History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument SocietyHarvey, Frederick L. (Frederick Loviad)
History
History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument Society
Harvey, Frederick L. (Frederick Loviad)
Washington Monument (Washington, D.C.); Washington National Monument Society
In his first annual message to Congress, dated December 6, 1825, the
President, John Quincy Adams, invited the attention of Congress to its
unfulfilled pledge in the following language:
"On the 24th of December, 1799, it was resolved by Congress that a
marble monument should be erected by the United States in the Capitol,
at the City of Washington; that the family of General Washington should
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. In reminding Congress of this resolution,
and that the monument contemplated by it remains yet without execution,
I shall indulge only the remarks that the works at the Capitol are
approaching completion; that the consent of the family, desired by the
resolution, was requested and obtained; that a monument has been
recently erected in this city over the remains of another distinguished
patriot of the Revolution, and that a spot has been reserved within the
walls where you are deliberating for the benefit of this and future
ages, in which the mortal remains may be deposited of him whose spirit
hovers over you and listens with delight to every act of the
Representatives of this Nation which can tend to exalt and adorn his and
their country."
But this reminder of the President's went unheeded by the Congress to
which it was addressed.
Several years now elapsed before the question again arose in Congress of
a monument to the memory of Washington. On the 13th of February, 1832, a
report was made to the Senate of the United States by Henry Clay, and to
the House of Representatives by Mr. Philemon Thomas, chairmen,
respectively, of committees to make arrangements for celebrating the
approaching centennial anniversary of Washington's birthday. One of the
resolutions authorized the President of the Senate and the Speaker of
the House of Representatives "to make application to John A. Washington,
of Mount Vernon, for the body of George Washington, to be removed and
deposited in the Capitol at Washington City, in conformity with the
resolutions of Congress of the 24th of December, 1799, and that if they
obtain the requisite consent to the removal thereof they be further
authorized to cause it to be removed and deposited in the Capitol on the
22d day of February, 1832."
It will be noted that this resolution does not suggest any connection
between the removal of the remains and their being deposited under a
monument, as proposed by the resolution of 1799. At this time, one of
the standing committees of the House of Representatives, as it appears,
had under consideration the erection of a marble statue of Washington,
to be executed by Mr. Horatio Greenough, and which it was proposed to
place in the centre of the rotunda of the Capitol. The resolution
providing for this statue had been introduced into the House of
Representatives in 1830.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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