Deferring to the opinion of Lieutenant Marshall the height of the Monument was reduced to 485 feet. While pursuing its "contingent" plan of contributions, February 3, 1876, the Society appointed a special committee, composed of Rear Admiral Levin M. Powell (chairman), Hon. Walter S. Cox, Dr. John B. Blake, Dr. Charles F. Stansbury, and Fred D. Stuart, to prepare and present to Congress a memorial praying an appropriation in aid of its efforts as a contribution toward completing the Monument. February 6, 1876, Hon. George F. Edmunds offered in the Senate the following resolution, which was considered by unanimous consent, agreed to, and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds: "_Resolved_, That the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds be, and it is hereby, instructed to inquire into the expediency of making an adequate provision for the speedy completion of the Washington Monument in the City of Washington, and that it have leave to report by bill or otherwise." February 10, 1876, Mr. Edmunds laid before the Senate a memorial of the Society, presented by its committee, which was read and referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. It being understood that plans were suggested in some quarters looking to a demolition of the uncompleted Monument, and the, use of the materials of it in the construction of a different style of monument to Washington, at a meeting of the Society on March 30, 1876, among other things, it was resolved "that all idea of surrendering the character of the Monument or allowing the structure, as far as completed, to be taken down, should be positively and emphatically disavowed." In view of the resolution of the Senate of February 6th, the chairman of its Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds received plans for changing the Monument to a Lombard Tower, and for erecting an arch of its materials. Bat the committee made no report. ACT OF AUGUST 2, 1876. On the 5th of July, 1876, Hon. John Sherman, of Ohio, offered in the Senate a joint resolution declaring, after an appropriate preamble, that the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled, "in the name of the people of the United States, at the beginning of the second century of the national existence, do assume and direct the completion of the Washington Monument, in the City of Washington." This resolution was unanimously adopted in both Houses of Congress. On July 22d, the Senate passed a bill appropriating $100,000, "to continue the construction of the Washington Monument in the City of Washington." In the debate in the Senate there was some criticism of the design of the Monument as an obelisk, and preference was expressed for some other form of Monument. It was said by Senator Bayard: