"Last year the contributions were wholly insufficient to keep up the ordinary progress of the work, and the managers were constrained to apply to Congress for aid. In the course of its construction they had thought it expedient and proper to receive not only contributions in money from every quarter of the globe, but they invited contributions in ornamented stones, to be placed, under the direction of the architect, in the face of the wall of the chamber. Among others, a stone sent from the Pope of Rome, and was received by the managers, to be placed, as the others, in some conspicuous place.
"It was an American Monument, and its construction and management was said to be mainly in the hands of Catholics and foreigners. Complaints were also made of the administration of the association, and of the expenditures and losses in the collections of funds. For these and divers other causes, the Americans of this District resolved in their respective Councils that this work ought to be typical of their Government, completed by the free act of the People, under the direction and by the hands of the natives. Accordingly, at the election held on the 22d of February last, they nominated and elected a ticket of their own Order, who now have the control of the work.
"It will require at least one million of dollars to complete it as it was originally designed, and that sum must be raised by the Councils of our Order, or we must suffer indelible disgrace and become a bye-word. There are enrolled in the Order at this time not less than two millions of freemen. A contribution of fifty cents from each, a sum within the reach of every member, will effect it. There may be some too poor—there cannot be any too mean or too insensible to the obligation upon them—to give this sum. If this shall be so, we have adopted a plan by which that difficulty may be met. For every contribution of one dollar, a certificate of membership is to be issued to the person in whose name the subscription is made. It is therefore proposed that collections shall be made in each Council throughout the Nation in such manner as each may deem most expedient, and the money remitted to John M. McCalla, Esq., Treasurer of the National Monument, accompanied by a letter addressed to Charles C. Tucker, Secretary of the National Monument, stating the amount thus forwarded, and transmitting a list of the names to whom a certificate for each dollar thus paid in is to be sent. For each single subscription of five dollars a handsome engraved plate of the Monument, of large size, will be sent.
"But, Brethren, while the sum of fifty cents from each member of the Order may be barely sufficient to complete the structure, it will take as much more to finish the work and the grounds, and leave a surplus to be invested and yield an interest to keep it in repair end defray the incidental annual expenses.
"We have pledged the American party to this work. We have taken the great step of overthrowing, on this pledge, the administration which has preceded us, and which not only failed but went as beggars to Congress to ask legislative aid for that which loses all merit, unless it be the free-will offering of grateful hearts.
"Have we done right?
"Brothers, we come to you to demand your aid in this great work to which we have been appointed, and to which, through us, you are pledged. We do not come alone. Our brethren in the District of Columbia, beneath the walls of the Presidential Mansion, from which a frowning brow is ever turned upon us—these brethren, moved by the sacred fire that ever burns in their hearts, the altars of patriotism, defying the scorn and contumely and lust of those temporarily in power, have come up freely to our aid. They have set to you, the free citizens of free States, with power to remove and bring to account those who dare to turn a wrathful eye on the movements of those native to the soil—to you in every sense Freemen—they have set a bright and glorious example. May you walk by its light. The Councils in this the heart of the Nation—yet not one of its members—our Councils have, with wondrous unanimity, resolved to contribute one dollar for each member enrolled in each separate Council. Let it go forth—publish it wherever in this broad land, those born beneath the stars and stripes, the glorious banner of our Union, have met, or shall meet, to resolve that Americans must and shall govern America. Ring it in the ear of the slothful—breathe it into the heart of the earnest—the native Americans in Council, in the District of Columbia, have resolved to contribute a dollar for each member toward the completion of the work; and they have already begun their contributions.
"Brethren, it is a national work—it is the heaped-up offering of mighty people—it is the work of the age. To it, from every kindred and nation, offerings have been brought—the tribute of far-off lands to that name which stands single, alone, mighty, majestic, in the history of the world, as though it were written in letters of starry light in the high heavens, to be read by all men. These are but the homage paid to virtue end renown, while the heart is cold or hostile.
"But to you, Brethren, his name is a household word. It was breathed over you on a mother's name and graven on your heart by a mother's love. It was taught you by a father's watchful care, and has been held ever before you as your beacon and your guide by a father's ceaseless anxiety. It was your watchword in the sports of youth; it is, it must be, your polar star in the mazes of a maturer life; it is the name for patriotism; it is little less than that of a god. Oh, the heart—the true American heart—the heart that beats responsive to the call of country—the heart that thrills at those words of wisdom and warning which fell from his lips, teaching us the dangers of foreign influence—the heart that swells with gratitude to the great human benefactor, who, having led us through the perils of the terrible conflicts of the Revolution, and guided us through the scarcely less perilous history of the Federation, and presided over that grand and august assembly which framed our matchless Constitution, laid in practice the deep foundations of this mighty Nation—the heart of the native-born American leaps up with joy to testify its deep love and veneration for him and seeks some adequate means to express it. And, Brethren and Countrymen, we bring it to you; we give you, by the means spread before you, an opportunity to enroll your names in the book where is found the mighty company who have contributed to this the most remarkable Monument ever erected to man, which, as his name, shall stand unique, lofty—towering above all others known among men.
"Brethren, come to our aid.