Evening star., 1951-03-04
Jefferson Snapped Boordinghouse for Mansion
Simplicity Marked
His Inauguration
$50 Years Ago
By Edword Boykjn

By Edword Boykin
Democracy's great day had ar
rived. and Washington was astil
at an early hour. The sky was
an suspicious blue. It was March
4, 1901, $50 years ago today.
For the first time In American
history a President of the United
States was to be inaugurated In
the new Capital Of the Nation. Al
noon the tall, far-seeing Man from
Monticello, Thomas Jefferson
would take Office as third Presi-
dent of the Republic.
The coming of the Government
to Washington in November, 1900
had brought new sights, new
sounds. new thrills, to this swampy
city on the Potomac. Today, the
infant Federal City would witnes.
the first of its long cavalcade OF
inaugurations. At the same time
an event Of even greater import
was taking place. The American
Government was changing hands
politically for the first time in its
brief history. A new party. with
new ideas, new principles, was TAX
ing over the reins and setting 8
far-reaching precedent by doine
it in an orderly, simple, bloodless
manner, with the modicum o1
pomp and circumstance requested
by the incoming Chief Executive
John Adams and his Federalist
Party were going out! Thomas
Jefferson and his new Republican
Democratic nowadays) Party
were coming in!
AS the Nations Capital, Wash
ington was barely 3 months old
It's population of approximately
5000 resided in several hundred
brick and frame houses, sur
rounded by an ocean Of mud. Only
a vivid imagination could envisior
the splendid city on paper that
had emerged from Pierre Len
fant's dreams. Ten years of plan
ming and building had produced
little more than sprawling con-
struction village between the for
est and the Potomac. Wide ano
dreary avenues and streets rar
aimlessly through this city of mag
nif1cent distances, sWamps, stumps
frog ponds and slush.
Lived in Boarding House
| Between the Capitol and thu
Presidents Mansion, through {
swamp, ran a broad, straight
clearing that would one day be-
come the stately parade grounds
OF the Nation. Pennsylvania ave-
nue.. The Presidents abode. barely
habitable and Scantily furnished
stood in a circle cf brick kilns
carpenters sheds and outbuild'
ings. Only the Senate wing c1
the Capitol was completed.
Around it, at respectable distances
stood a dozen clearinghouse:
where the Nations lawmakers
obtained room and board for sis
a week, with candles, fuel anc
liquor free.
/ At one of these. Conrad anc
McMunn's, at the corner of New
Jersey avenue and c street, where
the new House Office Building
stands. lived Vice President, now
President-elect. Thomas Jefferson
Here he occupied bedroom ane
separate drawing room for the
reception of visitors. Sharing
the simple hospitality and demo-
cratic atmosphere of this con
gressional mess" were 80 member!
of Congress and of Jefferson.
board of strategy, among them
Albert Gallatin. soon to become
Secretary of the Treasury.
There were taverns in the new
Federal City and in Georgetown
where board. three meals anc
lodging, could be had for a dollar
and half a day. with whisky
and brandy free.
! Such was the embryo Capita
where the poet Tom Moore was
shortly to see squares in mo.
rasseS, obelisks in trees" But fol-
all its drab appearance Washing.
ton was the new Capital of the
Nation, and now, in its very in.
fancy, staging a drama that woulG
establish precedents for centuries
to come. that is. If the American
Republic lasted that long.
During the bitter election cam
paign Of 1900 the Federalist
prophets Of doom had made dire
predictions for the future OF
America. If the radical Repub-
lican, Tom Jefferson, with his
democratic IDEAS" came to the
head of the Government. Such
hysteria, such scurrility was hard
to believe-but believe it many
did. The Federaiist press and
orators forecast a thousand forms
of woe for America in the event
of Jeferson's election: Secession.
"the bloody scenes of the French
Revolution repeated" "our Bibles
confiscated and cast into bonfires.
"our towns pillaged," the Con.
stitution destroyed" and the like
Yet, here it was, March 4. 1901
the morning of Jefferson's in.
auguration. and there was no sigr
of revolution unless it was the
salvo fired by the Washington
Artillery Company to usher in the
great day on which the Apostle
of American Freedom took the
helm of the Nation.
On this significant mornin