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Yes, history should be preserved as another anon said, but if it be preserved, then the history should also be preserved. Why have monuments without the history? Doesn't that defeat the purpose and simply make it an empty tradition?
Here's the history of the Washington Monument:
July 4, 1848: The cornerstone of the Washington Monument was laid by the Freemason Society. President Polk would succumb to cholera just three months after the end of his term in office, making his retirement from the office the shortest of all the other Presidents thus far. At 53, he was also the youngest to die in retirement. During the years the monument was constructed, was the civil war and the presidents during that time suffered from the curse.
July 4, 1850: President Taylor was said to have eaten copious amounts of raw fruit and iced milk during a fund-raising event at the obelisk Washington Monument under construction. For several days, he was severely ill with an mysterious digestive ailment. It was diagnosed as cholera morbus, at the time a generic term for a variety of intestinal ailments but not actual cholera which was an epidemic at this time. Other members of his cabinet had also become ill. He got a fever, and treatment proved futile, and the curse continued.
November, 1852: Pierce won the presidential election. Despite his friendly nature and attractive appearance, he was plagued with personal tragedy.
January 6, 1853, while he and his family had been traveling by train, their train car derailed and rolled, killing their 11-year-old son, Benjamin, nearly decapitating him. Neither he nor his wife were able to mentally recover from it, and it affected his presidency. Jane Pierce wondered if the train accident was divine punishment, though blaming it on her husband's involvement in politics and his election. She of course did not function in the usual First Lady role, beginning with her refusal to join in the inauguration. He was sworn in with a law book, likely rattled and afraid to swear on the Bible. He battled alcoholism while his marriage failed. During his term, he executed many unpopular acts, giving him the dubious reputation as one of the worst President's in American history.
His alcoholism finally caught up to him when he died in 1869 of cirrhosis of the liver. Buchanan had counseled he work with Vice President-elect King to choose his Cabinet, but he did not do so, likely because King became ill with tuberculosis, traveling to Cuba to convalesce. Instead, he worsened, and Congress had to allow him to be sworn at the American consul in Havana in March. As he didn't want to die abroad, he returned to Alabama and died on April 18, and his place was not filled while Pierce was in office, which meant the Senate President pro tempore was next in line to the presidency. Pierce had expanded the role of the U.S. attorney general in appointing federal judges and attorneys, which led to the development of the "Justice" Department. His Secretary of War had been Jefferson Davis, and he used the Army Corps of Engineers to oversee construction projects in DC, including the expansion of the Capitol and the building of the obelisk Washington Monument.