The work of strengthening the foundations approaching completion, the fact was reported to Congress by the Joint Commission, and an appropriation recommended to begin and continue the erection of the shaft.
In support of this recommendation, and to secure adherence to the original plan of a simple obelisk and to meet the objections frequently raised, both in and out of Congress as to that form of monument, the Society, after some correspondence with Colonel Casey, at a meeting held on the 1st of April, 1880, appointed the following committee "to take charge of the interests of the Monument before Congress:" Robert C. Winthrop, Joseph M. Toner, James G. Berret, Horatio King, John B. Blake, and Daniel B. Clarke.
This committee carefully prepared a memorial, addressed to Congress, which was adopted at a special meeting of the Society on the 26th of April, 1880. The memorial was presented to Congress by the committee on the 20th of April, 1880, referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia, and ordered printed. The memorial recited, in part:
"The undersigned are not unmindful that strong efforts have been made of late to throw discredit on the design of the Monument, and that various plans have been presented for changing the character of the structure. Nor has the Association, which the undersigned have the honor to represent, ever been unwilling that such modifications of the design should be made as should be found necessary for the absolute security of the work. With this view they gave formal expression a year ago to their acquiescence in the general plans of the accomplished American artist, Mr. Story, who had kindly given his attention to the subject: but now that the strengthening of the foundation has been successfully and triumphantly accomplished by a signal application of skill and science, they cannot forbear front making a respectful but urgent appeal to Congress to give their final sanction to the prosecution and completion of the work without more delay according to the plans recommended by the commissioners appointed by Congress with the President of the United States at their head and by the engineer under their direction. Any other course, they are convinced, would be likely to postpone the completion of the Monument for another generation, to involve the whole subject in continued perplexity, and to necessitate vastly larger appropriations in the end than have now been asked for. * * *
"It has been objected in some quarters that the ancient obelisks were all monolithic—massive single stones, cut whole from the quarry; but our country has been proud to give examples of both political and material structures which owe their strength to union; and this Monument to Washington will not be the less significant or stately from embodying the idea of our national motto, 'E pluribus unum.'
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"Something more original and more ornate might have been conceived at the outset or might now be designed, but there are abundant fields for the exhibition of advanced art in other parts of the country, if not here. This Monument and its design will date back to the time of its inception, and will make no pretensions to illustrate the arts of 1880. It was not undertaken to illustrate the fine arts of any period, but to commemorate the foremost man of all ages. Indeed, it will date back in its form and in its proportions to a remote antiquity. It is a most interesting fact communicated to us in the letters, hereto appended, of our accomplished American minister at Rome, the Hon. George P. Marsh, as the result of his own researches, that the proportions of this Monument, as now designed, are precisely those of all the best-known Egyptian obelisks. The height of those monuments is ascertained by him to have been uniformly and almost precisely ten times the dimensions of the base, and this proportion has now been decided on for our own Monument to Washington, the measurements of the base being fifty-five feet, and projected elevation five hundred and fifty feet. * * * It seems to the undersigned sufficient respectfully to suggest that the question before Congress at this moment is not whether the original plans might not have been improved to advantage, but whether this long-delayed work shall be finished within any reasonable period or be left still longer as a subject for competition among designers and constructors.
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"By the adoption of the recommendations of the Commissioners and Engineer the work may be completed within the next four years. * * * While the structure would make no appeal to a close and critical inspection as a mere work of art, it would give a crowning finish to the grand public buildings of the Capital, would add a unique feature to the surrounding landscape, and would attract the admiring gaze of the most distant observers in the wide range over which it would be visible. It would be eminently a monument for the appreciation of the many, if not of the few, and would thus verify the designation originally given it, of 'The People's Monument to their most illustrious Benefactor.'"
In a letter to the chairman of the committee of the Society by Colonel Casey, dated April 19, 1887, he stated: