USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Centennial history of the city of Washington, D. C. With full outline of the natural advantages, accounts of the Indian tribes, selection of the site, founding of the city to the present time > Part 10
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In an article published in a newspaper, the Herald, in Philadel- phia, under date of January 4, 1795, we find the following:
"To found a city in the center of the United States for the pur- pose of making it the depository of the acts of the Union and the sanctuary of the laws which must one day rule all North America, is a grand and comprehensive idea, which has already become with pro- priety the object of public respect. In reflecting on the importance of the Union, and on the advantages which it seeures to all the
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inhabitants of the United States collectively, or to individuals, where is there an American who does not see in the establishment of a Federal town a national means for confirming forever that valuable connection to which the Nation is indebted for liberation from the British yoke? The Federal City, situated in the center of the United States, is a temple erected to liberty; and toward this edifice will the wishes and expectations of all true friends of their country be in- cessantly directed. The city of Washington, considered under such important points of view, could not be calculated on a small scale; its extent, the disposition of its avenues and public squares, should all correspond with the magnitude of the object for which it was in- tended; and we need only cast our eyes upon the situation and plan of the city to recognize in them the comprehensive genius of the President, to whom the direction of the business has been committed by Congress."
Within the limits of the territory so selected by the commissioners were two tracts that had been laid off for towns into squares and streets. They were called Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh. It does not appear that there were any improvements of importance on these projected town sites, except that, in the rates of fare prescribed by the carly laws of the corporation of Washington for the govern- ment of hacks, such vehicles are allowed to charge for the conveyance of passengers from Greenleaf's Point to Hamburgh wharf twenty-five cents. Suffice it to say, that Hamburgh was in the western part of the city, and was laid out in lots and streets in the latter part of 1771; and that Carrollsburgh, which was in the eastern part of the city, on the banks of the Anacostia and James Creek, was subdivided in the year 1770.
The commissioners seem to have been perfectly satisfied with the survey made by them of the site selected for the permanent seat of the Government. On the evening of the day when they, in company with the President, rode over the district submitted to them, a meeting was held for the purpose of effecting a friendly agreement between the property holders in the new district and the United States com- missioners. Washington's counsel on that occasion was of so great effect that the general features of an agreement were settled, and the signatures of nineteen of the proprietors of the soil were appended to it the next day. By this means it may be said the rights and titles to property within the District and the city of Washington were deter- mined, and the great fact of a permanent seat of government finally settled. The agreement is in the language following:
" We, the subscribers, in consideration of the great benefits we
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expect to derive from having the Federal City laid off on our lands, do hereby agree and bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, and administra- tors, to convey in trust to the President of the United States, or commissioners, or such persons as he shall appoint, by good and suf- ficient deeds in fee simple, the whole of our respective lands which he may think proper to include within the lines of the Federal City, for the purposes and on the conditions following:
"The President shall have the sole power and directing of the Federal City, to be laid off in what manner he pleases. He may retain any number of squares he may think proper for publie im- provement, or other public uses, and the lots only which shall be laid off shall be a joint property between the trustees on behalf of the public and each present proprietor, and the same shall be fairly and equally divided between the public and the individuals as soon as may be after the city shall be laid off.
"For the streets the proprietors shall receive no compensation; but for the squares, or lands in any form which shall be taken for public buildings, or any kind of public improvements or uses, the proprietors whose lands shall be so taken, shall receive at the rate of £25 per aere, to be paid by the public.
"The whole wood on the lands shall be the property of the pro- prietors; but should any be desired by the President to be reserved or left standing, the same shall be paid for by the public at a just and reasonable valuation, exclusive of the £25 per acre to be paid for the land on which the same shall remain.
" Each proprietor shall retain the full possession and use of his land until the same shall be sold and occupied by the purchasers of the lots laid out thereupon, and in all cases where the public arrange- ments, as the streets, lots, etc., will admit of it, each proprietor shall possess his buildings and other improvements, and graveyards, paying to the public only one-half the present estimated value of the lands on which the same shall be, or £12 10s. per acre. But in cases where the arrangements of the streets, lots, squares, etc., will not admit of this, and it shall become necessary to remove the buildings, improve- ments, etc., the proprietors of the same shall be paid the reasonable value by the public.
"Nothing in this agreement shall affect the lots which any of the proprietors, parties to this agreement, may hold in the towns of Car- rollsburgh or Hamburgh.
" IN WITNESS WHEREOF, we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 30th day of March, 1791."
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This agreement was signed by Robert Peter, David Burns, James M. Lingan, Uriah Forrest, Benjamin Stoddert, Notley Young, Daniel Carroll of Duddington, Overton Carr, Thomas Beall of George, Charles Beatty, Anthony Holmead, William Young, Edward Pierce, Abraham Young, James Pierce, William Prout, Eliphas Douglas, John Warring (the last two by their attorneys), and William King.
The Legislature of the State of Maryland, by an act dated Decem- ber 19, 1791, ratified her cession of land to the United States for a Federal District, and after reciting the boundaries as given above, and stating that the territory has been called the "Territory of Colum- bia," proceeds as follows:
" AND WHEREAS, Notley Young, Daniel Carroll, of Duddington, and many others, proprietors of the greater part of the land hereinafter mentioned to have been laid out into a city, came into an agreement and have conveyed their lands in trust to Thomas Beall, son of George, and John Mackall Gantt, whereby they have subjected their lands to be laid out as a city, giving up part to the United States, and subject- ing other parts to be sold to raise money as a donation, to be employed according to the act of Congress for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of government of the United States, under and upon the terms and conditions contained in each of said deeds; and many of the proprietors of lots in Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh having also come into an agreement, subjecting their lots to be laid out anew, giving up one-half of the quantity of their lots to be sold, and the money thence arising to be applied as a donation aforesaid, and then to be reinstated in one-half the quantity of their lots in the new location, or otherwise compensated in lands in a different situation within the city, by agreement between the commissioners and them; and in case of disagreement, that then a just and full compensation shall be made in money; 'yet some of the proprietors of lots in Car- rollsburgh and Hamburgh, as well as some of the proprietors of other lands, have not, from imbecility and other causes, come into any agree- ment concerning their lands within the limits hereafter mentioned, but a very great proportion of the landholders having agreed on the same terms, the President of the United States directed a city to be laid out, comprehending all the land beginning on the east side of Rock Creek, at a stone standing in the middle of the road leading from Georgetown to Bladensburg; thence along the middle of the said road to a stone standing on the east side of Reedy Branch of Goose Creek; thence sontheasterly, making an angle of sixty-one degrees and twenty minutes with the meridian, to a stone standing in the road leading
7
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from Bladensburg to the Eastern Branch ferry; thence south to a stone eighty poles north of the east and west line already drawn from the mouth of Goose Creek to the Eastern Branch; thence east parallel to the said east and west line to the Eastern Branch; thence with the waters of the Eastern Branch, and Potomac River, and Rock Creek to the beginning, which has since been called the city of Washington;
" AND WHEREAS, It appears to this General Assembly highly just and expedient that all the lands within said city should contribute, in due proportion, in the means which have already very greatly enhanced the value of the whole; and an incontrovertible title ought to be made to the purchasers, under publie sanction; that allowing foreigners to hold land within said Territory will greatly contribute to the improvement and population thereof; and that many temporary pro- visions will be necessary till Congress exercises the jurisdiction and government over the said Territory; and, whereas, in the cession of this State heretofore made of territory for the Government of the United States, the line of such cession could not be particularly desig- nated, and it being expedient and proper that the same should be recognized in the acts of the State;
" Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That all that part of the said Territory, called Columbia, which lies within the limits of this State shall be, and the same is hereby acknowledged to be, forever ceded to the Congress and Government of the United States, in full and absolute right and exclusive jurisdiction, as well of soil as of persons residing or to reside thereon, pursuant to the tenor and effect of the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution of the Gov- ernment of the United States: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to vest in the United States any right of property in the soil so as to affect the rights of individuals therein, otherwise than as the same shall or may be transferred by such individuals to the United States: And provided, also, that the jurisdiction of the laws of the State over the persons and property of individuals residing within the limits of the cession aforesaid shall not cease or determine until Congress shall by law provide for the government thereof under the jurisdiction in manner provided by the article of the Constitution before recited."
May 9, 1791, John M. Gantt accepted the appointment of secretary to the board of commissioners, to be paid according to the judgment of the President, and on June 30, the same year, William Deakins was appointed treasurer.
On or about the 29th of June, 1791, the original proprietors of
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the greater part of the lands which now constitute the city of Wash- ington made conveyance of them to trustees, to hold for the purposes of the Government. These trustees were Thomas Beall, of George, and John M. Gantt. By the deeds the lands belonging to said proprietors 'within the Federal Territory are conveyed, in consideration of five shillings, to the trustees mentioned, to be by them taken and held in certain trusts in the deeds mentioned. These trusts are, that all such lands, or such parts thereof as may be thought necessary or proper, be laid out, together with other lands within the Federal City, with such streets, squares, parcels, and lots as the President of the United States for the time being shall approve, and by said trustees to be conveyed to the commissioners appointed under the act of Congress for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States, for the use of the United States forever, all the streets and squares, parcels and lots, as the President shall deem proper for that purpose, to belong forever to the said United States; that, as to the residue of the said lots into which said lands shall have been laid off and divided, a fair and equal division shall be made, to be agreed upon, or, if a fair division cannot be obtained by agreement, then such residue shall be divided by giving to the owners of said lands every alternate lot. Having thus provided how these lands are to be divided between the proprietors of them and the trustees on the part of the Government, provision is made for the lands taken by the United States, and the disposition of the funds arising from such sales; first, for the payment to the original propri- etors at a fixed sum per acre for the lands taken for the use of the United States, not including the streets and avenues, and next, to the purpose and according to the act of Congress establishing the tem- porary and permanent seat of government, such disposition to be subject to such terms and conditions as shall be thought reasonable by the President for regulating the materials, and buildings, and improvements on the lots generally in the city, or in particular parts thereof, for common convenience, safety, and order, such conditions to be declared before any sale of said lots.
There were other provisions in the conveyance of these lands, with respect to the trees and wood growing thereon, and to the portion thereof occupied by the proprietors for their private residences and graveyards, having reference always to the public use and convenience.
When President Washington returned from his famous tour of one thousand nine hundred miles through the South in his cream- colored chariot, during the progress of which a part of the letters above
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quoted were written, he found awaiting him at Mount Vernon that skillful French engineer, Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant. He was an educated soldier who had distinguished himself while serving as major of engineers in the Revolutionary War, and had been selected to lay out the plan of the new Federal City. Major L'Enfant was warmly' received by the President, and remained with him at Mount Vernon nearly a week, during which time the plan of the city was completely matured. Major L'Enfant's plan was very elaborate, and was fully set forth upon a map finely executed. Ile followed the work of Le Notre in Versailles, the seat of the French Government buildings. His plan comprised broad transverse streets and avenues, numerous open squares, circles, and triangular reservations and parks, all of which were designed to be so drawn that from the intersection of any two or more streets and avenues the horizon would be visible. The locations of the public buildings were indicated, and everything was designed upon a most spacious scale.
L'Enfant's design meeting with the approval of President Wash- ington and Mr. Jefferson, it was formally adopted, and L'Enfant was engaged to superintend its execution. He had as assistant a young Pennsylvanian named Andrew Ellicott, who, together with his brother, had established the town of Ellicott's Mills in Maryland. He was re- markably intelligent and a competent surveyor, and by him the streets and squares were laid out. Before the erection of any building was permitted, an accurate survey was made and properly recorded, and to this survey all subsequent building operations had to conform.
Mr. Jefferson, the Secretary of State under President Washington, took an active interest in the plan of the new city; and indeed in everything that related to it. In a letter to a friend, that distinguished statesman says:
"I received last night from Major L'Enfant a request to furnish him any plans of towns I could for his examination. I accordingly send him by this post plans of Frankfort on the Main, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam, Strasburg, Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, Turin, and Milan, on large and accurate scales, which I procured while in those towns respectively. They are none of them comparable to the old Babylon, revived in Philadelphia and exem- plified. While in Europe, I selected about a dozen or two of the handsomest parts of private buildings, of which I have the plates. Perhaps it might decide the taste of the new town, were they to be engraved and distributed gratis among the inhabitants of Georgetown. The expense would be trifling."
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On April 30, 1791, President Washington, in his proclamation, referred to the city of Washington as the "Federal City." The name "City of Washington" was conferred upon it in September, 1791, as appears from the following letter from the commissioners of the Dis- triet to Major L'Enfant:
"GEORGETOWN, September 9, 1791.
"SIR: We have agreed that the Federal District shall be called ' The Territory of Columbia,' and the Federal City the 'City of Wash- ington.' The title of the map will therefore be, 'A Map of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia.'
" We have also agreed that the streets be named alphabetically one way and numerically the other, the former to be divided into north and south, and the latter into east and west numbers from the Capitol. Major Ellicott, with proper assistance, will immediately take, and soon furnish you with, the soundings of the Eastern Branch, to be inserted in the map. We expect he will also furnish you with the proposed post road, which we wish to be noticed in the map.
" We are respectfully yours, " THOMAS JOHNSON. " DAVID STUART. "DANIEL CARROLL."
The plan of the Capital City is most undoubtedly the result of the talent, industry, and zealous interest of Major L'Enfant He was evidently a man of great accomplishments, and it is marvelous, now that time has developed his grand plans, that he could have conceived the erection of so magnificent a capital in what was then apparently a hopeless wilderness. But Major L'Enfant seems to have been as eccentric and impracticable in some respects as he was talented and capable in others. These qualities soon made his intercourse with the commissioners and others interested in the city unbearable, and his connection with its plans and progress terminated abruptly in March, 1792, almost at the outset of his work.
General Washington wrote of him, January 17, 1792, that he might be a useful man, if he could be brought to reduce himself within those limits which the commissioners, under their responsibility, were obliged to prescribe; but that at that time he did not appear to be in that temper. "Perhaps," he said, "when Mr. Johnson shall arrive here, he may be able to let him see that nothing will be required of him but what is perfectly reconcilable to reason and to a degree of liberty on his part."
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March 2, 1792, Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, wrote to the commissioners :
"It having been found impracticable to employ Major L'Enfant about the Federal City, in that degree of subordination which was lawful and proper, he has been notified that his services are at an end. It is proper that he should receive the reward of his past serv- ices, and the wish that he should have no just cause of discontent suggests that it should be liberal. The President thinks of $2,500 or $3,000, but leaves the determination with you. Ellicott is to go on and finish laying off the plan of the ground and surveying and plotting the district."
Major L'Enfant's dismissal caused apprehension in certain quarters that he and his friends would use what influence they possessed to injure the prospects of the new Capital, even Washington writing that "the enemies of the enterprise will take advantage of the retirement of L'Enfant to trumpet the whole as an abortion." But the Major was loyal to the Government and to the city, and lived on the site and in the vicinity the rest of his days. G. A. Townsend, in his " Washington Outside and Inside," says of him that "he several times afterwards came under the notice of the Executive, and was a baffled petitioner before Congress." However this may be, an act of Congress was approved May 1, 1810, which was as follows:
" AN ACT for the Relief of P. C. L'Enfant:
" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized and directed to pay P. C. L'Enfant, ont of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $666.66, with interest from the 1st day of March, 1792, as a compensation for his services in laying out the plan of the city of Washington."
At this late date and in the presence of the fruition of his great plan, it is not difficult to draw a veil over the weaknesses and foibles of this brilliant and enthusiastic Frenchman. He had manifested his gallantry on the battlefields of the Revolution. He showed to the world how great was his faith in the stability of our institutions and the future progress of his adopted country in the plan he devised for its future Capital, and his loyalty never flagged under the pressure of what must have seemed to him ingratitude and neglect. Somewhere in our beautiful city there will some day arise a proper monument to the man who deserves so much at the hand of every true American.
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During the year 1792, the commissioners employed Andrew Ellicott to survey the boundary lines of the Federal District, and on January 1, 1793, he made the following report of the survey to them:
"It is with singular satisfaction that I announce to you the com- pletion of the survey of the four lines comprehending the Territory of Columbia. These lines are opened and cleared forty feet wide; that is, twenty feet on each side of the lines limiting the Territory; and in order to perpetuate the work, I have set up square milestones, marked progressively with the number of miles from the beginning on Jones's Point to the west corner; thence from the west corner; thence from the north corner to the east corner, and thence to the place of begin- ning on Jones's Point, except as to a few cases where the miles terminated on a declivity or in water; in such cases the stones are placed on the nearest firm ground, and their true distances in miles and poles marked on them. On the sides facing the Territory is inscribed, 'Jurisdiction of the United States'; on the opposite sides of those placed in the State of Virginia is inscribed 'Virginia,' and of those in the State of Maryland is inscribed ' Maryland.' On the fourth side is inscribed the year and the present position of the magnetic needle at the place. With this you will receive a map of the four lines, with a half mile on each side, to which is added a survey of the waters in the Territory and a plan of the city of Washington."
The rule of the District commissioners over the city of Washing- ton came to a close by the abolishiment of the board in 1802, and the appointment of a superintendent. In the meantime, the Government of the United States was removed to Washington, Congress first convening there November 22, 1800, during the presidency of John Adams. Legal jurisdiction over the District of Columbia was assumed by Congress February 27, 1801, and the laws of Maryland and Virginia were declared in force. The city of Washington was incorporated by a Congressional enactment passed May 3, 1802, by which act the appointment of the mayor was vested in the President of the United States, and there were established two branches of the City Council, the members of which were elected by the people on a general ticket.
By this act the city of Washington was definitely established as a city, and was clothed with powers of municipal government. Its progress to this point had been slow, and attended with many and very serious difficulties; so many, indeed, that nothing but the great faith of the men who assisted in its foundation, in the future growth and development of the country, would have insured success. These
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difficulties were to be found in embarrassments growing out of national legislation, to obstacles thrown in the way of the city's progress by movements in Congress, and by the ceaseless opposition, in some quarters, of the public press. In this account of these matters we have principally to do with the difficulties presented by the persons who were proprietors of the lands to be occupied, and we shall find that these, notwithstanding the early acquiescence of the proprietors in the proposed plans, were in some instances of a serious character, and were calculated to discourage, and, indeed, did for a while dishearten, the commissioners who had the work in charge.
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