USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Historic homes in Washington : its noted men and women and a century in the White House > Part 2
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"The discussion took place. It was finally agreed that, whatever importance had been attached to the rejec- tion of this proposition, the preservation of the Union and concord among the States was more important, and that therefore it would be better that the vote of rejection should be rescinded; to effect which some members should change their votes.
"But it was observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States; and that some concomitant measures should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them.
"There had been propositions to fix the seat of Govern- ment either at Philadelphia or Georgetown on the Poto- mac; and it was thought that by giving it to Philadelphia for 10 years, and to Georgetown permanently afterwards,
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HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
this might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree the fer- ment which might be excited by the other measure alone.
"So two of the Potomac members, White and Lee, agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton undertook to carry the other point. In doing this the influence he had established over the Eastern members, and the . agency of Robert Morris, with those of the Middle States, effected his side of the engagement, and so the assumption was passed-20,000,000 of stock divided among favored States, and thrown in, as a pabulum, to the stock-jobbing berd, and the permanent Capital fixed on the Potomac."
Up to this time, Mr. Jefferson's statement has been accepted as a part of the history of the times. We have shown how the vote was obtained. After this, in the year 1791, the 30th day of March, 15 years after the Inde- pendence of the United States, followed the amendatory proclamation of President Washington.
After all the controversy, it is a very significant fact that Congress fixed absolutely no definite place for the site of the Capital City. It gave to the President of the United States power to choose any site on the river Poto- mac between the mouth of the Eastern Branch (Anacos- tia) to the mouth of the Conococheague-in fact, he could make his choice within a distance of about a hundred miles, following the river windings from the present site of Washington to where the Conococheague joins the Potomac at Williamsport, Washington County, MId., about seven miles f om Hagerstown.
Under this act the President had it in his power to have fixed the Capital 100 miles up the river.
A contemp raneous letter of Oliver Wolcott's says, "In 1800 we are to go to the Indian place with the long na'ne, on the Potomac,"-meaning Conococheague.
The result shows that the rare judgment of Gen. Wash- ington was peculiarly illust ated in the selection of the site of the Metropolitan city, which will continue to bear his name as long as the Nation lives.
The crowning point of the Nation's birth was reached when a permanent National Home was provided for, and
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Washington was given the power to issue his amenda- tory proclamation:
"Now, therefore, for the purpose of amending and com- pleting the location of the 10 miles square, in conformity with the said amendatory act of Congress, I do hereby declare and make known that the whole of the said terri- tory shall be located and included within the four lines following:
"Beginning at Jones Point, being the upper part of Hunting Creek, in Virginia, at an angle of 45 degrees west of north, and running in a direct line 10 miles for the first line :- Then beginning again at the same Jones Point, and running another direct line at right angles to the first across the Potomac, 10 miles for the second line, running two other direct lines of 10 miles each. The one crossing the eastern branch aforesaid, and the other the Potomac, and meeting each other in a point.
"And I do accordingly direct the Commissioners named under the authority of the said first mentioned act of Congress, the 30th day of March, 1791, 15 years after the Independence of the United States, the said site thus agreed upon, to proceed forthwith to have the said four lines run, and by proper metes and bounds, defined and limited, and therefore to make due report under their hands and seals; and the territory so to be located, de- fined and limited, shall be the whole territory accepted by the said act of Congress as the district for the perma- nent seat of Government of the United States."
The three Commissioners appointed by Washington for the surveying and laying out of the Federal City were Thomas Johnson and Daniel Carroll of Maryland and Daniel Stuart of Virginia. It would seem to have been a very easy matter for the Commission, after Maryland and Virginia had ceded this right, backed by Congress and the President, to have accomplished their task; but from the outset they found themselves hemmed in by the obstinacy of some of the landholders. The farms of Daniel Carroll of Duddington Manor, Notley Young, David Burns, and Samuel Davidson covered the ground where the city now stands.
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Negotiations were at last entered into with all but the obstinate Scotchman, David Burns. With him the Com- missioners failed, and Washington was told that he alone could bring him to terms.
The Davy Burns farm lay south of where the Presi- dent's House now stands, and extended as far east as the present site of the Patent Office. The farm contained 600 acres.
By an instrument dated July 5, 1681, a patent was granted to one William Langworthy of the 600 acres, then called the "Widow's Mite," which had been taken up by his father .. Washington made his way to the Burns farm. Getting Uncle Davy to sit down on a rustic seat, under a clump of shade trees that were the shelter and shade of the Burns mansion, he used all his powers of persuasion to bring about the sale.
But "obstinate Mr. Burns," as Washington often called him in his correspondence, yielded not a jot. The story goes that upon one of these occasions, when Washington was trying to convince him of the great advantage it would be to him, Uncle Davy testily replied:
"I suppose you think people here are going to take every grist that comes from you as pure grain, but what would you have been if you hadn't married the Widow Custis?"
At last, after frequent interviews, Washington lost his patience. He gave Mr. Burns to understand that he had been authorized to select the location of the National Capital, and said:
"I have selected your farm as a part of it, and the Gov- ernment will take it. I trust you will, under the circum- stances, enter into an amicable agreement."
The obstinate Scotchman thought discretion, under the circumstances, was the better part of valor, and that by surrendering gracefully he could secure a better bar- gain
When the President once more asked, "On what terms will you surrender your plantation?" Mr. Burns replied, "Any that your Excellency may choose to name."
We find the deed of David Burns conveying the land
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THE FIRST SETTLERS.
to the Commissioners, in trust, the first deed recorded in the City of Washington.
One by one the original proprietors, Daniel Carroll, Notley Young, David Burns, and Samuel Davidson, surrendered their lands, to be laid out as a city, and gave one-half of them to the Government for the purpose of raising funds for the erection of the necessary public buildings.
When the negotiations at last were at an end, on the 3Ist day of May, Washington wrote to Jefferson from Mount Vernon to the effect:
"The owners conveved to the United States, on con- sideration that when the whole 'should be surveyed and laid off as a city, the original proprietors should retain "every other lot, the remaining lots to be sold by Govern- ment from time to time, and the proceeds to be applied to · the improvement of the place."
The land comprised in the sale was 7,100 acres. For so much of the land as might be appropriated for the use of the United States, they were to pay $66 2-3 per acre, not including strects. The cornerstone of the new District was laid by the Commissioners April 15, 1701, and under the direction of Washington, a Frenchnian, - Peter Charles L'Enfant, a skilled engineer, was employed to lay out the city. He was a Lieutenant in the French provincial forces, but when quite young the New- World held out many attractions for him, and we hear of him as an Engineer in the Revolutionary Army in 1777, and in 1778 he was appointed Captain of Engineers.
He was afterwards wounded at the siege of Savannah, and was then promoted to be Major of Engineers, serving near Washington. This gave Washington ample oppo :- tunity to learn that he had in Maj. L'Enfant a man of rare art culture and of versatile endowments, one that was imbued with the civilization of the Old World, and when Washington made this selection it was because he knew that he would utilize his knowledge of the art and architecture of European cities.
In a letter dated September 9, 1791, the Commissioners informed Maj. L'Enfant that they had decided to call
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HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
the plot the Territory of Columbia, and the Federal City the City of Washington.
It is a well-authenticated fact, that Maj. L'Enfant's plan, notwithstanding the different opinions existing, was the one adopted in the laying out of the city. It is also true that he wrote Jefferson asking his advice, think- ing, from his long experience abroad, that he might give suggestions and plans that would be helpful.
Through all this correspondence, and aside from plans of many cities which Jefferson had procured abroad, such as Paris, Marseilles, Turin, Milan, etc., it is very evident that one plan alone stood uppermost in his mind. It was the old Babylonian one, exemplified in the paral- lelograms and angles of the city of Philadelphia- emblem of the square cut, Quaker element that adminis- tered her municipal laws, but not in keeping with the "line of beauty" the Frenchman had pictured in his city of "magnificent distances."
It conformed, however, to Jefferson's wishes that he should take as the foundation of his plan the squares of Philadelphia and the topography of Versailles, and then introduce the broad transverse avenues intersecting the streets of the city with a variety of circles, open squares and triangular reservations.
Maj. L'Enfant was unfortunately imbued with a French temperament. In two months after his plan was pub- lished he was dismissed from the service. It is very prob- able that his exalted ideas of art and finance were not in keeping with the provincial methods of the Commission- ers. .. The early education of both parties would tend to · separate rather than combine methods.
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CHAPTER II. THE COTTAGE OF DAVID BURNS.
MEETING AT THE OLD BURNS COTTAGE-TOM MOORE'S ROOM. MARCIA BURNS-HER MARRIAGE-ASSOCIATIONS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
L'Enfant was grand, elegant, magnificent in all his conceptions, and when Daniel Carroll began building Duddington House in the center of one of his grand ave- nues (New Jersey), and he saw that it would lead to the breaking up of his great plan, he first admonished him that it could not be, and when he saw that this was not heeded, he did not hesitate to send parties in the night to raze the house to the ground, much to the disgust of the Commissioners, and especially of Daniel Carroll. Dud- dington House was rebuilt by the Government.
It was at about this time that Washington wrote to Jefferson: "It is much to be regretted that men who pos- sess talents which fit them for peculiar purposes, should almost invariably be under the influence of an untrained disposition. I have thought for such employment as he is now engaged in, for prosecuting public works, and carrying them into effect, Maj. L'Enfant was better quali- fied than any one who has come within my knowledge in this country or any other."
In a letter from Jefferson, dated March 6, 1792, his dis- missal was thus announced: "It having been found im- practicable to employ Maj. L'Enfant about the Federal City in that subordination which was lawful and proper, he is notified that his services are at an end."
Andrew Ellicott was the man chosen to finish the laying out of the city, after the original plan of Maj. L'Enfant.
When Washington made the contract with Mr. Burns, he agreed to have the lines of the streets so run as not to disturb the cottage of the latter. This agreement was faithfully carried out by the Government.
Mr. Burns's estate came to him through a long Scotch
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HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
ancestry, and if he held on to his broad acres with ob- - stinate tenacity, it was his right; for, ere Isaac Barre called the colonists "Sons of Liberty," ere William Pitt thundered in Parliament, ,"if the Americans had sub- mitted to the Stamp Act they deserved to be slaves," -- ere Washington was made Commander-in-Chief, or Bos- ton had had her Tea Party, the thumb-latch of the door to this old cottage was smoothed and battered by the hands of sturdy Scotchmen.
Those long, Winter evenings brought many a merry meeting of the old neighbors. They would sit before the crackling fire in the old fireplace, with its hanging crane and singing firewood, and while the flames were making weird pictures upon the back log, they talked of the old homes and mother country, and cherished recollections of Bonnie Doon.
Such was the life under this roof in the old Colonial days, when the master was plain Farmer Burns. But when the sale of the broad acres had brought him wealth, there was a change in all this. The places of the plain farmers who came in surtout and doublet to drink their round of applejack were taken by men famous in the world's history. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, were frequent visitors. The Calverts, the Carrolls, were his intimate neighbors. Tom Moore was an honored guest.
The little room off the large room, on the ground floor was pointed out as Tom Moore's room. Quite possibly it was in this room that he wrote his poetry about Ameri- cans; and f. om here he penned to Thomas Hume the lines:
"Infancy now beneath the twilight's gloom,
Come, let me lead thee o'er this modern Rome, Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow, And what was Goose Creek once is Tiber now! This famed metropolis, where Fancy sees Squares in mo asses, obelisk's in trees; Which traveling fools and gazetteers adorn With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn, Through naught but wood, and -, they see, Wherestreets should run, and sages ought to be.
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THE COTTAGE OF DAVID BURNS.
"So here I pause,-and now, my Hume! we part; But, oh! full oft in magic dreams of heart Thus let us meet, and mingle converse dear Bv Thames at home, or by Potowmac here! O'er lakes and marsh, through fevers and through fogs, 'Midst bears and Yankees, democrats and frogs,
Thy foot shall follow me; thy heart and eyes
With me shall wonder, and with me despise."
Could such a cottage stand through the centuries and not have its chapter of romance to bequeath tender lega- cies to the after time? Whisperings have brought to us the name of one whose graces made this old home beau- tiful.
The fairest belle in all the realm was Marcia Burns. It was a rich inheritance, indeed, to this child of Nature, to be surrounded with fields of waving grass, and trees, and singing birds, and the broad acres, to give her tl e sense that she was born to a noble principality. It was one that brought many suitors to her home; but of them all, John P. Van Ness was the lucky man. He was a member of Congress from New York.& We read of him that he was "well-fed, well-bred, and well-read," elegant, popular, and handsome enough to win his way to any maiden's heart.
Marcia Burns married Mr. Van Ness at 20 years of age, and being the only living heir, inherited the whole of her father's vast estate. For several years after their marriage they continued to live in the cottage in which she was born, a plain, unpretentious home; yet in the day it was built it had no rivals, and was known as the Burns Mansion-a low, one-story house with a garret, four rooms in all. In all its appointments it bore the most primitive stamp.
In 1820, when their only child returned from school at Philadelphia, a new mansion was ready for occupancy. It stands in the same grounds that surrounded the cot- tage, and was the most magnificent of all the houses in the place. No historic house to-day in Washington com- pares with it in elegant pretentiousness. Latrobe, whose
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HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
master hand is seen in the Capitol, was the architect. This house was built, at a cost of $60.000, half a century ago. The old cottage was still the object of tender care, and was looked upon with the utmost veneration. The Italian mantles that adorned the new home, with their sculptured Loves and Graces, had no more charm for Mrs. Van Ness (Marcia Burns) than the old fireplace in the cottage, sacred to old associations, where love had always had a home, and the hearth-fires needed no vestal watch to keep them burning.
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The finish of costly woods, the doors ornamented with Spanish Azulejos, meant no more to her than the old cottage door that had for ages swung upon its rude hinges. It was into the new home that Ann Elbertine Van Ness was brought. Like her mother, she was lovely in char- acter, form, and feature.
Miss Van Ness was soon after married to Arthur Mid- dleton, of South Carolina, but in less than two years from the time that the Van Ness Mansion had echoed with the merry laughter and happy voice of girlhood's glee, the young life which had always brought joy into the home had gone out forever-the young wife and mother was carried to the grave with her baby in her arms.
With Marcia Van Ness there was but one abiding thought from this time-how best to acknowledge her love of God. The experiences of life had done their work. Conviction swept like a mighty river into every recess of her nature, and she was borne on to higher senti- ments of love and adoration, self-denial and self-abnega- tion.
At the grave of her beloved child she made her offer of the City Orphan Asylum of Washington. Bereft of her own, she adopted motherless children and gave to them, unstinted, a mother's love, pity, and tenderness: The old cottage was made her sanctum, and there she would spend hours in meditation.
The atmosphere of the old home where she was born, where her parents had lived and died, was filled with pleasant memories. The rustling of leaves, the very song of the cricket on the hearth brought back associa-
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THE COTTAGE OF DAVID BURNS.
tions of the olden time, ere she had drunk of the bitter waters of Marah, on the highway of human experience.
But there came a day when Marcia Burns needed all the grace that is promised to the faithful. Her last, sick- ness was long and full of suffering, but peacefully she watched and waited, thinking more of the loved ones around her than her own suffering. She passed away Sept. 9, 1832, aged 50 years.
At the time she died Mr. Van Ness was Mayor of Wash- ington. She was buried with public honors, the citizens placing upon her casket a plate with this inscription:
"The citizens of Washington, in testimony of their veneration for departed worth, dedicate this plate to the memory of Marcia Van Ness, the excellent consort of J. P. Van Ness. If piety, charity, high principle and ex- alted worth could have averted the shafts of Fate, she would have still remained among us, a bright example of every virtue. The hand of death has removed her to a purer and happier state of existence, and while we la- ment her loss let us endeavor to emulate her virtues."
Gen. Van Ness lived to be 75 years of age. He enter- tained royally. Every year Congress was his guest.
It is said that the Government did not live up to its contract, but sold lots to private individuals around the Mall. He sued the Government, but lost his suit.
The old cottage was torn down some years ago. The grounds and Van Ness Mansion are now used by an athletic club.
CHAPTER III.
DUDDINGTON MANOR.
EXTRACTS FROM OLD LAND-PATENTS-NEW SCOTLAND-MR. POPE'S PATENT-CALLED IT ROME-DANIEL CARROLL-SOCIAL STAND* ING-A SPECULATIVE MOVEMENT-THE HOME SWEPT AWAY. THOMAS LAW-THE BILL FOR A UNITED STATES BANK-A CHANGE OF NAME-OCTAGON HOUSE-HOUSE OF EDWARD EVERETT, AND SOMETHING ABOUT ITS OWNERS-WIRT MAN- SION RICH IN STORIES OF THE PAST.
By extracts from old land-patents dating back to June 5, 1663, we find that one of the patentees was Francis Pope. A company of Scotch and Irish emigrated to this country about that time, and made a settlement on the land that is included in the District of Columbia.
They divided their lands into farms, and gave the name of New Scotland to their home. They lived in their quiet, unobstrusive way, reaping and enjoying the fruits of their labor for nearly a century; and it was with some of their descendants that negotiations were made for the land on which the City of Washington now stands.
Mr. Pope's patent included Capitol Hill, and with almost prophetic vision he saw a city rise which in the future would be the Capital of the Nation, and which would rival imperial Rome. He called it Rome, and was named, therefore, "Pope of Rome." . Goose Creek, that skirted the foot of the hill, bore, from that time, the classic name of Tiber.
The years passed by; a great Nation was being molded; changes came; families were scattered, and new ones took their places; in time, Daniel Carroll was in possession of "Scotland Yard," afterward known as Duddington Manor.
Daniel Carroll was a man of culture and refinement. His social standing was in keeping with the "old Mary-
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DUDDINGTON MANOR.
land line." He was a brother of the Rt. Rev. John Car- roll, the first Catholic Bishop of Baltimore, the man who laid the foundation stone on which has been built in solid masonry the Catholic Church of Maryland, and the founder of the Jesuit College of Georgetown.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Md., a signer of the Decla- ration of Independence, was his cousin. Daniel Carroll was a Delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that framed the Constitution, and a member of the First Con- gress of the United States.
After the selection of the site for the Capitol Mr. Carroll had visions of a city on the hill. He consequently put an exorbitant price upon his land. An opinion has pre- vailed that as the Capitol fronts toward the east, Washing- ton and his associates looked for the growth of the city eastward.
There are reasons why this might not have been in their minds. It must be remembered that the corner-stone of the White House was laid Oct. 13, 1792, and that of the Capitol, Sept. 18, 1793. The beginning was toward the west, and in the building of cities river fronts are not usually deserted.
A speculative movement was inaugurated, and Mr. Carroll sold many of his broad acres with promises of · payment." Stephen Girard made an offer of S200,000 for a certain part of the plantation. This was a princely offer, but an inflated price was asked, not only by Mr. Carroll, but by others who had made purchases for specu- lative purposes.
The result was the city lots upon the hill were left on the owners' hands, and Mr. Carroll never realized the great wealth he anticipated, and when he came to die his estate was much embarrassed.
The Carroll Mansion, known as Duddington Manor, was erected late in the last century.
The house was erected not far from the site of the one that was begun in the center of New Jersey avenue, and was the first fine house built in the city.
· We recall a visit made to the Manor. When we were shown through the vacant rooms, that gave with every
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HISTORIC HOMES IN WASHINGTON.
footfall echoes of the past; when we followed our dusky leader into the old kitchen, whose brick floor was worn thin with the footsteps of all the years, and were told that 30 years had passed since either of the sisters, the last of the family and the ruling mistresses of the house, had entered it, we see again the signs of neglect and decay that have crept over the old home and its presiding geniuses.
We found on the place an old colored man 80 years of age, who was born there and had been a slave. With tottering steps he was making his way across the grounds, and in answer to our inquiries said:
"Yes, dey's all done gone. Massa gone, Missus gone, chilluns gone." Then with an indescribable chuckle he added, "Ole Joe's shackles done goin', too. God bress Massa Lincum! De ole house done gone, too. Now I spec' ole Joe go. Dey say a sintacus buy dis place, what- eber dem is.".
As the old man limped off in the darkness, we felt that he would soon follow those whom he so much revered, and who made this house so beautiful. Even this patient old guardian could not stay the hand of change that was so rapidly removing every trace of the old palatial man- sion.
But the fullness of time has come, and the home of the Carrolls has been swept away.
Once again we entered these grounds. The sun had ceased making shadows over Arlington Hights. We clambered up the rude steps that had been made in the earth, and, by clutching the underbrush, scrambled to the top of the hill, where we found, instead of velvet lawns and fertile meadows, a primeval forest. We passed on, and found a fascination in its very wildness. We reached the gravelled walk that led to the place where the old house stood; but, alas! the landmark had passed away. While standing there visions of departed days filled the mind. The gathering darkness added to the delusion, and we fancied the place peopled again by men of the old regime, with their powdered wigs, knee-breeches, buff waistcoats, ruffled shirts, and cocked-hats, bustling
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