Part 7 (1/2)

The Ladies' a.s.sociation proceeded actively to work to raise funds by various plans, but with small result. In the year 1860 there was issued an ”Appeal of The Ladies' Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society to the judges and inspectors of elections of the various towns, wards, precincts, and election districts in the United States, to every paper and periodical published, and to the whole people.” After reference to the unfinished Monument and a glowing tribute to the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton, the address requested ”judges and inspectors of election” in every place in the ensuing Presidential election (or _any person_, if they fail to do so) to provide boxes in which to receive contributions, and appoint suitable persons to take charge of them, and ”every voter”

was earnestly entreated to deposit in the boxes any sum, ”however small,” and the press were asked to give the appeal notice.

Money collected was to be transmitted by draft or ”in postage stamps” to the Secretary or to any one of the lady Vice-Presidents in the several States, the amounts collected to be finally published in the daily papers.

The success achieved by the a.s.sociation of ladies was but indifferent compared with the expectations in its formation, and it collapsed in about two years. In 1860 it paid to the Treasurer of the Society, as shown by his account, $458.50.

The prosecution of the ”post-office plan” of collection was continued, and by September, 1860, response had been had from 1,118 postmasters, contributions received aggregating $4,179.56. Of this amount, through the post-offices of California was received $1,120.63, of which $755.49 was from the City of San Francisco.

Having been ordered by the War Department to other duty, September 22, 1860, Lieutenant Ives resigned as Architect and Engineer of the Monument, submitting with his resignation a report of the operations he had conducted, together with an account of his receipts and expenditures. He was thanked in a resolution ”for the faithful, efficient, and patriotic manner in which he has discharged the duties as Engineer of the Monument and originator and superintendent of post-office contributions.”

In his report Lieutenant Ives stated:

”I am still of opinion that if the plan could have had, as I at first supposed it would, the direct aid of the Postmaster-General, a great majority, if not all, of the postmasters would have united in it, and that it would have insured in a few years a sufficient sum to complete the work. Without that aid I have been unable to secure the co-operation of a sufficient number to accomplish the work.”

A general appeal was now issued, requesting contributions at the polls at the Presidential election to occur November 6th, following. The success of this effort was marked and peculiar. From the State of California was realized $10,962.01; Prince George County, Md., $3.63; St. Louis, Mo., $54.20. No other receipts are reported. Other contributions during this year were $290 from employees of the Panama Railroad; $25.80 from the Post-Office Department; $807.45 from the box at the Monument, and $413.55 from one maintained at the Patent Office.

The total of all collections reported being for the year $6,026.22; expenditures, $3,514.32. The California collections were paid over in the following year.

The expenditures were charged to the erection of new buildings on the Monument grounds and the necessary repair of others, reorganizing the plant, and the costs of collections, no salary being paid except to a watchman.

Improvements made were thus noticed in a daily paper:

”The place has been placed in such a condition that all the Board wants now in order to resume the work of erection is funds.”

To an appeal issued asking contributions to be made on February 23, 1861, but one response was reported.

March 26, 1861, an appeal was addressed ”To the people and postmasters,”

reciting:

”In consequence of the great falling off in post-office contributions, ascribable chiefly to the troubles of the times and the usual change on the advent of a new administration, the undersigned deem it proper to again appeal to the patriotism of the people and postmasters. They therefore respectfully request out-going postmasters to commend the system to their successors and the incoming to imitate the laudable example of their predecessors, and in cases where the latter have not responded and put up boxes to have them erected and forward contributions, however small.”

In response to this appeal the amount reported through the post-office for the entire year amounted to only $88.52, of which Rhode Island sent 75 cents, Virginia 48 cents, and Mississippi 15 cents.

A memorial by the Society addressed to Congress, briefly reviewing the history of the Monument, giving an account of the Society's transactions, and asking the aid of Congress in the premises, was adversely reported upon by the Committee on the District of Columbia. A minority report by Mr. Hughes, from the same committee, to accompany a bill H. R. 769, among other statements, after referring to the report of the Select Committee of the House made in 1855, recited:

”Your committee find no reason for dissenting from the views unanimously taken by the select committee in the report already cited. We cannot but regard the proceedings adopted by Congress shortly after the death of Was.h.i.+ngton as pledging the public faith to the erection of a suitable monument to his memory. It cannot be doubted that the pledge was given in full consonance with the feelings and wishes of the whole country. Whatever may be said to excuse or explain the delay which has been suffered in redeeming the pledge, the contributions of nearly a quarter of a million of dollars which individual citizens have already made towards erecting a monument to the father of his country, abundantly shows that its completion is an object dear to the hearts of the people. They cannot understand why the universal custom of free States in all ages of the world, to commemorate by monumental representations deeds of patriotism and glory, has so long been disregarded in the instance of the n.o.blest of all national benefactors.

”Your committee recommend that the sum of $200,000 be appropriated by Congress, on behalf of the people of the United States, to aid the memorialists in completing the Monument to Was.h.i.+ngton now in the process of erection at the seat of the Federal Government. But they are of opinion that this amount ought to be disbursed in annual sums of $20,000 for each fiscal year; that each annual installment be paid to the Treasurer of the Society, on a joint warrant, to be signed by the chairmen of the committees of the two Houses of Congress for the District of Columbia; and that the accounts of disburs.e.m.e.nts be settled at the Treasury in the usual mode of auditing the accounts of disbursing agents. We report herewith a bill accordingly.”

The recommendations of this report, however, were not adopted.

The reported collections for the year 1861 were $9,917.64, of which amount $9,000 was the contributions collected in California in November, 1860; the balance, $424.08, was collected at the Monument, $70.02 in the box at the Patent Office, and $298.33 paid by the Ladies'

Was.h.i.+ngton Monument Society.

The funds the Society had now secured--about $12,000 net over necessary expense incurred--was invested in good interest-bearing stocks. The change in the national administration and changes in the reorganization of the Post-Office Department demoralized the plan to secure collections through the medium of local post-offices, and it was shortly discontinued.

The funds of the Society were now but little augmented for a number of years, the only moneys received being deposits of small amounts in boxes placed for the purpose at the Monument grounds, in the United States Patent Office, and in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute. At no time did the sums thus received aggregate more than $700 per annum (1867), the average being far less.

The paralyzing influences of the Civil War put a blight upon any further labors of the Society to accomplish the long-cherished object of erecting, on behalf of the people, a national monument to Was.h.i.+ngton, and public interest and attention being absorbed in more momentous questions, the erection of the Monument was all but forgotten. To the pen and to the patriotic devotion of the learned and scholarly Secretary, Mr. John Carroll Brent, is due what little public notice the Monument obtained during the years of strife.