The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-17

Robert Graves Makes the Centennial OF
the Capital the Text of an Interesting
Letter-The One Time Place of streets
a1d No Houses" Now a Magnificent City.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, April 20.-The Capital
City of the American republic is 100 years
old this month. 1t was in April, 1871, that
the corner stone of the District of Colum-
bia, created under the law which located
the capital on the banks of the Potomac,
was laid amid imposing ceremonies. The
corner stone was set at place known as
Jones' point, near the old town of Alexan-
dria, which was George Washington
county town. Poor old Alexandria now
has little but age to recommend it. 1t is
not even in the federal district. Grass
grows luxuriaatly in its quaint old streets,
and its travellers are chiefly those who
come to see the church in which George
Washington had his pew, and the hotel in
which brave young Ellsworth was shot.
1t is a sleepy suburb o. the capital itself
the capital which was planted in the mud
and built in a century to be one of the finest
cities in the world. / want to tell you
something about this Capital City of ours,
in which we all take the interest of joint
proprietorship; but beforssswriting of the
capital as it is after 100 years of growth, let
us, for the sake Of contrast, go back an
even century to that April in 1871 when the
masons and the capital commissioners and
prominent citizens of Virginia and Mary
land picked their way amid the rank grass
and underbrush to Jones' point. They
were in the midst of country which mar
rowly escaped deserving the name wilder
ness. But for nearby Alexandria, mere
hamlet, the village of Georgetown, whose
chimneys could be seen two or three miles
up the Potomac, and half dozen houses
on the Maryland side of the river, there
would have been few if any signs of civil
cation within the range of vision.
But the scene on the opposite side Of the
river must have reused the love of nature
and stirred the prophetic souls of that par
ty. There lay the site of the future CAPT
tai of the new republic. First, next the
waters edge, low plain, partly titled by
Davy Burns and two or three other set
tiers. Back of this succession Of pla-
teams, one rising gently from another. At
the extreme right a noble height, spacious,
level, commanding, surrounded on three
sides by running water. To the south, at
little distance, the broad Potomac. To
the east the Anacostia branch. To the
west rivulet of clear water, running its
way through meadows and pasture lands
Tiber creek. now no more. On the west
ern brow of this Roman hill prophetic eyes
saw a great white Capitol rearing its airy
head toward the skies, supporting at its
greatest height the Goddess of Liberty.
Bending from the Roman hill, far to the
north and west, was to be seen a wooded
height, forming vast semicircle, and in
closing, as in an amphitheater, the plains
and plateau already spoken of, and joining
the Potomac again at Georgetown. There
another silvery stream-Rock creek-came
pouring forth from its rocky glens. This
was the scene which George Washington's
eyes had beheld as he rode his horse along
the old road from Alexandria to George
town, on the opposite side of the rivera
road, still travelled, which now skirts his
toric Arlington estate. 1t was the site
which his practical, comprehensive eye saw
was by nature meant for city's seat.
of congress and the city's foundations
were laid is history, and | cannot stop to
recite history. 1t will suffice to make
passing reference TO the rivalries of the
times, TO the hopes that were borne only
TO perish. There are in this country a
dozen towns and hamlets which once
dreamed of being the federal city Havre
de Grace, Trenton. Germantown, Williams
port, Nd; Kingston, \. Y; Wrightsville,
Pa, are among them. TO this day, no
doubt. their oldest inhabitants will tell you
how rich they would have been had their
fathers dreams been realized. To quote
history again, probably not more than one
half the readers of this letter know that
the contest for the capital finally narrowed !
down TO New York and some indefinite |
place on the Potomac, and that even /
influence might have been |
unable to wreSt the prize from the me-
tropolis had Hamilton not thrown his /
weight on WaShingtOn'S side in exchange |
for southern support for his treasury !
policy.
The state of Virginia, then the most pop !
ulous in the Union-and all Virginia had |
less than one-half as many inhabitants as
the city Of New York has-was a great
power in favor of the Potomac So the |
capital came to this beautiful amphithea- /
ter, environed by the wooded heights that !
stretched four miles from Capitol hill I
TO old Georgetown. Thus was found |
ed the only capital Of first class power in /
the world that was the thought. the per- |
formance of the government itself. We /
might except St. Petersburg. but St. I
was the thought and the per- /
Torrance of the emperor; and even he .
built less for a capital than for "a window /
looking out into Europe"
George Washington himself came down /
here To start the federal city in its career.
de picked his way among the underbrush /
md waded through the mire of cultivated 4
ields; wrangled two days with obstinate
Davy Burns, who did not want his farm
spoiled To make city, and finally CON
,luded an arrangement with the land OWN
RS By which they were to cede about 5 900
lcres to the government, retaining every
alternate lot.
The government also took for its own
lses as n federal reservation about $40
IcreS, and made a great mistake in not re
CRYING more for il is this very week buy
ng in this city the site for a new post
'ffice, originally part of Davy Burns
arm, and paying forit at the rate of about
i've dollars per square foot. or more than
zoo 600 an acre. For its SO acres it paid I
ust century ago only sos &c per acre.
still the government did very well As
ederal real estate speculation the new
apital site turned out u Success The 10
90 lots which fell 10 its share, taking every
'ther lot in the whole tract. brought it,
rom first to last, moro than a million dol
ars.
A hundred years ago It was pretty du-
,ioas whether there world ever Ia. city
lere or not. Daring the irst ten o. fifteen