Part 9 (1/2)

The bill also provided that before the expenditure of any of the appropriation the Society should transfer and covey to the United States, in due form, all the property, rights, and privileges belonging to it in the Monument.

The construction of the Monument was placed under a joint commission consisting of the President of the United States, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department, and the Architect of the Capitol.

In the House of Representatives the bill was referred, on July 24th, to the Committee on Appropriations, and reported back by Mr. Foster, of Ohio, on July 27th, with amendments. As amended, the bill provided for an appropriation of $200,000, payable in four equal annual installments, to continue the construction of the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument, ”and provided that nothing in the bill should be 'so construed as to prohibit the Society' from continuing its organization for the purpose of soliciting money and material from the States, a.s.sociations, and the people in aid of the completion of the Monument, and acting in an advisory and co-operative capacity with the Commissioners hereinafter named until the completion and dedication of the same.”

The Joint Commission was increased from the three members provided by the Senate to five by adding to it the ”Chief of Engineers of the United Staten Army and the First Vice-President of the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society.”

It was explained by Mr. Foster that the sum had been raised to $200,000, with an annual expenditure of it of $50,000, and the Society continued; ”because we hope by continuing the Society in existence they can raise from the people the balance of the sum needed, and as it will take at least four years to complete the Monument.” He further remarked: ”This puts the appropriation of $200,000 in the form of a donation, while at the same time it secures to the United States all the property and rights or every name and nature of the Society. * * The present purpose is to complete the Monument within live years,” and to dedicate it ”October 19, 1881, being the centennial of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the last 'great act of Was.h.i.+ngton's' military career, and the closing act of the war.”

In considering the bill, several amendments were adopted at the instance of Mr. Holman, of Indiana, and other members.

The bill pa.s.sed the House July 27th, and as amended, was pa.s.sed by the Senate the next day and was approved by President Grant on the 2d of August, 1876.

September 7, 1876, the Society adopted and issued an appeal ”To the People of the United States,” which was signed by its Secretary, John B.

Blake.

After referring to the act of Congress appropriating $200,000 to aid in the completion of the Monument, the appeal recited:

”The occasion is deemed a fitting one to address the citizens of the United States upon that subject, and to exhort them, in the name of patriotism, not for a moment, on that account, to relax their efforts to hasten the accomplishment of that long delayed but much desired result.”

No response, however, was had from the appeal. The country evidently now looked to Congress to a.s.sume the whole amount required to finish the Monument.

January 19, 1877. Mr. W. W. Corcoran and Dr. John B. Blake, as officers of the Society, conveyed by deed to the United States the property referred to in the act of August 2, 1876, which deed was duly recorded in the land records of the District of Columbia.

Of the funds in the possession of the Society was later erected the memorial building on the Monument grounds for the office of the custodian, the deposit of the Society's archives, and for the accommodation of the visitor.

The relations of the Society to the Monument were now limited as provided in the law. Such States as had omitted providing memorial blocks to represent them in the Monument had their attention called to the omission and supplied them.

In accordance with the proviso in the act of Congress the foundations of the Monument were examined. The board of officers detailed from the Engineer Corps of the Army by the President to make the examination reported adversely as to their sufficiency to sustain the weight of the Monument at its proposed height, and the matter was reported to Congress.

Under authority of joint resolutions of Congress of June 14, 1878, and June 27, 1879, authorizing it, the foundations were strengthened.

This difficult work was successfully accomplished by the eminent engineer, Lieut.-Col. Thomas Lincoln Casey (later Brigadier-General), Corps of Engineers, who had been detailed by the President, at the request of the Joint Commission, as engineer officer in charge of the construction of the Monument. Capt. George W. Davis, U. S. A., was detailed as a.s.sistant Engineer. He had been recommended and endorsed for the position of engineer in charge by the Society. Later, Mr. Bernard R.

Green, C. E., also acted as a.s.sistant to Colonel Casey.

Many important features of the work performed emanated from suggestions made and worked out by these officers, and which were adopted. To Captain Davis was a.s.signed the duty of observing and superintending the execution of the details of construction as the work progressed and the performance of the contracts for materials. The immediate direction of work and workmen on the grounds was the duty of the master mechanic, Mr.

P. H. McLaughlin. To Mr. Green is to be ascribed the conception and working out of the plans for placing the pyramidion or top on the shaft, plans adopted by the Engineer-in-Charge and approved by the Joint Commission.

The detail plans of construction were drawn by Mr. Gustav Friebus, of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., an architect employed in the office of the Engineer-in-Charge, and under his direction.

The work of strengthening the foundations approaching completion, the fact was reported to Congress by the Joint Commission, and an appropriation recommended to begin and continue the erection of the shaft.

In support of this recommendation, and to secure adherence to the original plan of a simple obelisk and to meet the objections frequently raised, both in and out of Congress as to that form of monument, the Society, after some correspondence with Colonel Casey, at a meeting held on the 1st of April, 1880, appointed the following committee ”to take charge of the interests of the Monument before Congress:” Robert C.

Winthrop, Joseph M. Toner, James G. Berret, Horatio King, John B. Blake, and Daniel B. Clarke.

This committee carefully prepared a memorial, addressed to Congress, which was adopted at a special meeting of the Society on the 26th of April, 1880. The memorial was presented to Congress by the committee on the 20th of April, 1880, referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia, and ordered printed. The memorial recited, in part: