Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1907-09-19
sHEPHERDsTOWN, Wv THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 49, 1907
Written for the REGISTER.
Was. General washington Wrong


The near completion of the Luth-
eran Church, showing the success of
the architect in making the contour
of the hill on which it is placed rise
up into a majestic, imposing pile, to
command, by its beauty and sYmme-
try, the admiration of those accustomed
to the larger. more costly structures
of the metropolitan cities, suggests
some thoughts on the necessity of hav-
ing elevated, commanding positions
for public buildings and some regrets
about the placing Of our National Capt.
tai and it's marble palaces.
A century ago General Washington
visited all this region to select a site
for the intended Capital City. Shep-
herdstown, then the most thriving
town on the Potomac above Alexan-
dria, urged strenuously its advantages
and claims for the honor. Without
impugning the wisdom Of the great
Father of his country, now that the
position on navigable water is not in
the question, it appears surely that
these romantic hills of the fertile
Shenandoah Valley were far prefer
able to the poor craw6sh lands with
their scant herbage and scrubby pines
down on the tide water another
name for untidY water). Had the
plea of Shepherdstown prevailed, like
Iy the Maryland Hills across the river
would have been chosen for the great
Capitol. Standing on the Norfolk q
Western bridge, looking at gorgeous
sunset, Mr.. E. Il. Miller, the Nestor
of Washington artists (who painted
the deathbed of Lincoln, made so well
known by the engraving), remarked,
how splendidly the marble Capitol
would have crowned the Douglas Hill,
surrounded by the horseshoe bend of
the Potomac, here river as pic
turesque as the Rhine-it would have
been larger, nobler Father Tlber for
our Roman Capitol-and with the
public buildings, lined along the high
plateau over toward the now famous
Antietam, in view of the river all
along, and with the Blue Ridge for a
purple horizon background-then the
new world would have afforded reali.
zation of the gorgeous dreams outlined
in his pictures by the painter Turner.
This vision would have been still
farther enhanced by architectural
bridges spanning the deep river chasm.
Moreover, ON the practical side it would
have enjoyed the more salubrious air
from the near forest-clsd mountains,
as the famous Alhsmbra 10 Spain, and
the fine, pure freestone water which
the city of Hagerstown obtains by ar
tesians at the foot of the Mountains
also tempered climate far preferable
to that of the torrid sand wastes which
renders Washington so intolerable in
summer.
Good old Father George certainly
did choose more wisely than Peter Of
Russia when he placed his capital on
the frozen Neva, or the Spanish mon
arch in his great rock plateau for
Madrid-or even the judicious Fred
erick who chose the sand wastes for
Berlin, perchance on the idea that
good, fertile ground was 80 scarce in
Prussia that he would not waste any
for building city, for the District Of
Columbia has its sloping hills, its 6 To-
rious Arlington anear, and its Cathe-
dral heights, yet these cannot COM
pare with the advantages afforded by
the romantic Shenandoah Valley.
Had it been placed hereabout, surely
there had never been question OF
removal go imminent and nearly
brought about by western Congress
men some years ago.