The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-10

the D. A. R.
 There is a bill pending in Congres.
 which is calling forth great opposition
 and a vigorous protest from the Mary
 Washington Chapter. D. A. R., of tho District of Columbia. If the bill passes
 a number of noted historic houses ana famous dwellings in Washington will bt
 torn down to make way for a great building for the use of the Departments of State, Justice, Commerce and Labor Many well informed and practical mer | admit the need for the building but if located, where it is planned, every house
 of historic interest within half a mile
 of the White House will be destroyed. II
 the number is the Blair mansion-a fine
 old house-on one of the earliest maps
 of the city-in 1926, and very nearly as old as the White House. Francis Blair | owned and lived in it when editor of the l "Globe'-the organ of Gen. Jackson's ad- ministration.
 George Bancroft, the historian, lived in | it while Secretary of the Navy under President Polk, and Thomas Ewing, | also Secretary of the Treasury and the Interior during Tyler's administration. General sherman was married in this house and here also General Robert E. Lee was notified that President Lincoln wished him to assume command of the United States Army at the opening of the Civil War. On the same block are the residences of Mrs. Reed, sister of Admiral Dahlgreen of the United States Navy; Mrs. Blair, widow of James L. Blair of U. S. Navy; Mrs. Morris, widow of late Captain Morris, U. S. N, who commanded the frigate Columbia in the fight with the Merrimac; in the block Is the Beale house, which was many years ago the home of the famous naval com m haH al lived Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren and Livingston, when each was Secretary of State. Not far away are other noted houses which will probably be torn down, the Corcoran house, once the home of the great philanthropist Sena-. tor Depew lives here; it was once the home of Daniel Webster, when Secre- tary of State under Fillmore; also of John Randolph of Roanoke;" here in the lovely flower garden it is told that Sir Bulwer Lytton wrote his poem Lu- ellie. Across the avenue is the famous Dolly Madison house. now occupied by the Cosmos Club 1t was used as mili- tary headquarters by General McClel Ian during the war. If the proposed plan is carried out a great many houses of historical value and interest will be en- tirely destroyed and from $13,00O,O 900 to $15,00O,0OO will be. spent in the project to beautify Washington still more, or, at least it will cost this sum to buy the real estate on which to locate the build ings, which it Is claimed are needed for government purposes 1t is estimated that the cost of the whole plan will be be- tween $100 100000 and $200000.000 The opinion of some is, that, If the govern ment was not bound to dig the Panama canal and was not committed to a great navy which in time is to have a steady fighting force of forty-nine battleships and twenty-four armored cruisers, the plan might be considered seriously' The original plan of the city of Wash- ington was made by Major L'Enfant, and approved by President Washington, and 1t was never contemplated that the erty which Senator Fairbanks's bill pro- poses.
 In addition to what Jefferson wrote the commissioners of Washingtons opin- ion in 1792, Washington himself wrote Commissioner Thornton June 1, 1799: Tt has always been my invariable opinion and remains still to be so, that no de- parture from the engraved plan of the city ought to be allowed" One of the objects of the society Daughters of the American Revolution" is the ''preserva- ton and protection" of places of historic interest, and the patriotic members of the Mary Washington Chapter are standing up for their convictions in their resolutions of disapprovaI of and protest against Senator Fairbanks's bill and they quote from one, than whom a nobler, greater, wiser or more patriotic American ever lived-the immortal Washington