Evening star., 1944-06-18
Capital Sidelights
BIZ Will p. Kennedy.


The development OF the United States
during the past 100 years, with impor-
tant changes in the American way of
life" is emphasized by a small volume
picked up the other day by william C.
Broodgate, attorney and metallurgical
engineer with the Senate Small Business
Committee, in q second hand bookshop,
This book Of 218 pages, printed by G. A.
Sage, E street near Ninth, is dedicated
to the members Of the Twenty eighth
Congress, "by citizen OF Ohio" and
research discloses that that citizen was
Caleb Atwater, born at North adams,
Mass, in 1778. He received al a. NJ
degree from Williams College in 1904,
kept q school for young women in New
York, then became Presbyterian min.
lister. next an attorney. Moving West
in 1915. he studied earthworks and other
antiquities IN Ohio for the American
Antiquarian Society 1t is said that he
was father OF the Ohio school system
and public works program. President
Jackson in May, 1929, appointed him a
member Of commission ito tnesotiate
with the Winnebago and other Indians
in the vicinity of Prairie du Chier, Wis,
Treaties promptly were agreed upon, and
AtWater brought them to Washington
where they were ratified by the Senate
In December. A narrative of this episode
and his travels was published in 1899.
and nve years later he issued the first
history OF the State OF Ohio. An Essay
On Education" came frc n his pen In
184l. He was an early advocate of
forest conservation.
In the small volume which CURRENTLY
is attracting attention at the Capitol
Atwater confidently predicted a trans
continental railroad, more than a quar-
ter OF a century before it was built.
Prophetically he wrote: I'VE need onlv
railroad to the Pacific, and a dense
population, settled along its whole route.
In that event steam vessels running
from Astoria to China and Japan and
the islands of the Northern Pacific
would soon be conveying the productions
OF the whole world. Such a railroad
might be made by the Nation from the
land sales in the new regions to be
settled by our pepole. What q sublime
moral, political and commercial prospect
Is held out to our enraptured eyes! From
surveys actually made by 1t. Fremont
IL Is certain that railroad from Cum
oerland, Md, to the Pacific is entirely
"ltnln our means as Nation" Atwater
aoos significantly: Should the British
hon growl at us, the Gallo cock would
nap his wings and crow at our success
and the Russian bear smile upon U.S."
When he wrote these words there were
but rs States in the Union-Florida
Iowa and Wisconsin then were terri
torres. Atwater had settled in Wash
lngton II years before, during the ad-
of Andrew Jackson. and
became acquainted with the President,
Vice President John c. Calhoun Secre-
tary OF War Lewis Cass, Secretary of
the Navy Levi Woodbury., and other
officials. He also knew Col John Tr,,m-
Dull, who painted the large historical
pictures in the rotunda of the Capitol
In his book, he describes riding in a
stage coach from Columbus to Wheeling,
some 100 miles, "in exactly "a hours"
and the extremely cold ride in the
stage to Cumberland over the Allegheny
Mountain, and then "in 10 hours we
were safely landed in Baltimore, passing
over 180 miles of railroad. For such a
distance this is most excellent road
and the ride is very pleasant one"
Visiting New York, Atwater stopped at
"Threshers Broadstreet Hotel-the same
house which was occupied by Gen.
Washington as his headquarters when
he took possession of the city at the
conclusion of the Revolutionary War,
and from an opened window on the
second story Gen. Washington delivered
his farewell address to his officers in
the street below" He visited by invita-
tion on his 83rd birthday anniversary
Albert Gallatin. who was Jeffersons
Secretary of the Treasury
In Washington, Atwater was a guest
OF President Tyler at the White House
from early candle light until after
o'clock. He conversed very freely on
the colony of Liberia, and expressed a
wish to see 1t become Q nation - and