Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-30
.HONORS ACCORDED
| ENFANT'S MEMORY
NOTED FRENCH ENGINEER WHO
DESIGNED CITY OF WASHING
TON is HONORED BY TWO Ma
TIONS IN CAPITOL.

WASHINGTON, April 8.-Unusual
honors were today paid to the memory OF
Major Pierre Charles PEnfant, the IA
nous French engineer, who, under the au-
thority of George Washington, laid out
the city of Washington.
His body, which was disinterred from
its resting place on Digges farm, in Ma
ryland, near Washington, where he was
buried in 1926 was taken to the capitol I'M
der military escort today.
In the rotunda, where the body lay In
state, ceremonies were held at which
Vice President Sherman and Ambassador
Jusserand, of France, paid tribute to the
noted Frenchman.
This afternoon the body was taken TO
the Arlington National cemetery, under
a military escort and religious services
held there. Besides the regular troops
who took part in the procession there
were various patriotic organizations as
well as civic associations Of Washing
ton Rev. William L. Russell rector of
ST. Patrick's church of this city, which
Major I'Enfant attended, officiated at
the services at Arlington cemetery.
Jusserand Speaks
One of the principal speakers today at
the exercises held in the rotunda OF the
capitol in connection with the RENTER
ment of the body of Major Pierre Eli
FAINT. who planned the city of Washing
ton. was Ambassador Jusserand, OF
France.
At the outset Ambassador Jusserand
called attention to the primitive con-
dition of the land upon which the 1u-
ture capital of the nation was TO De
erected. and to the great transformation
which had taken place in little more
than a century, and said that the VIII
of congress, the choice made by the great
man whose name the city was to bear
the talents of a French officer, the one
whose memory was being commemorate
ed today, had caused the change"
Washington, he said, quickly made up
his mind as to the location of the fed
eral city, but the question arose as TO
what sort of a city it would be-a resi-
Dental one for statesmen, legislators and
Judges, a commercial one with the splen-
did possibilities afforded by the Potomac
river, or a mixture of both? Would 1t
be planned in view of the present. or
the future, and of what sort of future?
Major Pierre TEnfant, said the ambas-
sador, had been selected by Washington
because during thirteen years of asso-
citation he had had many occasions to
appreciate the Frenchman's qualities Of
character and his abilities.
Wounded at Savannah
I'Enfant, however said Mr.. Jusserand,
although gifted, plucky and energetic,
was difficult to handle. He had been one
of the earliest enthusiasts of the Ameri-
can cause, served throughout the war of
the independence. and had been left on
the battlefield severely wounded at Sa-
vannah, where he had led the vanguard
of one of the columns of the attack and
lost two-thirds of his men. Later he was
taken prisoner and afterwards exchanged
for Captain Won Heyden, a Hessian.
For Major IEnfant, said the ambassa-
dor, the planning of the city Of Washing
ton was a work of love. "A mere glance
at that work." he said, showed that
the officer had decided not to work for
a nation Of thirteen states, but for one Of
fifty; the streets were unexampled any
where, gardens, parks, fountains, statues
to famous men-all were devised in view
of a great and powerful nation, the ma
ton of today"
L'Enfant. he declared, had foreseen
present greatness in all its aspects, "even
the last acquired one, the one of which
the American nation is so justly pround,
her navy" The ambassador declared that
the plan fitted so we'll future times and
so badly present ones that for many years
criticisms were ceaseless and that as late
as 1851, Jean Jacques Ampere heard jokes
on that strange city, maze up Oh HouseS
without streets and streets without
houses"
The Love of France
The intuition I'Enfant had of the fu-
ture of his adopted country was nothing
very extraordinary, the ambassador con-
tinued "All French people had the
same From the first, France thought
that the United States would be and
should be a great nation. The first diplo-
mat ever sent here came from France.
In conclusion the ambassador said:
And now, Pierre Charles lEnfant Will
sleep his last sleep in that Arlington Gem
etery, where so many are buried who
fought as he did, and felt as he did for
the nation; near that General Sherman,
who left such examples of heroism; he
will rest on slopes from which can be
seen the growth of the Federal city now
called Washington; "a Tevered man wrote
another Frenchman; ChastelluX, when
visiting, in 1852, another and earlier town
of the same name in Connecticut, re-
vered man whose memory will undoubt-
eddy last longer than the very city called
upon to perpetuate it.
MAY the fame of both continue In