USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 32
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Transportation to points outside the city, aside from that furnished by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and by the var- ious steamboat lines, continued to be conducted by old-fashioned mail coaches, which connected the city with Rockville, Brook- ville, Marlborough and Port Tobacco, in Maryland, and Lees-
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burg, Warrenton, Middleburg, and other points in Virginia.
Transportation within the city during the years preceding the war was conducted by means of lines of stages or omnibuses seating from twelve to sixteen persons. One line ran from the foot of the Capitol to High Street in Georgetown; another from the Capitol to the Navy Yard; while others ran to North Wash- ington and to the steamboat wharves. The fare was at one time a "fip," or 64 cents, but later came to be six cents or five tickets for a quarter.
In 1858 Congress authorized Gilbert Vanderwerken and others to lay a double track horse car line from the west gate of the Capitol grounds along Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street to Georgetown. The promoters succeeded in raising $200,- 000 for this purpose but the project was not carried through at that time, the first car line not being established until 1862.
The decade preceding the Civil War witnessed a number of important public improvements. In 1851 was commenced the construction of the wings of the Capitol, the erection of the Sol- diers' Home building, and the improvement of the Mall, the White Lot and Lafayette Square and the site of St. Elizabeth's Insane Asylum was determined upon. In this year also Brown's and Todd's hotels on Pennsylvania Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets were remodeled and combined as the Metropolitan with its present impressive five-story marble front. In 1855 the old wooden dome of the Capitol was removed, and the following year work was begun on the present dome. This work with the construction of the wings of the Capitol continued practically through the period of the Civil War.
In 1854, the assessed value of the real and personal property was slightly under twenty-five million dollars, yielding an an- nual revenue of nearly $162,000; and the funded debt was slightly under three-quarters of a million dollars.
During the years just preceding the War a very considera- ble amount of work was done on the streets, the most interesting at this day being the improvement of 14th Street in 1855 with
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curbing and sidewalks from K Street to the Boundary and by grading and flag crossings for a part of this distance.
From 1850 to 1860 the population of Washington increased to 61,122, a gain of 50 per cent. During this period George- town's population remained practically stationary, the census of 1860 giving that place 8,733 persons, a gain of less than 400 in the preceding ten years.
As the city advanced in population the churches steadily increased in number. In 1833 Concordia Lutheran Church was or- ganized and built, and the First Baptist erected its new building on the site of Ford's Theatre. The new building of the Fourth Presbyterian Church was dedicated in 1841, and the colored mem- bers of its congregation organized in 1842 as the First Colored Presbyterian-now the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Cooks school building on 15th Street, the site of the present church. St. Matthew's Catholic Church was consecrated in 1842, and the E Street Baptist Church in the same year. Ryland Chapel, McKendree M. E. Church, and St. Paul's Lutheran Church were dedicated in 1844; the Church of the Ascension in 1845; and Union Chapel M. E. in 1846.
In 1847 St. Mary's Catholic Church was dedicated, the land having been donated by John P. Van Ness. It was in this year that the first attempt to organize a Congregational church was made, but after a few years the members disbanded owing to dissension over the slavery issue. In 1849 Dumbarton Avenue M. E. Church was erected, and the colored members of Foundry or- ganized as Asbury M. E. Church.
In 1851 Trinity P. E. Church removed from its original lo- cation, where Henry Clay had been a communicant, to its present edifice 3rd and C Streets. The Sixth Presbyterian Church was organized in 1852, and in that year the Church of the Epiphany and Grace Episcopal Church were dedicated. Fletcher M. E. Chapel, Assembly Presbyterian Church, and St. Johannes' Ger- man Evangelical Lutheran Church were dedicated in 1853, in which year also Westminster Presbyterian was organized as the 7th Street Presbyterian Church.
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St. Dominic's Catholic Church was consecrated in 1856. Its great bell weighing a ton and a half was installed in 1865. In 1857 Fifth Baptist, then known as the Island Baptist Church, Trinity German Evangelical Lutheran and Western Presbyterian Churches were dedicated. Waugh Chapel was dedicated in 1858, and St. Aloysius' Catholic Church was dedicated in 1859. The Washington Hebrew Congregation, which had organized in 1854 occupied the building which had been for some years occupied by the Congregationalists on 8th between H and I Streets.
After the death of President Taylor in 1850, Vice President Fillmore was called to the Presidency, and on July 10 of that year Judge Cranch of the Circuit Court administered the oath to him in the hall of the House of Representatives. Mrs. Fill- more, a scholarly woman more inclined to study than to society, filled well her position as social leader. To her is given credit for inducing Congress to include a library as part of the equipment of the White House.
The last year of President Fillmore's term was marked by the death, on June 9, 1852, of Henry Clay in his rooms at the National Hotel at 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
On March 4, 1853, occurred the inauguration of President Franklin Pierce. General Pierce arrived from his home in Con- cord, New Hampshire, a few days before the inauguration, and engaged rooms at the Willard Hotel. In addition to the mili- tary parade, the incoming President had the personal escort of a committee appointed by Congress, consisting of the retiring President and Senators Jesse D Bright and Hannibal Hamlin. He was sworn in on the East Portico by Chief Justice Taney. His inauguration was saddened by the death of his son in a railroad accident on the way to Washington, a circumstance to which in his address he feelingly alluded with the words: "No heart but my own can know the personal regret and bitter sor- row over which I have been borne to a position so suitable for others, rather than desirable for myself."
In consequence of her bereavement, Mrs. Pierce, during the first years of her husband's administration, appeared rarely in
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public. Later she took a more active part in social life as a duty which she owed to her position.
Many brilliant women graced the social life of the Capital at this time, notable among them being Mrs. Jefferson Davis, and Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas, who before her marriage had been known as "the beautiful Adele Cutts."
President-elect Buchanan, on arriving at Washington a few days before his inauguration, took lodgings at the National Hotel, where he was waited upon by the Judges of the Supreme Court. On March 4, 1857, he drove to the Capitol with the re- tiring President, their carriage escorted by a lengthy procession. In the evening the usual ball was given in a hall erected for the purpose on Judiciary Square, fifteen thousand tickets being sold for the occasion.
President Buchanan was the country's first bachelor Presi- dent. Having no family of his own, he had been as a father to his sister's children, and his niece, Harriet Lane, became mistress of the Executive Mansion. She was well fitted for the position, and it has been said of her that a more beautiful woman has never presided over the White House.
Social conditions in the Capital during the decade preceed- ing the Civil War were marked by the growing rift between the northern and southern factions. Each maintained its own circle. The southern element was particularly exclusive and maintained an attitude of studied aloofness toward their fellow residents from the North. Southerners who were obliged to recognize northern men in their official capacity refused to recognize them or their families socially.
On June 1, 1857, occurred the election riot which resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of persons. This af- fair arose out of the attempt of the Know-nothing party to pre- vent the participation of naturalized voters in the election by the importation of rowdies from Baltimore.
The trouble started at about 9:30 in the morning when the "Plug Uglies," a club from Baltimore, attempted to drive all
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naturalized voters from the polls at the first precinct of the fourth ward. In this affair Ward Commissioner Richard Owens, Justices Goddard and Dunn, Chief of Police Baggot, and officers Degges and Birkhead and F. A. Klopfer, a private citizen, were injured. It resulted in driving most of the naturalized citizens from the polls at this place. An hour later, the imported row- dies made an attack at the lower precinct of the second ward and fired several shots.
Mayor Magruder then appealed to President Buchanan for military assistance. The request was referred to the Secretary of the Navy who ordered out an hundred and ten marines under Major Tyler and Captain Maddox who marched to the polling place of the first precinct of the Fourth Ward where they found a party of the disorderly element awaiting them with a six-pound brass swivel under the shed of the Northern Liberty Mar- ket at Seventh Street and Massachusetts Avenue. The Mayor addressed the crowd which numbered some fifteen hundred per- sons and demanded that the polling places be opened. On this demand being refused, a section of the marines under Major Tyler advanced with fixed bayonets to take the swivel gun which was then abandoned by those in charge of it, who, in retiring threw rocks and fired pistols at the marines, one of whom was wounded. The marines were then ordered to fire with the re- sult that six persons, including an infant and two colored men were killed, and a number of others wounded. The rowdies dis- persed hastily, some leaving the city on foot and some catching a train as it was leaving the depot. A force of artillery arrived late in the day from Fort McHenry but no further trouble was experienced.
On February 27, 1859, Daniel Sickels, afterwards promi- nent as a General in the Union Army, killed Philip Barton Key on Madison Place on the east side of Lafayette Square. The trial of Sickels and his acquittal on the plea of the "unwritten law" are among the famous incidents of the country's legal his- tory. Key was a son of the author of the "Star Spangled Ban-
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ner." His brother Daniel had been killed in a duel by J. H. Sherburne in 1836.
In the fall of 1860 Washington received a visit from the then Prince of Wales-afterwards King Edward VII of Eng- land. The Prince had been visiting Canada when he was invited to Washington by President Buchanan. During his stay he made a trip to Mount Vernon where he planted a horse-chestnut tree near Washington's tomb.
At 6:30 o'clock on the morning of February 23, 1861, Presi- dent-elect Lincoln arrived in the city and was met by Congress- man Washburne of Illinois who accompanied him to Willard's Hotel. During the forenoon he paid a visit to President Buch- anan with whom he had a lengthy interview.
On February 27, Mayor Berret and the City Councils after paying a farewell call to President Buchanan, proceeded to Wil- lard's Hotel, where the Mayor in a short speech welcomed the President-elect, who is reported to have responded as follows :-
"Mr. Mayor: I thank you, and through you the munici- pal authorities, by whom you are accompanied, for this wel- come; and as it is the first time in my life since the present phase of politics has presented itself in this country that I have said anything publicly within a region of country where the institution of slavery exists, I will take this occa- sion to say, I think very much of the ill-feeling that has existed, and still exists, between the people from the section from which I came, and the people here, is owing to the misunderstanding between each other, which unhappily prevails. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, that I have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly feelings toward you as to the people of my own sec- tion. I have not now, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my own neigh- bors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from you any of the constitutional rights, under any circumstances, that I would not feel myself constrained to withhold from my own neighbors ; and I hope, in a word, when we shall become better acquainted,-and I say it with great confi-
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dence,-we shall like cach other the more. Again I thank you for the kindness of this reception."
As there were rumors of threats against Lincoln's life, Gen- eral Scott on the day of the inauguration posted soldiers along the Avenue and on parallel streets on the roofs of houses. A little before noon President Buchanan called for Mr. Lincoln at Willard's Hotel, and the two proceeded to their carriage, in which, with Senators Baker and Pearce they rode to the Capi- tol. A guard of picked soldiers of the regular army formed a cordon about the carriage so dense as to hide it from the people on the streets. A striking feature of the parade was a float rep- resenting the Union on which the States and Territories were impersonated by young girls dressed in white and carrying flags.
At the Capitol Mr. Lincoln and President Buchanan went arm in arm to the Senate Chamber where they saw Vice-presi- dent Hamlin installed. The party then proceeded to the East portico where, from the platform erected over the steps, Mr. Lincoln was introduced by Senator Baker of Oregon. After this, bowing acknowledgement to the thousands of people before him, he read his inaugural address, concluding :-
"Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of our affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
The oath was administered to President Lincoln by the venerable Chief Justice Taney.
That night the inaugural ball was held in a specially con- structed frame building north of the City Hall. The affair was attended mainly by northern visitors to the city, as the local social element, on account of its southern sympathies, stayed away. The newspapers of the day contained many sportive al- lusions to the alleged crudities of deportment on the part of the President's western friends. At eleven o'clock the President and Mrs. Lincoln, and Vice-president and Mrs. Hamlin with their party, arrived and were greeted with an enthusiastic dem-
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onstration. The first levee of the administration occurred on March 8.
On Saturday, April 13, 1861, occurred the fall of Fort Sumpter. The following Monday President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 volunteers. Within thirty days nearly fifty thousand troops had arrived at Washington and were en- camped in the vacant fields about and within the city or quartered in the public buildings.
A London correspondent wrote :
"It is about forty miles from Baltimore to Washington, and at every quarter of a mile for the whole distance a picket of soldiers guarded the rails. Camps appeared on both sides, larger and more closely packed together; and the rays of the setting sun fell on countless lines of tents as we approached the unfinished dome of the Capitol. On the Virginia side of the river, columns of smoke rising from the forest marked the site of Federal encampments across the stream. The fields around Washington resounded with the words of command and tramp of men, and flashed with wheeling arms. Parks of artillery studded the waste ground and long trains of white-covered wagons filled up the open spaces in the suburbs of Washington."
A grand review of the army was held by General Scott on July 4, 1861, on which day Congress met in response to the President's call for an extra session. On July 17, the army started for the battlefield of Bull Run, accompanied by a large concourse of citizens. Following its disastrous defeat came the establishment of hospitals, the construction of fortifications around the city and the reorganization and enlargement of the army until in October, 1861, 150,000 soldiers were congregated in the city and its environs. Following the Peninsular and Sec- ond Bull Run campaigns the city became a vast hospital in which it is estimated thirty thousand sick and wounded were at one time under care and treatment. Ovens, constructed on the present site of the Capitol terrace baked sixty thousand loaves of bread a day, and vast quantities of military stores passed through the city to the armies in the field.
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After the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run and Chantilly in August, 1862, a trainload of nearly a thousand citizens of Washington endeavored to reach the battle field to care for the wounded, but the destruction of the railroad com- pelled them to return after reaching Fairfax Court House.
During the succeeding year Antictam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg each in turn sent its quota of wounded to the Washington hospitals, of which upwards of sev- enty were established.
After every battle near the Capital, people from all direc- tions flocked there to find their dead and wounded and heart- rending scenes gave constant proof of the barbarity of war.
Washington ladies were constant visitors to the hospitals, giving of their means and service to the wounded. In this work Mrs. Lincoln seemed to find more congenial occupation than in society. Many Washington people not reconciled to the "Black Republican" President, as he was styled by some, did not gra- ciously receive him and his wife into society, but the President's own worth soon made a welcome place for himself, and Mrs. Lin- coln held her own dignity in a commendable manner that made for her strong friends among her new acquaintances.
Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration occurred March 4, 1865, and despite bad weather the fore part of the day, the ceremonies were held in the usual way. The procession was chiefly a military one.
In the Senate Chamber Andrew Johnson was sworn into office as Vice-president, after which Mr. Lincoln was escorted to the east balcony of the Capitol where he delivered the celebrated address closing with the words: "With malice towards nonc, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in."
This time Mr. Lincoln was sworn into office by a Chief Jus- tice of his own appointment, Salmon P. Chase. The inaugural ball was held the Monday night following.
On March 23, 1864, General Grant arrived in Washington from the west to take command of all the Union armies, and on
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the night of May 3 started with the Army of the Potomac upon the historic overland campaign. Then followed in quick succes- sion the terrible battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor, the crossing of the James, and the siege of Peters- burg, a campaign from which unprecedented thousands of sick and wounded were brought back to Washington by rail and boat.
In July, 1864, the city was thrown into consternation by the approach, by way of the upper crossings of the Potomac, of a Confederate force under General Early. Two divisions of the Sixth Corps were dispatched by General Grant from the army of investment in front of Petersburg, and arrived by boat on the afternoon of July 11, under command of General Horatio G. Wright. They proceeded at once to Fort Stevens on the 7th Street Pike. The following afternoon they attacked the forces of General Early, who, perceiving the impossibility of capturing the city, withdrew into Virginia. During this engagement, Presi- dent Lincoln was an interested spectator. While he stood on the parapet of Fort Stevens a surgeon was wounded within a short distance from him. It was only in response to the urgent importunings of General Wright that he finally stepped down out of range of the passing bullets.
On April 9, 1865, the city, with the entire North, was thrown into a delirium of joy by word of the surrender at Appomatox. Six days later North and South alike were staggered by the news that President Lincoln had been assassinated.
On the fateful night of April 14, 1865, the President and his wife had gone to Ford's theatre to see Laura Keene in "Our American Cousin." The President's entrance into the theatre was the cause of much commotion. Although the first act had begun, the performance ceased, the orchestra burst forth with "Hail to the Chief," and the audience rose en masse, waving handkerchiefs and hats and cheering lustily.
All went well until second scene of the third act was reach- ed. The President at the time occupied a box at the south end of the stage. With him were Mrs. Lincoln, a Miss Harris, and
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Major Henry R. Rathbone. The only actor on the stage at the time was a young man named Harry Hawk.
At about fifteen minutes past 10 o'clock a pistol shot rang out, surprising, though not alarming the audience, as it was first thought to be part of the play. A moment later Mrs. Lin- coln screamed and John Wilkes Booth, a young actor of great promise, who had gained access to the President's box, leaped from the box to the stage, flashing a dagger tragically and cry- ing,"Sic semper tyrannis!"
As Booth jumped from the box on to the stage, a height of about nine fect, his right spur caught in the blue part of an Am- erican flag which was draped around the box, and tore out a piece which he dragged half way across the stage. He struck the stage floor with such force that he broke the fibula or small bone in his left leg. Despite this accident he faced the audi- ence, cried "The South is avenged!" and made his escape behind the scenes.
Major Rathbone, when he heard the fatal shot, attempted to seize Booth, who was standing immediately behind the Presi- dent, and who made a thrust with a dagger at Rathbone's breast which the latter parried with his left arm receiving a wound several inches deep in that arm between the elbow and shoulder.
When the shot was fired President Lincoln was looking down at some person in the orchestra. The pistol ball entered the back part of the left side of his head just behind his ear and lodged in the front part of the brain a short distance behind the right eye.
President Lincoln was carried across the street to house No. 516 Tenth Street, directly opposite the theatre, the home of a Mr. Peterson, where lie died at 7:22 o'clock the next morning.
Booth, upon leaving the theatre, mounted a horse which was being held for him in the back alley running north and south, by a hanger on at the theatre called Peanut John, whom Edward Spangler had sent out for that purpose. He rode up to F Street, thence to 9th Street ; down Ninth to E; along E to and through Judiciary Square; down 4th to Indiana Avenue ;
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by way of Indiana Avenue, the Capitol Grounds and Pennsyl- vania Avenue to Eleventh Street east, and thence to the Navy Yard Bridge, where he was halted by Sergeant Silas T. Cobb, in charge of the Bridge guard. He said his name was Smith, and gave a satisfactory explanation to the sergeant, who passed him across the bridge. A few minutes later, David R. Herold rode up to the bridge, and was also passed by the sergeant.
The two reached the tavern at Surrattsville kept by John K. Lloyd, about mid-night and obtained a carbine and some whiskey.
Booth and Herold continued in the bright moonlight toward southern Maryland and stopped a short time before daybreak on Saturday morning at the house of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, about twenty miles southeast of Washington. The doctor with the assistance of his wife, dressed Booth's fractured leg, which, Booth told him, was caused by his horse falling upon him.
After leaving Dr. Mudd's they were hidden by Samuel Cox in a small isolated pine grove, densely undergrown with laurel and holly, about five miles northeast of Pope's Creek, where they remained for six days in a state of wretched untidiness, on several occasions hearing searching parties of cavalry ride past their place of concealment. They were furnished provisions and information by a farmer named Thomas A. Jones, who visited them seven times, and on the cloudy, foggy night of the next Friday conducted them to the Potomac River to a place called Dent's Meadow, a mile or two north of Pope's Creek, where a small stream entered the Potomac River. The journey from the pine grove to the river was extremely hazardous, as they had to pass two houses, at one of which a number of dogs were kept. Booth rode a horse on account of his broken leg until within 300 yards from the river, when they came to a fence which they could not remove, and Booth had to walk in extreme torture down the steep bluff to the shore, supported by the others. Af- ter putting Booth and Herold in a row-boat, Jones lighted a candle and showed them the way to Virginia by means of a compass which Booth had.
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