Resolved, That a monument be erected to the memory of General Francis Nash, who was slain at the battle of Germantown; and that the sum of —— dollars be appropriated for that purpose.
Resolved, That a monument be erected to the memory of General Richard Butler, who was killed gallantly fighting in an action with the Indians, on the fourth day of November, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one; and that —— dollars be appropriated for that purpose.
Resolved, That a monument be erected to the memory of General Nathaniel Woodhull, who commanded the militia on Long Island, in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, and was then taken prisoner and most cruelly put to death by the enemy; and that —— dollars be appropriated for that purpose.
Resolved, That a monument be erected to commemorate the virtuous and patriotic conduct of John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wert, who, on the twenty-third day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty, intercepted Major John Andre, Adjutant General of the British Army, returning from the American lines in the character of a spy; and that the sum of —— dollars be appropriated for that purpose.
Ordered, That the said motions, severally, be referred to the committee to whom was this day committed the bill sent from the Senate, entitled "An act to carry into effect several resolutions of Congress for erecting monuments to the memories of the late Generals Wooster, Herkimer, Davidson and Scriven."
National University.
Mr. Van Ness presented a representation from Samuel Blodget, on the subject of a National University, as follows:
"The memorial of Samuel Blodget, late Supervisor of the City of Washington, represents that, owing his appointment chiefly to his zeal in forming several probationary plans for a National University, he conceived it an indispensable duty, after the death of Washington, to follow the commanding advice and noble example of the common Father of his Country, so irresistibly portrayed in his Farewell Address, and in the clause of his will annexed to his liberal donation therefor. In thus calling, most respectfully, the attention of your honorable body to this part of the will of Washington, he fulfils a promise made in behalf of more than one thousand subscribers to the same object, whose respectable names accompany this memorial, with a request that a committee may be appointed to consider what portion of the public lots and lands in the Western Territory of the United States, shall be appropriated by Congress to this important institution, in addition to the contents of either of the sites already contemplated therefor within the City of Washington, by Washington himself, and by the Commissioners thereof. And further to consider the expediency (should it comport with the monumental plan to be adopted) of erecting the statue of 1783, or in lieu thereof an appropriate and characteristic equestrian statue of the original founder of the National University, as a beautiful centre-piece for the entire plan, to be surrounded by halls and colleges as they may be built in succession, by the fund to which the whole people of America are now so liberally and so honorably contributing by voluntary subscriptions from Maine to Georgia inclusive; thus virtually following the ancient custom of the original Americans, who, men, women, and children, carried a stone to the monumental pile of a beloved chief."
The memorial was accompanied by a plan of the Equestrian Statue of Washington, surrounded by halls and colleges regularly arranged, the whole to be styled the Monument to Washington. Referred to a select committee—ayes 42, nays 27.
The following members constitute the committee: Mr. Van Ness, Mr. Taliaferro, Mr. Hill, Mr. Elmendorph, and Mr. Cutler.