History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument Society Part 2

In this year (1838) the Society addressed a memorial to Congress praying that a site be accorded the Monument on the public mall. For this purpose a bill was reported in the Senate, which, being under consideration in that body, June 15th, caused much debate and adverse criticism of the Society and its work.

Mr. Roane, replying to an inquiry of Mr. Allen (Ohio), stated that the sum collected by the Society was about $30,000 which was put out at interest.

To this Mr. Allen answered that he believed they had collected more than that sum in his own State.

Mr. Bayard thought that to erect the Monument on the place proposed would be to destroy the whole plan of the mall, and that as far as the prospect was concerned, nothing could be more unfortunate. Besides the means of the Society were very insignificant compared with the object in view, for as they had agents all over the United States collecting simultaneously it was to be presumed they had collected all they were to get.

Mr. Norvell was satisfied that they (the Society) were incapable of meriting the imputation impliedly, he hoped not intentionally, cast upon them by the Senator from Ohio. He presumed extensive subscriptions had been made to the work, but not yet collected, and that considerable expense must have been incurred in the employment of agents. As to the location of the site he could say nothing, but he was certain that such a monument as proposed ought long since to have been erected to the memory of the ill.u.s.trious Chief under whose guidance this Nation had been led to victory, liberty, and independence.

Mr. Hubbard thought the original plan of building the Monument by the voluntary contributions of the people ought to be carried out, and that the President and the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds ought to have nothing to do with it. As to the expense, he said, judging from the cost of the Bunker Hill Monument, the $30,000 of the Society would not be enough to lay the foundations.

Mr. Morris (Ohio) thought the public ought to be informed why so paltry a sum had been contributed; his own county had contributed over $1,000.

There was a sort of enthusiasm on the subject in Ohio. The Governor had issued his proclamation in favor of it, and the _sheriffs_ VOLUNTEERED to act as collectors, and judging from _these tokens_ the sum collected could not fall short of $30,000 (in Ohio). He also thought the work should go on without aid by Congress, and hoped the bill would be laid on the table. Mr. Allen, in further remarks said, in substance, he did not believe the story that only $30,000 had been collected. He considered it a reproach to the liberality of the country. He would vote with the boldest to erect a suitable monument to the memory of the Father of his country; he would vote a million of dollars, but he considered it a reproach to the country to commence work with the paltry sum the Society say they had in hand.

On motion of Mr. Morris, the bill was indefinitely postponed.

These proceedings appearing in the daily press, the Society adopted and presented the following memorial:

"_To the Senate of the United States_:

"The Board of Managers of the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society, having seen in the public prints a statement that representations have been made in your body derogatory to their character, consider it their duty to lay before you an official account of their receipts and expenditures. They hope that the alleged statement is erroneous in ascribing to honorable members of your body imputations on private character which would not, without proof of their correctness, have been hazarded. The respect we entertain for the Senate restrains the expression of feelings which are not, however, the less indignant for this forbearance.

"We make this communication in the confidence that it will be the means of correcting any honest misapprehensions that may have existed; that it will be gratifying to a body distinguished for its justice to s.h.i.+eld honesty from wanton aspersion within its own walls; that it will afford an opportunity to men of honorable feelings, who may be conscious of having cast unmerited reproach on characters, we flatter ourselves, unsullied, to retract them; that more especially, in case the charges be not retracted, it may be lodged among the public archives as evidence as well of their unfounded nature as of the fidelity with which we have discharged duties of a disinterested and elevated nature; and that, if it be deemed expedient, it be printed by your order by such publicity challenging any detection of the slightest departure from truth. We indeed not only hold ourselves amenable to the public, but are ready at any moment to submit our proceedings to the most rigid examination which either House of Congress may see fit to inst.i.tute.

"By order of the Board of Managers:

"PETER FORCE, "_Second Vice-President_.

"GEORGE WATTERSTON, "_Secretary_."

The statement of receipts and _expenditures_ exhibited showed the following collections:

Maine, $1,600.00 Vermont, 31.95 Connecticut, 1,438.61 New York, 1,167.21 New Jersey, 1,491.61 Pennsylvania, 2,102.85 Delaware, 361.98 Maryland, 3,057.99 Virginia, 1,500.00 South Carolina, 570.00 Kentucky, 1,610.00 Ohio, 6,391.19 Louisiana, 701.26 Indiana, 340.00 Illinois, 700.00 Mississippi, 2,120.00 District of Columbia, 836.36 Florida, 227.00 Army, 565.89 Navy, 228.25

Interest on stocks, in which net collections were invested, $1,608.73, all of which sums, except $476.67, cash in hand, and the _necessary_ expenses of the Society, amounting to _only_ $465.56, had been invested in productive stocks.

June 19, 1838, Mr. Morris (Ohio) arose in the Senate to a question of privilege. He found in a morning paper of the city an editorial censuring the course which his colleague and himself had deemed it their duty to take with regard to the bill to grant leave to a Society or company of gentlemen who have united together to erect a monument to the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton upon a portion of the public grounds in this city.

* * * The object of his colleague and himself had been to obtain information on the subject, and he stated expressly, if in error, he wished the error to be corrected by authentic doc.u.ments, and on that account he objected to the bill until it was clearly shown what money had been taken up and to what use it had been applied. * * * He was not willing to attach the honor of his country to a scheme which, for aught he knew, might have been carried on by means of fraud and deception. Yet this reasonable _request_ had been trumped up by the morning papers as making a grave charge, or at least casting imputations. * * * He said it was evident to his mind that the object and design of this publication was to produce political effect. It was well known that a majority of the Senate were the friends of the administration, and if this article could impress the public mind with the belief that those who sustained the administration had no regard for the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton, he had no doubt it was expected it would tend to promote individual and _party_ views. It was a kind of left-handed blow to injure the administration and its friends in the Senate by charging them with meanness in refusing to accede to the wishes of the Society. But he feared there was another motive beside veneration for the name of Was.h.i.+ngton that prompted the agents and managers of this project to be so ardent in their endeavor to link themselves and scheme to the public concerns of the country. They were reported as having about $30,000. This sum they could easily expend on the foundation, or even the first corner-stone of the Monument. They could devise a plan for the superstructure that would cost millions of dollars, and if they could make this affair a government concern, they would insist, no doubt, that the country would be disgraced if the building was not completed, and Congress would be solicited and urged to appropriate for the purpose with all the force of speech and the _blandishments of parties_. Millions would be thus called for, and, in his opinion, appropriated if the scheme now in operation can succeed, to be expended by a private corporation, whose dependent friends and followers would grow rich in the progress of the work. He was totally averse to the Government having anything to do in this matter or any other in which individuals were also to be concerned. It was this that induced him to move postponement of the bill.

Mr. Allen concurred with his colleague. He objected to the bill because it placed the construction under the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, and being upon public ground, Congress must appropriate any deficiency or the people must be again visited by hosts of traveling agents. * * * These he thought sufficient reasons for rejecting the bill without division.

Mr. Clay deprecated the irregular discussion, and said that no newspaper in the country was conducted with more regard to propriety, decorum, truth, and _faithfulness_ of report than the "National Intelligencer,"

and he could wish that the other journals of this city, and particularly the one connected with the Government, would look more to this point for example.

Notwithstanding the Society by its memorial had furnished the information _requested_ by Mr. Morris, and stood ready for investigation of its affairs, the memorial was ultimately laid on the table and the matter was dropped.

This debate was noticed in the public press, local and elsewhere. It cannot be known what, if any, influence it had throughout the country to impair the efforts of the Society in the collection of funds or to weaken confidence in the enterprise. Such a result was not improbable.

December 10, 1818, the Society adopted and issued in pamphlet form--

"AN ADDRESS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE WAs.h.i.+NGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY, WITH A STATEMENT OF THE RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES."

This address was sent to the Society's agents and friends of the Monument in all parts of the country, which address they were "requested," in an accompanying letter, "to diffuse as widely as may be without incurring expense."

The measure of the result of the Society's efforts at this period, the discouragement met with, and its faith in the work it had undertaken, is evidenced by language in this address, which recited, in part:

"The annexed statement of the sums received and accounted for by them (the agents) shows the measure of their success. This, though various, has, in no instance, equalled the least sanguine expectations. This may be ascribed in some degree to the fundamental feature of the plan itself, which, in limiting the individual subscriptions to one dollar, has been found, excepting in towns, to have involved an expense to the agent nearly, if not quite, equal to the amount collected; while in the larger towns the abortion heretofore of schemes for a like purpose has produced a general impression that this plan would share the same fate. Other causes, some of a temporary, others of a permanent nature, co-operated in leading to this result, of which, perhaps, the most powerful was the general derangement of the currency, and the real or apprehended evils that followed in its train, with the impression that it was the duty of the General Government, out of the vast resources at its command, to effect the object.

"In reviewing the course of measures pursued, the Board of Managers have satisfaction in perceiving no neglect or omission on their part in discharging the duties a.s.signed them. If an a.s.siduity proportioned to the dignity of the object, a devotion seeking no reward but in the gratification of honest feelings, and an economy attested by the small expenditures for contingent expenses, are the truest evidences of fidelity, they trust that they may, without unworthy imputations, lay claim to this humble virtue. * * * Upon the whole, however great the disappointment of the Board of Managers, they have not abandoned the hope that a plan which, at its inception, was hailed with universal approbation, may yet, with proper modifications, be effected."

It is shown by this address that the amount collected and interest accrued on stocks in this year was $30,779.84.

The restriction of a contribution to the sum of one dollar appears to have been removed on one occasion in 1839. A committee of the Society, having been appointed for the purpose on November 13, 1839, prepared and issued a special circular letter, to be sent to the deputy marshals of the United States, who shortly were to begin taking the census of the country. This appeal recited in part:

"The measures incident to the approaching census present an opportunity of overcoming this last difficulty (the former limitation of subscriptions). It will be the duty of the deputies of the marshals to see the head of every family; and as the greater portion of their time will be consumed in traveling from one dwelling to another, it is thought that but little additional time will be occupied in submitting a subscription paper for this object at each dwelling and receiving the sums that may be subscribed, whereby an opportunity will be offered to every individual in the United States to promote it by contributions corresponding to their means. There being no limitation in the amount, every man, woman, and child will be enabled to enroll their names by subscriptions according to their ability. The rich will, it is hoped, be munificent in their donations, while from those in inferior circ.u.mstances any sum will be thankfully received."

It was proposed to allow these special collectors a commission of twenty per cent. on "amounts that may be received and accounted for by a deposit in some sound bank to the credit of Samuel H. Smith, Treasurer of the Society, together with the transmission to him of the names of the contributors, with the respective sums subscribed by them, and the certificates of deposits."

The address concluded:

"The subscription papers may be headed as follows:

"We, the undersigned, for the purpose of contributing to the erection of a great National Monument at the seat of the General Government, do subscribe the sums placed opposite our names respectively.

"The favor of an early answer is requested."

Beautiful lithographs, in two sizes, of the design selected for the Monument were printed and placed in the hands of the agents of the Society as certificates, and in the form of receipts, to be given individuals or organizations contributing the sum of one dollar to the funds of the Society.

These certificates bore the following words and autograph names on the lower margin and beneath the picture of the proposed Monument:

"Earnestly recommended to the favor of our countrymen,

Z. TAYLOR, MILLARD FILLMORE, JAMES K. POLK, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, G. M. DALLAS, DANIEL WEBSTER, H. CLAY, ALBERT GALLATIN."

There was also prepared for distribution through the Society's agents other lithographs, portraits of Was.h.i.+ngton, it being thought the contributor might prefer such a portrait to the lithograph of the Monument.

The results of this special appeal are to be found in the subsequently stated accounts of the Treasurer, but the amounts returned did not meet the expectations of the Society.

May 25, 1844, a joint resolution (No. 514) was introduced into the House of Representatives, accompanied by a report submitted by Mr. Pratt from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, which provided "that the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument Society, in the City of Was.h.i.+ngton, be, and they are hereby, authorized to occupy that part of reservation _No._ 2, bounded by the Ca.n.a.l, B, Seventh and Twelfth streets, south, for the purpose of erecting thereon a monument to Was.h.i.+ngton, under the direction of the President of the United States, according to the _design proposed by the Committee on Public Buildings_, and to _aid_ the said Society in _completing the same_, and for defraying the expense of enclosing the grounds, laying out walks and planting trees, the Committee on Public Buildings is hereby authorized and required to cause to be laid into lots and to sell at auction or otherwise, on condition that three-story brick, granite or marble buildings be erected thereon within five years from the day of sale, the piece of vacant ground bounded by the circular road, New Jersey avenue and B and First streets, north, and the piece of ground bounded by the circular road, Delaware avenue, B and F streets, south; also twenty-seven lots between the circular road and Third street, on Pennsylvania avenue, and twenty-seven lots between the circular road and Third street, on Maryland avenue, northwest, or so much as shall be necessary to complete the same. The same to be designated as 'Monument Square.'"

The report stated, the proposed park would contain about fifty-two acres, which it was designed "to fence in and lay out in drives, walks, and trees, and to erect thereon a _National Monument_ in the center thereof." The position would command a view of all the public buildings, particularly from the Monument, "which is to be one hundred and fifty feet high," and "devoted to the public as a place of resort where busts, statues, and paintings of all the great men connected with the history of our country may be seen." The site is nearly opposite to the "Patent and Post Office buildings, or center of the city, and but a square or two south of the _great_ thoroughfare of the city, the Pennsylvania avenue, which, in point of magnitude and of easy approach to our citizens, there is no ground in the District, or in any other country, which could vie with it as a public square of beauty and recreation."

Lots were to be sold at auction and proceeds used for creating the park, as described in the resolution, and "so that preparations may be immediately made" for a "site for a _National Monument_, which in the course of a few years will become a beautiful resort for the citizens and visitors of the District as well as for strangers from all parts of the world." The park would have circles and every device of walk, all the emblems of the Nation together with forest trees of every State, plants, flowers, &c. The construction of a national monument the committee regarded as of great interest to the American people. Half a century had pa.s.sed away, and no worthy memorial is found in the Capital.

The committee recommend the "temple form" as best for a monument, "built to contain busts and statues of Presidents and other ill.u.s.trious men of the country, as well as 'paintings' of historical subjects." The construction of the Monument "would carry out the views of this Society to erect a monument to Was.h.i.+ngton," and which it is understood will apply its funds toward this object "whenever Congress shall authorize its erection on some portion of the public ground," the site to be due west of the Capitol. The construction was to be under the direction of the President of the United States and the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument Society.

A plan of the proposed temple form of monument accompanied the report, a statue of Was.h.i.+ngton surmounting its dome.

While the Society at this time was willing to concede a change in the form of the Monument, and apply funds collected to speedily realize such change, no action by Congress resulted from the report quoted so far as authorizing the building of the National Monument suggested by the committee or lending aid to the Society, or granting a site for the Monument it had projected.