History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument Society Part 4

"The day was fine. The rain had laid the dust and infused a delicious freshness in the air. The procession was extensive and beautiful. It embraced many military companies of our own and our sister cities--various a.s.sociations, with their characteristic emblems; the President and Cabinet and various officers of the Executive Departments; many of the Members of Congress; citizens and strangers who had poured into the city. When the lengthened procession had reached the site of the Monument they were joined by a whole cortege of ladies and gentlemen; and we are free to say we never beheld so magnificent a spectacle. From 15,000 to 20,000 persons are estimated to have been present, stretched over a large area of ground from the southern hill, gradually sloping down to the plain below."

"In a hollow spread with boards and surrounded with seats the crowd gathered. Around two sides of this s.p.a.ce were high and solidly-constructed seats, hired out to spectators, covered with awnings, and affording a favorable position for seeing and hearing.

A temporary arch was erected, covered with colored cotton and suitably embellished. But its most attractive ornament was a living American eagle, with its dark plumage, piercing eye, and snowy head and tail, who seemed to look with anxious gaze on the unwonted spectacle below. This is the same eagle which in Alexandria surmounted the arch of welcome there erected to Lafayette; and to complete its honors and its public character, it has since been entrusted to M. Vattemare, to be presented to the National Museum in Paris. He is now forty years old."

"The fireworks (at night) exhibited on the same theatre, and prepared by the pyrotechnists of the navy yard, were admirable beyond description. They were witnessed by an immense mult.i.tude.

The President's reception at night in the East Room was very numerously attended. Thus pa.s.sed one of the most splendid and agreeable days Was.h.i.+ngton has ever witnessed."

Objections having been from time to time urged against the plan of the Monument, the Society, early in 1848, appointed a committee to consider them. In April of that year, pursuant to a report of a committee of its members, the Society fixed upon a height of 500 feet for the shaft, leaving in abeyance the surrounding pantheon and base. And this modification continued to be the plan of the Monument until it was again altered at a later period.

The corner-stone laid, the Society began active operations to raise the shaft, which were most vigorously prosecuted. The purchase of materials and the general construction of the Monument, embracing the employment of labor, skilled and common, were committed by the Society to three of their number, denominated a Building Committee.

The members of this committee devoted much of their time patriotically to the duties a.s.signed them, held weekly meetings during several years, and served without any sort of compensation whatever.

With a view of having the States of the Union properly represented in the Monument, the Society extended an invitation for each State to furnish for insertion in the interior walls a block of marble or other durable stone, a production of its soil, of the following dimensions: Four feet long, two feet high, and with a bed of from twelve to eighteen inches, the name of the State to be cut thereon in large letters, and, if desirable to the donor, the State's coat of arms also. Later, this invitation to contribute memorial blocks of stone was extended to embrace such a gift from a foreign government.

In response to these invitations were received from time to time the many rich and durable blocks which now adorn the interior walls of the shaft, in themselves smaller but not less impressive monuments to the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton.

In about six years from the laying of the corner-stone the Monument had reached the height of 156 feet, not quite one-third of its ultimate modified elevation. During this period the Society continued most actively at work in the raising of funds to carry the Monument forward.

An appeal to the people was adopted and issued by the Society in 1848, immediately after the laying of the corner-stone, in which the past history of the work was given, what was desired and in contemplation to do, and an urgent request for contributions was made, and an eloquent reference to Was.h.i.+ngton was embodied.

In June, 1849, a special appeal for contributions, to be made in all parts of the country on the ensuing 4th of July, was issued, and everywhere distributed.

Another special appeal was made in this year, which recited, among other things--

"The scholars and pupils, male and female, of all the inst.i.tutions of learning, and the public and private schools in this country, are requested to make such _monthly_ contributions as may be convenient towards the erection of the Monument till it shall be completed. It is estimated that there are about 3,000,000 of pupils of all ages in the United States, and the monthly contribution of even _one cent_ by each would alone, in a few years, complete the structure now in progress. The a.s.sistance of the princ.i.p.als and teachers in these schools, however, will be essential, and the Board would be thankful if they would lend their aid to carry out this plan by making such collections monthly, and transmitting the amount collected to the Treasurer or to the General Agent of the Society here," &c.

February 5, 1850, the Society adopted the following resolution:

"_Resolved_, That in view of the liberal contributions made by two of the banks of the City of Was.h.i.+ngton, the General Agent be requested to address a circular letter to the several banking inst.i.tutions of the United States, bearing the signatures of the Board of Managers, soliciting from them contributions to the erection of the Monument."

In accordance with this resolve a circular letter was issued March 1, 1850, appealing to all banks for contributions.

In May, 1850, circular letters were sent to all deputy marshals of the United States who were to be employed in taking the census then at hand, soliciting their aid in the collection of funds while engaged in the enumeration of the people, and offering a commission of 15 per cent. on the amount collected to each collector, following in this plan the one pursued in 1840. A further general appeal was also printed and distributed everywhere.

Early in 1851 the following resolution was adopted by the Society:

"_Resolved_, That a circular be addressed in the name of this Board to the respective Grand Lodges of the Masonic and Odd Fellows'

fraternities and Grand Divisions of the Sons of Temperance in the United States, requesting that arrangements be made to obtain such periodical contributions as they may deem proper, to be applied to the erection of the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument, until the same shall be completed."

Accordingly, an appeal was issued to the bodies mentioned in the resolution.

In January, 1852, pursuant to a resolution of the Society, the military organizations of the country were specially called upon for contributions.

In 1853, another urgent and general appeal was put forth for funds, to be given by the Masonic bodies of the country.

In 1854, there was another general address to the country, similar in character to former appeals, and a special appeal was sent to the officers of the Navy of the United States, invoking their co-operation and aid in raising money to carry on the work of building the Monument.

The tangible result of these general and special appeals for funds was far short of hope. The funds collected went into the treasury of the Society, and were at once expended to meet the current and contract obligations of the work of building the Monument.

STONE FROM ROME.

In this year an act occurred at the Monument which created much indignation and excitement in the District, and was the subject of much public discussion throughout the country.

The facts furnished to the press by the Society, after an investigation by it, were reported thus in the "Daily National Intelligencer" on March 8, 1854:

"A deed of barbarism was enacted on Monday morning last, between one and two o'clock, by several persons (number not known, but supposed to be from four to ten), which will be considered as belonging rather to some of the centuries considerably in our rear than to the better half of the boasted Nineteenth Century. We refer to the forcible seizure from its place of deposit, in a shed at the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument, of a block of marble sent hither from Rome, a tribute to the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton by the Pontiff, and intended to become a part of the edifice now erecting to signalize his name and glory. It originally stood in the Temple of Concord at Rome, was of beautiful texture, and had for its dimensions a length of three feet, height of eighteen inches, and thickness of ten inches. The account we hear of the matter is this: That at about the time above mentioned several men suddenly surrounded the watch box of the night watchman, and pa.s.sed a cord, such as is used for clothes lines, around the box, and piled stones against the door, calling to the man within that if he kept quiet he would not be injured, at the same time they pasted pieces of newspapers on the two or three window openings that commanded the particular shed containing the fated block, so as to prevent the watchman from seeing their operations. They then removed one of the strips in front of the place where the block stood, and pa.s.sing in and out by the opening carried it off by placing it on a hand cart used about the premises.

There is no doubt they took the block to the river side, not less than a quarter of a mile off, and pitched it over the steep bank upon the river beach, where they enjoyed a favorable opportunity of breaking it up undiscovered or boating it off into the river, which they probably did after defacing it. All this went on, it seems, without effective remonstrance from the watchman, although he had with him a double-barrel shot gun loaded with buck shot, and the operations at the shed were within easy shot. As for the pasting on the windows, there was nothing in that, for they slid up and down like the sashes of an omnibus. These proceedings, the watchman says, took place about half-past one; but he gave no notice of it to the family residing at the Monument until four. For these and other similar reasons he has been suspended."

A meeting of the Society was held on the 7th of March in reference to this vandalism, and it was resolved to offer a reward to discover the perpetrators. Accordingly, the following advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared in the "Daily National Intelligencer" on March 8th:

"$100 REWARD. The Board of Managers of the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society will pay the above reward of $100 for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who, on the night of the 5th instant, stole and destroyed a block of marble contributed to said Monument."

This advertis.e.m.e.nt availed nothing as to the discovery of the guilty persons. It was understood to have been the work of persons belonging to the party styled "Know-Nothings;" one of their professions being opposition to the Roman Catholic Church and any political preference of its members. It was not thought the persons were generally depraved characters, but, on the contrary, were supposed to be identified with the respectable part of the community. From the time of the reception of this stone from Rome by the Society until its destruction, there had been frequent expressions in a portion of the daily press in opposition to its being placed in the Monument, and the Society had received many protesting letters and, in some instances, long pet.i.tions from various parts of the country, numerously signed, urging that the stone be not used by the Society, as it was representative of the Roman Church, &c.

Many pet.i.tions from New Jersey recited:

"We, the undersigned, citizens of ----, in the State of New Jersey, believing the proffer of a block of marble recently made by the Pope of Rome to this country for the Was.h.i.+ngton Monument to be totally inconsistent with the known principles of that despotic system of government of which he is the head; that the inscription, 'Rome to America,' engraved upon it, bears a significance beyond its natural meaning; that the construction is an artful stratagem, calculated to divert the attention of the American people for the present from his animosity to republican inst.i.tutions by an outward profession of regard; that the gift of a despot, if placed within those walls, can never be looked upon by true Americans but with feelings of mortification and disgust; and believing that the original design of the structure was to perpetuate the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton as the champion of American liberty, its national character should be preserved, do therefore most earnestly protest against the placing of said stone within the Monument, or any other stone from any other than a republican government."

But the Society was not organized on sectarian or political lines, and to the opposition and protests no heed was given. The Society was composed of men of different political beliefs and church affiliations.

The immediate effect of the destruction of the "Pope's stone" was to anger a large body of the citizens of the country, members of the Catholic Church, and then, and for a long time afterward, to estrange any interest they had had in the building of the Monument, and to this extent to impair the field for the collection of funds for the Monument.

It has never been certainly known what the precise fate of the stone was, though occasional uncorroborated statements of individuals, alleging knowledge of or partic.i.p.ation in its destruction, have been made as to it. But their variance has rendered them of no value.

The further collection of funds for the Monument was not only curtailed by the destruction of the Pope's stone, but the political and business conditions of the country in 1854 caused a great falling off in contributions. The Monument had now reached a height of 153 feet above the foundation, and the Society had expended on the entire structure $230,000. The funds being now practically exhausted, and all its efforts to obtain further sums proving abortive in this year, 1854, the Society presented a memorial to Congress representing that they were unable to devise any plan likely to succeed in raising the requisite means, and under the circ.u.mstances asked that Congress might take such action as it deemed proper.

In the House of Representatives the memorial was referred to a select committee of thirteen members, appointed under a resolution July 13th, of which committee the Hon. Henry May, of Maryland, was chairman.

By a previous order, Mr. May, on the 22d of February, 1855, made an eloquent and able report to the House, in which, after a careful examination of the whole subject, the proceedings of the Society were reviewed and approved, and an appropriation of $200,000 by Congress was recommended "on behalf of the people of the United States to _aid_ the funds of this Society." There was no suggestion made that Congress should a.s.sume the completion of the Monument; the Society were to continue actively in the work they had been prosecuting. Congress would make simply a donation to the funds. The sum proposed was the same in amount which the House of Representatives, by their resolution of January 1, 1801, had agreed to appropriate for erecting a mausoleum to Was.h.i.+ngton, in the City of Was.h.i.+ngton. The report referred to the Society and its work in the following terms of approval:

"The Society was organized on an admirable plan, and its officers undertook the duties a.s.signed them by its Const.i.tution, and have, as your committee are well satisfied, faithfully performed them.

"The funds were to be collected in all parts of the United States; and agents as competent and as faithful as could be found were appointed, after giving bond for the performance of their duties.

These agents were sent to all parts of the country, and contributions were commenced and continued by the subscription of $1.00 for each person. This plan was adopted in order that all might have the opportunity to contribute.

"In the appointment of these agents a careful scrutiny was exercised by the Society, and undoubted recommendations of both character and capacity were in every case required, and though an opinion may prevail in some parts of the country to the contrary, your committee are satisfied that these agents generally proved to be worthy of the confidence reposed in them. Of the large number employed but two of them failed to account for the money collected, and legal measures resorted to promptly by the Society against their bonds have, in one of these instances, obtained the full amount of the liability.

"It may well be questioned if any Society executing a plan for collecting money so extensively has met with equal success in justifying the integrity of its agents, and it is pleasing to state that not one cent of the funds received by the Society has at any time been lost by investment or otherwise."

This report, recommending "that the sum of two hundred thousand dollars should be subscribed by Congress on behalf of the people of the United States to aid the funds of the Society" was submitted to the House with every a.s.surance of its adoption, and that the appropriation recommended would be made. But an unfortunate occurrence arose, news of which, upon reaching Mr. May upon the floor, occasioned a suspension of further consideration of the report, and the whole matter was laid upon the table. The occurrence was the result of "a plot, secretly contrived and suddenly disclosed, to reverse the principles on which the Society had uniformly acted, and to degrade an enterprise, sacred to patriotism and humanity, into an instrument of party or sect." On the day the report of Mr. May was submitted to the House of Representatives, "a crowd of persons a.s.sembled at the City Hall and there voted for seventeen individuals, named in a printed ticket, to be officers and managers of 'the' Society. The only previous announcement of this proceeding was notice signed 'F. W. Eckloff, clerk W. N. M. Society,' and published on the evening of the 21st of February in the American Organ' and the 'Evening Star,' and on the morning of the 22d in the 'National Intelligencer.' On the 24th of February the result of the election was proclaimed in the Press," by which it appeared 755 votes were cast, resulting in the election of the following officers: Vespasian Ellis, First Vice-President; George H. Plant, Second V. P.; Charles C. Tucker, Secretary; John M. McCalla, Treasurer; and the following Board of Managers: Samuel S. Briggs, French S. Evans, Henry Addison, Charles R.

Belt, Joseph H. Bradley, J. N. Craig, Thomas D. Sandy, Samuel C. Busey, James A. Gordon, Robert T. Knight, Samuel E. Dougla.s.s, Joseph Libbey, Sr., Thomas A. Brooke.

This pretended election was not had according to the Const.i.tution of the Society. The const.i.tutional time of election was every third year from the year 1835, and the last election had been held in 1853.