Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-05-30

OF tne W aSniDglon National Monument
and Mr.. Samuel s. Briggs elected in your
place. -r....
You are instructed to deliver to your
successor on receipt of this. the books,
documents, and property of ell kinds be.
longing to the society that may be in
your possession.
VEspAsIAN ELLIS, 1st Vice President
CHAs. G. Tucker, Sec'y W. N.M.S.
After reading the above, told Mr..
Briggs that l did not recognize the right
of these parties to remove me; that
believed the board, under whom [ was
acting, to be the only legal board that
those claiming to be the new board had
recognized me as the superintendent, and
my legal right to the possession Of the
property; that it was sufficient for me
to know that it was disputed matter
which of the two boards was the legal
one, and until that dispute was settled,
tor the board under whose authority |
was acting should think proper to dis
miss me, that | should retain possession,
and the only way he could get clear Of
me was either by producing some au-
thorlty known to the law, or taking pos
| session by brute force. After remaining
until II o'clock, Mr.. Briggs took his de.
parture. A short time after I stepped
out and called Hilton, and demanded Of
him the keys; he told me that he had
not them. / asked him what he had done
with them his answer was that the new
| board had sent for him. and he gave them
to Mr. Bradley. then ordered him toleave
| the premises, which he said he would do.
After considerable equivocation, he told
me he had key that would unlock all
the buildings, except my Office and the
engine house, and that there was a win
dow in the engine house that he could
open. / got the key from him, and pro-
ceeded to unlock all the buildings and
locked them up in his presence, and Or
dercd him to open the engine house Coz
me: be did so. | then went to the car
penter shop, the key of which | had in
my possession, and got hammer aud
nails, and nailed up all the doors of the
buildings to which they had access. and
directed him to tell them what had done.
and If they broke them open that they
did 1t at their peril. l then left the
building. That evening, about dark,
Frere came TO my house, and told me
that the buildings were all broken open !:
also bis watch house, of which the key
had never been out of his possession,
and that they had put other locks on !:
he stated that there were four or five
strangers there, ard when he told then
he had come TO go on duty, they told
him that ne was not recognized as a
watchman any longer. Hilton told him
that there were to be six watchmen
On that night-a portion of them of
the police, and portion of them the
auxiliary guard: that they were armed
to the teeth, and tlat if he attempted to
e4erclse any authority, there would be
blood spilled : he also told him that john
L. Towers, the mayor of the city, had
Isent word for them to tell me that if
came over there and acted as a private
Icitizen they would not molest me. but il
| attempted to exercise any authority,
,or enter any Of Tie buildings, be would
have me arrested.
Under these circumstances, | directed
the watchman to 60 home that night. IS
there could be no use in his exposing
himself against that number, but to g
there on sunday and keep an eve on tbsir
movements. This morning | consulted
two of the members of the board, who
ADVISED HE to go TO my post as usual
and remain unless force was used, and,
II so, under no circumstances TO make
any further resistance than was neces-
sary to establish the fact, as they neither
wished me % sustain any personal in
ljury, or to do anything which could be
tortured into an act of aggression on nv
part. Accordingly, the night watch and
myself went to the building about 1C
o'clock, and found the Office filled with
persons, among them Mr.. Briggs, the
captain of the day police, the captain o.
the Auxiliary Guard, and three police Of
ficers that [ knew-whether any more
were officers or not I cannot say-to.
gether with crowd Of probably twenty
or thirty outside of the door, of all sorts
and sizes. After entering and ta.ing 6
seat, l told them that l had received q
message stating that the mayor intended
having me arrested if attempted to ex,
erciSe any authority as superintendent
told them | was the superintendent o
that building; all the property On ths
ground was in my charge; that wai
responsible to the board for its safe.
keeping; that intended to exercise the
control Of the place, and that 1 would
not suffer any one to interfere OF exercise
any authority, and that if they wanted
to arrest me to do so. The captains o.
the police and guard both told me tha,
MIR. Towers bad given them no orders al
all 4; that MIR. Briggs had called this morn.
ing at the police Office and told them that
he had understood L was to come with 6
mob to the building at 10 clock to take
possession. l replied that they could
see how much truth there was in the re-
port as | was there with no one but the
night watch, and that had not come or
the ground since this trouble began with
out finding from six to dozen losfers
hanging about ready for the chances