The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1904-08-12

and, indeed, On more Lual QUE OCCaSlOu
he was honored with the old phioso-
pher's attentions At the University
of Pennsylvania he was received by
Provost Ewing and the particular
marks of respect; he attended meet
ing of the Philosophical Society, at
which he heard Franklin read paper
on navigation, and his reputation as
man OF science at this time seems to
have been sufficient to attract the at
tention of poor John Fitch, who was
then making his experiments in the
Delaware. II am now pestered,' he
said in one of his notes, "by gentle
man by the name of Fitch. He has
the model of machine for working
boats by steam;' but Ellicott appar-
emily, like nearly everybody else in
Philadelphia, had little faith in the
luckless inventor, or at least offered
him no encouragement, although it
was not long afterward that his father
began to make similar experiments
in Maryland.
The public service in which Andrew
Ellicott was then engaged and which
caused him 10 be the special object OF
the attentions of Philadelphia men of
science, was the adjustment of the
boundaries of Pennsylvania and Vir-
ginia, involving the rectification of
the famous Mason and Dixon's line.
In the commission to which this work
was entrusted he represented Virgin
ia, together with DR.. James Madison,
Robert Andrews and John Page,
while Rittenhouse and Ewing, togeth-
er with John Lukens and Thomas
Hutchins, represented Pennsylvania.
His share in the work, which was ard
uous an d prolonged, necessitating
much travel and exploration in the
wilderness of South and West Penn
sylvania and what is now West Vir-
ginia, was performed with such salts
faction to the State which had appoint
ed him that William and Mary Col
lege conferred upon him an honorary
degree. Another of the important
duties with which he was charged by
the general government was the rum
ming of the boundary line between
Pennsylvania and New York, in which
he was assisted by his younger broth
er, Joseph, of Bucks county, and in
the course of which, after encounter
ing many perils and hardships, he sue
ceeded in making the first accurate
mathematical measurement of the Nj
agara river between the lakes and of
the height of the great cataract and
the descent of the rapids. At this
time bis appointment to the office of
Survey yor- General of the Western Ter
ritory and Geographer of the United
States was contemplated and subse-
quently he became Surveyor General
under the administration of Washing
ton. His brother, Joseph, while on
on this expedition, was much impress
ed, as he himself was, with the future
of Lake Erie in the commercial deyel-
opment of the infant republic; he af-
terwards became one of the projectors
of the Erie Canal, having surveyed
and laid out the plans of Buffalo, and
to this day his name is remembered
there as that of founder Of the city.
When the capital Of the United States
was ordered to be removed from Phil
adelphia to the District Of Columbia,
Andrew Ellicott was called upon at
the instance of President Washington
and Thomas Jefferson, as Secretary of
State, to make survey of the new
district in conjunction with Major
L'Enfant. Privately his opinion of
the territory that had been selected
was far from tlattering, although his re-
spect for the President restrained him
from publicly expressing it. "This
country" he wrote to his wife, Gin
tended fol the permanent residence of
Congress, bears to the country about
Philadelphia, Germantown, etc, for
either wealth or fertility, the relation
that a sand hill does to a stall fed OK"
The splendidIy conceived plans Of the
"Federal City," as it was called, had
been drawn by L L'Enfant, but the iras-
chile French engineer, whose conf
dence in his own superior judgment
often led him into his eccentricities of
conduct, together with the interference
of commission with which he and
Ellicott came in conflict, early dis
turbed harmony Of action. The maj
or refused to prepare or produce
map which was essential to the sale of
lots in the projected city, and Wash
ington earnestly labored to reconcile
the parties in DISPUTE. In the course