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 9
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"SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall have power to purchase or accept such quantity of land on the eastern side of said river within the said district as the President shall deem proper for the use of the United States, and according to such plans as the President shall approve, the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall, prior to the first Monday in December in the year one thousand eight hundred, provide suitable buildings for the accommodations of Congress and of the President, and for the public offices of the Government of the United States.
"SEC. 4. And be it enacted, That for defraying the expenses of such purchases and buildings, the President of the United States be authorized and requested to accept grants of money.
"SEC. 5. And be it enacted, That prior to the first Monday in December next, all offices attached to the seat of government of the United States shall be removed to, and until the said first Monday in December in the year one thousand eight hundred shall remain at, the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, at which place the session of Congress next ensuing the present shall be held.
"SEC. 6. And be it enacted, That on the said first Monday in December in the year one thousand eight hundred, the seat of gov- ernment of the United States shall, by virtue of this act, be transferred to the district and place aforesaid. And all offices attached to the said seat of government shall accordingly be removed thereto by their respective holders, and shall, after that day, cease to be exercised elsewhere, and that the necessary expense of such removal shall be defrayed out of the duties on imposts and tonnage, of which a sufficient sum is hereby appropriated. GEORGE WASHINGTON,
" President of the United States.
" Approved July 16, 1790."
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WASHINGTON BECOMES THE CAPITAL.
The section in the foregoing act of Congress by which it is pro- vided that the offices of the Government were to be removed to and remain in Philadelphia until the first Monday in December, 1800, caused much discussion, and was only passed after a great struggle. It was feared by some that if the Capital remained in Philadelphia for ten years, it would never be removed; but their fears were unwar- ranted by the event.
In June, 1800, the public offices were transferred to the city of Washington, and opened there on the 15th of that month. On the 22d of November, 1800, the President, John Adams, in his speech at the opening of Congress, said:
" I congratulate the people of the United States on the assembling of Congress at the permanent seat of their Government, and I con- gratulate you, gentlemen, on the prospect of a residence not to be changed. It is with you, gentlemen, to consider whether the local powers over the District of Columbia, vested by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, shall be immediately exercised. If, in your opinion, this important trust ought now to be executed, you cannot fail, while performing it, to take into view the future probable situation of the Territory for the happiness of which you are about to provide. You will consider it as the capital of a great nation, advanc- ing with unexampled rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth, and in population; and possessing within itself those resources which, if not thrown away or lamentably misdirected, will secure to it a long course of prosperity and self-government."
The House of Representatives, in their answer to the speech of President Adams, said:
"The final establishment of the seat of National Government which has now taken place in the District of Columbia, is an event of no small importance in the political transactions of the country. A consideration of those powers which have been vested in Congress over the District of Columbia, will not escape our attention; nor shall we forget that in exercising these powers a regard must be had to those events which will necessarily attend the Capital of America."
Time has shown that our ancestors were not wrong in the estimate they placed upon the importance of a Capital City, nor in their anticipations of what that city was destined to become. Speaking of the provision by which Congress is clothed with exclusive legisla- tive powers in the District of Columbia, Mr. Curtis, in his " History of the Constitution," says:
" This provision has made the Congress of the United States the
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exclusive sovereign of the District of Columbia, which it governs in its capacity of the legislature of the Union. It enabled Washington to found the city which bears his name, toward which, whatever may be the claims of local attachment, every American who can discern the connection between the honor, the renown, and the welfare of his country, and the dignity, safety, and convenience of its Government, must turn with affection and pride."
CHAPTER IV.
PERMANENT CAPITAL SITE SELECTED.
The Act of Congress Approved July 16, 1790- Appointment of Commissioners- Presi- dent Washington's Proclamation - Location and Surroundings of the District Chosen under Above Act-Description of the Site by John Cotton Smith -Extract from the Herald-Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh-The Agreement with the Proprietors -The Act of Maryland-Conveyance of Lands to Trustees - Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant Selected to Prepare a Plan of the City-His Plan Approved -Thomas Jefferson's Part in This Matter-The Name, "City of Washington," Conferred -The Plan of the City Discussed - Major L'Enfant's Dismissal - Act of Congress Compensating L'Enfant for His Services- Andrew Ellicott Succeeds L'Enfant - Completes the Survey of the District of Columbia-Close of the Rule of the Commissioners - Difficulties with the Original Proprietors - Washington's Letter in Reference Thereto- David Burns Still Obstinate - Finally Yields - Extracts from New York Daily Advertiser-Estimate of the Value of the Work of Those Who Selected the Site of the National Capital.
THE organic act of Congress, approved by President Washington July 16, 1790, ordained that a district of territory not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on the River Potomac, at some place between the mouth of the Eastern Branch of that river and of the Connogocheague, should be accepted for the permanent seat of govern- ment of the United States. The President was to appoint three commissioners, who, under his direction, were to survey and by proper metes and bounds define and limit the territory or district required under and for the purposes of the foregoing organic act. All powers necessary to the purchase or acceptance of the quantity of land within the territory prescribed, on the eastern bank of the Potomac, required according to plans to be approved by the President, were given to the commissioners mentioned, to the extent that such land was needed by the United States, for the provision of suitable buildings for the accommodation of Congress, and of the President, and the public offices of the Government.
The letters patent appointing said commissioners read as follows: "George Washington, President of the United States, to all who shall see these presents, Greeting :
"Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the integ- rity, skill, and diligence of Thomas Johnson and Daniel Carroll, of
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Maryland, and David Stuart, of Virginia, I do, in pursuance of the powers vested in me by the aet entitled, 'An Act for Establishing the Temporary and Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States,' approved July 16, 1790, hereby appoint them, the said Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart, commissioners for survey- ing the district of territory accepted by the said aet for the permanent seat of government of the United States, and for performing such other offices as by law are directed, with full authority for them, or any two of them, to proceed therein according to law, and to have and hold the said offices, with all the privileges and authorities to the same of right appertaining, each of them during the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being.
"IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the United States thereto affixed.
"Given under my hand at the city of Philadelphia, the 22d day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, and of the independence of the United States the fifteenth.
" By the President,
" GEORGE WASHINGTON.
" THOMAS JEFFERSON."
In further pursuance of the act of Congress, approved July 16, 1790, the President issued a proclamation designating the experimental boundary lines of the district to be accepted for the permanent seat of government, and directing the commissioners to run the lines and survey the proper metes and bounds of said district.
In this proclamation, after reciting the acts of the States of Mary- land and Virginia and the act of Congress, he says:
"Now, therefore, in pursuance of the powers to me confided, and after duly examining and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the several situations, within the limits aforesaid, I do hereby declare and make known that the location of one part of said district of ten miles square shall be found by running four lines of experiment in the following manner: Running from the courthouse in Alexan- dria in Virginia, due southwest half a mile, and then a due southeast course till it shall strike Hunting Creek, and fix the beginning of the said four lines of experiment:
"Then begin the first four lines of experiment at the point on Hunting Creek where the said southeast course shall have struck the same, and running the said first line due northwest ten miles; thence the second line into Maryland due northeast ten miles; thence .the
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third line due southeast ten miles; and thence the fourth line due southwest ten miles, to the beginning on Hunting Creek.
" And the said four lines of experiment being so run, I do hereby declare and make known that all that part within the said four lines of experiment which shall be within the State of Maryland, and above the Eastern Branch; and all that part within the same four lines of experiment which shall be within the Commonwealth of Virginia, and above the line to be run from the point of land forming the upper cape of the mouth of Eastern Branch due southwest, and no more, is now fixed upon and directed to be surveyed, defined, limited, and located for a part of the said district accepted by the said act of Con- gress for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States; hereby expressly reserving the survey and location of the remaining part of the said district, to be made hereafter contiguous to such part or parts of the present location as is or shall be agreeable to law.
" And I do accordingly direct the said commissioners appointed agreeably to the tenor of the said act, to proceed forthwith to run the said lines of experiment; and the same being run, to survey and by proper metes and bounds to define and limit the part within the same which is hereinbefore directed for immediate location and acceptance; and thereof to make due report to me, under their hands and seals."
It will be seen that the district was, by the act mentioned, con- fined within the limits bounded by the mouths of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac and a stream known as the Connogocheague, which emptied into the Potomac in Washington County, in the State of Maryland, about forty miles above the Eastern Branch. This legis- lation confined the district to be located to the territory north of the Potomac, and by its very terms excluded any selection within the State of Virginia. That State had, by the act of her legislature, ceded to the Government a territory ten miles square for the purposes of the General Government, all of which territory was of course situated south of the Potomac. President Washington does not seem to have regarded the restriction as binding upon those entrusted with the selection of the territory for the seat of government. It will be seen by his proclamation, issued on the 22d of January, 1791, that he includes within the boundaries determined upon by the district of ten miles square to be dedicated to the uses of the Government, a portion of the territory of the Commonwealth of Virginia lying south of the Potomac River. This selection was afterward approved by Congress. That body, by an act approved March 3, 1791, repealed all the provis-
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ions of the preceding act which limited the selection of the territory within which was to be established the seat of government to a district above or north of the Eastern Branch of the Potomac, and ordained that it should be lawful for the President to make as part of the said district "a convenient part of the Eastern Branch and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof, and also the town of Alexandria."
The President had already, as will be seen, under the powers conferred upon him, appointed Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart commissioners for surveying the district of territory accepted by the act of July 16, 1790, for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States, and performing such other offices as by law were directed. Daniel Carroll, one of the aforesaid commis- sioners, being at the time one of the delegates appointed by the State of Maryland in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, refused to act as commissioner; and hence there were only two commissioners on duty from that time until March 4, 1791, when Mr. Carroll's term of service in Congress having expired, a new commission was issued to him, and he agreed to serve as commis- sioner. As soon as convenient after this, the President proceeded in person to the point designated for the seat of government, there to take an active part in what was to him the dearest project of the latter years of his life. In a letter to Daniel Carroll, dated March 11, 1791, he says:
"I write to you by this post in conformity with my promise so to do; but it is not yet in my power to determine whether I can set out on Monday or not. If I find the roads do not mend much between this time and that, I shall not be anxious about beginning on that day, even if business should permit. As my fixing the day for meeting the commissioners at Georgetown must depend upon my departure from this place [ Philadelphia ], I cannot determine upon the former until the latter is decided. I shall write you again by Mon- day's post, and in that letter shall be able to say with certainty when I leave this city."
Soon after this, that is to say, on the 28th of March, President Washington reached Georgetown, and on the 29th rode over the entire new district, in company with the three commissioners and the two surveyors, Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant and Andrew Ellicott.
It will be interesting to accompany this distinguished party in their survey of the site selected by the wisdom of Congress for the future Capital of the yet infant Republic. To most of them the scene was not new, but to one or two of them at least we can suppose that
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this was their first view of its beauties. We can imagine the heights above Georgetown to be the point from which they first gazed upon the territory from which they were to select a site for the future seat of government. At their feet was the already thriving town of Georgetown, than which no town in this or any other country is more beautifully situated. Rising from the River Potomac, which formed the base of the town, it already partly occupied, and was destined in its gradual growth and improvement to occupy entirely, the heights that skirted and adorned that beautiful river.
On their right was the river itself. Rising in the distant Alle- ghenies and running for many miles between the States of Maryland and Virginia with comparative placidity until joined by the Shenandoah at Harper's Ferry, it bursts through the chain of mountains that has hitherto confined it, tearing the mountain from its summit to its base and hurrying away to the sea. For a while after this apparent declara- tion of its freedom from the restraint which the mountains had imposed upon its waters, its course is smooth. Again it encounters difficulties, and leaping over a steep, it forms what is known as the Great Falls of the Potomac. It rushes along, with rapids and cascades, amid grand and picturesque banks that are the admiration of all who view them, until finally reaching the town of Georgetown, it washes the shores of that town with waters so calm and deep that ships bring to its wharfs the commerce of the remotest regions of the earth. Flowing on, the river turns to the east, and widening as it goes till it assumes the appearance of a lake, describes a curve that forms a beautiful boundary to the lap of land that is finally selected as the abiding place of the National Capital.
Here again it is met by the Eastern Branch, or Anacostia, then a navigable stream and one of the commercial highways of the new Republic; and so calmly and peacefully that it seems incredible that it has a short while ago been a tumultuous stream, full of wild leaps and grand cascades, it flows away . by the town of Alexandria and Mount Vernon, the home of Washington, and is finally lost in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
Looking across the river, the heights of Arlington rise in view, commanding a most comprehensive view of the river, in themselves forming a beautiful boundary to the scene now gazed upon by the august party with so much interest. Far away to the south was the city of Alexandria, then a port of considerable importance, at whose wharves lay ships from all parts of the world, and destined -- at least so thought President Washington-to be the great tide-
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water doorway to that immense western country which had already given evidence of its future importance. President Washington was not out of his reckoning; for this city, being the nearest and most con- venient port to the Northwestern Territory, would undoubtedly have furnished to that Territory the most important outlet for its wealth, had not the application of steam to internal commerce brought about a revolution that no human wisdom could foresee.
Turning from the river and looking toward the east, their gaze encounters as the eastern boundary of Georgetown a considerable stream, flowing between romantic banks and adding greatly to the beauty of the landscape, known as Rock Creek. Beyond this extends an extensive plateau, bounded by the waters of the Potomac and the Eastern Branch, nearly level throughout its whole extent, save as it is diversified by gentle elevations, nowhere of any great height, but still sufficient to provide commanding eminences for the future public buildings of the Capital City. Through this plateau at that day ran a considerable stream known as the Tiber, with low marshy banks. This stream ran from east to west, and had its mouth in the Potomac River near what is now the foot of Seventeenth Street. South of this, extending to the bank of the river, was a plain, level nearly throughout its entire extent and divided in those early days into fields for agri- cultural purposes. Through this plain ran a branch of the larger stream known as the Tiber, and called St. James's Creek, having its mouth in the Eastern Branch at or near its confluence with the main stream or river. North again of the Tiber the land was rolling in its character, covered with trees and low undergrowth, and finally rising into high lands that formed a beautiful background to the beauties of the rural landscape. Far away to the east ran the Eastern Branch or Anacostia, forming with the Potomac a magnificent frame for what was then selected by these commissioners as the site for the seat of the new Government, and which was destined to be the location of a capital city so grand that the wildest dreams of the enthusiast failed to realize its splendors. The commissioners seem to have had no hesitation in adopting the site described, as the result of their labors under the act of Congress, and their descendants of to-day recognize and appreciate the wisdom that guided and controlled their deliberations. It is safe to say that nowhere, now that natural obstacles principally in the way of complete drainage are nearly, if not entirely, overcome, can there be found a site better adapted to the development of the grand idea conceived by the distinguished engineer selected by President Wash- ington to prepare the plans of the Capital City of the United States.
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PERMANENT CAPITAL SITE SELECTED.
It is interesting in this connection to read what was said of the site of the city by a distinguished member of Congress from Connect- icut in the Sixth Congress, the first that held its sessions in the city of Washington. It is true this is written several years after the selection of the site and when some progress had been made in the erection of the public buildings, but so little had been done that the description fits in many respects the condition of things at the date about which we have been writing.
"Our approach to the city [says Mr. John Cotton Smith] was accompanied with sensations not easily described. One wing of the Capitol only had been erected, which with the President's House, a mile distant, both constructed with white sandstone, were shining objects in dismal contrast with the scene around them. Instead of recognizing the avenues and streets portrayed in the plan of the city, not one was visible, unless we except a road with two buildings on each side of it, called the New Jersey Avenue. The Pennsylvania Avenue, leading, as laid down on paper, from the Capitol to the President's Mansion, was then nearly the whole distance a deep morass, covered with alder bushes, which were cut through the width of the intended avenne during the then ensuing winter. Between the President's House and Georgetown a block of houses had been erected which then bore (and do now ) the name of the Six Buildings. There were also two other blocks, consisting of two or three dwelling houses in different directions, and now and then an isolated wooden habita- tion; the intervening spaces, and indeed the surface of the city generally, being covered with shrub oak bushes on the higher grounds, and on the marshy soil with either trees or some sort of shrubbery. Nor was the desolate aspect of the place a little angmented by a number of unfinished edifices at Greenleaf's Point, and on an eminence a short distance from it; commenced by an individual whose name they bore, but the state of whose funds compelled him to abandon them not only unfinished, but in a ruinous condition. There appeared to be but two really comfortable habitations in all respects within the bounds of the city, one of which belonged to Daniel Carroll, and the other to Notley Young, who were the former proprietors of a large portion of the land appropriated to the city, but who reserved for their own accommodations ground sufficient for gardens and other useful appurtenances. The roads in every direction were muddy and unimproved. A sidewalk was attempted in one instance by a covering formed of the chips of the stones which had been hewed for the Cap- itol. It extended but a little way, and was of little value; for in dry
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weather the sharp fragments eut our shoes and in wet weather covered them with mortar. In short, it was a 'new settlement.'
** * * * * *
"Notwithstanding the unfavorable aspeet which Washington pre- sented on our arrival, I cannot sufficiently express my admiration of its local position. From the Capitol you have a distant view of its fine undulating surface, situated at the confluence of the Potomae and its Eastern Branch, the wide expanse of that majestic river to the bend at Mount Vernon, the cities of Alexandria and Georgetown, and the cultivated fields and blue hills of Maryland and Virginia on either side of the river, the whole constituting a prospect of surpassing beauty and grandeur. The city has also the inestimable advantage of delightful water, in many instances from copious springs, and always attainable by digging a moderate depth; to which may be added the singular faet that such is the due admixture of clay and loam in the soil of a great portion of the city, that a house may be built of brick made of the earth dug from the cellars; hence it was not unusual to see the remains of a brick kiln near the newly erected dwelling house or other edifice. In short, when we consider not only these advantages, but what in a national point of view is of supreme importance, the location on a fine navigable river, accessible to the whole maritime frontiers of the United States, and yet rendered easily defensible against foreign invasion, and that by the facilities of internal navigation it may be approached by the population of the Western States, and indeed of the whole Nation, with less inconvenience than any conceivable situation, we must acknowledge that its selection by Washington as the permanent seat of the Federal Government affords a striking exhibition of the discernment, wisdom, and forecast which characterized that illustrious man. Under this impression, whenever, during the six years of my connection with Congress, the question of removing the seat of gov- ernment to some other place was agitated, -and the proposition was frequently made, -I stood almost alone as a Northern man in giving my vote in the negative."
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