The Washington times., 1901-09-04

jury of any power beyond the seas, much
| less to the damage of any country be
tween the Atlantic and Pacific. 1t is a
doctrine Of peace and not of war. except
war may sometimes be necessary to
| gain peace, and it can never be rightfully
used except on this basis. To keep the
peace of this continent has always been
| desire of our country.
| Nowhere is the national, or the inter
| national. feeling of the United States of
as in the District of Columbia where the
| representatives and the citizens of all the
Ststes and Territories meet and contrib
| Ite 20 the population: where the Nauona!
Government carries on its operation;
where the President. through the Secre-
| tary of State. conducts the neSotia tions
| respecting its foreign relations with the
ambassadors and ministers of all the 9th
| er Governments who are permanently
resident in Washington. The very pur-
| pose of the founders of the District OF
| Columbia was to max. it national, and
even cosmopolitan-removcd from local
| and provincial feelings and Influences
| and its development has more and more
gratitied their desire
GEORGE WAsHINGToN's FORESIGHT.
"It will be remembered that the far
| seeing genius of George Washington first
| perceived the necessity for such a Capital
He had seen the Revolutionary Capital
and that of the Confederation which fol-
| lowed the Revolution moving about from
| place to place in ephemeral and undigni-
| fed fashion; he had seen the Congress of
the Confedera tion flee from its place in
| Philadelphia in 1888 before the onslaught
| of a mob of the ill-requited soldiers of
! the Revolution. He had determined then
| that the people of the United States need
| ed not only more perfect union. but
more perfect Capital in a Federal district
| which would give it security and sanctity
| it could not have in any place Temporal
rily loaned by one of the States. Other
| men began to see it too. 1t was felt that
| the dignity as well as the safety and,
| therefore. the perpetuity, of the National
| Government that was to come into being
| with the new Constitution demanded that
| it should have seat of its own under
| its own authority, and where it could not
| be encroached upon by any disturbing in
| fuences Accordingly in the Constitution
| OF 1888, provision was made for Federal
| district ten miles square, over which Con-
! gress should have exclusive jurisdiction.
| Then came the consideration in Congress
| of the important question of where the
Federal district should be placed. Natu-
rally. different sections and different
States desired it. 1t was seen that it
could not be given to New England or to
the extreme South, but every State in be
tween considered itself eligible. and most
of them tried to get it. offering in some
cases even their State capitals for the ma
tional use. The contest in Congress over
the selection of place became excited
and at times so bitter that some felt that
th.. breakup of the Union, which all fear
ed as possible before its thin ties could be
made unbreakable, might come over the
placing of the Federal district.
CONGRESS made several tentative Sc
lections and one, in Pennsylvania, that
was apparently definitive. but all were re-
considered and it seemed as though the
controversy might go on indefinitely
ed by which the South got the Federal
district. in consideration of its acquies-
cence in the desire of the North FOR the
assumption by the nation of the Revolu-
tionary debts of the States. II was as
natural 1t was admirable that the
choice of the precise location for the Fed
erai district on the Potomac River, for
one hundred miles from Wiiliamsport
southwark was left to George Washing
ton. who knew the whole region thor
oughly, and was more interested in the
success of the plan than any other man.
for he had not only the eye of the sur
veyor but the eye of the seer. and Sc
lected a site not only with regard to its
beauty. it's convenience, and its adapta-
biiity but to the future of the nation. 1t
was well that he was also entrusted with
the preparation of the Federal City with
in the Federal district. for he laid it out.
with the assistance of Thomas Jefferson,
the leader of the other school OF states
men, and of the surveyors, L'Enfant and
EIlicott. with the eye of faith which saw
the United States of today as no other
man of his time began to see it.
'It is hard TO realize now that no one
States Of century later, bound together
in a Union that cannot be broken, a
mighty nation, spread not only across the
continent but across the seas and whose
future greatness no man can limit. Wash
ington thought with breadth and depth
that distinguished him from the other IA
theirs of this Republic, and nowhere does
this appear more clearly than on the map
of the Federal City. as Washington called
it. although inevitably it was called by
his name by everyone else. and finally by
IL .l,~a@
scope and detail are now admired by the
greatest experts as the best possible for
the purpose, we see Washingtons conf
denco in the future OF the nation which
he had brought into the world.
PLANNED THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
1T is difficult for us to realize how
puny that nation appeared to foreigners:
how weak and unpromising to many of
its own citizens; so that the magnificent
project of Washington foi. the Federal
City seemed to them, alike in its un-
paralleled grandeur and symmetry a
thing for ridicule. The serene Washing (
ton, who faced laughter as he faced /
cannon, did not change his project, which 4
is still the working plan for the city of I
Washington to this day. Washington not |
only selected the site OF the Federal dis !
trict and planned the Federal City but he I
also directed the arrangements under |
which Maryland and Virginia gave to the /
territory for the District of Columbia as /
Congress. called the Federal district in /
memory Of Columbus. and personally /
conducted the negotiations with the nine /
teen owners OF the land. mostly cut up I
into farms, on which the city of Washing !
ton was to be built. He included on the /
Maryland side of the Potomac, in the
larger portion of the District, siXty-nine
out of the one hundred square miles. the !
city Of Georgetown, founded by Scotch /
and English in 175l. and or the Virginia /
side Of the Potomac his own home town
OF Alexandria, both towns then ambitious
and hopeful Of commercial greatness,
which Washington himself sought to
bring to them by the Chesapeake and
ONO Canal, designed to connect the East
with the country beyond the mountains
then called the West. But the Federal
Slty ne placed on the map between Rock
Town, on the west. and the Anacostia
RIVER on the east, with the Potomac as
the southern boundary.
But although the Federal district had
been established and the Federal city had
been laid out on paper. the general ap-
pearance of the farms that stretched
from the low hills in the north Of the dis
trict down to the fishing hamlets on the
shore OF the Potomac. showed very little
change when, in 1850, the National Gov
erument slowly removed from PhiladeI- :
phta to Washington. The Executive Man
sion, which was of the same size but not
lf the same color, as today, and the old
Capitol building, onc-thIrd the size of that
OF TO-DAY. were the only important new
structures, although buildings for the
small executive departments of that time
had been constructed and a number Of
iwelling houses with few small hotels
ana boarding-houscs. Pennsylvania Ave
nue. was rather plainly marked as a road
Hl