That a marble monument be erected by the United States in the Capitol, 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. It was then proposed to make an area in front of the Capitol available for the monument, and an appropriation of $100,000 was proposed to carry the resolution into effect. Instead of an equestrian statue, by the terms of this resolution the monument was to take the form of a “mausoleum of American granite and marble, in pyramidal form, 100 feet square at the base and of a proportionate height.” On January 1, 1801, the House of Representatives passed a bill appropriating $200,000 for the monument. The Senate, however, did not concur in this act, due, it is thought, to political questions that absorbed the attention of Congress and the people until the War of 1812. In 1816 the General Assembly of Virginia endeavored to secure the consent of Judge Bushrod Washington, then proprietor of Mount Vernon, to have the remains of President Washington removed to Richmond, there to be marked by a fitting monument to his memory. When this came to the attention of Congress a select joint committee was appointed which recommended that a tomb should be prepared in the foundations of the Capitol for the remains of George Washington and that a monument should be erected to his memory. But this plan failed, because Judge Bushrod Washington declined to consent to the removal of the body of George Washington from the vault at Mount Vernon, where it had been placed in accordance with Washington’s express wish. Nevertheless, a vault appears to have been prepared beneath the center of the Dome and Rotunda of the Capitol and beneath the floor of the crypt. [Illustration: PLAN OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT, BY ROBERT MILLS] In 1833 a group of public-spirited citizens organized the Washington National Monument Society, for the purpose of erecting “a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government.” The first meeting was held on September 26, 1833, in the city hall, now the District of Columbia Supreme Court Building. Chief Justice John Marshall, then 78 years of age, was chosen the first president of the society. The population of the United States had grown from 3,329,214 in 1790 to 12,866,020 in 1830, with 28 States in the Union at that time. In 1835 the president of the society, John Marshall, died and was succeeded in the office by ex-President James Madison, who took steps to inaugurate a national campaign to secure contributions through agents appointed to collect funds. Upon the death of Mr. Madison the society amended its constitution so that thereafter the President of the United States should be ex officio its president. The first to so occupy the office was Andrew Jackson.