June 19, 1838, Mr. Morris (Ohio) arose in the Senate to a question of privilege. He found in a morning paper of the city an editorial censuring the course which his colleague and himself had deemed it their duty to take with regard to the bill to grant leave to a Society or company of gentlemen who have united together to erect a monument to the memory of Washington upon a portion of the public grounds in this city. * * * The object of his colleague and himself had been to obtain information on the subject, and he stated expressly, if in error, he wished the error to be corrected by authentic documents, and on that account he objected to the bill until it was clearly shown what money had been taken up and to what use it had been applied. * * * He was not willing to attach the honor of his country to a scheme which, for aught he knew, might have been carried on by means of fraud and deception. Yet this reasonable _request_ had been trumped up by the morning papers as making a grave charge, or at least casting imputations. * * * He said it was evident to his mind that the object and design of this publication was to produce political effect. It was well known that a majority of the Senate were the friends of the administration, and if this article could impress the public mind with the belief that those who sustained the administration had no regard for the memory of Washington, he had no doubt it was expected it would tend to promote individual and _party_ views. It was a kind of left-handed blow to injure the administration and its friends in the Senate by charging them with meanness in refusing to accede to the wishes of the Society. But he feared there was another motive beside veneration for the name of Washington that prompted the agents and managers of this project to be so ardent in their endeavor to link themselves and scheme to the public concerns of the country. They were reported as having about $30,000. This sum they could easily expend on the foundation, or even the first corner-stone of the Monument. They could devise a plan for the superstructure that would cost millions of dollars, and if they could make this affair a government concern, they would insist, no doubt, that the country would be disgraced if the building was not completed, and Congress would be solicited and urged to appropriate for the purpose with all the force of speech and the _blandishments of parties_. Millions would be thus called for, and, in his opinion, appropriated if the scheme now in operation can succeed, to be expended by a private corporation, whose dependent friends and followers would grow rich in the progress of the work. He was totally averse to the Government having anything to do in this matter or any other in which individuals were also to be concerned. It was this that induced him to move postponement of the bill.