USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > The Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia > Part 2
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The minutes of a special meeting of the Sons of the Revolution, held at Fraunces Tavern, New York City, on April 11, 1889, at 4.00 P. M., show the following letter from the founders of our Society to have been there read :
"Washington, D. C. March 11, 1889.
We, the undersigned applicants for membership in the Sons of the Revolution, being non-residents of the State of New York and all residents in the District of Columbia, request authority to incorporate and organize an auxiliary branch of the Society in the District of Columbia.
David D. Porter
John Lee Carroll
* R. D. Evans J. G. Walker
C. R. P. Rodgers
Theodorus B. M. Mason
S. R. Franklin
Richard Rush
N. L. Anderson
*
W. K. Van Reypen
D. M. Taylor
Col. John Schuyler Crosby
To the Board of Managers,
Sons of the Revolution, New York."
Major Asa Bird Gardiner said: "I move, sir, the admission of the auxiliary branch in the District of Columbia."
Mr. Austin Huntington said: "I beg to second that motion to admit them into full fellowship in the Society of the Sons of the Revolution."
Put to a vote and carried.
The Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia, as thus instituted, became incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia on December 18, 1889, for social, benevolent, patriotic and
* In the minutes these names have a lead pencil line through them.
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other purposes. The incorporators were Theodorus Bailey Myers Mason, Daniel Morgan Taylor, and Arthur Henry Dutton. The initial meeting of the Society was held December 3, 1889, at the resi- dence of Lieutenant Theodorus Bailey Myers Mason, 1606 Twentieth Street, N. W., in the City of Washington. At this meeting the Con- stitution of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York was adopted as the Constitution of our Society, and the election of officers for the year 1890 ensued. John Lee Carroll was elected President ; Theodorus Bailey Myers Mason was elected Vice-President ; Arthur Henry Dutton was elected Secretary-Treasurer, and Regis- trar. Messrs. Nicholas Longworth Anderson, Archibald Hopkins and Daniel Morgan Taylor were elected as the first Board of Man- agers. At a meeting of April 3, 1890, two additional members of the Board of Managers were authorized, and at a later meeting of the Board, Alexander Brown Legare was appointed Treasurer ; Gaillard Hunt, Registrar and Historian, and four additional members were added to the Board of Managers.
The first public meeting of the Society was at a commemorative dinner held at Chamberlins, on February 21, 1890. Representatives from both the New York and the Pennsylvania Societies attended this dinner. Of the nineteen members and guests which attended this dinner, but two remain on our rolls today, namely, Messrs. Gaillard Hunt and Hugh Swinton Legare.
The first Year Book, or Register, of the Society was printed May 15, 1900. It contains the names of 42 members; of these but six are numbered on cur rolls today, namely, Colonel Archibald Hopkins, Messrs. Gaillard Hunt, Alexander Brown Legare, Hugh Swinton Legare, Francis Preston Blair Sands, and Franklin Steele.
The membership of the Society steadily increased until in 1894, five years after its institution, it consisted of 209 members. Its member- ship at this publication, October 1, 1920, is 277.
Very early in the World War long before its issues were clearly de- fined in America, when the matter of our Natonal Preparedness was looked upon either as an academic question or one for political controversy, the Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia turned its attention to this interesting subject. At its Stated Meeting for November, 1915, Mr. Gaillard Hunt, President, reminded the members that that meeting marked the 139th anniversary of the cap- ture of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776, the last of the outer defenses of New York City. This event of the Revolution he said was one we could not celebrate, but we could at least remember it and commemorate it as a gallant defense by meagrely equipped and otherwise unprepared American soldiers. Mr. F. L. Huidekoper then delivered a brief address on the subject of preparedness for war, whereupon a committee was appointed to draft resolutions memorial-
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izing the President and the Congress of the United States to adopt measures to insure to the country adequate defense. The interest and cooperation of the several State Societies and the General Society, Sons of the Revolution, was solicited. As a result of this, the General Society, Sons of the Revolution, became the first of kindred patriotic societies to go on record in support of these very necessary measures.
In its endeavor more effectively to play in these times a role worthy of our forebears, cooperation with kindred societies has been the guid- ing policy of the Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia. By the preamble to its Constitution, this Society was instituted among other things "to promote and assist in the proper celebration" of cer- tain National Holidays. The Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia have fulfilled this duty by promoting and assisting in such celebrations with other patriotic societies whose members are of Revolutionary descent. These Joint Annual Celebrations, more par- ticularly that of Washington's Birthday, have come to be regarded as the official Celebration in the City of Washington of that National Holiday.
The most noteworthy of these Joint Annual Celebrations was that of the one hundred and eighty-sixth anniversary of George Washing- ton's birth, held in the Liberty Hut at the Terminal Station Plaza on the morning of February 22, 1918. In the most inclement of weather fully fourteen thousand people were gathered to witness these exercises. James Mortimer Montgomery, General President of the Sons of the Revolution, presided. The speakers included M. Jules J. Jusserand, the French Ambassador, and Lord Reading, the British Ambassador. The principal address was by Senator Warren G. Harding, of Ohio. Lee's eulogy on Washington was read, while the music for the occa- sion was furnished by the United States Marine Band, and a chorus of two thousand voices lead by Mr. Homer Rodeheaver. An inter- national medley was sung composed alternately of verses from the hymns "America" and "God Save the King," all to the one air of the British National Anthem.
The Society has also held an Annual Celebration of Independence Day, in cooperation with the local Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. These Exercises are conducted at the foot of Washing- ton Monument and are intended especially for the benefit of recently naturalized citizens of the United States. The members of these two Societies as descendants of immigrants of pre-Revolutionary days extend on these occasions a welcome to those new citizens. At the Exercises conducted on July 4, 1918, the Societies were honored by the attendance of armed sailors of France from the French Cruiser "La Gloire" under command of their own officers.
In 1915 Colonel John Van R. Hoff suggested the propriety of the Society holding special religious services annually. This was favor-
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ably considered by the Board of Managers at its meeting on May 27, 1915, and a Standing Committee was appointed to carry out the arrangements. Since then these services have been conducted annually alternating in two prominent church edifices of the City of Washing- ton, the present practice being to observe the Sunday nearest to the Anniversary of George Washington's Birthday.
ANNUAL SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SOCIETY, SONS OF THE REVOLUTION.
November 21, 1915, Church of the Epiphany, Rt. Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving, D. D., LLD., Bishop of Southern Brazil.
February 18, 1917, St. John's Episcopal Church, Rev. Romilly F. Humphreys,
Baltimore, Maryland.
February 17, 1918, Church of the Epiphany, Rev. Roland Cotton Smith, D. D.,
Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church.
February 16, 1919, St. John's Episcopal Church, Rt. Rev. Daniel S. Thomas, D. D., Bishop of Wyoming.
February 22, 1920, Church of the Epiphany, Rev. Z. B. T. Phillips, D. D., St. Peter's Church, St. Louis, Missouri.
More recently this Society undertook a public celebration of a date not mentioned in its Constitution. On September 6, 1918, it joined other Societies in the celebration of the 161st Anniversary of the birth of the Marquis de Lafayette. These Exercises were most appropriately held at the Lafayette Monument in the Square in the City of Washington that bears the name of that illustrious French- man. Very eloquent addresses were made there by the Honorable Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, and by the Count de Cham- brun, of the French Embassy, himself a great grandson of La Fayette. President Wilson and Mrs. Wilson and representatives from all of our Allies in the war were among the honored guests. Tributes of flowers from the White House, the French Embassy and the partici- pating Societies were laid upon the monument by the President of the Sons of the Revolution. Inspiring and uplifting messages were read from President Poincaire and from Marshal Joffre. As daylight faded into eventide 'mid strains of patriotic music by the United States Marine Band the audience dispersed, thrilled by an experience that did much toward emphasizing the usefulness of such patriotic Societies as the Sons of the Revolution.
The Society has held each year a prize essay competition partici- pated in by the pupils of all public and private schools in the District
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of Columbia. The topic selected is one related in Revolutionary history. The prize is a gold medal suitably inscribed and presented at the Joint Celebration of George Washington's Birthday. Presi- dent Wilson has usually handed these medals to the successful com- petitor with a brief address. In 1918, however, this duty was per- formed by Lord Reading, the newly appointed Ambassador of Great Britain. At the Joint Exercises, February 22, 1919, the medal was presented by the President of the Society, General George Rich- ards, while at like Exercises on February 23, 1920, the French Ambas- sador M. Jules J. Jusserand performed this duty. The successsful competitors for the past six years follow :
1914 Clarence J. Rammling, Mckinley Manual Training School.
1915 Walter L. Smoot, Central High School.
1916 Miss Ina M. Lawrence, Eastern High School.
1917 Harold F. Stose, Central High School.
1918 J. Francis Cotter, Central High School.
1919 Willis T. Ballinger, Central High School.
1920 Charles Lanham, Eastern High School.
Under authority of a resolution by the Society at its meeting of April 19, 1915, a Committee of which Col. Henry May was Chair- man was appointed for the purpose of organizing a color guard of like character to that of the Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Society, for the Color Guard, has collected the following flags :
The National Flag of the United States, presented by Mr. Thomas W. Lockwood, Jr., of the Society.
The Flag of the General Society of the Sons of the Revolution, purchased by the Society.
The Flag of the Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia, presented by Col. Henry May of the Society.
The Royal Bourbon Flag of France, presented by Mrs. William Cumming Story, President General, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution.
The First Flag of the Continental Navy, presented by Mrs. George Barnett on behalf of the Marine Corps Recruiting Service.
The Grand Union, or Cambridge, Flag, presented by Mr. Gran- ville Carter Bradford, of the Society.
The Society following its annual meeting of December 12, 1916, where a very illuminating address was delivered by Mr. William V. Cox, actively interested itself in the enactment of legislation to pre- vent in the District of Columbia the desecration of the American Flag. As a result of this endeavor, the legislation desired which was then before the House of Representatives passed the Senate of the United States on February 2, 1917, and shortly afterwards received the approval of the President of the United States.
Almost with the institution of the District Society, the question of instituting a National Organization or a General Society of the Sons
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of the Revolution was considered. The large increase in member- ship in the New York, Pennsylvania, and District of Columbia Socie- ties, together with a desire for a closer bond of association between these Societies, resulted in the appointment of a committee, or dele- gates, to consider the feasibility of such a union. A conference of these delegates occurred at Philadelphia on February 12, 1890, our Society being there represented by Mr. Arthur Henry Dutton. There the fundamental principles for the organization of the General Society were decided upon, and Mr. Clifford Stanley Sims, at the time a Justice of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, and who for many years had been President of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati, was designated to draft a Constitution for the Gen- eral Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Judge Sims took as a model the Constitution of the Order of the Cincinnati. Within less than two months after Judge Sims' submission of this Constitution, it was unanimously approved and ratified by the three original Societies of New York, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. In the minutes of a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Sons of the Revolution, as held April 9, 1890, in New York City, the following entry appears :
The Secretary read a letter from Mr. Dutton stating that the Society in the District of Columbia had unanimously ratified the compact with Pennsyl- vania and New York at a regular meeting of the Society, held on April 3rd, and requesting that a day be appointed for a meeting of the delegates of the three Societies to be held in Washington for the purpose of electing General Officers. On motion it was resolved that the delegates from this Society should arrange to meet with the delegates from Pennsylvania and the Dis- trict of Columbia in Washington on April 19, 1890.
The delegates from these Societies were at once appointed to meet in general convention at Washington, D. C., to establish the more perfect union contemplated in the Constitution drawn by Judge Sims. On April 19, 1890, at Chamberlin's, in the City of Washington, these delegates met in convention. Mr. Frederick Samuel Tallmadge, at the time President of the New York Society, presided. The General Society, Sons of the Revolution, became there established. At this Convention the following gentlemen were elected as officers of the General Society : President General, Ex-Governor John Lee Carroll, of Maryland; General Vice-President, Major William Wayne, of Pennsylvania; General Secretary, James Mortimer Montgomery, of New York; Assistant General Secretary, Timothy Matlock Chees- man, of New York; General Treasurer, Richard McCall Cadwala- der, of Pennsylvania; Assistant General Treasurer, Arthur Henry Dutton, of District of Columbia; General Chaplain, Daniel Cony Weston, D. D., of New York. From these beginnings there develop- ed the magnificent Society we know and admire today, a Society at one time pronounced as "the most prosperous, united, stable and patriotic organization of our country."
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[Acts of Incorporation No. 5, pp. 66, et seq.]
THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Certificate of Incorporation Recorded December 18, 1889, I:45 p. m.
We, the undersigned Theo. M. B. Mason, S. M. Taylor and Arthur Henry Dutton, being persons of full age, all of whom are citizens of the United States and a majority of whom are citizens of the District of Columbia, pursuant to and in conformity with sections five hundred and forty-four, five hundred and forty-five, five hundred and forty-nine, five hundred and fifty, and five hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to the District of Columbia as amended by the Act of Congress entitled "An Act to amend the Revised Statutes relating to the District of Columbia and for other purposes," approved April 23, 1884; do hereby associate our- selves together for literary purposes and mutual improvement, and we do hereby certify: First, That the name by which our said Society shall be known in law is "The Sons of the Revolution in the District of Columbia." Second, That the term for which our said Society is organized is perpetual. Third, That the particular business and objects of our said Society ( the members of which are to be those only who are lineal descendants of those soldiers, sailors, and officials of the Civil Government who served in the Cause of American Independence during the War of the Revolution between the years 1775 and 1783) are to foster the memories of the Revolutionary period, and by social intercourse to encourage the spirit and sentiments, and by meetings and otherwise, to commemorate the patriotic deeds of our ancestors ; and to gather, publish and preserve the family records and personal memories of those who participated in the war for American Inde- pendence; and that the operations of our said Society are to be carried on within the District of Columbia. Fourth, That the number of Directors or Managers of our said Society for the first year beginning with the date of these presents, is six.
In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands this eight- teenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine.
THEO. B. M. MASON, D. M. TAYLOR, ARTHUR HENRY DUTTON.
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Witness :
THAD K. SAILER. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, SS :
Be it remembered, on the 18th day of December, A. D. 1889, before me, Thad K. Sailer, a Notary Public, appeared the above-named Theo. B. M. Mason, D. M. Taylor, and Arthur Henry Dutton, persons known to me to be the same described in the foregoing certi- cate, and they severally before me made and signed the said certificate and acknowledged the same to be their certificate, act and deed.
Witness my hand and notarial seal the date above written.
[SEAL]
THAD K. SAILER, Notary Public.
WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM OHIO
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ADDRESS
Delivered on February 22, 1918, at Washington's Birthday celebration before the Sons of the Revolution and Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, in Washington, D. C., by Hon. Warren G. Harding, United States Senator from the State of Ohio.
Mr. President, Madam President, Your Excellencies, Sons and Daughters of the Revolution, ladies and gentlemen, my country- men : I have been sensing the atmosphere of this patriotic occasion and the significance of this celebration. There is an interesting suggestion in the representation here to-day which gives assur- ances of that fraternity of nations which is to hold justice and our ideals of civilization secure to the world.
Here, on my right, is the ambassador from Italy, whose people discovered us; on my left is the new ambassador from Great Britain, whose people largely developed us; and nearby sits the ambassador of France, whose people helped to deliver us, all joining us of America in a tribute to the beloved Father of the Republic, and consecrating all to the common cause of liberty and justice and the security of national life.
It is impossible to resist the impelling thought to speak as an eligible son of the Revolution and say what I know is in your hearts to these official representatives of the nations with whom we are committed in all conscience and righteousness.
To you, Mr. Ambassador, I pledge you America's sympathy and admiration, in the sacrifices made and the courageous battle which Italy is giving to our common enemy. And to you, Lord Reading, I utter what I know to be felt and yet little expressed, our reverent regard for Great Britain's unselfish and unalterable resolution to fight to the death for the sanctity of international compacts. And to you, Mr. Ambassador, I speak the love and admiration of America for noble and heroic France, who helped us establish the very liberty for which your sons are dying to-day. In such a fraternity as you and our own people make, I find the highest assurance mankind may have for the future security of the civilized world.
It is good to meet and drink at the fountains of wisdom inherited from the founding fathers of the Republic. It is a fitting time for retrospection and introspection when we face a problem to-day even greater than the miracle they wrought. The comparison does not belittle their accomplishment. Nothing in all history surpasses their achievement. The miracle was not the victory for independence. The stupendous thing was the successful establish- ment of the Republic. There they were, spent and bleeding, in the very chaos of newly found freedom; there they were, with ideas conflicting, interests varied, jealousies threatening, and selfishness
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impelling; there they were, without having visualized nationality. They had contended for liberty, and when it was obtained they found a nation to be the necessary means of its preservation.
With commanding patriotism and lofty statesmanship, with heroic sacrifice and deep-penetrating foresight, they founded what we had come to believe the first seemingly dependable popular Government on the face of the earth. I can believe they were divinely inspired. In the reverent retrospection I can believe that destiny impelled. Surely there was the guiding hand of divinity itself, conscious of sublime purpose.
They not only wrought union and concord out of division and discord, but they established a representative democracy, and for the first time in the history of the world wrote civil liberty into the fundamental law. On this civil liberty is builded the temple of human liberty, and through this representative Government we Americans have wrought to the astonishment of the world. More, on the unfailing foundation of civil liberty they established orderly government, the most precious possession of all civiliza- tion, and made justice its highest purpose.
Mark you, they were not reforming the world. They had dearly bought the freedom of a new people; they reared new standards of liberty; they consecrated themselves to equal rights, then sought to establish the highest guaranty of them all. They had the vision to realize that no dependable government could be founded on ephem- eral popular opinion. They knew that thinking, intelligent, delib- erate, public opinion, in due time would write any statute that justice inspired. They knew that no pure democracy, with political power measured by physical might, ever had endured; that neither the autocrat with usurped or granted power, or the mass in impassioned committal could maintain liberty and justice or bestow their limitless blessings. So they fashioned their triumphs, their hopes, their aspirations, and their convictions into the Constitution of the representative Republic; they made justice the crowning figure on the surpassing temple, and stationed beckon- ing opportunity at the door-equal opportunity, let me say-and bade the world to come and be welcome; and the world came-the down-trodden and the oppressed, the adventurous and ambitious- and they drank freely of the waters of our political life, and stood erect, and achieved, each according to his merits or his industry, his talents or his genius. Generous in their rejoicing, the fathers neglected to establish the altars of consecration at the threshold. Eager to develop our measureless resources, anxious to have humanity come and partake freely of new-world liberty, they asked no dedication at the portals. They developed an American soul in their own sacrifices for liberty, but neglected to demand soul consecration before participation on the part of those who came to share their triumphs.
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We have come to realize the oversight now. We have come to find our boasted popular Government put to the crucial test in defending its national rights. We met with no such problem in the Civil War. That was a destined conflict between Americans of the two schools of political thought, which was the final test in maintaining nationality. There was like passion for country on either side of that great struggle, but the dross in the misdirected passion for disunion was burned away in the crucible of fire and blood, and the pure gold turned into shining stars in dear Old Glory again. We settled rights to nationality among ourselves. We are fighting to-day for the unalterable rights which are inherent in nationality, without which no self-respecting nation could hope to survive, and for which any nation refusing to fight does not deserve to survive.
There has never been one moment of doubt among Americans about the righteousness of our part in this unutterable war. There has never been any question among Americans about the necessity of our taking a mighty part therein. And there isn't any question among real, red-blooded Americans about our fighting it to a triumphant ending. It is not in my heart to utter a boast, and I am not so unheeding as to underrate the determination and the preparedness of the allied central powers. I do not misconstrue the loyalty of their peoples, against whom we do and must give battle whether we proclaim it so or not, but this mightiest conflict of all time is one of resources and brains as well as valor and heroism, and America is rich in all, and her strength is doubled by the righteousness of our cause. We were slow in our committal, but it is unalterable. We do not seek to destroy, but Germany must be brought to terms. We do not cry for vengeance, but the madman of the world must be restrained or restored to reason. We do not mean to intrude or dictate any more than we mean to tolerate intrusion or dictation, but now that we are involved, we mean to make the world fit to live in, and hold America and all lawful avenues of commerce and comity safe for Americans on land or sea.
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