The political party which it represented disintegrating, and not being able to secure contributions toward building the Monument, or to awaken any interest in the enterprise, it concluded to surrender possession of the Monument.
On the date named the surrender was made, and the Society was reinstated in the possession of its office, books and papers, and the Monument. A number of collectors' filled subscription books, however, were missing. The Treasurer of the out-going Board passed to the Treasurer of the Society, through the Bank of Washington, December 14, 1858, the sum of $285.09. The full amount collected by the "Know-Nothing" Board during over three years of its control does not appear.
At a meeting, December 28, 1858, the Society reappointed the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey its General Agent. A committee previously appointed reported on the present condition of the Monument and other property of the Society, by which it appeared that the engine house and some other buildings on "Monument place" were in a dilapidated condition, though the engine and boiler were in good order; that of two large cranes for hoisting stone at the wharves, one had fallen down, the other had disappeared; that marble valued at $300 had been taken away; that the rope wove through a block at the top of the Monument to enable persons to ascend had been pulled down, and no means remained for ascent of the shaft save by scaffolding on the inside. "It will require an expenditure of at least $2,000 to place the fixtures and machinery in a condition to enable your Board to resume the progress of the work."
The enterprise having now passed into the hands of the Society again, they proceeded at once to make suitable arrangements for the conservation of the Monument and protection of the grounds and other property connected with it. Admonished by the transaction of February 22, 1856, and its results, of the legal difficulties in the way of voluntary association, consisting of members residing in all parts of the Union, they applied to Congress for a charter.
This was at length granted. On the 22d of February, 1859, an act passed Congress, and was approved by the President on the 26th of the same month, incorporating "The Washington National Monument Society * * * for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government." The incorporators named were Winfield Scott, Walter Jones, John J. Abert, James Kearney, Thomas Carberry, Peter Force, William A. Bradley, Philip R. Fendall, Walter Lennox, Matthew F. Maury (as survivors of the grantees of the site under the grant made by President Polk), and Jonathan B. H. Smith, William W. Seaton, Elisha Whittlesey, Benj. Ogte Tayloe, Thomas H. Crawford, William W. Corcoran, and John Carroll Brent.
The charter vested in and confirmed to the Society all the easements, rights, privileges theretofore held by the Society under the name of incorporation, and all thereafter to be acquired, for the purpose of erecting the Monument; provided for the election of officers and for exercising the right of amotion; that the President of the United States should be ex officio President of the Society, and the Governors of the several States should be respectively ex officio Vice-Presidents; gave the right to sue and be sued, and rendered the members of the Society liable in their individual capacities for any indebtedness contracted in the name of the Society.
ORGANIZATION OF THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY UNDER THE CHARTER.
The meeting for the organization of the Society under the charter granted by Congress took place on Tuesday evening, March 22, 1859, in the aldermen's chamber, in the City Hall, Washington, D. C.
President James Buchanan, as ex officio President of the Society, presided.