"In the appointment of these agents a careful scrutiny was exercised by the Society, and undoubted recommendations of both character and capacity were in every case required, and though an opinion may prevail in some parts of the country to the contrary, your committee are satisfied that these agents generally proved to be worthy of the confidence reposed in them. Of the large number employed but two of them failed to account for the money collected, and legal measures resorted to promptly by the Society against their bonds have, in one of these instances, obtained the full amount of the liability. "It may well be questioned if any Society executing a plan for collecting money so extensively has met with equal success in justifying the integrity of its agents, and it is pleasing to state that not one cent of the funds received by the Society has at any time been lost by investment or otherwise." This report, recommending "that the sum of two hundred thousand dollars should be subscribed by Congress on behalf of the people of the United States to aid the funds of the Society" was submitted to the House with every assurance of its adoption, and that the appropriation recommended would be made. But an unfortunate occurrence arose, news of which, upon reaching Mr. May upon the floor, occasioned a suspension of further consideration of the report, and the whole matter was laid upon the table. The occurrence was the result of "a plot, secretly contrived and suddenly disclosed, to reverse the principles on which the Society had uniformly acted, and to degrade an enterprise, sacred to patriotism and humanity, into an instrument of party or sect." On the day the report of Mr. May was submitted to the House of Representatives, "a crowd of persons assembled at the City Hall and there voted for seventeen individuals, named in a printed ticket, to be officers and managers of 'the' Society. The only previous announcement of this proceeding was notice signed 'F. W. Eckloff, clerk W. N. M. Society,' and published on the evening of the 21st of February in the American Organ' and the 'Evening Star,' and on the morning of the 22d in the `National Intelligencer.' On the 24th of February the result of the election was proclaimed in the Press," by which it appeared 755 votes were cast, resulting in the election of the following officers: Vespasian Ellis, First Vice-President; George H. Plant, Second V. P.; Charles C. Tucker, Secretary; John M. McCalla, Treasurer; and the following Board of Managers: Samuel S. Briggs, French S. Evans, Henry Addison, Charles R. Belt, Joseph H. Bradley, J. N. Craig, Thomas D. Sandy, Samuel C. Busey, James A. Gordon, Robert T. Knight, Samuel E. Douglass, Joseph Libbey, Sr., Thomas A. Brooke. This pretended election was not had according to the Constitution of the Society. The constitutional time of election was every third year from the year 1835, and the last election had been held in 1853.