Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-04-27


II must have been with genuine pleas.
uro that President Washington came
down 20 Georgetown and issued, March
30. 1871, his orders To the commissioners
who had been chosen to survey the Fed
eral city. Maryland ccded her pari of
tho ten miles square, according to her
agreement, but tho land owners were
not 80 easily disposed Of. There were
only three or four Of them. but they
proved to be very stubborn and greedy.
In those days the method of condcmna-
ton Of private property for public use
was not as well understood as IL now Is,
and when the commissioners got into
trouble with the famous Davy Burns
they asked the president TO come and
help them out. Even Washington was
at first unable 10 do anything with
the obstinate Scotchman, who lid not
want capital at his front door. and
didn't care whether the seat Of govern
mcnt came to the Potomac or went 10
tho Assiniboinc. Washington wrcstled
with him for several days, and IL Is said
that on one occasion Burns turned on the
father OF his country and said TO him:
"You talk very fine, Mr. Washington,
and probably expect people 10 believe all
you say, but what would you have been
IT, you hadn't married the Widow Custis?"
A few moro interviews with testy
Davy exhausted Washington's pa
tience, and he finally informed Davy
Burns that tho government want
cd his land and intended getting
IL In ono way or another. Burns there
upon came 10 terms, and transferred his
six hundred acres, which he did not like
to see spoiled for u good farm 10 make
poor capital, OH the same terms that had
been made with the other owners of the
sitc-the government to have one lot
and the original owner one alternately.
Burns stipulated that his cottage must
not be intcrfcred with i'm the laying out
of the city, and as this condition was
agreed TO 10y Washington, Davy Burns
cottage still stands. one of the historical
curiosities of the capital. Nearly all Of
these negotiations were carried on by
Washington in person Among the
estates thus broken up and merged
in the Federal city. as Washing
ton always called the place, was one
which had come down TO the heirs of
Francis Pope, who settled here in 1868.
Among the older residents of the city
one often hears tradition spoken of
that Pope designed the starting of
small town on his property, which he
called Rome, and spoke of himself as
the popc of Rome. The high ground on
which his residence was built he called
Capitoline hill, In true Roman fashion,
and it was an odd coincidence that the
Capitoline hill of this pioneers fancy
should become the Capitol Hill of actual
ity moro than a century after his death.
Another local tradition is that two other
before congress adopted it as II seat of
government, one being called Carrolls-
burg and the other Hamburg, but nei-
ther making progress beyond the first
paper survey.
Throughout his eight years in the
presidential chair Washington continued
10 cvince lively interest i'm the Federal
city. The new capital was named Wash
ington by the commissioners without the
presidents knowledge, but with the com.
mon consent Of congress and people. 1t
was Washington who employed Mai
LEnfant, the French genius who planned
the city not for one century but for thou
sands of years, and who planned wiser
and better than anybody in his lifetime
was willing to give him credit for. The
chief men of that day were provincial,
colonial and narrow i'm their ideas of art
and expenditure. They had been reared
for tho most part in the practice of the
strictest private economy, and all
through the revolution and afterward
had not known what it was to manage
the affairs Of "A government with a sur
plus of millions in its vaults. Indeed,
the government had TO borrow money
from the state of Maryland to carry on
its building operations, and 80 low was
the republics credit that Maryland de-
cIined to make the loan till the capital
commissioners pledged their private for
tunes To its repayment LEniaut, on
the other hand was metropolitan, grand
in his ideas, and of course the commits.
sioners and everybody else were unable
to appreciate him and his work. and
rs he was of pcrverso dis
position, rs Ecniuscs have n right
to be, il WAS not long before
he had become involved in quarrcls with
nearly everybody, in the city. Even
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