St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-03-05
The Washington Monument
Its History in Brief.

The great marble obelisk at Wash
ington, Saturday was dedicated to
commemorate the fame of Washington.
Its history is that of long delay, a
sudden and brief ardOr of enthusiasm,
"A generations life of disappoint-
ment and reproach, and finally the
achievement of Il memorial peculiarly
fitted to the character of the Father of
his Country. 1t stands upon the spot
which George Washington himself
chose, not indeed for a monument to
himself, but for one to keep in perpet-
ual memory the brave deeds and grand
results of the American Revolution.
1t is related that in riding over the
ground on which now stands the city
that bears his name, he paused upon a
little knoll that rose near the bank of
the Potomac, in the space back of the
White House, and marked it upon the
rough map he carried. In 1888, the
year of the treaty of peace, Congress
had ordered an equestrian statue of
| Washington to be executed, and again,
Immediately after his death in 1899,
Congress again voted a monument,
and decreed that it should occupy the
spot of his selection, but as Mr.. Win
4
country, while yet in it's infancy, and
| may add, in its indigency, with no
experience in matters of art, and heav-
! lily weighed down by the great debt of
the revolutionary war, knew better
how to vote monuments than how to
build them, or, still more, how to pay
for them" 1t is worthy of not that
Congress, in ordering this monument
| l.,fl . f1,ot L..
family "be requested to permit his
| body to he deposited under it, and that
it be so designed as to commemorate
the great events of his life" Finally,
| in 1893, society was formed, with
the venerable John Marshall at its
head, to build the monument by pri-
vate subscription. The sums were
| limited for several years to ! from
each person, aud were raised largely
at election times and on other public
occasions. BY IS47 the funds war
ranted the beginning of the work, and
on independence day of the next year
the cornerstone was laid. 1t was
great day. John Quincy Adams was
invited TO deliver the grafton, but
pleaded old age as an excuse. Web
ster said that heswas too busy, so that
at last Robert c. Winthrop, then
speaker of the House, took the place.
More than p, 1000 people were present.
Among the guests on the stand were
the widows of Alexander Hamilton
and President Madison and all the no
tables of the day. Not the least con-
spicuous feature was a live eagle which
had been borne in the procession that
received Lafayette 25 years before.
At this time the plan was changed.
1t had been the intention to erect
grand building, 100 feet square, sup
ported by massive columns and filed
with statuary. From this a shaft 300
feet in hight was to rise. Instead of
this the new architect proposed to sub
stitute a plain Obelisk, 500 feet in the
clear, which had been Increased to 500
feet. With the funds then raised and
afterward collected, the shaft slowly
rose till 1884, when it stopped, just ia
feet from the ground, quarter of
million of dollars having been eXpend-
ed. a cluster of novels chung round
it's base and there the wretched pile
remained through the war an object of
general ridicule. 1t was, too, a place
from which decent people preferred to
keep away at night. In the centennial
year, one morning, "Sunset" Cox rose
in his seat and said he had two resO-
lutions i'll his hand, one providing for
tearing down the monument, the other
for finishing it. Put in that way Con-
gress could not escape the alternative,
and the latter resolution was adopted.
Plenty of money has been appropriate
ed since, until with the exception of
grading round the base the thing is
done.
Most readers have as a patriotic du-
ty seen Bunker Hill. Picture a struc-
tnre on the same model, but more than
twice as high and you have this. Its
size, as it towers over the whole city, |
does not impress one until he stands !
somewhere i'll the park that surrounds |
it, and then it is perfectly overwhelm
ing. Think of its dimension. This |
great pile of stone is 81 feet loftier than
any other structure reared by man.
The tOpmOst pinnacle on the ARREST |
summit of the cathedral at Cologne |
would fall that much short of this. Pile /
the sphinx upon the king of the pyra-
mids and they would dwindle by its
side. The foundation is 50 feet under
ground. At it's base the monument is
20 feet square. The walls are so thick
that the interior room is but 25. Take
your stand in this apartment. The
sides are of the rough hewn brown
granite from the mines near Acquia
creek down the Potomac, from which
the part built by the society, before t