History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument Society Part 7

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.

At the meeting on the 22d of February, 1866, for election of officers, there was a large attendance. The President of the United States, Mr.

Andrew Johnson, presided. Replying to some remarks of welcome, he said:

"GENTLEMEN OF THE a.s.sOCIATION: It is no ordinary pleasure to me to have it in my power to meet you here on this occasion and partic.i.p.ate in your proceedings, intended to resume and progress in the completion of a monument, if I may speak the language of his eulogist, to him who was 'the first in war, the first in peace, and the first in the hearts of his countrymen.'

"I repeat, it is no ordinary pleasure to me to meet you here on this occasion, on the birthday of the Father of his Country, and partic.i.p.ate with you in your efforts to complete the Monument intended to commemorate his name. * * * I hope and trust the work will soon be completed. I hope and trust if there are any States which have not yet contributed and placed their pledges in that Monument of the Union bearing their inscription, it will go on until all the States have done so. I will here remark, it will continue to go on notwithstanding we have disturbed relations of some of the States to the Federal Government; that it will continue to go on until those relations are harmonized and our Union again be complete. Let us _restore the Union_, and let us proceed with the Monument as _its_ symbol until it shall contain the pledge of _all_ the States of the Union. Let us go on with this great work; let us complete it at the earliest moment practicable; let your Monument rise--if I may speak in the language of that celebrated and distinguished statesman who made the greatest effort of his life in vindication of the Union of these States--'let this Monument to Was.h.i.+ngton rise higher and higher until it shall meet the sun in his coming, and his last parting ray shall linger and play on its summit.'

"I thank you, gentlemen, for the compliment you have conferred upon me in inviting me to attend on this, the birthday of the Father of his Country, to partic.i.p.ate in your proceedings, and I hope and trust your efforts will be crowned with success."

Little progress, however, was made toward resuming work on the Monument in this year. The receipts from all sources, chiefly at the Monument and Patent Office, and accrued interest, amounted to only $1,281.06. Early in 1867 the Society again memorialized Congress, as on former occasions.

July 17th, Mr. Driggs, in the House, offered a preamble and resolution, which was adopted, reciting that the Society "had been in existence twenty years without having accomplished anything beyond the partial erection of a square column on the public grounds; that large sums of money had been collected, and that collections are still continued in the _Patent Office_ and other buildings, and directing the Secretary of the Interior to inform the House what became of the money collected _in the Patent Office_ and as to the present condition of the a.s.sociation."

The memorial was referred to a committee of the House, and there filed.

On the following day the Secretary replied to the House with the information requested, showing present resources of the Society, disposition of its funds, current expenses, present condition and purposes.

March 26, 1869, Mr. Nye (Nevada), in the Senate, introduced--

"A bill to insure the completion of the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument."

The preamble recited, in part--

"Whereas the Monument proposed to be erected in the City of Was.h.i.+ngton in memory of George Was.h.i.+ngton, the Father of his Country, has been shamefully neglected and is now incompleted, with no prospect of its being finished at all for want of means; and whereas the Government is so deeply in debt in consequence of our late international war that there is no prospect of an appropriation for the completion of said Monument, and there is now, as there always has been, a general, even a national, desire, on the part of the people of the United States to complete this great work as originally designed for the credit of this country and the national respect for our heroic dead; and whereas a number of citizens propose that in case certain privileges are granted them by the National Congress _to complete_ said Monument _within twenty-one years_ from the pa.s.sage of this act, and that one hundred thousand dollars shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States within two years from the date hereof, and a like amount per annum until the expiration of this act," &c.

The bill provided "that A. T. Stewart, C. Vanderbilt," and other persons named, "_as per agreement_, dated March 14, 1869, executed by Charles P.

Briton and Charles B. Phillips, &c., are hereby created a body corporate and politic under the name and style of the _Was.h.i.+ngton Monument Union_ for the purpose of devising ways and means for completion of said Monument."

It was further provided that the said Union could hold and convey property "and issue certificates of subscription, which shall ent.i.tle the holders thereof to any consideration that may be awarded by such system, scheme, plan, or means said corporation may devise or adopt, and use such agency as they shall deem necessary to their success." One hundred thousand dollars was to be paid in within two years, and thereafter the same sum _annually_.

April 1, 1869, Mr. Osborne offered a somewhat similar bill, which was also referred, but having other incorporators, who were to "have the right, privilege, and franchise of devising such ways and means as they may desire for the distribution of money or property for the term of twenty years from the date of the pa.s.sage of this act."

Precedent to the exercise of these rights a bond should be given the United States in penalty of $100,000 to pay into its Treasury within two years a like sum, and such sum every year thereafter for twenty years the first $200,000 to be subject to the order of the Lincoln Monument a.s.sociation, the balance to be subject to the order of the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument a.s.sociation.

These schemes for completing the Monument, however, went no further.

Not until 1871 did the Society feel encouraged to again issue a general appeal to the public.

February 22, 1871, the Society resolved to offer through the public press the following propositions, either of which, when accepted, by the required donation should be a contract between the donor and the Society: The name of any person, corporation, or society contributing the sum of $5,000 or more to the Monument fund shall be perpetuated by inscription on a block in the Monument, to be prepared by the Society for that purpose. The names of _all_ persons, corporations, or societies contributing the sum of $2,500 or more and _less_ than $5,000 shall be included in a list, and such list shall be inscribed on a _block_ or blocks in the Monument, to be prepared by the Society for that purpose.

The names of all persons, corporations, or societies contributing $1,000 or more and less than $2,500 to be inscribed on a tablet to be erected in the Monument. Any person or body contributing $100 and less than $1,000 to be recorded on a list, and such list kept perpetually in the archives of the Society.

Mr. John S. Benson was appointed the agent of the Society to place these propositions before the country and to invoke the aid of private citizens and public men; legislatures, munic.i.p.al bodies, a.s.semblies, and _every form_ of organization of the people. Numerous articles in the press called attention to the claims of the Monument.

The Legislature of New York, April 20, 1871, by a two-thirds vote, appropriated the sum of $10,000 "as the contribution of the State of New York, to be paid by the Treasurer on the warrant of the Comptroller to the Treasurer of the National Was.h.i.+ngton Monument Society whenever the Governor shall certify * * * a sufficient sum has been subscribed from other sources to enable the said Society to resume work with a reasonable prospect of completing the obelisk or shaft."

By the second section of the same act the Governor was to transmit copies of it to the Governors of other States, "with a request that they communicate the same to the Legislatures of their respective States."

The New York "Jewish Messenger," of its own account, undertook to raise the necessary funds, and appealed to the Jewish people, and especially the Jewish ladies, to complete the National Was.h.i.+ngton Monument; "that the Israelites in America should be Americans in every relation of life, and distinct only in their fealty to the faith of their fathers. The Jewesses of America will earn the kindest and most-enduring acknowledgements of America's sons; they will rear a proud monument for themselves in working together for the accomplishment of this national duty."