USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
"We think it very far from a work of Time to give us the satisfaction required and in the manner we desired, and from 10 to 110 Feet of Land in a Square not so triffling a Difference, between Seller and Buyer as not to draw at least their attention. The work cannot with propriety nor shall proceed, till what is done has been examined and Mis- takes endeavoured at least to be rectified."
Having procured the L'Enfant map, which was a partial copy made by Mr. Hallett from the original, from Mr. Dermott, they advised Ellicott the next day that "Mr. Dermott has shown no signs of Concealment of any papers. He acknowledged his having possession of Major L'Enfant's old Draft without any hesitation, and has given it to us, and without request another paper or two."
The Commissioners after an extensive interchange of ideas with Major Ellicott, proceeded on the 14th of March, 1793, to announce a set of regulations pertaining to the conduct of the
155
History of the City of Washington.
office, which outlined the system under which the survey of the city was completed. The squares were to be remeasured by Mr. Fenwick. Dermott who had previously laid down the lines of Hamburgh upon the plat of that part of the city was directed to do the same with regard to Carrollsburgh. His spare time was to be devoted to dividing squares into lots as certified to him by the measurers, and to report any disagreements between the measurements returned to him and those on the general plan. Major Ellicott was directed to proceed with the work of laying off the streets, avenues and squares on the ground. Under this arrangement the work continued for about two weeks when Major Ellicott, who, still smarting under the criticism directed against him, made a personal statement of his grievances to President Washington, who was passing through on his way to Mount Vernon, and invoked the aid of the latter in obtaining an investigation. The President promised to ask this of the Commissioners, taking occasion, nevertheless, to advise Ellicott that his attitude towards the Commissioners, so far as appeared from the correspondence, had not been respectful; and empha- sizing his indisposition to interfere with the functions of the latter. The following day he kept his promise, submitting to the Commissioners, in his usual tactful manner, the question whether an investigation would not be advisable rather than a newspaper altercation, which he thought likely to follow a refusal of it.
In compliance with this letter the Commissioners spent several days in going over the affairs of the surveying depart- ment with Major Ellicott, with the result that an agreement was reached and set forth in an order dated April 9, providing that Major Ellicott was to direct the field work and be answerable for its accuracy and dispatch. He was required as soon as squares should be finished and marked out on the ground, to deliver to the Commissioners' Clerk at their office, certificates to that effect; giving the location and measurements of the square. The work from time to time was to be added on the large plat, which was to be considered as a record. It was stated that the Surveyor ought to have the work certified to him by his
156
History of the City of Washington.
assistants for his own protection, as the Commissioners would look only to him. The work of platting and dividing squares, left as before to Mr. Dermott, was stated not to be considered within the surveying department. Major Ellicott was made head of the surveying department, with Isaac Briggs, Benjamin Ellicott and Geo. Fenwick, as his assistants.
Taking up the regulations to govern Mr. Dermott's work, the Commissioners on the following day directed that Dermott should apply from time to time to their Clerk and take minutes of the squares from certificates returned by the surveyor. From these he was to plat the squares on a scale of forty feet to the inch and divide them into lots. In one corner of the paper he was to write down the substance of the certificate. Shortly afterwards Dermott was further directed to make out three plats for each square; one for recording with the Clerk of the District, one for the Commissioners' office, and one for the proprietors.
Owing to the discrepancies which had been found between the squares as platted and as laid out on the ground, it had previously been ordered that the surveyor who should be direct- ed to lay out any lot should at the same time measure and mark out all lots on the same line of the square of which it was a part, and if he should find any excess to divide it, or if a deficiency, to abate in each lot for the deficiency pro rata. It was also ordered that all divisions of squares between the propri- etors and the public thereafter made, should contain a stipula- tion agreeing to the arrangement just mentioned for prorating any excess or deficiency.
On July 19, 1793, Major Ellicott went to Philadelphia to engage in other work, advising the Commissioners on his depart- ure that his personal attention to the survey would not be required for some time, and that he would leave the work in charge of his assistants, Isaac Briggs and Benjamin Ellicott during his absence. The surveying was carried on by these two during the summer and fall; reports of its progress being required of them by the Commissioners at each of their meet- ings. Almost without exception, in making these reports, Briggs and Ellicott took occasion to make disparaging statements with
157
History of the City of Washington.
reference to Dermott; to charge him with having moved stakes; with being a disreputable character; and with having boasted while drunk that he had "put the affairs of the city on such a train they would never be right again."
To these assertions the Commissioners for a long time paid no attention. Finally, their patience became exhausted, and they wrote on October 17, 1793, to Briggs, inviting him to meet with them and if possible substantiate his charges against Dermott.
The meeting developed into a stormy interview, at the end of which Briggs was dismissed from the service, and Benjamin and Joseph Ellicott with George Fenwick were left in charge of the survey. Under the latter arrangement matters went on smoothly until the 9th of December, when Major Ellicott returned and informed the Commissioners that he had re-estab- lished himself at the head of the department. The Commission- ers replied that as matters had proceeded much more satisfac- torily in his absence than before, and as they had not had his services during the summer months when they would have been most useful, they would not add to the expense of the establish- ment by employing him during the winter. They continued Major Ellicott's brothers in their employ, but peace was impossi- ble so long as Major Ellicott remained in Georgetown. He spent his time voicing his complaints to the residents of the latter place and stirring up dissatisfaction with the Commissioners among them. With his brothers, too, he made his influence felt ; instigating them to revive the old story of the theft of the L'Enfant draft by Dermott, which they did by inserting in the Georgetown paper the following advertisement :
"Six Dollars Reward Stop the Thief !
"Was stolen from the Surveyor's office, some time in the latter part of the year 1792, a manuscript draft, or Plan of the City of Washington, given, in trust, to me by Major L'Enfant. The person formerly suspected for this infamous conduct was a certain James Mac Dermott 'alias' James R. Dermott, who has twice acknowledged the theft.
"He is a native of Ireland, well made, about five feet ten inches high, has a remarkably red face, an impudent brazen
158
History of the City of Washington.
look, dark-colored hair, which he commonly wears tied behind. Whoever will take up the said Thief, and commit him to any jail in the United States, so that he may be brought to condign punishment shall receive the above reward from
Benjamin Ellicott."
In the same issue they published over Benjamin's name, an open communication to the Commissioners, stating the manner in which Ellicott had come into possession of the map; that his brother had told him that it had been stolen ; that it had appeared from an extract of a letter of the Commissioners published a few days previously in the same paper (this was at their own instigation) that the Commissioners had received it; and that "in this public and pointed manner" he requested that it be immediately given up as he was determined to prosecute with the utmost rigor of the law, the person who had taken it.
The result of this publication was that on March 31, 1794, the Commissioners ordered the Ellicotts "to deliver over to George Fenwick all papers and everything else in the survey- ing department." They added "This will terminate your official employment and our official discussions with you."
Sometime after this the attention of the Commissioners was drawn by the President to two lengthy letters which had been addressed to the President by Andrew Ellicott, Isaac Briggs and Benjamin Ellicott on June 29, 1793, and February 28, 1794. These letters set forth at length the complaint of the writers against the Commissioners and Dermott. The Commissioners' reply under date of March 23, 1794, which sets forth at length the history of their relations with Ellicott contains many facts in connection with this unfortunate quarrel of particular inter- est because they refer to the man who later prepared the so- called "Tin Case" or Dermott Map of the City, which was officially authenticated by Presidents Washington and Adams as delineating the streets and reservations of the city. In the course of this letter they say :
"Nor is the Major better grounded in his charge against Dermott of habitual Drunkenness. We were unwilling to Take his malice or the mouthing of some of the people of
159
History of the City of Washington.
Georgetown as Evidence of it, we were well informed that he had now and then drank to access and when inebriated that he is unruly and quarrelsome but we did not perceive that its frequency injured the business he was engaged in; we made inquiry and formed an opinion not that he was the most discreet nor faulty in this particular to a very uncom- mon degree ; he has since tabled at Sims's for near a year with Gentlemen of much sobriety and propriety of con- duct in every respect as any in George Town, who speak well of him. The Major would be far from gaining by plac- ing his moral character in one Scale and Dermott's in the other.
"The Major is always giving verbal evidence of his attach- ment to the interest of the City but neither he nor any body introduced by him has purchased a Lot. Dermott says nothing about his attachment that we have ever heard, but out of his savings, on moderate wages tho' a Drunkard, has purchased several Lots, and is improving according to his ability."
"Major Ellicott cannot but remember that more than once he spoke of Dermott as the readiest calculator he had but with and though in the Succeeding Summer he em- ployed him wholly or nearly so as an Overseer to overlook the negroes in cutting down the Trees in the Streets and Avenues previous to the Sale in the fall and preparatory to it he employed him in calculating the Areas and divid- ing the Squares.
"The Commissioners saw the impropriety of employing Dermott to overlook the cutting down the Avenues and Streets at his wages and especially as he was an European he had probably never had anything to do of the kind they perceived too Dermott's uneasiness at his Situation and were glad to see that Ellicott had changed it." * * *
"On Major Ellicott's evading the delivery of the papers we went with Colo Deakins to Prouts house where he then kept his Office and made a personal demand of them. He then told us that Dermott had stolen a plan of the City describing it. Mr. Johnson remarked it was a severe charge for which he ought to be well grounded before he made it. Major Ellicott said he had stolen it, that it was in his Trunk and he could prove enough to obtain a Search War- rant, and if we could break open his Trunk we should find
160
History of the City of Washington.
it. Mr. Johnson replied that the end might perhaps bc answered by milder measures without going to that violence. On turning off he proposed to Dr. Stuart and Mr. Carroll to send for Dermott immediately on their return and ques- tion him about the plat and if he denied his having it to desire him to submit his Trunk to their Search. It was agreed to. Dermott was sent for and attended Mr. Johnson asked him if he had the plat, describing it. He answered yes-where is it? In my Trunk-The Commissioners wish to see it-I will bring it to you immediately Sir. Major Ellicott knows very well I have it and that I would deliver it to him at any time he'd ask for it. He expressed aston- ishment at Major Ellicott's making, in his expression, a fuss about it for he knew he offered to deliver him any papers he had, and that Major Ellicott said it was no matter it would do as well some other time."
Taking up Ellicott's and Briggs' charge of the removal of stakes by Dermott, they say :
"Another charge against Dermott was his changing and maliciously misplacing stakes. We heard nothing of that 'till we perceived the greater part of a succeeding Summer was spent in going over the work of the preceeding, and then the excess was, that some body had altered the situa- tion of stakes, and it must be maliciously done because the alteration was so systematic that the greater part of a season was spent before it could be discovered. Dermott was said to know nothing of the system, but it was Dermott because he was malicious, and he was malicious because he did it. It was first suspicious, afterwards certain, it was first several stakes, afterwards one, and now amongst all Dermott's crimes, this the most capital is omitted. Briggs at several times mentioned to Dr. Stuart that Dermott had altered the Stakes, the Doct. inquired if he had any proof of it Briggs acknowledged that he had not but suspected it, the Doctor remarked that it was a very delicate thing and that it would be unjust to act on suspicion. When in Briggs' altercation with the Commissioners he recurred again to the Story of the Stakes as an Evidence of Dermott's infamous conduct, Dr. Stuart lost his Temper and spoke to him very roughly. The truth is the Commissioners had their suspicions too whether ill or well-founded they cannot say but they suspected that the whole story was invented to cover a mistake which had happened accidentally or for want of care. If the charge of altering the work, of steal-
161
History of the City of Washington.
ing or maliciously Secreting a paper; or misplacing a stake was substantiated the result would surely be against Dermott. We have seen strong marks of candor in this Man we have no reason to suspect his telling us a lie. He shows an attention to the public Interest in his divisions, has his business in good order and gives us and others such ready answers that he must have the clearest and most comprehensive view of his department."
Immediately after the close of the L'Enfant incident Pres- ident Washington urged the Commissioners, as part of the general policy of vigorously prosecuting the affairs of the city, to hold another sale of lots at the earliest possible date and in response to his request the Commissioners on June 2, 1792, published an advertisement of a sale to be held in October, approximately one year after the first sale. In preparation for this sale and to avoid any charge of favoritism on the part of the proprietors, they directed Major Ellicott on September 1st to prepare divisions, between the public and the proprietors, of several squares near the President's House, the Capitol, the Commissioner's house (a building for their own accommodation which they contemplated erecting) the Judiciary, the Market, on the Canal, on the Mall and on the Eastern Branch, doing this when it was possible on the different proprietors' lands near each of the places named. The sale continued from October 8th to 10th.
For more than a year the subject of giving the Commis- sioners authority to dispose of lots at private sale had been under consideration by the President and shortly before the second public sale, he empowered them after that sale to sell or agree for the sale of lots in such terms as they might think proper. This course had been decided on largely as the result of the interest taken by Mr. Samuel Blodget, Jr., of Boston, who had engaged the attention of a number of wealthy men of that place as well, as of New York and Philadelphia, in the opportunity which the new city offered for real estate invest- ments. Shortly after the public sale in October 1792, Mr. Blodget and a party of friends, John Templeman, Nathan Bond, a Mr. Killand, Peter Gilman, Thomas Metcalf and Benjamin
162
History of the City of Washington.
Blodget, purchased fifteen lots at one hundred pounds each. Before he left, Mr. Blodget was commissioned to effect private sales in the northern and eastern cities, and so energetically did he execute his commission that on January 26, of the following year he reported the sale of fifty lots, saying "I have no doubt of making as many sales as will be prudent for I tender to all my obligation to receive again for my own Private a/c any or all such Lots as may be returned by the purchaser on any dis- like that may occur within ten years from the date of the con- tract. 50 Lotts are sold already on these terms (the particulars of which I will send you) in which I believe I am very safe as they are chiefly to sanguine, moneyed, Influential men just such as we want."
A number of desultory sales of lots were made from time to time, but nothing of consequence in that line occurred until the execution of the famous Greenleaf contract, and its out- growth, the Greenleaf, Morris and Nicholson transaction, to which reference will hereinafter be more fully made.
While on the subject of Mr. Blodget, however, it is proper to make some reference to the two lotteries which he fathered.
Mr. Blodget was undoubtedly a man of remarkable resource- fulness and ingenuity as well as of almost unlimited enthusiasm. Almost as soon as the Commissioners had entered upon the performance of their duties his interest in the new city began to manifest itself in the proposal to Mr. Jefferson of a scheme to buy up and build upon an entire street. So forcibly did this suggestion impress Mr. Jefferson that upon the latter's recom- mendation the Commissioners directed that the surveying and platting of squares should be confined to those on the diagonal between the President's House and the House of Congress in the anticipation of the materialization of Mr. Blodget's scheme. During his presence with his friends at Georgetown in October, 1792, Mr. Blodget unfolded to the Commissioners and received their consent to a plan for a lottery commonly mentioned as the hotel lottery, and hereinafter more fully set forth, for the purpose of stimulating interest in the new city. Mr. Blodget on returning to Philadelphia, lost no time in putting his lottery
163
History of the City of Washington.
under way, publishing under date of January 3, 1793, the fol- lowing prospectus :
"By the Commissioners appointed to prepare the public buildings, etc., within the City of Washington for the recep- tion of Congress, and for the permanent residence after the year 1800. A lottery for the improvement of the Federal City 50,000 tickets at 7 dollars are 350,000 dollars. List of prizes :
1 Superb Hotel with Batlis, out house, etc., etc., to cost
$ 50,000
1 Cash Prize
25,000
1 Ditto
20,000
1 Ditto
15,000
1 Ditto
10,000
2 Ditto
5,000 are
10,000
10 Ditto
1,000
10,000
20 Ditto
500
10,000
100 Do.
100
10,000
200 Do.
50
10,000
400 Do.
25
10,000
1,000 Do.
20
20,000
15,000 Do.
10
150,000
16,737 Prizes
33,263 Blanks
50,000
Dollars 350,000
the sole design of this lottery being to facilitate other im- provements together with the public buildings it is the particular desire of the Commissioners that there may be effected with as few deductions from the prizes as possible ; how far their endeavors may be answered the scheme of the lottery will demonstrate. The Keys of the Hotel, when com- plete, will be delivered to the fortunate possessor of the ticket drawn against its number all the prizes will be paid with- out deduction in one month after the drawing by the City Treasurer at Washington or at such Bank or Banks as may be hereafter announced. The drawing will commence on Monday the 9th of September next at the City of Wash- ington. Tickets may be had of Col. Wm. Dickens, City Treasurer of Washington : of Messrs. James West and Co., Baltimore; of Mr. Peter Gilman, Boston, and such other places as will hereafter be published. N. B. one hundred Dollars will be given for the best plan of an elegant and
164
History of the City of Washington.
convenient Hotel or Inn, with hot and cold baths, stables and other out houses, if presented on or before the 20th of April, and a preference will be given to the artist for a contract provided he be duly qualified to complete his plan. The ground on which the Hotel and out houses are to be erected will be a corner lot of about 90 by 200 feet with a back avenue to the stables, etc., sections and estimates of the expense will be expected with the elevations, etc., com- pleat-and 50,000 Dollars must be regarded by the architect, as the unmost limit in the expense intended for this purpose. January 3. S. Blodget,
Agent for the Affairs of the City."
This lottery, it should be remarked was solely Mr. Blodget's private affair so far as the profits and the responsibility for the payment of prizes was concerned, notwithstanding the fact that the announcement of it proclaimed it to the Public as being held by the Commissioners. At the solicitation of Mr. Blodget, Col. Deakins was joined with him in the management of the lottery. The tickets were bought up with avidity in Georgetown, Balti- more, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, with the result that in April, 1793, Mr. Blodget proposed a new lottery. The Com- missioners were in some doubt as to the advisability of a second lottery and nothing further was done about it at the time.
When the time for drawing prizes arrived, much dissatis- faction appeared among the public with the manner of drawing the prizes. Rumors became current that the Commissioners had leagued with Blodget to take advantage of the people by delay in drawing prizes, thus enabling them to buy in prizes at a great discount. Among the poorer people doubts arose as to whether the prizes could be paid; and it was asserted by some that the "Capitals" had not been put into the wheel. Alarmed by those signs of dissatisfaction, the Commissioners on September 20, 1793, obtained from Blodget and Deakins an agreement reciting that the Commissioners were in no way connected with the lottery, and promising severally to indemnify the latter against all claims on account of prizes drawn against tickets sold by Blodget and Deakins respectively. Early in December, 1793, Blodget informed the Commissioners that he had sold several thousand tickets in a new lottery. To the holding of this the
165
History of the City of Washington.
Commissioners at first demurred, then flatly forbade any representation of themselves as having anything to do with it, writing him on the 21st of December :
"It may be, that many, and indeed most you converse with, may be fond of another Lottery and may to you, approve the Manner of Conducting of the present, but the Majority of those who speak to us on this subject express very different sentiments and many of them friends of the City as well as ourselves. We certainly shall never give countenance to a Lottery further than mere naked consent, as was designed in the present, nor that, unless proper secur- ity is given before any tickets are disposed of. This is not from any suspicion of you but from a sense of propriety which ought to make the Rule universal."
Notwithstanding this manifestation of displeasure with his new scheme, Mr. Blodget on the first of the new year-1794- came out with a publication of his second lottery offering $400,- 000 in prizes, the most important of which were a $50,000 prize consisting of a $20,000 dwelling house with $30,000 in cash, and lesser prizes, consisting of less expensive dwelling houses accompanied with cash prizes, ranging from $40,000 down to $10,000; the scheme of giving houses as prizes being, as in the case of the Hotel, both to furnish a pretext for and to give an official coloring to the lottery, and to induce the consent of the Commissioners to Blodget's giving to the lottery the appearance of its being held under their auspices.
Both the Commissioners and the President becoming thor- oughly alarmed at the prospect of a public scandal to result from non-payment of prizes in either or both of these schemes, the Commissioners on January 28, 1794, obtained from Blodget a conveyance to Thomas Johnson, Jr., and Thomas Peter of a large amount of property which he owned in the federal terri- tory, including the tract known as "Jamaica" which he had purchased in January, 1792, of Philip R. Fendall, together with 7,160 shares which he held in The Insurance Company of North America; this conveyance being in trust to secure the payment of the prizes in the hotel lottery. The closing up of the lottery was put in the hands of Mr. George Taylor, Chief Clerk of the office of the Secretary of State and Mr. Richard Harrison,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.