The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-06-18

Everybody has heard and read about
the Washington Monument, and all visit
Ors to the national capitol have seen the
unsightly and half completed structure,
yet many are ignornnt of its history,
more than that, it was designed as mon
ument to the memory of Washington and
the design never carried out.
The project of erecting monument to
General Washington is older than the
government itself. In August, 1888, the
Continental Congress resolved that an
equestrian statue of the successful COM
mander should be erected "at the place
where the residence of Congress shall be
established" but nothing more was ever
done in the matter. Washington died or
the 14th of December, 1899, and ten days
afterward Congress ordered " that mar
BILE 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," The permission
was promptly asked and cheerfully ac-
corded by the widow, but everybody
knows that the monument was never
erected, and that the remains of Wash
ington still rest at Mount Vernon. An
attempt was made in 1900 to secure an
appropriation for the monument, but it
failed, and in 1901 bill appropriating
$2OO, 900, which passed the House, did not
secure the sanction of the Senate. After
that, no further effort seems to have
been made to fulfill the intention de-
clared by the government in the resolu-
tions passed by Congress
After lapse of more than thirty years,
the monument was again brought to
public attention by the voluntary action
of the people, entirely independent of
their representatives in Congress. The
Washington Monument Society was
founded in 1888, with Chief Justice
Marshall as President, and it appealed
to the whole people for the funds neces-
sary to undertake the work. The Origi-
nal plan was to give everybody an
opportunity to contribute, and the
amount to be received from any one
person was to be limited to dollar. In
three years $2S,000 had been collected,
but the financial collapse of 1887 then
caused the temporary abandonment of
the enterprise. In 1845, however, it was
again undertaken by the society, and at
the end of two years the amount received
had increased to $4,000, which was
deemed sufficient to warrant the COM
mencement of the monument. The work
was authorized, and a site ceded by a
resolution of Congress, passed January
81, 1848. A month later the National
Monumental Society was incorporated,
and the grant of reservation of thirty
acres for the site was confirmed. Work
was then begun, and on the 4th Of July,
1848, the corner stone was laid with i'm
pressive ceremonies. For six years the
undertaking was pushed with reasonable
vigor, the obelisk in that time being
raised to hight of 170 feet. But the
funds of the society, amounting to $780,
900, were by that time exhausted.
1t was in 1854, or Just twenty years
ago, that the plan of building a monu-
ment by popular subscription proved a
total failure. The society having tried
in vain to raise, more money, finally pre-
sented memorial to Congress, on which
report was made by special COM
mittee, February %, 1855, recommend
ing an appropriation of 100000 to COM
plete the structure. 1t is probable that
the appropriation would have been made,
and the monument long ago completed,
had not troubles arisen Just at this time
within the society, which resulted in a
change of management. These troubles
were finally arranged by the granting of
a new charter, but public confidence in
the society seems to have been shaken by
these events Since 1854 it has been able
to add only four feet to the unfinished
shaft; but, although it has been manifest
for twenty years that the society would
never be able to finish the monument,
Congress has not yet taken it in hand
and made it national undertaking.