"Whereas the Monument proposed to be erected in the City of Washington in memory of George Washington, the Father of his Country, has been shamefully neglected and is now incompleted, with no prospect of its being finished at all for want of means; and whereas the Government is so deeply in debt in consequence of our late international war that there is no prospect of an appropriation for the completion of said Monument, and there is now, as there always has been, a general, even a national, desire, on the part of the people of the United States to complete this great work as originally designed for the credit of this country and the national respect for our heroic dead; and whereas a number of citizens propose that in case certain privileges are granted them by the National Congress _to complete_ said Monument _within twenty-one years_ from the passage of this act, and that one hundred thousand dollars shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States within two years from the date hereof, and a like amount per annum until the expiration of this act," &c. The bill provided "that A. T. Stewart, C. Vanderbilt," and other persons named, "_as per agreement_, dated March 14, 1869, executed by Charles P. Briton and Charles B. Phillips, &c., are hereby created a body corporate and politic under the name and style of the _Washington Monument Union_ for the purpose of devising ways and means for completion of said Monument." It was further provided that the said Union could hold and convey property "and issue certificates of subscription, which shall entitle the holders thereof to any consideration that may be awarded by such system, scheme, plan, or means said corporation may devise or adopt, and use such agency as they shall deem necessary to their success." One hundred thousand dollars was to be paid in within two years, and thereafter the same sum _annually_. April 1, 1869, Mr. Osborne offered a somewhat similar bill, which was also referred, but having other incorporators, who were to "have the right, privilege, and franchise of devising such ways and means as they may desire for the distribution of money or property for the term of twenty years from the date of the passage of this act." Precedent to the exercise of these rights a bond should be given the United States in penalty of $100,000 to pay into its Treasury within two years a like sum, and such sum every year thereafter for twenty years the first $200,000 to be subject to the order of the Lincoln Monument Association, the balance to be subject to the order of the Washington Monument Association. These schemes for completing the Monument, however, went no further. Not until 1871 did the Society feel encouraged to again issue a general appeal to the public.