Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-04

from the Capitol to the presidential
mansion, was nearly the whole dis
| lance deep moraSs covered with al
der bushes-which were cut through
the. width of the intended avenue dur
ing this Winter
Jefferson found a congenial abode
at Conrad & Munn's boarding house,
at New Jersey avenue and & street
| southeast, afterward the New Varnum
Hotel. Here the author of the Decla-
ration gathered his cohorts. Gov. Nc.
kean came from Philadelphia and
Gov. Monroe from Virginia to confer
on political measures. Albert Gala
tin. the financial wizard, later to be
Jefferson's Secretary of the Treasury.
was often in conference with his chief
about the needful sinews of war, and
James Madison always sat at the
council table. Conrad's boarding house
seethed with political activity at that
time, and was a far more important
center than the White House
President Adams, who was to be
ground between Jeffersonians and
Hamiltonians in their struggle for SUI
premacy. then held only the shell of
! the Federal power. Hamilton never
came to Washington during those
| feverish days. He worked through
his battalion of disciples, especially
through Timothy Pickering, oliver
Wolcott, jr.. and James McHenry,
who, though members of Adams
cabinet, took their orders from Ham
| ilton. Charles COtesworth Pinckney
Aaron Burr. with Adams and Jeffer-
son, were candidates for the presi-
dency. Hamilton masked his opposi-
| ton to Adams by instructing his fol
| lowers to vote for Pinckney. Later
l. 30 81
who had seemingly become amenable
to Federal ambitions. SO divided was
! the vote that the State electors placed
the matter in the hands Of Congress.
From Conrad's on the morning of
February II, 1901 jefferson Jared
| forth in a binding snowstorm to the
| Capitol. where the votes were to be
counted in a joint session of the two
| Houses. Many exciting dramas have
! since been enacted in the halls of the
national Legislature. but none were to
! surpass that scene when, for the first
time, to the House OF Representatives
was committed the task of electing
the President of the United States
This second signer Of the Declaration
to be honored with the Chief Mag
: istracy and within the confines of the
! National Capital Is written graphically
into the first quarter of the century
Of it's history.
, This signal event occasioned the
first illumination of the small village
which was then the capital. Jeffer
sons election is an outstanding event
in that it seemed that destiny had
arranged new setting for the new
national drama on which the curtain
had now risen. The aristocratic
Federal party had thrived In the at
mosphere Of luxury, furnished by
Philadelphia with It's wealthy and
! fashionable citizens and it's scores OF
princely houses. But keen political
observer has remarked that with the
triumph of democracy consistency
called for a stage setting Of greater
simplicity.
Gouverneur Morris, brother Of
Lewis Morris of New York. the signer
had just been elected to the Senate
and took his seat in the early days Of
this intense excitement. OF the new
seat of government, he wrote: IT
needs only houses, cellars, kitchens
scholarly men, amiable women and &
few other such trifles to be a perfec
city" He added, in prophetic strain
Building stone Is plentiful, excellen
brick are baked here. and sites are
not wanting for magnificent mansions
in a word, this is the best city in the
world to live in--in the future"
Samuel Chase of Maryland moved
to Washington with the officia
world in November, 1900, as an associ
ate justice Of the -SQpreme Count II