Evening star., 1951-01-21

Cne NaClOQdl AutelllSeIlCSf VI 0cp~
tember 81, 1914, 1t was decided not
to remove the Government, thu
vote being 81 for to SO against.
After a lapse Of three months, the
Senate agreed with those opposed
to removal.
Brick Capitol Erected
Congress accepted the offer Of
banks to loan the Government half
a million dollars, and stock COM
pany erected forthwith the old
brick Capitol, where Congress met
for four years. or from 1915 to
1919, when the original Capitol
was sufficiently restored to receive
1t again.
In the meantime, President
James Monroe was inaugurated in
the brick building in 1917, deliv-
ering the fiYst public inaugural
address on the outside of the Cap
itol, and here were heard in de-
bate the voices of such noted
Americans as Henry Clay, Daniel
Webster, John C. Calhoun, An
drew Jackson, Thomas H. Benton
and John Randolph. Calhoun died
here March 81, 1850. when it was
Hills boarding house.
This building cost the owners
$25, 900 and was the largest struc-
ture built here by private enter
prise up to that time.
On the A street side of the site
of the temporary Capitol, a little
east of the corner. was one of the
earliest hotels or taverns erected
in the city, being operated as early
as 1899 by William Tunnicliff, who
had previously conducted the
Eastern Branch Hotel on Pennsyl-
vania avenue southeast between
Eighth and Ninth streets. The
building on A street was erected
by Tunnicliff in connection with
George Walker, but at the time of
its purchase and removal by the
stock company in July, 1915, 1t
was owned by Moses Young, Henry
Ingle and E. B. Caldwell.
Capt. Wirz Hanged
After Congress vacated the brick
Capitol, it was for many years a
boarding house and probably con-
tinued as such until it became a
Federal prison for political Of
fop dorc I,1rinu tho TiviI yNor Al
one time there were 1,004 prison.
ers there. Capt. Henry Wirz was a
prisoner and was hanged in the
rear yard for his part in the
starving to death of Union prison.
ers under his charge at Anderson
vile, Ga. Wirz was born in Zurich.
Switzerland, and came to this
country in 1849. Three other
executions took place there dur
ing the Civil War period.
What Capt. Wire had to say in
his own behalf at that time Is
interesting:
Il was very seriously wounded
at the Battle of Seven Pines, near
Richmond, and have nearly lost
the use of my right arm. Unfit
for field duty. I was ordered to
report to Brevet Maj. Gen. John
H. Winder. in charge of Federal
prisoners of war, who ordered me
to take charge of prison in
Tuscaloosa, Ala. My health fall
ing me. applied for furlough and
went to Europe, whence returned
in February, 1865. I was then
ordered to report to the COM
mandant of the military prison at
Andersonville, Ga, who assigned
me to the command of the in
terror of the prison.
THE duties I had to perform
were arduous and unpleasant and
I am satisfied that no man can or
will justly blame me for things
that happened here and which
were beyond my power to control.
I do not think that I ought to be
held responsible for the shortness
of rations, for the overcrowded
state of the prison (Which was Of
itself a prolific source of fearful
mortality, for the inadequate
supplies of clothing, want of shell
ter. etc. Still, I now bear the
odium, and men who were prison.
ers have seemed to wreak their
vengeance upon me for what they
had suffered-I, who was only the
medium, or, I may better say, the
tool in the hands of my su-
periors."
The old brick Capitol stood for
many years, then was constructed
into three dwellings. Here is now
the United States Supreme Court
Building. In 1927 the site was oc-
cupied by the Washington City
College, and was a boarding house
prior to 1861.