USA > Washington > Standard history of the city of Washington from a study of the original sources > Part 7
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hend more ground nor would afford greater means than was required for the Federal City; and that, instead of contending which of the two should have it they had better, by combining more offers make a common cause of it, and thereby secure it to the district-other arguments were used to show the danger which might result from delay and the good effects that might proceed from a Union.
"Dined at Colonel Forrest's to day with the Commission- ers and others.
"Wednesday, 30th. The parties to whom I addressed myself yesterday evening, having taken the matter into consideration saw the propriety of my observations; and that whilst they were contending for the shadow they might lose the substance; and therefore mutually agreed and entered into articles to surrender for public purposes, one half of the land they severally possessed within bounds which were designated as necessary for the City to stand with some other stipulations, which were inserted in the instrument which they respectively subscribed.
"This business being thus happily finished and some direc- tions given to the Commissioners, the Surveyor and Engineer with respect to the mode of laying out the district-Surveying the grounds for the City and forming them into lots-I left Georgetown-dined at Alexandria and reached Mount Vernon in the evening."
The instrument subscribed by the proprietors and referred to in President Washington's diary was as follows:
"We, the subscribers, in consideration of the great benefits we expect to derive from having the Federal City laid off upon our Lands, do hereby agree and bind ourselves, heirs, executors, and administrators, to convey, in Trust, to the President of the United States, or Commissioners, or such person or persons as he shall appoint, by good and sufficient deeds, in Fee simple, the whole of our respective Lands which he may think proper to include within the lines of the Federal City, for the purposes and on the conditions following :
"The President shall have the sole power of directing the Federal City to be laid off in what manner he pleases. He may retain any number of Squares he may think proper for public Improvements, or other public Uses, and the lots only which shall be laid off shall be a joint property between the Trustees on behalf of the public, and each present
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proprietor, and the same shall be fairly and equally divided between the public and the Individuals, as soon as may be, after the City shall be laid off.
"For the streets the proprietors shall receive no compen- sation; but for the squares or Lands in any form, which shall be taken for public buildings, or any kind of public improvements, or uses, the proprietors, whose lands shall be so taken, shall receive at the rate of twenty-five pounds per acre, to be paid by the public.
"The whole wood on the Lands shall be the property of the proprietors.
"But should any be desired by the president to be reserved or left standing, the same shall be paid for by the public at a just and reasonable valuation, exclusive of the twenty-five pounds per acre to be paid for the Land, on which the same shall remain.
"Each proprietor shall retain the full possession and use of his land, until the same shall be sold and occupied by the purchasers of the Lots laid out thereupon, and in all cases where the public arrangements as to streets, lotts, &c., will admit of it, each proprietor shall possess his buildings and other improvements, and graveyards, paying to the public only one-half the present estimated value of the Lands, on which the same shall be, or twelve pounds ten shillings per acre. But in cases where the arrangements of the streets, lotts, squares, &c., will not admit of this, and it shall become necessary to remove such buildings, Improvements, &c., the proprietors of the same shall be paid the reasonable value thereof, by the public.
"Nothing herein contained shall affect the Lotts which any of the parties to this Agreement may hold in the Towns of Carrollsburgh or Hamburgh.
"In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and Seals, this thirteenth day of March, 1791.
"Signed & sealed in pres- ence of us-Mr. Thos. Beall, making an exception of the Lands he sold Abra- ham Young not yet con- veyed.
Witness to all the sub- scribers including William Young.
Signed
Robert Peter (Seal)
David Burnes (Seal)
Jas. M. Lingan (Seal)
Uriah Forrest (Seal)
Benj. Stoddert (Seal)
Notley Young
(Seal)
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William Bayly William Robertson John Suter
Samuel Davidson witness to Abraham Young's sign- ing.
Benj. Stoddert witness to Edward Peirce's signing.
Joseph E. Rowles for Jno. Waring.
Wm. Deakins Junr. for Wm. Prout & William King as attorney in fact.
Dan. Carroll of Dn. (Seal) Overton Carr (Seal) Thos. Beall of Geo. (Seal)
Charles Beatty (Seal)
Anthony Holmead (Seal)
Wm. Young (Seal)
Edward Peirce (Seal)
Abraham Young (Seal)
James Peirce (Seal)
William Prout (Seal)
Robert Peter, as attorney
in fact for Eliphas Doug- lass. (Seal)
Benj. Stoddert for Jno.
Waring by written author- ity from Mr. Waring. William King (Seal) "
Under the same date as the foregoing, a number of identical instruments were circulated among and signed by the owners of lots in Carrollsburgh. These instruments were in the follow- ing form :
"We the Subscribers holding or entitled to Lots in Carrollsburgh agree with each other and with the President of the United States that the lots and lands we hold or are entitled to in Carrollsburgh shall be subject to be laid out at the pleasure of the president as part of the Federal City and that we will receive one half the Quantity of our respective Lots as near their present Situation as may agree with the new plan and where we may be entitled now to only one Lot or otherwise not entitled on the new plan to one entire lot or do not agree with the President, Commis- sioners or other person or persons acting on the part of the public on an adjustment of our interest we agree that there shall be a sale of the Lots in which we may be interest- ed respectively and the produce thereof in money or Securities shall be equally divided one half as a Donation for the Use of the United States under the Act of Congress, the other half to ourselves respectively. And we engage
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History of the City of Washington.
to make Conveyances of our respective Lots and lands af'd to Trustees or otherwise whereby to relinquish our rights to the said Lots & Lands as the president or such Commrs or persons acting as af'd shall direct to secure to the United States the Donation intended by this Agreement. Witness our hands this thirtieth Day of March, 1791.
N. B. See the alteration of these Subscriptions.
Th. Johnson, Daniel Carroll, Will Deakins, Jun'r.,
William Bayly, Daniel Carroll for Th., Morton, Notley Young,
Notley Young for Mary, Young and Eliz. Carroll."
President Washington appears to have been much elated over his success in procuring the execution of these agreements, and justly so. They outlined a plan whereby the Federal City should finance itself. The ground necessary for the streets was to be donated to the Federal Government, and while such land as should be needed for public reservations and buildings was to be paid for by the Federal Government at the rate of £25 Maryland currency or $66 2-3 per acre, nevertheless the arrangement whereby the Federal Government should divide with the original proprietors all the platted squares gave to the former a source of revenue which it was anticipated would suffice not only to pay for the public reservations but also for all the Federal expenses in connection with the city for many years to come. While the disposal by the Federal Government of its proportion of the lots assigned to it was afterwards severe- ly criticized as improvident, nevertheless the funds so obtained sufficed eventually to pay for all the land laid out for Federal buildings and reservations and provided for the erection of the Federal buildings and for their reconstruction after they had been destroyed by the British in the War of 1812.
The whole transaction is succinctly characterized in a report by Mr. Southard, Chairman of the Senate Committee
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on the District of Columbia, presented to the Senate February 2, 1835, in which he says :
"For this large extent of land (i. e. the public reserva- tions) equal to all its present and prospective wants, the Government paid, nominally, the sum of $36,099 to the proprietors of the soil; but in reality nothing. This sum was not drawn from the general Treasury, nor one cent of it contributed by the people of the United States. The whole of it was taken out of the proceeds of the sales of the building lots, which had also been secured by the Government in the contract with the landowners. It thus appears that the people of the United States have paid nothing for all their public lots, nor for the property in the streets. They procured them, and now own them, without the expenditure of a single dollar."
This agreement was in after years made the basis of litigation in the case of Van Ness v. City of Washington (4 Peters 232). The Supreme Court, replying to the contention that the portion of the land taken by the Government for streets and public reservations was clothed with a trust that they should remain such and that upon any change in their character the title should revert to the original proprietors, said :
"It is not very material, in our opinion, to decide what was the technical character of the grants made to the government; whether they are to be deemed mere donations or purchases. The grants were made for the foundation of a Federal City; and the public faith was necessarily pledged when the grants were accepted to found such city. The very agreement to found a city was of itself a most valuable consideration for these grants. It changed the nature and value of the property of the proprietors to an almost incalculable extent. The land was no longer to be . devoted to mere agricultural purposes, but acquired the extraordinary value of city lots. In proportion to the success of the city would be the enhancement of this value ; and it required scarcely any aid from the imagination to foresee that this act of government would soon convert the narrow income of farms into solid opulence. The proprietors so considered it. In this very agreement, they state the motive of their proceedings in a plain and intelligible manner. It is not a mere gratuitous donation from motives of generosity or public spirit; but in consid-
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eration of the great benefits they expect to derive from having the Federal City laid off upon their lands. For the streets they were to receive no compensation. Why ? Because those streets would be of as much benefit to themselves, as lot-holders, as to the public. They were to receive £25 per acre for the public reservations; 'to be paid' (as the agreement states it) 'by the public.' They understood themselves, then, to receive payment from the public for the reservations. It makes no difference, that by the subsequent arrangements they were to receive this payment out of the sales of the lots which they had agreed to convey to the public, in consideration of the government's found- ing the city on their lands. It was still contemplated by them as a compensation; as a valuable consideration, fully adequate to the value of all their grants. It can, there- fore, be treated in no other manner than as a bargain between themselves and the government, for what each deemed an adequate consideration. Neither considered it a case where all was benefit on one side, and all sacrifice on the other. It was, in no sense, a case of charity, and was never so treated in the negotiations of the parties. But, as has already been said, it is not in our view material, whether it be considered as a donation or a purchase, for in each case it was for the foundation of a city."
There is, however, another side to this question. As will later appear, the work of effecting divisions between the public and the proprietors was slow and the sales of the property equally so. It was many years before some of the proprietors were able to dispose of any considerable quantity of their lots. In the meantime their farms were no longer a source of income. One of them Daniel Carroll of Duddington, in a letter to Mayor Brent written July 24, 1837, replying to an inquiry on this very point said :*
"In answer to yours, I fear the deeds will fully express the relinquishments of right in the streets to the govern- ment. I nevertheless perfectly remember that the general opinion was that so great was the gift that the eitizens would never be subject to taxation for the improvement of the streets-having relinquished every alternate lot to the government. Indeed, some were so wild as to suppose
*Old Georgetown, by Hugh T. Taggart, Esq. Vol. 11. Records Col. Hist. Soc.
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the donation was so great the government might pave the streets with .ingots of gold or silver. After nearly a half century the result is now fully known; the unfortunate proprietors are generally brought to ruin, and some with scarcely enough to buy daily food for their families. The subject is so truly frightful to me that I hate to think of it, much less to write of it."
Another proprietor, David Burnes, was so sorely pressed for money to pay his bills while the divisions between the Government and the proprietors were being made and the lots sold that he repeatedly appealed to the Commissioners for even partial payments upon the land taken from his tract for public reservations, with the result that the Commissioners as a measure of relief to him assumed the payment of some of his most pressing debts.
On the same day with the execution of the foregoing agreements, President Washington issued his proclamation finally setting forth the boundaries of the ten miles square. This proclamation recited the publication of the first proclama- tion, the passage of the amendatory Act of Congress allowing both sides of the Eastern Branch and the Virginia shore as far as Hunting Creek to be included within the Federal Terri- tory and proceeded to define the boundaries of the latter as follows :
"Beginning at Jones' Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek, in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of forty-five degrees west of the north, and running in a direct line ten miles, for the first line; then beginning again at the same Jones' Point, and running another direct line at a right angle with the first, across the Potomac ten miles, for the second line; thence from the termination of said first and second lines, running two other lines of ten miles each, the one crossing the Eastern Branch aforesaid and the other the Potomac, and meeting each other in a point."
Major L'Enfant's first report, which is undated, was prob- ably delivered to the President at the time of his presence in Georgetown when he secured the signing of the preliminary agreement by the proprietors. After describing the general
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characteristics of the land and of the waters adjoining it, he gives some of his ideas as to the locations for public buildings.
He suggests a bridge over the Eastern Branch at a point about a half mile above Evans' Point where the deep channel terminates, and one across the Potomac above Georgetown "at the place of the two Sisters w(h) ere nature would effectually favor the undertaking." He proposes the placing of wharves and the establishing of a naval store, arsenals and warehouses on the Eastern Branch. As to the locations most favorable for the public buildings he says :
"there w(h)ere the level ground on the water and all around w(h) ere it descend but most particularly on that part terminating in a ridge to Jenkin's Hill* and running in a parallel with and at half mile off from the river Potowmack separated by a low ground intersected with three grand streams-many of the most desirable position offer for to erect the Publique Edifices thereon-from these height every grand building would rear with majestic aspect over the Country all around and might be advantage- ously seen from twenty miles off which Contigeous to the first settlement of the City they would there stand to ages in a Central point to it, facing on the grandest prospect of both of the branch of the Potowmack with the town of Alexandry in front seen in its fullest extent over many points of land projecting from the Maryland and Virginia shore in a manner as add much to the perspective at the end of which the Cape of great Hunting Creek appears directly w(h)ere a corner stone of the Federal District is to be placed and in the room of which a majestic colum or a grand Perysomid being erected would produce the happy- est effect and compleatly finish the landscape-"
He suggests opening "a direct and large avenue from the bridge on the Potowmack to that on the Eastern Branch the which should be well level passing across Georgetown and over the most advantageous ground for prospect trought the Grand City, with a middle way paved for heavy carriage and walk on each side planted with double Rows of trees."
The idea of laying out the city in regular squares accord-
*Capitol Hill.
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History of the City of Washington.
ing to the plan of Philadelphia he somewhat contemptuously dismisses in the following :
66 * * it is not the regular assemblage of houses laid out in square and forming streets all parallel and uniform that is so necessary for such plan could only so on a level plain and w(lı) ere no surrounding object being interesting it become indifferent which way the opening of street may be directed. but on any other ground a plan of this sort most be defective and it never would answer for any of the spots proposed for the Federal City, and on that held here as the most eligible it would absolutely annilate every of the advantage enumerated and the seeing of which will alone injure the success of the undertaking. such regular plan indeed however answerable as they may appear upon paper or seducing as they may be on the first aspect to the eyes of some people most even when applayed upon the ground the best calculated to admit of it become at least tiresome and insipide and it never could be in its orrigine but a mean continuance of some cool imagination wanting a sense of the real grand and truly beautifull only to be met with w(h) ere nature contribut with art and diversify the object."
The four or five days following the execution of the agreement by the proprietors were spent by President Washington at Mount Vernon mainly in attending to his private affairs and preparing for his coming Southern trip. The Federal City, nevertheless, appears to have been quite constant- ly on his mind, for during that period he wrote a number of important and interesting letters.
The day following his arrival at Mount Vernon he wrote tc Mr. Jefferson enclosing the Proclamation defining the limits of the Federal Territory, and explaining the omission there- from of the provision in Mr. Jefferson's draft designating the sites for the public buildings on the land near the mouth of the Tiber, and explaining also the non-inclusion of Bladens- burg within the ten miles square. He said :
"Mount Vernon, March 31, 1791.
"Dear Sir: Having been so fortunate as to reconcile the contending interests of Georgetown and Carrollsburg, and to unite them in such an agreement as permits the
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History of the City of Washington.
public purposes to be carried into effect on an extensive and proper scale, I have the pleasure to transmit to you the enclosed Proclamation, which you will cause after annex- ing the Seal of the U. S. and your countersignature to be published.
"The terms entered into by me, on the part of the United States, with the Landholders of Georgetown and Carrolls- burg are that all the land from Rock Creek along the river to the Eastern Branch and so upwards to, or above the ferry including a breadth of about a mile and a half, the whole containing from three to five thousand acres is ceded to the public on condition, that when the whole shall be surveyed and laid off as a city (which Major L'Enfant is now directed to do) the present Proprietors shall retain every other lot-and for such part of the land as may be taken for public use, for squares, walks, &c, they shall be allowed at the rate of twenty-five pounds per acre-the Public having the right to reserve such parts of the wood on the land as may be thought necessary to be preserved for ornament. The landholders to have the use and profits of all the grounds until the City is laid off into lots, and sale is made of those lots which, by this agreement, became public property-nothing is to be allowed for the ground which may be occupied as streets or alleys.
"To these conditions all the principal Landholders, except the purchaser of Slater's property who was not present, have subscribed, and it is not doubted that the few who were not present will readily come into the measure, even the obstinate Mr. Burns.
"The enlarged plan of this agreement having done away the necessity and indeed postponed the propriety of designating the particular spot on which the public build- ings should be placed until an accurate survey and sub- division of the whole ground is made, I have left out that paragraph of the proclamation.
"It was found on running the lines that the comprehen- sion of Bladensburg with the district must have occasioned the exclusion of more important objects-and of this I am convinced as well by my own observation as Mr. Ellicott's opinion.
"With great regard and esteem, I am dear Sir Your most obd't Servt.,
Copy to Mr. Jefferson."
Signed G. W.
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History of the City of Washington.
The writing of this letter probably reminded the Presi- dent of the matter of building regulations, with the importance of which he seems to have been much impressed, and which he had overlooked in the multitude of matters which claimed his attention while at Georgetown; for the following day he took up the subject with Messrs. Stoddert and Deakins, saying :
"Mount Vernon, April 1st, 1791.
"Gentlemen : Being accustomed to write to you respect- ing the grounds for the Fed'l City, I continue the practice.
"It may be Tuesday or Wednesday next before I shall leave this place,-by which (say by Monday's Post) I should be glad to hear what progress has been made, and what still remains to be done in the business which so happily commenced on Tuesday last under the accommodat- ing spirit which then prevailed.
"The subscription paper has been, I presume, deposited in the hands of the Commissioners, for the purpose of drawing conveyances. I should be glad nevertheless to receive a copy of it with the names of the subscribers annexed thereto for my own satisfaction-the general tenor of the agreement was, I well remember, pleasing to me, and, in my opinion reciprocally beneficial to all the parties, but I do not now recollect with precision whether it is fully expressed that the lots left to the disposal of the several proprietors by the conditions of their grants are subject to all the rules and regulations (with respect to the build- ings, &c., &c.) as the public ones are. This unquestion- ably ought to be the case-it was evidently my meaning that they should be so-and unless it is so, one of the great objects-to wit-uniformity and beauty-may be defeated.
"The mail of Wednesday brought me a letter from Mr. Jefferson, dated the 27th ulto. in which is the following paragraph : 'A bill was yesterday ordered to be brought into the house of representatives here for granting a sum of money for building a Federal hall, house for the Pres- ident, &c.' This (though I do not wish that it should be expressed as my sentiment) unfolds most evidently the views of P. at the same time that it proves in a striking manner the propriety of the measure adopted by the Georgetown and Carrollsburgh proprietors on Wednesday last-As also the necessity of their completing
MOUNT VERNON
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the good work they have begun in a speedy, and, in an effect- ual manner that the consequent arrangements may take place without delay.
"With esteem and regard, I am, Gent'n,
Y. obd. Hbl. Serv.,
G. Washington."
President Washington was at this time especially anxious that the work of completing the survey and laying off the city as well as that of completing the arrangements with the proprietors of the land by means of formal conveyances and to the proper trustees, the divisions between the Government and the proprietors, and the sales of lots should proceed vigor- ously. Even at this period, the efforts of other localities to obtain the location of the permanent seat of government had not ended. Baltimore, which had raised a large fund for the erection of Federal buildings, was still protesting against the establishment of a new city in the wilderness; and Philadelphia, which was to be the seat of the Government during the ten years allowed for the laying off of the city and the erection of the public buildings, was still hopeful of becoming the permanent seat of the National Capital. To this end as President Wash- ington's letter just quoted mentions, the Pennsylvania legisla- ture was then considering a bill to appropriate a sum of money for the erection of buildings for the use of the Government. President Washington consequently felt very strongly that delay or embarrassment in establishing the city on a substantial basis would be exceedingly prejudicial to its interests. His eagerness in this particular is evidenced by a letter which he wrote to the Commissioners from Mount Vernon, under date of April 3, 1791, in which he again alluded to the bill pending in the Pennsylvania legislature. He said :
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