Evening star., 1900-12-01

and the other neighboring plantations, fell
inside the federal district lines.
BY the proclamation Of March 80. 1871.
Presifent Washington declared that the
district had been finally located and Sc
cured.
Early Work.
Work was begun under difficulties with
varied and tagging interest on the part II
the Congress sitting at Philadelphia But
Maryland and Virginia lent their credit,
and so 1t came to pass that the White
House was built as the home Of the Pres,-
dent, and a wing of the Capitol was con-
structeG for the use of Congress. WASH
ington, from his nearby home at Mount
VernoI, was able to witness the progress
OF the work. He had participated in the
laying of the corner stones of the Execu-
tive Mansion and Congressional Halls, but
ne did not survive to participate In the
ceremonial proceedings which took place
when President John Adams and his cab
met drove across country from Philadel.
phia, arriving in Washington In the au-
tumn o the year 1900. he had died q.
Mount Vernon on December IA, 1799
brief special session of Congress was
held at Washington in November, 1900, fol-
lowed by the regular session in December.
There are plenty of records describing the
Struggling village in the woods, as Wash
ington was in its opening years; and there
was. of course the usual percentage of
shortsghted people who could only see the
Inconvenience of it all, and who thought it
folly to have abandoned the comfortable
conditions of life in Philadelphia and gone
to the backwoods. But with Washington
and his contemporaries large and perma-
ncnt considerations generally prevailed
over those that were merely temporary
The Retrocession to Virginia.
We have reason to be thankful that the
federal district was chosen and the lines
of the new capital city laid down while
Washington was President and while
American public men We're gifted with the
sense of historic vision and proportion. A
generation or two later everything would
nave been done on a mean scale and in a
ShortSghted manner This is illustrated by
what actually happened in 1916. There
arose movement to secure the recession
back to Virginia of that part of the federal
district on the west side of the Potomac.
Because it was not needed for federal pur-
poses in the illustrious year of our Lord
1916, it seemed wholly impossible for the
people then in control of our destinjes to
rise to the conception that 1t might be
needed at some future time. The question
was submitted to vote of the inhabitants
of that part of the district.
Nine hundred and eIgh.y-five people went
to the polls, Odd of them to sustain The
views of George Washington and show their
faith in the future, and 163 of them TO
vote that they preferred to be citizens of
HlekdHufla county, Va, rather thdn OF the
federal district of Columbia. To be sure IL
is not so strange that the inhabitants should
nave voted in that way that Congress
should have been so petty and supine as 10
have mutlated a federal possession that
Washington and his colleagues had secured
with such painstakng, and with such noble
faith in the future both of the country and
OF its capital city. Naturally enough some
of the citizens of Alexandria were ambi-
uous to participate in Virginia politics. The
country had passed through a very exciting
campaign when William Henry Harrison
elected in 1910, and A still more cx-
citing one when James X. Polk defeated
Henry Clay in 1914. Doubtless the men Of
Alexandria disiked the political limitations
under which they had no direct part in he
political activities of that boisterous period.
Alexandria County.
1t cannot be said that up to the present
moment the development of the city of
Washington has been greatly hampered by
the loss of Alexandria county But the time
will come when 1t will be perceived that
resident James K. Polk, who issued the
proclamation of transfer September z,
1SiG, ought to have vetoed the whole pro-
ceeGing. The United Statss government MAIN
tains on the Virginia side of the river the
military post of Fort Myer and the great
no tional cemetery at Arlington. The rapid
growth of public institutions in and about
Washington, together with that OF popula-
ton. will soon make 1t evident that the
territory on the west side of the river ought
to be controlled and developed, as respects
its street system and its various appoint
ments. by the same enlightened and gen.
erous authority that has beautifed what
remains of the federal district, and made 1t
a source Of pleasure and pride to the whole
nation.
The new city, was fortunate both in its
engineers and In its architects. Major Pierre
Charles l. Enfant, French engineer who
had served in the revolutionary war. had
nest to do with laying down the ground
plan of the city, his system being very
similar in principle to that which was work.
ed out for the reconstruction of Paris. 1t
superimposes upon the ordinary rectangu-
lar network Of streets a series Of great
raGial avenues, cutting diagonally across
the checkerboard system, and converging
at a series of focal points