Mr. Allen concurred with his colleague. He objected to the bill because it placed the construction under the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, and being upon public ground, Congress must appropriate any deficiency or the people must be again visited by hosts of traveling agents. * * * These he thought sufficient reasons for rejecting the bill without division. Mr. Clay deprecated the irregular discussion, and said that no newspaper in the country was conducted with more regard to propriety, decorum, truth, and _faithfulness_ of report than the "National Intelligencer," and he could wish that the other journals of this city, and particularly the one connected with the Government, would look more to this point for example. Notwithstanding the Society by its memorial had furnished the information _requested_ by Mr. Morris, and stood ready for investigation of its affairs, the memorial was ultimately laid on the table and the matter was dropped. This debate was noticed in the public press, local and elsewhere. It cannot be known what, if any, influence it had throughout the country to impair the efforts of the Society in the collection of funds or to weaken confidence in the enterprise. Such a result was not improbable. December 10, 1818, the Society adopted and issued in pamphlet form-- "AN ADDRESS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY, WITH A STATEMENT OF THE RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES." This address was sent to the Society's agents and friends of the Monument in all parts of the country, which address they were "requested," in an accompanying letter, "to diffuse as widely as may be without incurring expense." The measure of the result of the Society's efforts at this period, the discouragement met with, and its faith in the work it had undertaken, is evidenced by language in this address, which recited, in part: