The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-13

| District Commissioner Henry ". F.
Macfarland delivered the second address
OF the Centennial Day exercises al the
White House yesterday morning, his SUBJ
ject being Development of the District
Of Columbia During the Century 1900
| 1900" Mr. Mcfarland said:
"One hundred years ago the District OF
Columbia became the permanent seat of
the Government of the United States. For
the first time the young nation had Cap
| itai. after twenty-four years of wandering
from one State to another. Moved by the
attack OF the mob of soldiers on Congress
in Philadelphia in 1888. the makers Of the
new Government had written In the Fed
eral Constitution that the nation should
have its own Capital, in Federal district
to be coded to the exclusive control Of
Congress. 1t is the only provision for an
independent capital ever made by any ma
ton. The then North and South had con-
tended for the honor Of providing this
Federal district until threats of secession
were occasionally heard, and it seemed to
some that there might soon come to be no
need for National Capital. States offered
cities and even capitals, and their Repre-
sentatives in Congress fought over these
offers. at last, with a characteristic COM
promise, the fathers provided that the
Federal district should be given to the
South, while the North should be given its
desire in the assumption by the nation Of
the Revolutionary Indebtedness Of the
States. Nothing could have been more for
tunate than this decision, unless it be the
determination to leave to George Wash
ington the selection of the site for the new
Capital, and the direction Of its prepara-
tion.
His own State of Virginia had offered
ten miles square. The State of Maryland
had done the same. and under the author
ity of Congress Washington had 10G miles
of the Potomac. from Williamsport in Ma
ryland to the Eastern Branch, where to
choose. Washington chose with the eye of
a surveyor the best site available under
the circumstances, and then laid it out
with the eye CT a seer. All that he saw
could not come true The Federal District
could not contain the greatest CONNER
cial emporium of the United States,
which he hoped for here, believing that the
promoted. would, as its name suggested,
with the Potomac connect the then East
and West by the most practicable route to
the sea. Nor could 1t contain the national
university which was so dear to Washing
toms heart that he richly remembered it
in his will, though it was to become a
roofiess university. But Washington saw
clearly what few other men could see,
that the young and small but not feeble
and md rptyl hp-
came the greatest of all nations. While
men were still doubling whether it would
last long as a nation George Washington
was planning, with the assistance of
Thomas Jefferson and L'Enfant and Eli
cott n National Canital for all time, city
of magnificent proportions. greauar and
better in design than any other in the
world No other city has ever been laid
out on such a scale or in such style. Even
Washington's reputation for common sense
did not save it from being called vision
airy scheme. For more than half CEN
fury home and foreign wits TESTED at 1T as
it lay undeveloped, half village, half capi-
tai through neglect of the General Gov
eminent.
Selection of the site.
Although it was south Of Mason end
Dixon's line, it was almost in the centre OF
the narrow Union of 1900. as it stretched
along the Atlantic coast, but after the ex-
pansion of it's domains begun under Wash
ington, three years later, under Jefferson.
crossed the Mississippi, suggestions of the
removal of the Capital west of the Allie
ghenies began, and continued in what
seemed an entirely natural way to the
statesmen meeting in the then Washing
ton. until railroad and telegraph, making
communication so much quicker, deprived
the advocates of removal Of their chief ar
gument.
THE Federal City, as Washington called
il. the City OF Washington, as the Con-
missioners and Congress inevitably called
it, is Washington's prediction that the
nation would live for centuries and would
grow to the full need of such capital
1t is most appropriate that we begin
this celebration almost under the shadow
Of the Washington Monument, that
unique structure which practically marks
the centre of the original District of Co
Iumbia. and in the Presidents House.
which SO interested Washington. and is
the only public building completed in
1900 that is still standing. For while
Congress. in the preliminary legislation.
provided only for Federal District.
Though it afterward ratified the prepa-
Washington, the city. named for him. |
has always been more prominent than |
the District in the worlds eye, and now |
that they are SO nearly cotermin0us, The |
capital will be more and more known by !
it's great founders name, not, however,
as Washington city, but as the City of I
Washington.
1T is interesting to read. in the official |
and unofficial documents of the part |
hi or wifi n <
airy energy, thoroushness and patience. |
in all the details of the founding Of the |
Federal District and OF the Federal City |
1t was he, personally. who made the bar |
gain with the nineteen original proprie
tors. advantageous to them. but much |
more so to the Government. and who
finally brought even the refractory David |
Burns TO terms. 1t was he personally. |
who directed the Commissioners and the |
as they laid out the streets !
and built buildings. and who mediated I
between them when they quarreled. 1t
was the browning work of his life. and |
nothing that he did, except the
Jersey campaign that saved the Reyolu-
ton, and the making of the Constitu-
ton that saved the nation. interested or
pleased him more. 1t must have grieved
him that he could not live to see the
actual establishment of the National Gov
in the city that had been named
for him. He died in December, and, I'M
der the act of Congress passed ten years
before. the National Government began
It's removal from Philadelphia in May By
July the six executive departments of |
hat day were all in full working order
here By November President Adams.
after visit of inspection in Junc--was
this house. and Congress was
N session preparatory to the regular
having adjourned in August until Febru-
Try, did not meet here in 1900. But