HISTORY

OF THE

Washington National Monument

AND OF THE

Washington National

Monument Society.

BY FREDERICK L. HARVEY, Secretary,
Washington National Monument Society.

PRESS OF
NORMAN T. ELLIOTT PRINTING CO.,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
1902.

HISTORY

OF THE

WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT

AND OF THE

WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY.

The practical construction of the Washington National Monument, in detail, as a work of great engineering skill, is a subject for separate account and technical discussion.

The history of the Monument is found in the annals and proceedings of Congress and in the records and archives of the Washington National Monument Society. This history, in the main, is the history of that Society—its original formation, subsequent incorporation by act of Congress, and its long continued and patriotic labors to fulfil the object of its existence, the erection at the seat of the Federal Government of a great Monument to the memory of Washington.

The origin of the Society is to be found in the failure of the National Congress, through a long series of years, to redeem a solemn pledge made by the Continental Congress, in 1783.

A review of this failure properly precedes any account of the Society or of the constructed Monument.

IN CONGRESS.

On the 7th of August, 1783, it was resolved by the Congress "that an equestrian statue of General Washington be erected at the place where the residence of Congress shall be established." The resolution also directed that "the statue should be supported by a marble pedestal on which should be represented four principal events of the war in which he commanded in person."

On the pedestal were to have been engraved the following words:

"The United States, in Congress assembled, ordered this statue to be erected in the year of our Lord, 1783, in honor of George Washington, the illustrious Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States of America during the war which vindicated and secured their liberty, sovereignty, and independence."

At this time Washington was beloved by the American people as their great leader in their struggle for liberty. But the passage of this resolution by Congress was not followed by any legislative action looking to its practical execution.

As President of the United States, by his wise administration of the affairs of the new-born Republic, he so added to his fame and so won the gratitude of his countrymen, that on his death a select joint committee of both Houses of Congress was appointed to consider a suitable manner of paying honor to his memory.

December 24, 1799, on motion of John Marshall, in the House of Representatives, it was resolved by Congress, among other things, "that a marble monument be erected by the United States at the City of Washington, and that the family of General Washington be requested to permit his body to be deposited under it; and that the monument be so designed as to commemorate the great events of his military and political life."

A copy of the resolutions was sent to his widow by the President of the United States. In her reply, acceding to the request, she said:

"Taught by the great example which I have so long had before me never to oppose my private wishes to the public will, I need not, I cannot, say what a sacrifice of individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty."

The select committee which was appointed to carry into effect the foregoing resolution, and of which Mr. Henry Lee was chairman, reported on the 8th of May, 1800, that a marble monument be erected by the United States, at the Capital, in honor of General Washington, to commemorate his services, and to express the feeling of the American people for their irreparable loss. It was further directed by this report that the resolution of the Continental Congress of August 7, 1783, should be carried into immediate execution, the pedestal to bear the inscription which that Congress had ordered for it.

Upon considering the report and resolution of the select committee that part in reference to the equestrian statue was so amended by Congress as to provide that a "mausoleum of American granite and marble, in pyramidal form, one hundred feet square at the base and of a proportionate height," should be erected instead of it.

To carry these resolves into execution no appropriation was then made; but on the 1st of January, 1801, it appears the House of Representatives passed a bill appropriating $200,000 to cover the objects of their resolution.

The Senate, however, did not concur in this act. The reason, perhaps, may be found in the political questions then absorbing the attention of Congress and the people, and which continued until the War of 1812.

The subject of a suitable national memorial to Washington now slept apparently forgotten until 1816, when it again awoke in the Halls of Congress. In the month of February of that year, the General Assembly of Virginia instructed the Governor of that State to correspond with Judge Bushrod Washington, then proprietor of Mount Vernon, with the object of securing his consent to the removal of Washington's remains to Richmond, to be there marked by a fitting monument to his memory. Upon learning of this action by the General Assembly of Virginia, Congress, being then in session, Hon. Benjamin Huger, a member from South Carolina, and who had been in the Congress of 1799, moved that a select joint committee of both Houses be appointed to carry into effect the proceedings had by Congress at the time of Washington's death. In this the Senate concurred.

The committee proposed was appointed, and later introduced a bill and reported, recommending that a tomb should be prepared in the foundations of the Capitol for the remains of Washington, and that a monument should be erected to his memory. But this plan for the removal of the remains failed. Judge Bushrod Washington declining to consent to their removal on the ground that they had been deposited in the vault at Mount Vernon in conformity with Washington's express wish. "It is his own will," said Judge Washington, writing to the Governor of Virginia, "and that will is to me a law which I dare not disobey." The recorded action in the House of Representatives on this bill was, "And that said bill be indefinitely postponed."

No report seems to have been made in the Senate. A vault, however,