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■	raise from the little band of the faithful here, some few thousands of dollars, and all we expect therefor in return is the use of the appropriate portions of the building for our brethren, at a reasonable rent, and the satisfaction of . having been the instruments of benefit to our country and our Older. Our main dependence is upon you. To you we therefore confidently trust for such bestowments, according to each one’s ability, as will enable us to rear, here— the gathering point of the remotest parts of the Union—at this place, chosen by our illustrious brother, whose name it bears, as the seat of Government, and which the representatives of the nation are yearly making more worthy of his great name and of the great people whose pride it undoubtedly is, and should be to have it fostered and adorned— <•) structure that shall do honor to the Fraternity, be devoted to the thousands of visiting brethren, from all parts of our wide-spread and happy country and of the world, and.serve as a means, without any additional taxation, of enabling our Grand Lodge to dispense a noble charity throughout all time, to the successors at least of those who may contribute towards the object from whence such fund is 4o be derived.
We ask that the individual contributions of your members, with what your Lodge may in its capacity as such, see fit to donate, may be in the aggregate sent to the address of Brother Charles S. Frailey, the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, and more widely known as the Grand Secretary of our Grand Lodge, and that such amount may be accompanied by a list of the names of the different contributors, on a sheet of letter paper of the site of this.
. it being the design to have those several lists bound up in appropriate volumes and preserved, in. the contemplated Temple, to serve as a memorial in honor of those who shall have contributed to its erection.
The “Masonic Mirror and Keystoxe,” published by Brother Leon Hyneman, at Philadelphia, has been adopted as the organ of the Board of Trustees, through which acknowledgments will be made’ at the close of each month: and as a guarantee for an immediate response to this appeal by each body addressed—thus obviating the cautious scruples that might be suggested for delay, in the apprehension that the sum so contributed might be lost, by a failure on the part of others to respond to such an extent as to make it ccrtain that the structure will be raised—we . mutually pledge our honor as men and Masons, that if after a reasonable time has elapsed, the Board shall become satisfied, (a contingency not now believed possible,) that a sufficient amount cannot be raised, to justify .their use of the means received, every cent shall be returned to the source whence derived, without diminution, as all the incidental expenses of publication, postage, <fcc., will in that event be borne by the brethren here.
Once more, brethren, we cry to you for aid—we make an. earnest, but fraternal, request for your assistance in this piece of work which we have laid down on our trestle board, and which we design shall be such as to evince our skill as Master Workmen, and to which the implements and tools of the overseers may be applied, without fear . of their condemning as unworthy of the place, the object or the name it will bear.
Very fraternally, yours,
BENJAMIN B. FRENCH, President. '
EZRA WILLIAMS, Secretary.
CHARLES S. FRAILEY, Treasurer. WILLIAM W. SEATON,
Y. . PEYTON PAGE,
JOSEPH W. NAIRN,
DeWITT C. LAWRENCE,
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