Benutzer:Altkatholik62/Sacred Cod

Vorlage:Good Article Vorlage:Infobox artwork The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts is a four-foot, eleven-inch painted woodcarving of a codfish carved out of a solid piece of pine. It hangs in the House of Representatives chamber of Boston's Massachusetts State Houseas "a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth." Vorlage:Citation needed

There have been three incarnations of the Sacred Cod effigy, over three centuries. The first was lost in an 1747 fire, the second disappeared around the time of the American Revolution, and the third is the one on display today.

The Sacred Cod was stolen as a practical joke in 1933 by students from Harvard University, causing the Massachusetts State Police to drag the Charles River and search a plane in Newark, New Jersey for the fish. It was recovered two days later. It was stolen again by students from the newly founded University of Massachusetts Boston in 1968 as a protest. The cod was found three days later behind a door in the House chamber.

There is also a brass casting of a fish incorporated into the central chandelier of the Massachusetts Senate chamber, known as the Holy Mackerel.

Background

The Atlantic cod

Cod has a long history in Massachusetts and is entwined with many of the state's early events and people. Fishing for the Atlantic cod, was the first industry for much of coastal Massachusetts prior to the Industrial Revolution. It was so important that an 1895 report by the Massachusetts legislature states that, "the first product of American industry exported from Massachusetts was a cargo of fish."

Representations of codfish have been used for symbolic purposes in New England for centuries. Cod were represented on many early American coins as well as a two-penny stamp for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Images of cod have represented government and organizations across New England, appearing on the Plymouth Land Company seal, the 1776 state Seal of New Hampshire, and the early crest of the Salem Gazette. The cod was also incorporated into countless weathervanes up and down the New England coast and it appeared briefly on the Massachusetts license plate. In 1974 the cod was chosen by Massachusetts as the official state fish.

a round seal with an upright cod on the left, a bundle of five arrows in the center, and a tree on the right.

The 1776 state Seal of New Hampshire

The term "sacred cod" originally referred to the type of fish itself. To help distinguish between cod and haddock, a folktale evolved in which cod was the fish multiplied by Jesus during the miracle of the loaves and fishes. According to the story, the sacred cod bears the marks of Jesus' thumb and forefinger, where he touched the fish. The Devil tried to multiply fish to show he was just as powerful as Jesus. He grabbed a haddock and it slipped out of his fiery hands leaving two dark scorch marks on its sides. The "sacred cod" term that came from this story followed the fish, and the saying stuck in Boston. It was used by President William Howard Taft when on April 25, 1912 he made a telephone call from Boston to an Associated Press and American Newspaper Publishers Association banquet, where he stated "(I have the) opportunity to speak to you by long distance telephone from the home of the sacred cod." The 1922 book The Maritime History of Massachusetts, by Samuel Eliot Morison, stated "Puritan Massachusetts derived her ideals from a sacred book; her wealth and power from the sacred cod."

Calling the carving in the House of Representatives the "Sacred Cod" seems to be a somewhat modern invention. In 1784, a motion in the house was introduced by John Rowe to create a new Cod. In the motion, the carving is called "the representation of a Cod Fish." Over 100 years later, in 1895, a committee in the House of Representatives wrote an official history of the carving. In this history it is generally referred to as the "emblem of the codfish", but at one point in the first chapter it is called "the sacred emblem". By 1933, the name "Sacred Cod" had been connected not just to the fish in general, but to the carving in particular. Multiple news articles covering the Cod-napping refer to the pine fish as "The Sacred Cod".

History

The Council Chamber in the Old State House, where the Sacred Cod once hung.

The modern Massachusetts State House, ca. 1862

Etching, from Ballou's Pictorial (1856), of the old Rep­re­sent­a­tives (now Senate) chamber, with the Sacred Cod near upper right.

The Sacred Cod suspended above the rear balcony of the Rep­re­sent­a­tives chamber.

The Holy Mackerel can be seen above the lights in the chandelier in the Massachusetts Senate.

A representation of a codfish has hung, with interruptions, in the chamber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (or its predecessor, the House of Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay) since the early 18th century, though in three successive incarnations. Of the first of these, the House Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish (1895) wrote: Vorlage:Quote Whatever its origin, when the State House burned in 1747 "this prehistoric creature of tradition ... doubtless went up in a whirl of smoke which still clouds its history to the peering vision of the antiquarian."

A second Cod appeared sometime between 1748 (when the State House was rebuilt) and 1773 (when Thomas Crafts, Jr. billed the Province of Massachusetts Bay, "To painting Codfish, 15 shillings"). But within a few years, the Committee said, Vorlage:Quote The Committee found "good reason to believe that this missing fish, or its successor, which has come down to us, was carved by one John Welch, a Boston patriot"—more likely the earlier one, considering Welch's advanced age when the third Cod was made around 1784.

The third Sacred Cod was installed in 1784, after Representative John Rowe asked leave "to hang up the representation of a Cod Fish in the room where the House sit, as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly ... And so the emblem was suspended" in the old State House once again, and this Cod (which Rowe may have paid for personally) is the one extant today.

In 1798 the Representatives brought it with them to the new State House, where it originally hung "directly over the Speaker's desk, but in the [1850s] it was shifted to the rear of the chamber", where it remained except for being taken down twice for painting.

On January 2, 1895—the House's last day of business before moving permanently to a new chamber in the same building— Vorlage:Quote Accordingly, "after nearly two months of painstaking research and investigation" the Committee on History of the Emblem of the Codfish submitted its report, and after debating "at length" the House ordered "immediate removal of the ancient 'representation of a codfish' from its present position in the chamber recently vacated by the House, and to cause it to be suspended ... in this chamber..."

The Sacred Cod was wrapped in an American flag, placed on a bier, and—escorted by the Sergeant-at-Arms—carried by House messengers to the new House chamber, where the assembled Representatives rose and applauded. After repainting by Walter M. Brackett, it was hung where it remains today: "between the two sets of central columns, and under the names 'Motley,' and 'Parkman'," facing left as viewed from the speaker's chair.Vorlage:Cn News articles sometimes state that the fish is turned to face whichever political party is currently in power, but this tradition was not recorded by the Committee.

The "Cod-napping"

On April 26, 1933, as a practical joke, hidden behind a publicity stunt promoting their upcoming parody of Fortune magazine, members of the Harvard Lampoon (the Harvard College humor magazine) entered the House gallery, cut down the Cod, and carried it away hidden in a flower box.

According to the New York Times, Massachusetts officials were "shocked into a condition bordering on speechlessness" by the theft, "some legislators holding that it would be sacrilege to transact business without the emblem of the Commonwealth looking down on them", while Boston mayor James Michael Curley received a telephone message: "Tell the Mayor that when the Sacred Cod is returned it will be wrapped in the municipal flag, now flying in front of City Hall. Try and catch us when we cop the flag. Lafayette Mulligan, we are here." The State Police went so far as to drag the Charles River and, learning that a Lampoon editor had flown to New Jersey, had the plane searched on landing.

Eventually a tip sent Harvard College police chief Charles R. Apted to West Roxbury where two men, with collars up and hats pulled down, emerged from a car to hand over the Cod (not wrapped in any flag) before speeding away. In the early hours of April 29, after repairs to three damaged fins, the Sacred Cod was re-hung in the House chamber, "six inches higher [than] the reach of any individual. A stepladder will be needed to remove it in the future." No one was charged,Vorlage:Clarify and the incident came to be called "The Cod-napping" even by State House officials.

Post "Cod-napping"

The next threat to the Sacred Cod came when the World War II aluminum-for-defense drive, mistakenly informed that the Cod was aluminum, asked that it be donated to the war effort. House Speaker Christian Herter explained that the Cod had been created 43 years before aluminum's discovery, and suggested that the "Holy Mackerel", another, albeit metallic, fish emblem incorporated into the chandelier of the Senate chamber, be considered for sacrifice instead.

On November 14, 1968, the Sacred Cod disappeared for a second time. Thieves climbed over a partition from the press gallery to the visitor's gallery then employed a ladder to reach the fish. Capitol Police were distracted with a welfare demonstration taking place outside the building and did not notice the theft.

The first group accused of this second theft was the Lampoon, but their spokesman Larry Looper stated, "We haven't exercised our sacred rights on the cod for some time now, we're too sophisticated for that kind of stuff."

Shortly after the carving was stolen an anonymous spokesman for a group of 10 students from the newly founded University of Massachusetts Boston contacted all major Boston newspapers and stated the group had stolen the cod, had no intention of keeping it, and would return the fish within two months. They claimed the theft was in protest of the "arbitrariness" of the decision to build UMASS Boston's permanent campus at Columbia Point. One of the students stated, "We are offended that the legislators spend between 6 million and 8 million on our college in Boston, yet there are not 5% of these legislators who have ever cared to visit our institutions."

Three days after the theft, a search of the State House began when a man described as "the father of one of the students reported to have taken the cod" called the police. He explained that the students never removed the carving from the State House. Apparently, after the thieves had taken the fish down from its hanging place, they had brought it down a private staircase and left it behind a door in a hallway used only while the House is in session. At 5:30 p.m. on November 17, 1968, Capitol police found the Sacred Cod. It was undamaged and standing on its tail. While the Sacred Cod was dusted for fingerprints, and threats of the responsible parties being charged with "criminal trespass" and "attempted larceny", no one was charged for the actions of that weekend.

External links

• Boston Public Library. Photo, 1933