History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument Society Part 9

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:

"The undersigned are not unmindful that strong efforts have been made of late to throw discredit on the design of the Monument, and that various plans have been presented for changing the character of the structure. Nor has the a.s.sociation, which the undersigned have the honor to represent, ever been unwilling that such modifications of the design should be made as should be found necessary for the absolute security of the work. With this view they gave formal expression a year ago to their acquiescence in the general plans of the accomplished American artist, Mr. Story, who had kindly given his attention to the subject: but now that the strengthening of the foundation has been successfully and triumphantly accomplished by a signal application of skill and science, they cannot forbear front making a respectful but urgent appeal to Congress to give their final sanction to the prosecution and completion of the work without more delay according to the plans recommended by the commissioners appointed by Congress with the President of the United States at their head and by the engineer under their direction. Any other course, they are convinced, would be likely to postpone the completion of the Monument for another generation, to involve the whole subject in continued perplexity, and to necessitate vastly larger appropriations in the end than have now been asked for. * * *

"It has been objected in some quarters that the ancient obelisks were all monolithic--ma.s.sive single stones, cut whole from the quarry; but our country has been proud to give examples of both political and material structures which owe their strength to union; and this Monument to Was.h.i.+ngton will not be the less significant or stately from embodying the idea of our national motto, '_E pluribus unum_.'

"Something more original and more ornate might have been conceived at the outset or might now be designed, but there are abundant fields for the exhibition of advanced art in other parts of the country, if not here. This Monument and its design will date back to the time of its inception, and will make no pretensions to ill.u.s.trate the arts of 1880. It was not undertaken to ill.u.s.trate the fine arts of any period, but to commemorate the foremost man of all ages. Indeed, it will date back in its form and in its proportions to a remote antiquity. It is a most interesting fact communicated to us in the letters, hereto appended, of our accomplished American minister at Rome, the Hon. George P. Marsh, as the result of his own researches, that the proportions of this Monument, as now designed, are precisely those of all the best-known Egyptian obelisks. The height of those monuments is ascertained by him to have been uniformly and almost precisely ten times the dimensions of the base, and _this proportion_ has now been decided on for our own Monument to Was.h.i.+ngton, the measurements of the base being fifty-five feet, and projected elevation five hundred and fifty feet. * * * It seems to the undersigned sufficient respectfully to suggest that the question before Congress at this moment is not whether the original plans might not have been improved to advantage, but whether this long-delayed work shall be finished within any reasonable period or be left still longer as a subject for compet.i.tion among designers and constructors.

"By the adoption of the recommendations of the Commissioners and Engineer the work may be completed within the next four years. * * *

While the structure would make no appeal to a close and critical inspection as a mere work of art, it would give a crowning finish to the grand public buildings of the Capital, would add a unique feature to the surrounding landscape, and would attract the admiring gaze of the most distant observers in the wide range over which it would be visible. It would be eminently a monument for the appreciation of the many, if not of the few, and would thus verify the designation originally given it, of 'The People's Monument to their most ill.u.s.trious Benefactor.'"

In a letter to the chairman of the committee of the Society by Colonel Casey, dated April 19, 1887, he stated:

"The base of the Monument is 55 feet square, the top will be 34 feet 6 inches square, and it will be crowned with a pyramidion, or roof, 50 feet in height. The proportions of the parts of this obelisk are in exact accordance with the cla.s.sic proportions of parts of this style of architecture, as determined after careful research by the Hon. George P. Marsh, American Minister at Rome."

The recommendations of the Joint Commission, of the Engineer, Colonel Casey, and of the Society, as to plan and proportions of the shaft, were happily sustained.

The prediction in the Society's last memorial to Congress was fully realized in the completed Monument, which has ever since attracted "the admiring gaze of the most distant observers in the wide range over which it is visible." None are found to regret the form of the Monument, which was firmly adhered to as most fitting to perpetuate the name and fame of Was.h.i.+ngton.

Congress making the required annual appropriation for the purpose, the work proceeded and the Monument was finally completed on the 6th of December, 1884, on which day its capstone was set in place.

By joint resolution of Congress, approved May 13, 1884, a commission was created, consisting of five Senators, eight Representatives, and three members of the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society to make arrangements for the dedication of the Monument. The following persons composed the Commission:

Hon. JOHN SHERMAN, Hon. JUSTIN S. MORRILL, Hon. WILLIAM B. ALLISON, Hon. THOMAS F. BAYARD, Hon. LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR, Hon. WILLIAM DORSHEIMER, Hon. JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER, Hon. JOHN H. REGAN, Hon. PATRICK COLLINS, Hon. NATHANIEL B. ELDREDGE, Hon. HENRY H. BINGHAM, Hon. JOSEPH G. CANNON, Hon. JAMES LAIRD, AND Hon. W. W. CORCORAN, President JAMES C. WELLING, Dr. JOSEPH M. TONER.

Pursuant to the order of proceedings adopted by the Commission the Monument was dedicated on the 21st of February, 1885. The ceremonies, began at the base of the Monument at 11 o'clock, Hon. John Sherman, Chairman of the Commission, presided. After music, prayer by the Rev.

Mr. Suter, of Christ Church, Alexandria, Va.; an address prepared by W.

W. Corcoran, the First Vice-President of the Was.h.i.+ngton National Monument Society, read by Dr. James C. Welling, Mr. Corcoran being unable to attend; Masonic ceremonies by the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, Grand Master Myron M. Parker; remarks by Col. Thomas L.

Casey, the Engineer of the Joint Commission, delivering the Monument to the President of the United States, the Monument was dedicated by the President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, in the following words:

"FELLOW COUNTRYMEN: Before the dawn of the century whose eventful years will soon have faded into the past--when death had but lately robbed this Republic of its most beloved and ill.u.s.trious citizen--the Congress of the United States pledged the faith of the Nation that in this city, bearing his honored name, and then, as now, the seat of the General Government, a monument should be erected to commemorate the great events of his military and political life.

"The stately column that stretches heavenward front the plain whereon we stand bears witness to all who behold it that the covenant which our fathers made, their children have fulfilled.

"In the completion of this great work of patriotic endeavor there is abundant cause for national rejoicing; for while this structure shall endure it shall be to all mankind a steadfast token of the affectionate and reverent regard in which this people continue to hold the memory of Was.h.i.+ngton. Well may he ever keep the foremost place in the hearts of his countrymen.

"The faith that never faltered; the wisdom that was broader and deeper than any learning taught in schools; the courage that shrank from no peril and was dismayed by no defeat; the loyalty that kept all selfish purpose subordinate to the demands of patriotism and honor; the sagacity that displayed itself in camp and cabinet alike; and, above all, that harmonious union of moral and intellectual qualities which has never found its parallel among men--these are the attributes of character which the intelligent thought of this century ascribes to the grandest figure of the last.

"But other and more eloquent lips than mine will to-day rehea.r.s.e to you the story of his n.o.ble life and its glorious achievements.

"To myself has been a.s.signed a simpler and more formal duty, in fulfillment of which I do now, as President of the United States and in behalf of the people, receive this Monument from the hands of its builder, and declare it dedicated from this time forth to the immortal name and memory of George Was.h.i.+ngton."

The proceedings occurred in the presence of a great concourse of citizens and visitors from all parts of the country. The day was clear and cold, and a light fall of snow covered the earth.

The procession to the Capitol, comprising a military escort, embracing the regular forces of the Army and Navy and visiting military bodies and a civic division, under command of Lieut.-Gen. P. H. Sheridan, marshal of the day, was imposing.

The proceedings arranged in the hall of the House of Representatives occurred in the presence of the President of the United States and his Cabinet, the a.s.sembled Congress, the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, Governors of States, Foreign Amba.s.sadors and Ministers, official heads in the Departments of the Government, munic.i.p.al officers of Was.h.i.+ngton, judges, distinguished officers of the Army and Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Militia, scientists, journalists, scholars of distinction, and many other invited guests of prominence. Among those present were descendants of the family of Was.h.i.+ngton, and of his friends and neighbors.