USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 22
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
tion of the property within the capital of the Union." *
*
*
Senator Southard's report is memorable by reason of its eloquent presentation of the cause of the city for recognition by the National Government of its obligation to share in the expense of maintaining the government of its Capital.
In the course of his report Senator Southard advanced the proposition which in 1878 was definitely adopted as the basis of the financial relations between the National Government and the city as to street improvements, that "the narrowest measure of justice would have required, and does now require, that the Government having in its private building lots and public reser- vations at least an equal interest in the improvement of the
246
History of the City of Washington.
streets, should pay at least one-half of the expense of those streets."
The result of Senator Southard's report was the passage by Congress of the Act approved May 20, 1836, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to assume on behalf of the United States the indebtedness of Washington, Georgetown and Alex- andria on account of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal loan upon the depositing with him by those cities of their holdings of stock in the Canal Company. The Secretary of the Treasury was by the Act given ten years in which to sell this stock under the most favorable terms for the purpose of reimbursing the United States the amount expended in taking up the loan. The passage of this Act, while it was a measure of vital relief to the residents of those cities, did not establish any permanent basis for contribu- tion by Congress towards the expenses of the Capital City.
On May 31, 1871, the last day of the existence of the City of Washington as a separate municipality prior to the taking effect of the Territorial government, its debt was $5,237,533.87.
CHAPTER VII.
The Territorial Government; 1871-1874
It was an inevitable result of the Civil War that the interest of the nation in its Capital should be keenly awakened. Almost immediately upon the close of that conflict, public sentiment was directed to the problem of placing the city in a condition fitting its character as the seat of the government of the reunited country. The consideration of this question was crystallized into law by the act approved February 21, 1871, creating the so-called "Territorial" Government, which provided that on and after June 1 of that year the corporations of Washington and Georgetown, and the Levy Court of the County of Wash- ington, which had jurisdiction over the portion of the District which was outside of those corporations, should no longer exist as such; and that beginning with that date the entire District of Columbia should constitute a single municipality under the name of "The District of Columbia." It was the passage of this act which gave the National Capital its full municipal im- pulse. From this time forward the municipal history of the City of Washington is identical with that of the government of the District of Columbia.
This legislation originated in the Senate by the introduction on February 25, 1870, by Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, of Senate Bill 594, entitled "An Act to change the form of gov- ernment of the District of Columbia." This bill was reported with amendment March 18, 1870; discussed on May 27, and passed by the Senate on May 28 of that year. It then went into a long stage of hibernation until January 20, 1871, when it was taken up and discussed in the House. On the 23rd of January it passed the House with amendment. It went to a conference
248
History of the City of Washington.
committee whose report was adopted by the Senate on January 24 and by the House on February 17, 1871.
The new municipality consisted of a Governer; a Board of Public Works composed of the Governor and four other per- sons; a Secretary; a Board of Health; a Legislative Assembly, consisting of a Council of eleven members and a House of Delegates consisting of 22 members, and a Delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States.
The Governor, the Board of Public Works, the Secretary, the Board of Health, and the Council were appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the consent of the Senate. The members of the House of Delegates and the Dele- gate in the House of Representatives were elected by the qualified voters of the District of Columbia, whose qualifications are hereinafter described under the head of "Suffrage." The official term of the Governor, members of the Board of Public Works, the Secretary, and the members of the Board of Health, was four years; the term of the members of the Council and the Delegate to Congress two years, except that of those members of the Council first appointed, five were appointed for the term of one year, and six for the period of two years; and the term of the members of the House of Delegates one year. The compen- sation for all of these officials except the members of the House of Delegates, was paid exclusively out of the United States Treasury.
The general duties of the Board of Public Works were to have entire control of, and make all regulations which they might deem necessary for keeping in repair, the streets, avenues, alleys, and sewers of the city, and all other works which might be intrusted to their charge by the Legislative Assembly or Con- gress. Special requirements were imposed upon the Board from time to time by Congress and the Legislative Assembly.
The Board had no power to make contracts to bind the Dis- trict to the payment of any sums of money except in pursuance of appropriations made by law, and not until such appropria- tions had been made.
The law prescribed that the Governor should have resided
249
History of the City of Washington.
in the District twelve months before his appointment, and have the qualifications of an elector ; that the members of the Board of Public Works, except one who was required to be a civil engineer, should be citizens and residents of the District, having the qualifications of electors therein. One was required to be a resident of Georgetown, and another a resident of the portion of the District outside of Washington and Georgetown. It was provided that the Secretary should reside in the District and possess the qualifications of an elector; that the members of the Legislative Assembly should have the qualifications of voters, and the Delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States, should be a citizen of the United States and of the District of Columbia and have the qualifications of a voter. No qualifi- cations were prescribed for members of the Board of Health.
The Governor was empowered to grant pardons and respites for offenses against the laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly and to commission all officers elected or appointed to office under the laws of said assembly. He was required to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and to approve bills passed by the Assembly or return them with his objections. He was not empowered to grant pardons or respites for offenses against any of the laws of Congress in force in the District, nor against the ordinances of the City of Washington, Georgetown or Levy Court. His salary was $3,000.
Henry David Cooke, the first Governor, was born in San- dusky, Ohio, November 23, 1825, and died in Georgetown in the District of Columbia on February 24, 1881. He was graduated as an A. B. by Transylvania University, Kentucky, and was admitted to the bar of Sandusky and of Philadelphia. In 1845 he was attache to the American Consul at Valparaiso, Chile. Subsequently he was a journalist. As representative of the firm of Jay Cooke & Co., he rendered inestimable service to the cause of the Union during the Civil War, by negotiating the sale of United States bonds in Europe. As Governor of the District of Columbia, he enthusiastically co-operated in the comprehensive measures undertaken by the Board of Public Works. His aid in giving his personal exertions and the influence of his name to
250
History of the City of Washington.
floating the bonds of the District, whose proceeds furnished the funds with which the Board of Public Works began its task, was essential to the success of those projects.
He was an expert navigator and once navigated a ship from Cape Horn to San Francisco, when the Captain died. Gifted, generous, amiable, and irreproachable in every phase of his life, he worthily discharged the duties of his high office, and his responsibilities as a member of society.
The duties of the Secretary were to record and preserve all laws and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, and acts of the Governor in his Executive Department, and to transmit copies thereof to the President and Congress of the United States. In case of the death, removal, resignation, disability or absence of the Governor from the District, the Secretary was vested with all powers and duties of the Governor's office. In the event of and during a vacancy in both offices of Governor and Secretary, those powers became vested in the President of the Council and Speaker of the House of Delegates in the order named. The Secretary's salary was $2,000.
The first Secretary of the District was Norton P. Chipman, then a patent attorney, who was appointed to that office on March 2, 1871. When he was elected Delegate in Congress he was succeeded as Secretary on May 19, 1871, by Edwin L. Stan- ton, a lawyer, and the son of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War during the administration of President Abraham Lincoln. He was succeeded on September 22, 1873, by Richard Harring- ton, who was also a lawyer, and whose term expired with the abrogation of the office on June 20, 1874.
Secretary Stanton was the only Secretary who had an oppor- tunity to serve as acting Governor, which capacity he filled several times. The most notable of those occasions was the calling of a special session of the Legislative Assembly which passed the Act of October 18, 1871, appropriating $100,000 for the relief of the people of Chicago who were suffering from the disastrous fire of that year.
The Delegate in Congress was "entitled to the same rights and privileges as are exercised and enjoyed by the Delegates
251
History of the City of Washington.
from the several Territories of the United States to the House of Representatives." He was also to be a member of the Committee for the District of Columbia.
Norton P. Chipman was the only Delegate. He was first elected on April 21, 1871, and re-elected on October 14, 1873, which was the date fixed by the Act of the Legislative Assembly, approved June 20, 1872, for holding the annual elections. He was continued in that position until March 4, 1875, pursuant to a proviso in the Act of June 20, 1874, creating the temporary commission government.
Although the charter of the new government did not become effective entirely until the first of June, 1871, the Board of Public Works, which was created by it, organized and began the preparation of plans of municipal engineering development in May of that year, pursuant to a grant of authority in the deficiency act of April 20, 1871. Other preliminary measures under that charter were taken by the Board of Health; and others in the election of the members of the House of Delegates and the Delegate in Congress.
When the Territorial government was established, the offices of the Corporation of the City of Washington were housed in the City Hall at the north end of Four-and-a-Half Street. The Gov- ernor and the Board of Public Works deemed it advisable to discontinue the use of the City Hall as the municipal head- quarters in order to avoid the possibility of being associated in reputation with what at the time was called "the City Hall Ring." The result was that the Governor rented for his office the building at the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventeenth Street, northwest.
The Board of Public Works first met and organized in this building in May, 1871. At this meeting Alexander R. Shepherd was chosen Vice-President of the Board, though no such office was provided for by law. He acted as such until September 13, 1873, when he was appointed Governor, vice Governor Cooke. The Board subsequently established its offices in the "Columbia" or "Morrison" Building, located on the west side of John Marshall place, then 41/2 Street N. W., where it continued its
252
History of the City of Washington.
headquarters during its entire remaining existence. This build- ing was rented but the District authorities paid $57,787.18, or nearly what the entire building and site were then worth, in making alterations on it.
The first members of the Board were Governor Henry D. Cooke who as Governor was ex-officio, President of the Board; Alexander R. Shepherd; Samuel P. Brown; Alfred B. Mullett, civil engineer and at the time the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, and James A. Magruder. Governor Cooke was appointed on February 28, 1871, and the others on March 16, following. Mr. Mullett resigned and was succeeded on January 2, 1873, by Adolph S. Cluss, who was in turn succeeded by John B. Blake, on September 13, of the same year. Mr. Brown was succeeded by Henry A. Willard on May 22, 1873. Mr. Shepherd was appointed Governor of the District of Columbia on Septem- ber 13, 1873, but no appointment was made to the vacancy in the Board thus created.
The first election for members of the House of Delegates of the District of Columbia and of a Delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States was held on Tuesday, the 20th of April, 1871. The law creating the Territorial govern- ment prescribed that the election should be held within sixty days after its passage. The election was held in accordance with that law and the rules and regulations prescribed by the Gover- nor and Judges of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, acting under a requirement thereof. The Governor and Judges also appointed a board of registration and persons to superintend the election and returns thereof, prescribed the time, places and manner in which such election was conducted and divided the District of Columbia into twenty-two election Districts, for the election of delegates to the House of Delegates for a term of service of one year, "giving to each section of the District representation in the ratio of its population as nearly as may be." An apportionment was also required to be made "as nearly equal as practicable, into eleven districts, for the appoint- ment of the Council," but no such apportionment was made, although two of the members of the Council were appointed from
253
History of the City of Washington.
Georgetown and two from the portion of the District of Columbia outside of Washington and Georgetown, as required by Section 5 of the Act.
The first meeting of the Council and House of Delegates, of the Legislative Assembly, was held on the 15th day of May, 1871, at 12 o'clock M., in the "Metzerott Hall Building," on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, northwest, in pursuance of the proclamation of the Governor, dated April 25, 1871, which was issued in accordance with the provisions of the fifth section of the act.
The Territorial government, by the terms of the law creating it, went into operation on June 1, 1871. On June 20 the Board of Public Works submitted to the Legislative Assembly estimates for improvements amounting in the aggregate to $6,578,397, to pay for which they recommended a bond issue of $4,000,000 and an assessment of $2,000,000 against the property specially bene- fitted. On July 10, the Legislative Assembly passed an act appropriating $4,000,000 for the improvements recommended by the Board of Public Works and authorizing an issue of twenty- year seven per cent. bonds for the purpose of obtaining a loan of this amount.
A number of citizens applied to the Equity Court of the District for an injunction against the issuance of these bonds. The injunction being granted by Judge Andrew Wylie, the Legislative Assembly, on August 11, 1871, passed a supplemental act appropriating $500,000 for the purpose of avoiding the tech- nical objections raised by the applicants for the injunction, and work was at once commenced. The injunction was subse- quently dissolved, and by a later act the Legislative Assembly reduced the amount of the appropriation by $500,000, thus making the total appropriation $4,000,000, as originally con- templated.
Pending the action of the Court, the Legislative Assembly passed another Act on August 19, 1871, submitting the question to the people at an election to be held November 22, 1871, at which the issue of $4,000,000 of "special improvement" bonds
254
History of the City of Washington.
and payment of interest thereon was approved by an over- whelming majority.
The proceeds of these bonds, with the authority granted by the act of the Legislative Assembly, approved August 11, 1871, for the Governor to anticipate the collection of taxes to the extent of $500,000, and the authority in the 37th section of the Act of February 21, 1871, creating the Territorial government, to assess upon property adjoining and especially benefitted by an improvement not more than one-third of the cost of such work, constituted the resources with which the Board of Public Works began its tremendous task of converting the village-like status of the streets of Washington into a condition which should be appropriate to the highways of the Capital of a great Nation.
When the Territorial government was established Washing- ton was just emerging from the stage of an overgrown country town into metropolitan responsibility. Nearly all of the streets were dirt roadways. Where these were improved they were rudely covered with gravel, from which, in dry weather, clouds of dust arose with the breezes or from the passing vehicles, and many of the streets were almost impassable in times of heavy rains. The few that were improved with a more durable surface, excepting the portion of Pennsylvania Avenue which was paved with wood, and the square on Vermont Avenue between H and I Streets which was paved by Mayor Bowen with coal tar concrete, were paved with the roughest of cobble or other irregularly shaped stones, destructive alike to the vehicles which traveled upon them, and to the nerves of those by whom these vehicles were occupied. As late as the fall of 1871, a fire engine was stalled up to the hubs in the soft roadway, in an effort to mount the short rise on 11th Street, between E and F Streets, northwest. Fire apparatus was occasionally obliged to travel on the side- walk, in responding to alarms in unusually wet weather. The paved sidewalks were few and confined to the thickly built sections.
Tiber Creek ran from the boundary to the old canal along B Street as an open sewer with a brick arch across it at Penn- sylvania Avenue, and rude wooden bridges at other points. The
255
History of the City of Washington.
Washington canal was another open sewer, exposing a festering mass at low tide, and a scum covered surface when the water was high.
Through the northwestern parts of the city flowed Slash Run, and in other sections were other water courses, all of which were open sewers. Hundreds of acres in the extreme northwest were covered by Slash Run Swamp, whose nightly vapors ren- dered the bordering heights tenantable only at risk of malarial fevers. There was no systematic street tree system established, nor street parking of any sort.
On January 2, 1873, the Governor and Board of Public Works represented to Congress that $150,000 would be a fair value of the District's interest in the old City Hall. They were supported in this effort by the judges of the Supreme Court of the District, who submitted a statement showing that the Court needed all the room in the building.
On March 3, 1873, Congress adopted the following proviso in the deficiency appropriation act of that date :
"For the purchase by the United States of the interest of the District of Columbia in the present City Hall build- ing in Washington, now used solely for Government purposes, such sum as may be determined by three impartial appraisers, to be selected by the Secretary of the Interior, not exceeding $75,000, the same to be applied by said Dis- trict only for the erection of a suitable building for the District offices; and the Governor and Board of Public Works are authorized, if they deem it advisable for that purpose, to make arrangements to secure sufficient land fronting on Pennsylvania and Louisiana Avenues, between Seventh and Ninth Streets; provided that the Government of the United States shall not be liable for any expenditure for said land, or for the purchase money therefor, or for the buildings to be erected thereon, and no land or the use thereof is hereby granted for the purpose of erecting any building thereon for such purpose."
On March 18, 1873, an agreement was made between the Washington Market Company and the Board of Public Works to transfer as a site for a suitable building under that appropri- ation all the title of that company to the portion of the
256
History of the City of Washington.
reservation at the intersection of Seventh Street and Pennsyl- vania Avenue, between the buildings of said company and Pennsylvania Avenue. In consideration of this concession, the District authorities agreed to reduce the annual franchise rental for the relief of the poor which that company was required to pay by its charter, from $20,000 to $7,500. This rental had previously been reduced from $25,000 to $20,000 by an Act of the Legislative Assembly, approved August 23, 1871, as follows :
"Be it resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the Dis- trict of Columbia, That the Governor be authorized and required to act as one of the commissioners of the Washing- ton Market Company, under the resolution of Congress, approved December twenty, eighteen hundred and seventy; and that he be requested to procure such alterations in the plan of the buildings to be erected by said company as shall transfer the proposed hall from Ninth Street wing to the main building on Pennsylvania Avenue, and also to secure a reduction from twenty-five thousand dollars to twenty thousand dollars of the annual rental required to be paid by said company, and which is now assessed by the company upon the stall-holders."
The validity of the reduction in the franchise rental to $7,500 was determined in favor of the Market Company, in D. C. v. Washington Market Company (3 MacArthur 559), and D. C. v. Washington Market Company (108 U. S. 243).
The $75,000 appropriated to be applied in erecting a new building appears to have been paid to the treasurer of the Board of Public Works on the 27th day of August, 1873, in two install- ments, one of $25,000, and the other of $50,000. Five thousand dollars of this money was kept intact for the purposes for which it was appropriated, except such of it as was used to make a slight excavation for the new building on the site referred to. The remainder appears to have been used by the Board of Public Works in the prosecution of municipal street improvements, and the specific object of its appropriation protected, as the treasurer of the Board of Public Works testified before the Congressional committee of investigation, by the deposit in the bank, under the orders of said Board, of $80,000 in sewer certificates which were then worth about fifty cents on the dollar. After the Board
257
History of the City of Washington.
of Public Works was abolished these sewer certificates were invalidated by the Act of Congress of June 20, 1874, which abolished the Territorial form of government, and were subse- quently cancelled, leaving the District with nothing but a site with a small excavation in it and the unexpended balance of the $5,000, to show for the $75,000 it had received to commence the erection of a City Hall.
The treasurer of the Board testified that the Board used the money because it deemed it better to pay its debts to contractors with it, than to use for that purpose the sewer certificates which would bear eight per centum interest.
Among the features which were introduced by the Board of Public Works, was a public convenience station at the inter- section of 7th Street and Louisiana Avenue where the monument to the organizer of the Grand Army of the Republic now stands; but public sentiment had not then become educated to the importance of the subject, and the station was removed by the successors of that Board in deference to public ridicule.
Although most of the work done by the Board of Public Works has disappeared through defects due to haste and experi- mental construction, and replacement to meet later requirements, except the grading of the streets, a few of the larger sewers, and the street tree system which was installed under the sagacious supervision of the parking commission appointed by the Board of Public Works, consisting of three experienced arborists, William R. Smith, John Saul and William Saunders, public sen- timent has justly crowned the general result with approval.
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.