The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-03

Washington. July 1.-THE District of
Columbia is about to do tardy justice
to the man who planned the Capital
of the United States. He was Peter
Charles LEnfant, born in France in
1775. A young lieutenant in the
French provincial forces, he was early
drawn to these Western shores by the
promise of a new land, and offered his
services to the Revolutionary army as
an engineer. He was appointed cap
tain of engineers by Gen. Washing
ton in ITS. and not long after-hav-
ing been wounded at the siege of Sa-
vannah-was promoted to major of en-
gineers and thenceforth served near
the person of Washington.
In this then crude land, where every
artisan had to be imported from for
eign shores, there was no man at the
time who possessed anything like so
much art culture and genius in his
line as L'Enfant; therefore it was nat
ural that Washington, who knew him
so well, should call upon him to de-
sign the new capital He put his heart
into the work and the result is THE
City of Magnificent Distances" and
from the beginning of magnificent in
tentions-which have not yet been re-
allied.
The mills of the gods grind slowly,
and it really looks as if Congress, with
it's recent most liberal appropriations
for public buildings, would at last
carry out the original plans.
1t seems that in L'Enfant's day, as
now, there were professional jealousies,
and our early Presidents, in spite of
rampant patriotism, worked at cross
purposes and thwarted each others
plans like the lesser lights of to-day.
The first public communication extant
concerning the laying out of Wash
ington is from the pen of the man
after whom the city was named, dated
March II, 1891. Gen. Washington call
ed it 1.-The Federal City" BY his di-
rection Jefferson addressed Maj Len
FAINT as follows: You are desired to
proceed to Georgetown. where you will
find Mr.. Ellicott employed in making
a survey and map of the federal ter
ritory. The special object of asking
your aid is to have the drawings of
the particular grounds most likely to
be approved for the site of the federal
buildings" Thomas Jefferson insisted
upon the chess board square and an
giles of Philadelphia, and L'Enfant
used them under protest for the base
of the new city; but his artistic genius
avenged itself for this outrage on its
taste by traversng them with sixteen
magnificent avenues, radiating from
the Capitol like spokes from the hub
of a wheel. which from that day to
this has proved alike the glory and
the confusion of the city French in
stinct diamonded the squares Of Phila-
delphia with the broad eorsos Of Ver-
sailles, as Maj. L'Enfant's map said.
ito preserve through the whole reci-
procity of sight at the same time" The
result is innumerable parks and small
public breathing places" in addition
to the many larger squares
Two months after the publication OF
those magnificent designs for pros
perity Maj. L'Enfant was dismissed
from his exhalted place. He wNs a
Frenchman and a genius. The patrons
of the new capital were not geniuses,
and not "mercurial Frenchmen.' rea-
sons sufficient why they should not
get on in peace together. The COM
missioners of the day were provincial,
and limited in their ideas of art and
expenditure: while L'Enfant was met
ropolitan, splendid and willful, in his
WAYS as well as in his designs. His
dismissal was thus announced by
jefferson in a letter to one of the COM
missioners: at having bee found inn
practicable to employ Mai. L'Enfant
al ut the federal city in that degree
Of subordination which was lawful and
proper, he has been notified that his
services are at an end. II is now