Soon after D. M. Bennett’s death on December 6, 1882, members of The Bennett Liberal League resolved to erect a monument to the memory of their deceased League president. All had been close friends of D. M. Bennett and considered the enterprise a labor of love. A committee of eminent freethinkers was appointed, including the editor of The Truth Seeker, Eugene M. Macdonald. The Bennett Monument Fund Committee’s goal appeared in The Truth Seeker of December 23, 1882, on what would have been D. M. Bennett’s 64th birthday:

"It is intended to place as fine a monument over Mr. Bennett as the amount contributed will permit; and we hope to make it an imposing memorial of the love and esteem which will worthily mark the resting place of one of the greatest Liberals of the age."

The Committee Chairman, Daniel E. Ryan, had been the first man to grasp Bennett’s hand as he came out of the Albany Penitentiary and now, only two years later, the first of a thousand friends to contribute to the monument fund. His generous fifty-dollar donation got things off to a good start—the Committee commissioned a builder to begin construction. During the summer of 1883 while the construction was underway, the League’s hopes for an "imposing memorial" were nearly dashed. A national furor erupted after the article, "Infidelity In Greenwood Cemetery," was printed in the Pittsburgh Daily Post. The article contained numerous untruths about D. M. Bennett and even went so far as to include a fictitious interview with Bennett’s grieving widow. The writer also offered his biased prediction about rumored monument inscriptions which had not, at the time of the article’s printing, even been selected:

"Such is the fond expectation of the widow, and it may possibly be realized, but I think not in Greenwood Cemetery. The quotations selected to be inscribed are violently denunciatory of Christianity, and Greenwood is a Christian burial ground, whose authorities will not permit the diversion of sacred ground to such a use."

Greenwood was indeed a Christian burial ground and soon began receiving letters of protest from all over the country. The inscriptions chosen for the monument still had not been made public by the Committee when The New York Times’ editorial humorist reported in the paper’s August 29, 1883 issue:

"Mr. Bennett during his life—time was the editor of an infidel paper wherein the orthodox rules of grammar and spelling were treated with almost as much contempt as the editor expressed for the Christian religion. Mr. Bennett was also addicted to obscenity as well as infidelity and served a term in prison for the offense of circulating obscene literature. If the surviving admirers of Mr. Bennett choose to erect an ordinary gravestone over his remains in Greenwood no one will make any objection. They intend, however, to make his proposed monument an enduring expression of his peculiar views by decorating it with sentences taken from his works. The managers of the cemetery could not reasonably object to a tombstone bearing the name of Mr. Bennett, the dates of his birth and death, and perhaps the date of his commitment to jail; but they will certainly object to a tombstone bearing such sentences as ‘There ain’t no God,’ ‘My works ain’t no more obscene than Moseses,’ or ‘D — n ANTHONY COMSTOCK.’"

In equally passionate opposition, Eugene M. Macdonald defended his deceased mentor and attacked what he called "Brutal Journalism" in the September 8, 1883, issue of The Truth Seeker. He was especially annoyed with The New York Times and described it as:

". . . stilted, stuffy, slushy and slanderous—and yet grammatical inaccuracy cannot be charged against it. It has several suits of criminal libel now pending against it in this state nevertheless its orthodoxy has not been questioned. It defends monopoly, corporate powers, and political thieves— yet the atrocity of unbelief in the teachings of Christian superstition cannot be laid at its door."

It came as no surprise when the Committee was notified by Greenwood’s secretary that any proposed inscriptions had to be submitted to the cemetery’s Board of Trustees for approval. The Committee complied and were immediately informed by the secretary that it was unlikely the Board would permit the selections to be engraved.

With winter approaching, the builder was anxious to finish the monument; however, the Board was slow in meeting and work on the memorial came to a halt. The builder was advised by the secretary that the front of the obelisk could be engraved, but the "heretical" sentiments could not be cut on its sides, with an added reminder that the cemetery was Christian and must not be desecrated. The builder decided to place the monument in position over D. M. Bennett’s grave, but to postpone its engraving until the matter was settled between the Committee and Greenwood’s Board of Trustees.

When the trustees finally met they resolved that they could not interfere in the matter. Greenwood’s secretary, however, sent a notice demanding to speak with a Committee representative. Eugene M. Macdonald responded on behalf of the Committee and the interview, while brief, was decided. Macdonald described the secretary as "a very nice gentlemen and a good Christian" who did not want any more publicity about the monument. The secretary assured Macdonald that he could not speak authoritatively for the Board, but if the Committee persisted in putting "heretical sentiments upon the stone" —that in his opinion—in spite of the resolution, the Board would surely interfere. According to the secretary, the Board had "power to remove any monument or erase any inscription which a majority of its members might deem offensive." The man asked Macdonald not to bother the Board, but rather to agree to a compromise.

Macdonald argued, "This is not a Christian country, our laws do not recognize Christ." He also explained that the monument was on private property and the Committee was within their rights to inscribe whatever they chose. He went on to say that although he could not speak for the entire Committee, just as the secretary could not speak for the Board, he believed that the inscription would "go upon the monument as written." This terminated the interview. "The secretary might as well have asked us to join his church," Macdonald later wrote.

Macdonald reported the outcome of the interview to the Committee, who unanimously agreed to go ahead and engrave the selected quotations. By this time it was midwinter, and a shed had to be constructed around the monument so that the stone cutters could proceed engraving the cold granite.

"The monument is built; the heretical sentiments are engraved upon it; and there the committee proposes they shall stay. If the cemetery authorities want it blown from one end of the land to the other then they are bigots; if they desire to have their authority questioned and their jurisdiction denied through every court in New York, they will proceed to meddle with the words cut in the granite marking Mr. Bennett’s resting place. They will, however, injure themselves and Christianity much less by submitting to the inevitable."

—The Truth Seeker, March 15, 1884.

"In selecting these quotations the Committee was desirous of embodying in them as many as possible of the philosophical and humanitarian principles held by Mr. Bennett . . . . Mr. Bennett had more than one idea and was the friend of all reforms. But he was preeminently a freethinker, using the term in its sense of opposition to Christianity. He was practically an atheist, though he sometimes expounded pantheism, declaring his philosophical adhesion to that belief . . . He was converted to spiritualism by phenomena occurring in his own household and elsewhere, and he reasoned out a philosophy covering the ground he took of ‘material spiritualism.’"

—Eugene Macdonald

DEMONSTRATED SCIENCE MAY BE REGARDED AS THE ONLY TRUE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE.

WHAT IS CALLED REVELATION IS A SNARE, A DELUSION, A FALSEHOOD. THOSE WHO CLAIM TO SPEAK FOR THE GODS SIMPLY SPEAK THEIR OWN THOUGHT.

THE GODS DO NOT SPEAK THEY ARE AS DUMB AS THE ROCKS, THEY ARE AS SPEECHLESS AS THE GRAVE. WITH NATURE AS IT IS NOT SO. TO KNOW HER IS TO KNOW THE TRUTH, AND TO STUDY HER IS TO BE WISE.

THE OBJECT OF OUR LIVES SHOULD BE TO MAKE THE WORLD AS BEAUTIFUL, AND OURSELVES AND OUR FELLOWS AS HAPPY, AS IS IN OUR POWER.

I CAN HARDLY YIELD MY CONSENT THAT THIS IS THE LAST OF OUR INDIVIDUALITY; AND I FONDLY THINK THAT FATHER AND MOTHER NATURE ARE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THE BEST, GREATEST, AND MOST DESIRABLE OF ALL PROBLEMS—A CONTINUED INDIVIDUAL EXISTENCE. BUT I AM BORROWING NO TROUBLE ABOUT IT.

I BELIEVE IN THE ETERNAL POWERS AND PRINCIPLES OF NATURE, IN THE SUPERIORITY OF GOOD LIVES, IN ACTS OF KINDNESS TOWARD OUR FELLOW-BEINGS, AND IN EFFORTS TO SPREAD THE LIGHT OF TRUTH OVER THE DARK SPOTS OF THE EARTH.

EACH PERSON MUST BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GOOD OR ILL HE DOES.

HERE IS OUR DUTY, HERE IS OUR ALLEGIANCE, AND NOT IN THE SKY ABOVE US. WE MUST MAKE OUR HEAVEN ON THE EARTH, AND NOT IN THE AIR.

"There has been no pretense on the part of the committee to build a great monument. Such was not the purpose; the time is to come for that. As it stands in Mr. Bennett’s generation, the fitting expression of the love and respect of his friends, and it is their final verdict on his virtues and deeds. It remains for future generations to render the justice of a great monument in the memory of D. M. Bennett; be it a statue, a noble shaft, a grand institution of learning, or a temple of liberty in the form of a great public hall. When the heritage of his great work has increased his thousand friends into millions, then on this foundation of facts and honor which we have placed for them . . . let them build anew."

The memorial stands 13 feet 6 inches and at a total cost of $1,465.65. The monument’s bronze medallion, designed by renowned sculptor Wilson Macdonald (who also created the Thomas Paine bust in New Rochelle) is a uniquely designed relief. Beneath the heroic—size image of D. M. Bennett appears the sword of persecution, broken by the pen. Coiled around the sword is the serpent of superstition also broken by the weapon of thought. The hilt of the sword is adorned with a cross. The ornamentation contains a popish tiara. The whole design symbolizes the forces of the church divided by the forces of freethought.

The D. M. Bennett Memorial is located at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. It is about a ten-minute walk from the main entrance and is distinguishable from the other monuments in the vicinity by its massive proportions and severe simplicity. The imposing memorial also marks the resting place of D. M. Bennett’s beloved wife, Mary Wicks Bennett, who died on July 31, 1898.