In March 1909, a convention representative of various Bahá'í
centers was called, in pursuance of instructions received from 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The thirty-nine delegates, representing thirty-six cities, who had assembled in
Chicago, on the very day the remains of the Báb were laid to rest by
'Abdu'l-Bahá in the specially erected mausoleum on Mt. Carmel, established a
permanent national organization, known as the Bahá'í Temple Unity, which was
incorporated as a religious corporation, functioning under the laws of the
State of Illinois, and invested with full authority to hold title to the property
of the Temple and to provide ways and means for its construction. At this same
convention a constitution was framed, the Executive Board of the Bahá'í Temple
Unity was elected, and was authorized by the delegates to complete the purchase
of the land recommended by the previous Convention. Contributions for this
historic enterprise, from India, Persia, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Russia,
Egypt, Germany, France, England, Canada, Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and even
Mauritius, and from no less than sixty American cities, amounted by 1910, two
years previous to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's arrival in America, to no less than twenty
thousand dollars, a remarkable testimony alike to the solidarity of the
followers of Bahá'u'lláh in both the East and the West, and to the self-sacrificing
efforts exerted by the American believers who, as the work progressed, assumed
a preponderating share in providing the sum of over a million dollars required
for the erection of the structure of the Temple and its external ornamentation.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)