Part 6 (1/2)

”OFFICE OF ”WAs.h.i.+NGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY, ”WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _July 1, 1856_.

”IN ACCORDANCE WITH AN ORDER OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS, the public are requested to pay no more contributions for the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument to agents heretofore commissioned by the Board.

”This notice is not to be construed as a censure on the agents, but it is designed to effectuate a general settlement of the affairs of the Society. The Board is well a.s.sured of eventual success in the patriotic enterprise in which it is engaged, but it has resolved to suspend further proceedings by agency until a plan, now under consideration, for combining efficiency, prompt.i.tude, and safety, is matured.

”Balances due from agents, or offerings from independent contributors, are to be sent by draft, _payable to the order of the Treasurer of Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society_, enclosed in a letter to the undersigned.

”By order: SAMUEL YORKE ATLEE, ”_Secretary W. N. M. S._

”N. B.--Editors throughout the United States will confer a favor on the Society and benefit the public by publis.h.i.+ng this notice and sending to the Secretary a copy of the paper containing the same.”

Manifestly, the rival claims of the two Boards of Managers, and the office, books, papers, and property of the Society and the Monument itself, being in the possession and control of a narrow political faction, practically arrested the work of the Society's agents in the collection of funds and further building operations.

The ”Know-Nothing” Board, as apparent evidence of its earnestness in the premises, and presumably to support its appeal for funds (several later ones being issued) and to establish public confidence, proceeded to add two courses of stone to the height of the shaft by the use of marble on the ground when it took possession. But this marble, in the main, were blocks which had been theretofore rejected and condemned as unfit for use. In later years, on the final resumption of work on the Monument, these courses were removed by the engineer in charge of its construction.

The receipts of the Society for the year 1855, from January 3d to February 20th, amounted to $695; for the remainder of that year, to $51.66--evidence of the result of the dispossession of the Society and the disinclination of the public to contribute funds under the existing conditions.

The ”Know-Nothing” Board continued in possession of the Monument until October 25, 1858.

The political party which it represented disintegrating, and not being able to secure contributions toward building the Monument, or to awaken any interest in the enterprise, it concluded to surrender possession of the Monument.

On the date named the surrender was made, and the Society was reinstated in the possession of its office, books and papers, and the Monument. A number of collectors' filled subscription books, however, were missing.

The Treasurer of the out-going Board pa.s.sed to the Treasurer of the Society, through the Bank of Was.h.i.+ngton, December 14, 1858, the sum of $285.09. The full amount collected by the ”Know-Nothing” Board during over three years of its control does not appear.

At a meeting, December 28, 1858, the Society reappointed the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey its General Agent. A committee previously appointed reported on the present condition of the Monument and other property of the Society, by which it appeared that the engine house and some other buildings on ”Monument place” were in a dilapidated condition, though the engine and boiler were in good order; that of two large cranes for hoisting stone at the wharves, one had fallen down, the other had disappeared; that marble valued at $300 had been taken away; that the rope wove through a block at the top of the Monument to enable persons to ascend had been pulled down, and no means remained for ascent of the shaft save by scaffolding on the inside. ”It will require an expenditure of at least $2,000 to place the fixtures and machinery in a condition to enable your Board to resume the progress of the work.”

The enterprise having now pa.s.sed into the hands of the Society again, they proceeded at once to make suitable arrangements for the conservation of the Monument and protection of the grounds and other property connected with it. Admonished by the transaction of February 22, 1856, and its results, of the legal difficulties in the way of voluntary a.s.sociation, consisting of members residing in all parts of the Union, they applied to Congress for a charter.

This was at length granted. On the 22d of February, 1859, an act pa.s.sed Congress, and was approved by the President on the 26th of the same month, incorporating ”The Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society * * *

for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton at the seat of the Federal Government.” The incorporators named were Winfield Scott, Walter Jones, John J. Abert, James Kearney, Thomas Carberry, Peter Force, William A.

Bradley, Philip R. Fendall, Walter Lennox, Matthew F. Maury (as survivors of the grantees of the site under the grant made by President Polk), and Jonathan B. H. Smith, William W. Seaton, Elisha Whittlesey, Benj. Ogte Tayloe, Thomas H. Crawford, William W. Corcoran, and John Carroll Brent.

The charter vested in and confirmed to the Society all the eas.e.m.e.nts, rights, privileges theretofore held by the Society under the name of incorporation, and all thereafter to be acquired, for the purpose of erecting the Monument; provided for the election of officers and for exercising the right of amotion; that the President of the United States should be _ex officio_ President of the Society, and the Governors of the several States should be respectively _ex officio_ Vice-Presidents; gave the right to sue and be sued, and rendered the members of the Society liable in their individual capacities for any indebtedness contracted in the name of the Society.

ORGANIZATION OF THE WAs.h.i.+NGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY UNDER THE CHARTER.

The meeting for the organization of the Society under the charter granted by Congress took place on Tuesday evening, March 22, 1859, in the aldermen's chamber, in the City Hall, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.

President James Buchanan, as _ex officio_ President of the Society, presided.

Mr. Fendall very briefly reviewed some of the circ.u.mstances out of which the original Society had sprung, stating that but four of its members now survived, and the object and aim of the Society were remarked.

Eloquently referring to Was.h.i.+ngton, he concluded:

”The completion of the Monument now in progress is far more important to the fame of the American people than to the fame of Was.h.i.+ngton.”

The President, rising, referred to his efforts to awaken the interest of Congress in the erection of a monument to Was.h.i.+ngton while he was a member of the House in 1824.

”It was considered at that time (1824), and so remarked in Congress, that it was rather an indignity that any effort should be made to raise a monument to the honor and memory of Was.h.i.+ngton besides that which existed in the hearts of his countrymen.”