Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-11


town exposition with peculiar pleasure: Its
| relations to Virginia have always been
close and friendly, and it is grateful for
all that Virginians have done for 1t since
the beginning. 1t desires the success Of the
jamestown exposition, as of every other
Virginia enterprise. and rejoices in every
indication of the prosperity and greatness
] of the Old Dominion.
| The founder of jamestown was also the
| discoverer of what is now the site of the
national capital. A year after the settle
ment which this exposition commentaries
| Capt. John Smith, in June, zoos. went up
| the Potomac in small boat as far as the
Little Falls, the head of navigation. Capt
| Smith and his fourteen companions, de-
sCribcd "a physician, six gentlemen and
seven la borers," landed where Washington
| now stands, and were Hospitality received
| by the native residents, Indians belonging
| to the ManahoacS and the Monacans.
But no settlement was made until long
afterward. One of the oldest patents is
| that to William Langworthy. dated July
| 3 1851, under which afterward David
Burns, one of the nineteen original pro-
| pretors of the site of the federal city, held
| great tract of land which included the
present White House park. 1t was not until
June. 1151, that the province of Maryland
| granted the incorporation of the town of
Georgetown. named in honor of George III,
then king of Great Britain. although there
had been small settlement there, and
smaller settlements. practically fishing vii
lagos. along the shores of the Potomac and
the Anacostia, then navigable above Bla-
denSburg.
Washington's Idea.
When. in 1890. the work of preparing the
city of Washington for the federal govern
| ment began, its site, covered with ancient
| forests, looked practically as 1t did when
! Capt John Smith came to visit it, al
| though Georgetown had grown to a popula-
| ton of 2,OOO somewhat smaller than the
population of Alexandria. which was at the
extreme southern end of the new federal
district, in the portion which had been
| ceded by Virginia.
The national capital was George Washing
| tons idea and George Washipgton's work,
| the last important thing that he did. When
| Congress was frightened away from Phil
adelphia in 1873 by the riotous revolution
| airy soldiers, who had not been fully paid
| for their service, George Washington saw
! that the national government ought to have
| a home of its own which 1t could entirely
control, and, therefore, when the federal
! Constitution was adopted, provision was
made In it for federal district to be coded
| by a state or states to the United States,
| over which Congress was to exercise eX-
elusive legislation in all cases whatsoever,
| to use the quaint old phrase. The strife IN
Congress over the selection OF site was
| long and at times bitter, and suggested to
| some that the new Union might break in
| two the question of its capital. AT
| last IhOnaS JEFFERSON ana AltSduueT I1dIl-
| i1ton settled the matter at JefersonS din
ner table by agreeing that the south should
| have the federal district and the north
! should have the adoption of Hamiltons
| measure. making the revolutionary debts
of the states part of the debt of the nation.
| The Potomac, rather than the Hudson, the
| Delaware or the Susquehanna, was selected,
! and then Congress commissioned George
Washington TO choose the particular site
| and plan the capital. The range of choice
| was a hundred miles from Williamsport, in
Maryland, to the Anacostia river
Meeting Place Of Tribes.
! George Washington chose the site of the
federal city, at the junction of the Anacos-
tia and the Potomac, in the beautiful am
phtheater which had been the meeting
place of the Indian tribes of the north and
| the south He chose this site not only with
| the eye of the surveyor. but with the eye
| of the seer. who saw what other men did
| not see OF the future greatness and the
glory of the republic. Most of the other
| statesmen here and in Europe looked upon
| the experiment Of the thirteen states
stretching in a thin line down the Atlantic
| coast as a doubtful one. The Constitution
| was only year old when George Wash
| ington began to lay out the federal city,
! and the states had not become cemented to-
| gether in the habit of. union.
| Washingtons plan for the city which
| Congress inevitably called by his name was
! his prediction writ large that the union
| would become more and more perfect and
| would last forever. In the future he saw
the great republic crossing the Alleghenies
and the Rockies and taking its flag to
| the uttermoSt parts of the earth. Most men
| had less imagination ard less faith, and
| they could only see that day of small
things. For many years afterward home
| and foreign wits joked about 1.-The city of
ma gnficent distances which seemed en-
tirely out of proportion to the needs Of the
young nation.
Like other men of faith and courage
Washington had to wait long time for the
vindication of his idea, but 1t has come at
last, and with 1t appreciation of the perfec-
ton of his plan.
The commission of experts appointed as
an outgrowth Of the national capital CEN
tennial of 1900 to recommend plans for the
| Identification of the national capital, with
all the knowledge of the twentieth century
| at their disposal. and after visiting all the
| capitals of western Europe, pronounced
! WashingtOn's plans the best possible and
did nothing new except to apply their prn-
| ciples to the territory of the District of
| Columbia outside of the city of Washing
ton. Washington utilized the technical skill
of l. Enfant and Ellicott in putting his plan
on paper. But 1t was pre-eminently the
| work of a statesman. far-seeing and great
hearted, rather than of an engineer.
Had Washington Lived.
1t is interesting to imagine what the ma.
tional capital might have become If Wash
| ington had lived to promote its develop
ment. Unfortunately, he died in 1885, the
year before the national government came
under President Adams from PHILADELPHIA
to Washington. He had done all that could
he done up TO that time in planning the
federal city with its unparalleled avenues
streets and parks, in acquiring practically
free or cost to the national government
over one-half of the land of the federal
city upon the argument Of the nineteen
original proprietors that what they kept
would be greatly Increased in value. and
providing. with money derived from tho
sale OF part of the government lots and
loans made by Virginia and Maryland. the
Presidents house, the Congress house and
other buildings for the national government
President Jefferson, the first President TO
be lnaugurated in Washington, in the sim
pie ceremony of the 4th of March, 1901 had
helped Washington with the plans of Euro
pean cities which he had brought from
abroad. and with his advice, and took a