Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-04
Some Signers of Declaration Became
Later Citizens of New National Capital

gle. But before 1900 he had turned
to the law, had been justice of the
Court of Common Pleas and later
chief justice of his State. He died in
1893, but he had spent many months
in Washington after his retirement
and had cases before the Supreme
Court.
In George Walton of Georgia the
student of history delights in finding
a parallel to the mighty Lincoln. A
poor youth of Frederick County, Va,
apprenticed to a harsh master. Wal
ton enjoyed no educational advan-
tages, not even in the rudiments.
From borrowed books he taught him.
self the three RS" After he left
Virginia for Georgia his pecuniary
condition improved and he studied law
under the best available masters. A
Governor of Georgia and one of it's
first United States Senators, though
retired from public life, Walton was.
on November 81, 1900. one of the in
terested listeners to President Adams
when he addressed the assembled
houses of Congress in the north wing
of the unfinished Capitol.
John Fiske has written that "all
American history has SINCE run along
the lines marked out by the antago-
nism of jefferson and Hamilton" John
Adams. the first Signer to be elected
to the presidency, was the first and
the most illuStriouS of the victims of
the titanic struggle, and the new
Capital was the scene of his disaster.
Considering the reverence and ad-
miration which all Americans have
subsequently felt for the signers, and
the Nationwide enthusiasm with
which the 150th anniversary of their
noble deed is greeted, the treatment
accorded Adams and Jefferson from
partisans, for and against, is an as
tonishlng revelation. Nothing in the
political turbulence of later days is
comparable to the bitter abuse show
cred on the heads of those fathers OF
the Nation
President Adams arrived in the new
city on November z, 1900, and, to
quote the diary of Mrs. William
Thornton, wife of the architect of the
Capitol, who was in general charge
of public buildings. under that same
date: The President came by and
DIR. Thornton got ready a horse and
some gentlemen to accompany him to
the Capitol. He travels in q chariot
and four and is going to lodge at Tun
nicliffe's Tavern" Adams could not
have lodged in the Presidents palace
as 1t was then called. if he had Sc
wished. since the furniture which he
had shipped from Philadelphia. when
the lease on his mansion there had
expired, was not yet put in order
Mrs. Adams came to Washington on
November 16, 1900, and after this
date she becomes the historian of the
White House, and all details Of that
venerable mansions first participation
in the social amenities may be OBJ
tanned from her letters.
Tunnicliffe's Tavern was the most
pretentious in the city, located at
First and A streets northeast: and such
elegance and fashion as could be mus
tered in 1900 was there. Washing
toms first dancing assemblies were
staged in its fine old ballroom an(
such dinner parties as the resources
of the small village could afford were
given there. But the court" as the
Federalists loved to call the officia
circle, had nothing to compare with
the brilliant surroundings of Phila
delphia.
Every scribe of the period sketchet
gloomy tales of the hardships of living
in the new Capital. Thus John Cot
ton Smith, member of the House
| wrote to a constituent in Connects
cut two years after the Government
| had moved: There are no buildings
and no roads except road with two
buildings on each side, called New Jer
sey avenue. The Pennsylvania ave
plle. leading a. laid down an -papeg