On the rather
ordinary Sunday evening of February 5, 1911, the dome of the Missouri Capitol
was struck by lightning a third and final time. The capitol had survived direct
hits in 1901 and 1904 but it was the last strike in 1911 that proved to be more
than the people’s capitol could withstand. Accounts from that evening describe
in horror the frantic and chaotic actions of the citizens as they tried to
contain the blaze. Even then-Governor Hadley, in one last desperate attempt,
took up a hose but fought in vain as fire consumed the building.
One newspaper account described the scene as such:
“When
the last bit of woodwork had fallen from the dome, leaving the barren steel
framework blood-red with heat, the blaze scurried along the great roof. The
flame divided, one fork worked to the north while the other ignited the top of
the south wing…”
After all was
over and the fire but smoldering embers, the capitol was left an ashen husk
standing on the horizon. Yet out of the destruction, the citizens of Missouri
rebuilt this cathedral of democracy. It was built to withstand the forces of
nature and be an anchor for which all Missourians could moor their right of
self-government.
So on this 102nd
anniversary of the burning of the Missouri’s state capitol, we must remember
that our ideals are not found in the buildings we erect but in the hearts of
the people. We can always rebuild a fallen and destroyed structure, but it is
far more difficult to rebuild a free society when the ideals that have guided
us through history are ravaged by forces greater than mere lightning that may
erupt across the sky. Our resolve is strengthened and made anew by the fires of
passion and through an embrace of the notion that the welfare of the people is
the supreme law of the land.
