This statue, in bronze, representing Washington on the line at the battle of Princeton, was placed in its present location in the public circle at Pennsylvania avenue and Twenty-third street, in the City of Washington.
THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL MONUMENT SOCIETY.
The resolutions and proceedings of Congress which have been referred to having remained unexecuted as late as 1833, certain citizens of the City of Washington, whose names were a passport to public confidence, took steps in that year to form a voluntary association for erecting "a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government."
In September, 1833, a paragraph appeared in the "National Intelligencer," leading paper of the City of Washington, calling for a public meeting of the citizens of Washington to take up the matter and redeem the pledges of Congress. In response to this call a meeting of citizens was held in the aldermen's chamber, in the City Hall, on the 26th of September, 1833. There was great interest and earnestness manifested on the part of those present in the object of the meeting. The oft-repeated failure of Congress to finally act in the matter of erecting a monument to Washington was reviewed, and it was deemed almost hopeless to expect that body to provide for such a monument in the near future.
The meeting resulted in the organization of the Washington National Monument Society. Committees were appointed to draft a constitution and by-laws, and to report at a future meeting of the citizens and to devise a practical plan for the collection of funds and to prepare an address to the country.
On October 31 following the second meeting was had, Constitution and By-Laws were adopted, and officers were chosen, being nominated by a committee and elected by ballot:
John Marshall, the great Chief Justice, then seventy-eight years of age, was chosen the first President of the Society, and Judge William Cranch, eminent as a learned jurist, as a just and impartial magistrate and for the uprightness of his life, was selected as the first Vice-President.
In accepting the office of President of the Society, Mr. Marshall replied as follows to the letter of notification addressed to him by Judge Cranch:
"Richmond, November 25, 1833.