The San Francisco call., 1909-06-06
[Speciol Dispatch TO The CALI

lSPectdt DSpdt'
NEW YORK. June 5.-Now comes
Martin L. J. Griffin. the Catholic MS
torian, noted for his careful research
and accuracy to facts. with the
statement that Major L'Enfant was not
the real designer of the city OF WASH
ington after all.
Grimm has had access to govern
ment archives and records and he tells
us that these show conclusively that
James Reed Dermott made the plans
on which the city was built. Major
L'Enfant, according to the records as
unearthed by Griffin, was appointed TO
do the work. but resigned AndreW
Elliott, or ElIicot, was appointed MS
successor and the commissioners Sc
lected James Reed Dermott as ELI
cots assistant 1t is thought that both
L'Enfant and Ellicot may have done
preliminary work, but there is no rec
ord Of the fact.
Dermott was a native of Ireland,
engaged at the Alexandria academy.
and he was described, at the time OF
his appointment, as "a man Oh SCI
ence" It is said that Ellicot more
than once spoke of Dermott as the
readiest calculator he had met with.
The comnni ssioners said of him: lie
shows attention to publc business,
has his business in good. order ana
gives us and others such ready an
swers that he must have the clearest
and most comprehensive view OF MS
department"
Dermott died September 9, 1903, and
was buried from,St. Patrick's church,
Washington.
The country where Washington, d..
c.. now rises in its beauty was owned
in 1863, it would seem, by man
named Pope. who called it Rome. Dan
iel Carroll. brother of Archbishop Car
roll, owned a large patrimonial estate
which included the present Capitol
hill His house. Duddington manor,
was the first residence built after the
city was laid out He was one of the
three commissioners named by con-
gress to mark the boundaries of the
new city.
James Hoban designed and built the
White House and superintended the
erection Of the capitol. Cornelius Nc
Dermott Roe and John Delahunty con-
tracted on the original brick and stone
work on both buildings; John kearney
did the plastering on the capitol and
Patrick Whelan dug the canal neces-
sary to drain it.
In May, 1858. the remains of James
Hoban and others of his family were
removed from st. Patrick's church
!
cemetery, Washington.
His son James was an eloquent law
yer and served as a United States at
torney This son James married Mar
garet Neale and had four children.
One of these, Henry, became Jesuit.
Cardinal Moran, in an interview In
the Catholic Press of Sydney, Is quoted
as saying of the Celtic language:
.'The leading philologists of Europe
and America at the present day recog-
nize Irish as of vital importance. 1t is
now generally recognized that the an
cient Celtic language is the common
source from which the other Ian
guages known to us have been de-
rived. There are two streams, so to
l>say of ancient languages, which have
various branches - the Chaldean
stream. with its wonderful develop
ment of Babylonian and Hebrew, and
the Aryan or Indo- European stream,
with its countless branches which en-
brace most of our modern European
languages. The aim of present day
philologists is to find the common
source from which these two streams
have flowed. and in so far as progress
has been made in these researches Gel
tic is precisely the only source from
which both can have sprung. Hence
/ say the greatest possible literary ad
vantages must be derived from the
study of the ancient Celtic tongue,
and it is singular thing that, not
only in some of the English universi
ties, but in all of the German uniyersi-
ties. in Italy and the United States of
America, special chairs have been In
stituted for it's study.
There is no reason" adds the car
dinal, why Irish nationality would
not be quickened by the revival Of the
Celtic language as living tongue,
and the example I have taken from
the czech national development (men-
toned elsewhere in this same inter-
view) justif1es the hope that the Irish
language will become once more the
living language of our race.V
Matthew Calbraith Buffers recent
death deserved more extended notice
than was accorded to it north OF the
Dixie line. both for his distinguished
ancestry and for his personal career.
His ancestors for four generations
comprised navy and army officers. gen
erals judges. governors, senators and
legislators He was named after his
uncle Commodore NJ c. Perry, who
opened the Japanese ports to the
world and whose father and brother
were both distinguished captains of
the navy.
His Butter ancestry gave SeneralS 10
every war of the union. His first
American progenitor. Captain James
Butler who came from Ireland in 1745,
died fighting for American indepen-
dence, but he left four sons to con-
tinue the hght-Generals Pierce, Rich
ard, James and William Butler. OF
them Lafayette said: IF ! want a
thing well done I order a Butler to
do IT," Pierce's son, General William
Butler fought at New Orleans, served
several terms in congress. became
major general and for a time COM
mander in chief in the Mexican war.
Matthew Calbraith Butler. his young
grandson. the subject Of this sketch
was a graduate Of the University of
South Carolina. He practiced law with
his uncle, Senator Butler, and at %
was elected to the state legislature,
while his IA ther. DR.. William Butler,
represented his district in congress.
When the civil war broke out young