Pictures of the City of Washington in the past

Preface

. The preparation of this volume has been undertaken for the pleasure that employment brings, and the pleasure would have been greatly enhanced, but for the labor involved to correct the misstatements which have crept into the writings of some who essayed to make the history of the City of Washington a story of romance and fiction. I will not assert that all such mistakes have been corrected, nor that none have been committed, but the effort has been made to verify every statement of facts by reference to original records. The comments on data and facts are, of course, the views and conclusions of the author, and, it is hoped, will be accepted as the expression of the deliberate judgment and criticism of one who has striven to be fair and just. Data and facts of special interest, heretofore unknown to the public at large, have been incorporated in every chapter, which, it is believed, will add new interest and importance to the early history of the City of "Washington.

Much other information has been collected from many previous publications and anonymous contributions to the local press, which has been so arranged as to bring together the data relating to special subjects, periods, and persons, so that the students of the early history of the Capital of the nation may find the groups of such facts and statements without much waste of time.

PREFACE.

. VI Acknowledgment is due to Colonel Theodore A. Bingham for his courteous assistance in the examination of original records in the office of Public Buildings aud Grounds, which has enabled the author to correct current mistakes and verify statements. The author is also indebted to Dr. J. Dudley Morgan, Mr. George F. Green, Miss Nourse, and Miss Juliana Gales for data relating to some of the original land-owners and suburban estates. Chapter II., entitled " Removal of the Seat of Govern ment to Washington," by Mr. Bryan, is a very valuable contribution to the volume. It is the first full and com plete history of the removal of the Capital to this city. S. C. B. Washington, January, 1898. PAGE 17 04 77 161 189 CONTENTS.

Chapter I

the history of the foundation of the federal territory AND OF THE LOCATION AND EARLY DEVELOP- MENT OF THE FEDERAL CITY. The early historyof this city has been written by a number of investigators, and yet it is doubtful if any one of such histories contains every incident, circumstance, and act relating to this interesting national event. It is, possibly, beyond the capacity of any one person to embody in such a history an absolutely accurate, complete, and impartial statement of every circumstance and act referring to and determining the location of the Federal City, and to the foundation and in auguration of the Capital of these United States at the City of Washington, on the River Potomac, at its confluence with the Eastern Branch or Anacostia River. It is not my purpose to undertake such a difficult and oner ous task, but simply to make such a summary of historical data, as will fix the early events in the mind of the reader.

The data upon which this chapter is based have been drawn from the volumes and publications named in the bibliography, to which frequent reference will be made in subsequent chapters. Previous to its settlement by civilized people, as usually stated, the territory now known as the District of Columbia was occupied by the allied Indian tribes, Monahoacs and Monacans. The valley at the foot of Capitol Hill was periodically visited by Indian tribes, who named it their " fishing ground." They assembled here in great numbers during the spring months, to procure fish, which were found in great variety and abundance in the Potomac and the tidal streams that penetrated through the valleys of the territory. Green leaf s Point was the location of the principal camp and the residence of the Chiefs, where the councils of the tribes were held.

The location of the Capital of this country so near the site of the Indian Council is a fact of special historic interest. "According to the students of anthropology," writes a recent author, Washington is not the first Capital which has been located on this site. Hundreds of years ago the locality was the head of the nation of aboriginal tribes. It was the centre of location of the noted Algonquin tribe which occnpied this section when it was explored by Captain John Smith, and long previous to that time. The tribe which was located here was composed chiefly of the Powhatans, ruled over by that chieftain by whom Captain Smith was captured, and but for whose daughter, Pocahontas, he would undoubtedly have been put to death The capital of the powerful Algonquin tribe was composed of many villages, grouped together.

One of these was on the present site of Anacostia, and it is from the name of the tribe located there that the place received its name. It was known as Nacotchant, or Nacoch tank, from which the name Anacostia was evolved. A battle was fought with these people by the English, and they were driven to the hills. On either side of Nacochtank was a smaller settlement, forming a continuous line of fields and cabins along the east bank of the East ern Branch, from its entrance into the District to some distance below Giesboro' point. . Nacochtank, which was the residence of a chief and contained eighty warriors, was the principal settlement within or adjoining the District. The Jesuits, who came out later with Lord Baltimore, Latinized the name as Anacostan, whence we get Anacostia, the modern name of the Eastern Branch at Washington.

During the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress sought safety and protection by frequent adjournment from place to place. The first Congress of the Revolution assembled in Philadelphia in September, 1774, and continued to hold its session in that city until December, 1776, when, because of the approach of the British troops, it adjourned, and reassembled in Baltimore in February, 1777, but re mained in session but seven days, and adjourned to meet in Philadelphia in March following. On Sunday the fourteeuth day of September, 1777, Congress resolved, if necessary to leave Philadelphia, it would reassemble in Lancaster, to which place it adjourned on September 27th, and on the next day abandoned that place to meet at York, where it remained until late in June, 1778, when it returned to Philadelphia, and remained there until June 30, 1783, when it assembled in Princeton.

There was a brief session at Annapolis, where Washington resigned his commission, December 23, 1783. The inconvenience of a roving Capital soon gave rise to animated discussion concerning the propriety and location of a permanent seat of Government. As early as 1783 the subject was considered by Congress, aud immediately after ward New York offered Kingston as a suitable place ; Mary land followed with the offer of Annapolis ; Rhode Island, Newport ; New Jersey with that of Trenton, and Virginia with Williamsburg, all of which were declined. New York City and Philadelphia offered public buildings for the occu pancy of the government, and " Baltimore Town " promised the erection of suitable buildings upon the agreement to make it the Capital. During the period from 1783 to 1790 the selection of a permanent site for the Capital was discussed with consider able bitterness, in which the elements of " provincialism, prejudice, and avurice " provoked serious and conflicting antagonism of individual, community, and State interests.

The States of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey were actively engaged in efforts to secure the selection of favored localities. In June, 1783, in consequence of an insult offered by a band of unpaid mutinous soldiers, and the failure of the authorities of Philadelphia to suppress the riotous disturb ance, Congress removed from that city. In October following, on motion of Elbridge Gerry, Congress passed a resolu lution to erect buildings for Congress on the Potomac or Delaware River, provided a suitable district could be procured on either of those rivers for a Federal City. In April succeeding, this resolution was modified by providing for the erection of buildings in both localities, which was finally repealed April 26, 1784. In October of the same year, at Trenton, Congress passed a resolution to select a place not further north than the State of New Jersey, and in subsequent ballot limited the choice, with out final decision, to the States of Maryland and New Jersey, but on the next day appointed a committee to examine a site on the Delaware River in the vicinityr of Trenton, and some days thereafter another committee was authorized to examine and report "ona location at or near the lower falls of the Potomac."

The latter committee, composed of Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, Gustavus Scot, William Cranch, aud White, of Maryland ; William Thornton, of Pennsyl vania, and David Stuart, of Virginia, entered upon the dis charge of its duties, but Congress failed to take final action for some years. The contention between the competing States and cities continued with increased acrimony and provincial sectionalism, which did not subside during the year or two immediately succeeding the adoption, in 1787, by the Constitutional Convention, upon the motion of Mr. Madi son, of Section 8, Article I., giving to Congress the power To exercise exclusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may by cession of partic ular States and acceptance of Congress become the seat of the Gov ernment of the United States.

During the first session of the Congress after the adoption of the Constitution, petitions were presented from cities in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, praying for their selection, and acts were passed by Maryland in December, 1788, Pennsylvania in September, 1789, and Virginia in December, 1789, tendering the cession to the General Gov ernment of districts of ten miles square, with the right of exclusive jurisdiction. During this session Congress carefully considered the importance of selecting a site in the centre of territory, population, and wealth, easy of access to the West, with a convenient communication to the seaboard. The Northern members favored a site on the Susquehanna, and the Southern representatives one on the Delaware or the Potomac. The advantages of New York City, Philadelphia, Germantown, Havre de Grace, Wright's Ferry, Baltimore, and Conogocheague1 were set forth by those seeking their selection.

On September 27, 1789, a bill was passed by both houses of Congress, locating the Capital in a district ten miles square, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, which was finally lost because of the adjournment of the Senate during the pendency of an amendment by the House, and when the next session had assembled at New York the temper of both houses had so changed that Germantown was abandoned. On May 31, 1790, Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, introduced into the Senate a bill to locate the permanent seat of the Government on the River Potomac, between the mouths of the Anacostia and Conogocheague, and providing for the temporary seat at Philadelphia until its removal to this city in 1800. It passed the Senate without any recorded discus sion. Various efforts were made to delay the removal from New York to Philadelphia, and to keep the Capital iu New York, either for the entire or a part of the period, before the date fixed for its permanent establishment in this city; but all such propositions failed.

As soon as the Senate bill 1 Pronounced C'onnigojigg. ■2-1 reached the House the opposition assumed such a threaten ing aspect that some of its supporters feared the selection of the Potomac River site might endanger the union of the States. The opponents were, however, not united upon any common basis of contention. Some favored " Baltimore Town," others a more northern location; others, with more vehement wrath, were hostile to any Southern site, because of the danger to the health of the Northern members of Con gress; and others, more determined and angry, contended that no selection should be made prior to the passage of the Assumption Bill, then pending. At this juncture it is noted that Hamilton and Jefferson united their efforts, and by a skilful stroke of "practical politics" a bargain was struck, and completed over a dinner " with punch and Madeira," by which the act " for establishing the temporary and per manent seat of Government of the United States" was passed by the small majority of three in the House and two in the Senate, which was approved by Washington, July 16, 1790.

The State of Pennsylvania, which was embittered by the failure of the Germantown site, was mollified by the provisions of the fifth section of the act, which Enacted, That prior to the first Monday in December next all officers attached to the seat of Government of the United States shall be removed to, and until said first Monday in December, in the year one thousand eight hundred, shall remain at the City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, at which place the session of Congress next ensuing to the present shall be held. The vote on the passage of the bill by the Senate was : Yeas : Bassett, Butler, Carroli, Elmer, Gunn, Hawkins, Henry, Johnston, Langdon, Lee, Maclay, Morris, Read, and Walker — 14. Nays: Dalton, Ellsworth, Few, Foster, Johnson, Izard, King, Pat terson, Schuyler, Stanton, Strong, and Wingate — 12.

In the House the following four amendments were offered: 1. To substitute the Delaware instead of the Potomac. Ayes, 22; Nays, 39. 2. To locate it in the State of Pennsylvania, including German town. Ayes, 22 ; Nays, 39. 3. To locate it between the Susquehanna and the Potomac. Ayes, 25 ; Nays, 36. 4. To locate in the State of Maryland, including Baltimore. Ayes, 26 ; Nays, 34. On the final passage of the bill as passed by the Senate the vote was as follows : Ayes : John B. Ashe, Baldwin, Bloodworth, Brown, Cadwalader, Carroll, Clymer, Coles, Contee, Fitzsimmons, Gale, Griffin, Hartley, Heister, Jackson, B. B. Lee, Madison, Matthews, Moore, Muhlenberg, Page, Parker, Scott, Sevier, Sinnickson, Steele, M. J. Stone, Sumpter, Vining, White, Williamson, and Wynkoop — 32. Nays : Fisher Ames, Benson, Boudinot, Burke, Floyd, Foster, Gerry, Gilman, Goodhue, Grout, Hathorn, Hnuntington, Lawrence, Leonard, Livermore, Partridge, Van Rensselear, Schureman, Sedg wick, Seney, Sherman, Silvester, Smith, of Maryland; Smith, of South Carolina ; Sturges, Thatcher, Trumbull, Thos. T. Tucker, and Wadsworth— 29.

This act authorized President Washington to select "a territory or district, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on ' the River Potomac,' at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Conogocheague," and provided also for its execution with energy and dispatch. The mouth of the Conogocheague is eighty miles north of the mouth of the Eastern Branch, yet it does not appear that Washington at any time contemplated the selection of any other but the site on which the city now stands, for on Jan uary 22, 1791, he issued letters patent, appointing Thomas Johnson and Daniel Carroll, of Maryland, and David Stuart, of Virginia, commissioners under the act of July 16, 1790, for surveying the district accepted in pursuance of the powers invested in him by said act, and " for performing such other offices as by law are directed."

By proclamation, issued two days later, " in pursuance of the powers to me (him) confided, and after dulyr exercising and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the several situations within the limits aforesaid," he directed the commissioners " to proceed forth with to run the said lines of experiment," which, in the same proclamation he directed should begin at a point on Hunting Creek, to be determined by a line " running from the Court House of Alexandria, in Virginia, due southwest half a mile, and thence a due southeast course till it shall strike Hunting Creek." From this point the first of the four lines of ex periment should run "due northwest ten miles; thence the second line into Maryland due northeast ten miles; thence the third due southeast ten miles, and thence the fourth line due southwest ten miles, to the beginning on Hunting Creek, and the same being run, to survey, and by proper metes and bounds to define and limit the part within the same which is hereinbefore directed for immediate location and acceptance, and thereof to make due report to him."

It is a curious, but as yet an unexplained circumstance, that Washington, who must have been familiar with the topog raphy of the region of country, because of its proximity to Mount Vernon, and over which he had so frequently passed in going to and from Alexandria, should have fixed the point of beginning of the survey ten or twelve miles lower down the Potomac than the mouth of the Anacostia River, which was the lowest point on the Potomac River fixed by the act establishing the seat of the Government, and directing the commissioners " to purchase or accept such quantity of laud on the eastern side of said river (Potomac) within the said district (between the mouth of the Anacostia and Conogo cheague Rivers), as the President shall deem proper for the use of the United States, and according to such plan as the President shall approve."

By so doing Washington violated several provisions of the Act of July 16, 1790, defining the location to be selected, as is clearly shown by the act of March 3, 1791 (approved thirty-eight days after the issuance of the proclamation directing the survey), amendatory of the "act establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States," as follows : That so much of the act entitled, An Act for establishing the tem porary and permanent seat of Government of the United States, as requires that the whole of the district or territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on the River Potomac for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States, shall be located above the mouth of the Eastern Branch, be, and the same is hereby, repealed, and that it shall be lawful for the President to make any part of said territory below the said limit and above the mouth of Hunting Creek a part of said district, so as to include a convenient part of the Eastern Branch, and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof, and also the town of Alexandria; and the territory so included shall form a part of the district, not exceeding ten miles square, for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States, in like manner and to all intents and purposes as if the same had been within the province of the above recited act ; Provided, that nothing herein contained shall authorize the erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the River Potomac, as requird by the aforesaid act.

It is thus distinctly set forth, the act of Washington to the contrary notwithstanding, that Congress did not, in the original act, contemplate the location of any part of the ten miles square on the west or Virginia side of the River Potomac, and, although it approved the four experimental lines of survey, it very specifically prohibited the erection of any public buildings on the west, or Virginia side of the river, and declared that such interdiction was in accordance with the act of July 16, 1790. It is not easy to reconcile the illegal act of Washington with his character, reputation, and purity of motive; but popular rumor and tradition credit him with the desire to include within the ten miles square the Arlington estate, the selection of Shooter's hill, overlooking Alexandria, for the site of the Capitol buildiug, and the securement of the grant of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars by Virginia in the act ceding a part of her territory for the seat of Government, approved December 3, 1789.

In addition, he may have been influenced by other and personal considerations. The original charter of Alexandria, grant ing jurisdiction over only six half -acre lots, and its municipal government were organized in July, 1749. In 1763, Washington was elected one of the board of trustees. Mr. Leo P. Barlow, in a communication to the Evening Star of Jan uary 3, 1897, is authority for the statement that at that time Washington was a familiar figure on the streets of the town, and " legends cluster about the old City Hotel and Braddock House, where he spent a great deal of his time." It was in the latter that He received his first commission as a regular officer in the British Army. Early in April, 1755, Gen. Braddock and Admiral Keppel held a conference with the executive representatives of various col onies concerning plans for the proposed hostilities of the English against the French and Indian allies along the Ohio and St. Lawrence Rivers.

To meet this honorable council and give them the benefit of his knowledge of Indian warfare, Washington, then a Major in the Vir ginia militia, was summoned from Mount Vernon. Despite the marked impression made upon the council as a body by the young soldier's wise and moderate opinions, Braddock declined to act upon Wash ington's advice as to the best method of dealing with the Indians, and the expedition against Fort Duquesne, from which Washington did not withhold his own services as an aid on the commander's staff, setting forth within the ensuing week, inaugurated the disastrous cam paign which ended shortly in the fierce battle of the Monongahela, when Braddock fell and was buried near the field. To the old Market Court, where the politics of Colonial days were discussed, Washington was a regular visitor.

The wisdom of including a portion of the territory west of the Potomac River was never generally accepted, and Congress, in 1846, retroceded it to Virginia. As originally laid out, the ten miles square was involved in complex jurisdiction. By the act of Virginia, December 3, 1789, the laws of that State were continued in operation over the ceded ter ritory, and by the act of Congress of Julyr 16, 1790, it was provided, ' ' That the operation of the laws of the State " (meaning the State of Maryland, in which is located the ter ritory not exceeding ten miles square), " within said district shall not be affected by this acceptance until the time fixed for the removal of the Government thereto (1800), and until Congress shall otherwise by law direct." So that each part separated by the River Potomac was under the jurisdiction of the laws of the State from which it had been detached and at the same time under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress.

Many of the laws of Maryland remain in force at the pres ent time, Congress having failed to provide a code for its government, notwithstanding the frequent efforts to secure such legislation. The President must, however, be credited with the sagacity to have apprehended that the inclusion of a part of the ter ritory of Virginia would remove the danger of the close proximity to the city of just such riotous and lawless settle ments as Jackson City and Roslyn, situated on the west side of the Potomac and under the jurisdiction of the State of Virginia. It is not surprising that Washington should have desired to include the Arlington estate within the domain of the Federal Territory. It is, altogether, the most beautiful, picturesque, and prospective suburb of the city, overlooking the entire area of the present Federal City and a great part of the Federal Territory.

There were, also, family associations which may have inspired the wish to include the estate in the district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the government he had established and loved so dearly. It was the property of George AVashington Parke Custis, his grandson by mar riage. The limits of the district or territory having been fixed by the amendatory act of March 3, 1791, and the metes and bounds having been finally determined by the survey of the commissioners, in pursuance of instructions set forth in the proclamation of January 24, 1791, preparations were speedily made for the location of the city and acquisition of the property upon which it was to be laid off. It appears clearly established that Washington named the exact locality and defined the boundaries of the city. " When encamped with Braddock' s army on Observatory, then known as Camp Hill,1 he had noted the beauty of the broad plateau on which the Capitol now stands, and at a subsequent period had ob served the site from the opposite hills of Virginia, and " marked the breadth of the picture, and the strong colors in the ground and the environing wall of wooded heights, which rolled back against the sky, as if to enclose a noble area of landscape, fit for the supreme deliberations of a continental nation."

At a later time he had explored " the entire course of the Potomac, from mountains to tidewater." He recognized the advantages of a site at the " junction of inland and tide navigation." Georgetown and Alexandria were rival and hostile claimants, each possessing imposing surroundings suitable for sites for public buildings. He had passed through a part of the site on his march with Braddock' s army, and around or through the site on his journey, April 17, 1789, to New York to be inaugurated, as he had returned by the same route from Baltimore, March 28, 1791, to Georgetown to confer with the commissioners and to define the metes and bounds. If final acts are conclusive of pre-determined opin ion, Washington had as clearly settled in his own mind the exact site of the city within the ten miles square as he had definitely fixed the location of "The Ten Miles Square" when he approved the act of July 16, 1790.

As soon as seems to have been possible, after the passage of the amend atory act of Congress, approving the experimental survey, 1 Tradition has it that the expedition of Braddock against the French and Indians landed at the foot of the hill, and a rock at the river side was for. years known as Braddock's Rock, and was pointed out as the place of landing. It is also said that during the Revolution Observation Hill was used as a camp ground by the American troops. The fact that in the early part of the century the ruins of a fort could be seen there tends to sustain this assertion. Little outside of tradition sustains the Braddock story. Though there is some question as to the designation of "Camp Hill " having been a proper one at the commencement of the century, there is none as to after years.

During the war of 1812 not only the District troops, but detach ments from Maryland and Virginia, and United States troops, used the hill as a camp ground " Camp Hill," therefore, became the name, and though the observa tory was here located, for nearly half a century many old Washington families still called the location " Camp Hill."— Anonymous contribution to Evening Star, October 8, 1897. Washington prospected in person (March 29, 1791) the site he had chosen, which included the flourishing settlements of Carrollsburgh and Hamburgh,1 the former at the junction of the Anacostia with the Potomac, and the latter farther west beyond the mouth of Tiber Creek, and the lands of the pros perous farmers, who, during the afternoon of the same day, agreed to sell their lands. These lands, tilled by slaves, were owned by farmers of English and Scottish descent, and were divided into fields cultivated in wheat, corn, and tobacco.

It is stated by one that he rode over, and by another that he walked over, the area, and during this tour of inspection he was " vexed by the importunities of anxious residents and grasping speculators." His judgment was, however, too firmly fixed to be swayed by any influence that may have been attempted to promote individual and community inter ests. It does not appear that the commissioners and survey ors,2 who accompanied him on his tour of examination, had previously taken any steps to mark the site for the city. During the evening of the same day he entered into the following agreement with the land-owners, which was attested on March 30, 1791, by their signatures in the presence of witnesses : We, the subscribers, in consideration of the good 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 U. S. 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 in 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 any public improvements or other public uses, and the lots only which shall be laid off shall be 1 I have followed the original land proprietors and Washington in spelling Car rolsburgh and Hamburgh with the terminal letter h. 2 Faehtz and Pratt make the statement that "this was the first occasion on which the names of the two engineers appear on the records." joint property between the trustees on behalf of the public, 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 compensation, 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 taken shall receive at the rate of £25' per acre, to be paid by the public.