Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-02-26
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP

OF the Books, Affairs, Property, &c Of tbs
Warrington Monument Assoeiatioc-onF1i-
day last We announced the result of tho
etort to turn out the gentlemen who have 90
long and faithfully managed the concerns of
the Washington National Monument Associa-
ton. On the next day Saturday LAST meet
ing of the Board was called, to convene at
half past nine a. m, in their chamber at tho
City Hall and at tha at hour Col Peter Force,
Walter Lenox, ]. Carroll Brent, and others Of
the Board went there and found ]. M Mccall
Ia, T. S. Evans, and, we believe, one or two
others claiming to be members of the new
management, purporting to have been elected
on the preceding Thursday. The Boards
clerk, 7. W. Ecklof, was also present. Soon.
afterwards many other mem bers Of the Board
came in, among them being Col Seaton. Gen
Waiter Jones. Capt. Thomas Carberry. P.R
Fendall, Esq, Gen. Henderson, and J.H.B.
Smith, Esq; while others, claiming to hsy.
been elected on the preceding Thursday, AZ
we have before explained, also came in, among
them being Vespasian Ellis, Esq and crowd
OF some seventy or eighty persons, With highly
excited countenances, Assem- bled around and
about the door, who, by their conversation and
behavior, gave evidence that they had gone
there to back" the so-called "new board,
in whatever the latter should do. The trouble
commenced when Messrs Lsnox and Fsndalf
demanded the journal of the proceedings of
the previous meeting of the Board, to look it
over. The clerk, T. "; EcklOf, who, it will
be remembered, was - instrument used to
publish the illegal call for An election, refused
to permit those gentlemen to look at the book.
handing them instead a letter from Vespasian
Ellis, (who claims to have been elected first
vice president,) forbidding him to permit the
Board to see or touch their books until after
the pretended new Board had determined
at their meeting, which was to have been
held tomorrow, whether they would grant to
those gentlemen that privilege or not. So,
Messrs. Lenox and Fendal quietly took the
BOOK, G5urnal) and, together with General
Walter Jones and other memb ers Of the board,
made the examination they proposed to make,
under threats of personal violence uttered with
great vehemence by John NJ. McCalla, and
the earnest appeals Of +. S. Evans, that they
would quietly resign what they Chose gentle
mem claimed to be their rights, in order to
ward of the scenes of personal violence which
he (Mr Evans) felt certain his friends sur.
rounding the door would engage in, if those
gentlemen should persist in setting at defiance
the determination of those persons to take pos
session of the associations affairs. At one
period during this alteration, Msssrs. Jones,
Fendall, Force, Ssaton, Lenox and their col.
leagues, were peremptorily ordered out of the
| room by McCalla, with the threat that if they
did not quietly withdraw, violence would be
| instantly used to eject them; so that the pre-
tended board might hold G meeting take for
NAL possession Of the books, and afterwards
| lock and bar the board out of the premises
| However, finding that such gentlemen as they
were dealing with were not to be intimidated
| by threats of mob violence, no forcible effort
was made to prevent the examination of the
Journal wherein they discovered an entry
which General Jones pronounced fraud.
| That is, the clerk had entered therein, that
| lat the last previous meeting) the board had
| been notified Of the election for which he (Mr
Ecklof) then designed illegally issuing a call
No such notification whatever had been given,
though the clerk, before the board met, ssid to
one Of them something In q confused manner
about some election or other; however, he said
nothing On that occasion conveying the idea
that tie designed usurping authority to issue q
call fora new board Of managers and OF her
ohce;s CT the association, one year before
the term prescribed by the constitution
This entry Mr.. Fendall or General Jones ex-
pungsd. The Board did not claim tho right
to take possession of the books, inasmuch as a
conflict of jurisdiction had arisen; but that
they should have the right 70 inspect thorn In
the presence Of their legal custodian, the
Board Clerk, until the Circuit Court should
decide the question In issue, while their oppo.
nents claimed that the election of tho pre-.
ceding Thursday had vested in themselves
alone, all the rights and duties OF the Board
Of Managers and officers of the Monument As
ISOLATION. They even ignored the right Of the
Board to make statement of their twenty
years stewardship Of the Associations affairs
to take al inventory of the property they
would leave in the hands of those claiming to
be elected their succesaors-to require re-
ceipt therefor, &c. That il, they denied tie
right Of those gentlemen to the use of the books
to enable them so to do
In the course of the morning that gentle.
mans friends (MoCalla, Evans, ct all sent for
Mr.. Joseph Fl. Bradley, their colleague who,
On reaching the chamber, very properly ad.
vised them that the views of Messrs. Lenox,
Fendall, and their colleagues, as to tho proper
disposition of the books until the Court could
decide, was the legal and correct one. So no
further opposition was made to this disposition
OF them. When Mr.. V. Ellis came into the
room, be explained that his note to the Clerk,
which involved an imputation on the integrity
Of the Board, to which we have referred above, |
was not so intended by Linn; and that he had
orb nON - ~ II