the bust and plaque from Cornell’s library is unknown, students are calling for a strange new trend in our increasingly irascible society: the removal of American historical figures from college campuses.
The student government proposed to have an Abraham Lincoln statue removed from campus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020. The resolution described the statue as a “racist relic” of “white supremacy.”
All you can do is shake your head and hope this stupidity ceases one day.
