Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1955-09-29
Aided Washington in Plans
To Get Necessary Lands
For Spacious D. c. Layout
By DR.. Verne E. Chatelaine
Professor of Maryland History,
University of Maryland

llldl Tic ltll lll4C oHoo4N
which in 1891 was to become the
Federal area and to be called the
District of Columbia, was
created out of portions of Mary
land and Virginia is well known
Not so we'll understood is the
intrigue and counter-intrigue in
the first Congress of the United
States relating to the so-called
Residence Bill" and to its COM
panion measure, the "AsSump-
ton Bill, the successful linking
together of which was to lead to
the carving of the District" out
of the adjacent Potomac States.
And even less appreciated are
the complicated problems that
faced those, like Washington and
the local Commissioners, who had
the responsibility after the
decision to place the National
Capital on the Potomac of
selecting the exact site and then
of carrying forward the tedious
negotiations necessary to launch
the project successfully and to
llbreathe life into the new Federal
Wcity.
Months of heated debate over
Hamiltons program to assume
the debts that the States had in.
CURED in fighting the Revolution
very nearly wrecked the new
nation before it could get on its
feet. And equally acrimonious
was the dispute over where the
National Government should be
situated.
New York, Philadelphia and
Baltimore were active contenderS,
but most of the South, for one
reason or another, objected to
these possible choices. In the
journal of William Maclay"
Q789-9n, we got a good deal of
insight into the acknowledgements
political scrambling that went on.
In solving these problems, it so
happened that Hamilton and
Jefferson, who so often were at
loggerheadS with each other in
this period, found way in the
national interest to resolve their
differences by the neat formula
of each giving to the other the
one thing which he was mainly
- determined to get - for Hamil-
Ston the assumption of the debts
and for Jefferson the location of
the seat of government near to
his beloved Virginia.
That this agreement did not
please Pennsylvanians like Sena-
tor William Maclay or even many
New Englanders and Southerners
was of small consequence to the
two great leaders, once they had
reached meeting of minds. For
theirs was the influence and the
votes needed to push both
measures through Congress
triumphantly and to demonstrate
again to one and all that when the
Nations interests are at stake
there must be compromise in
order that there will not be stale
mate or perhaps something
worse.
Thus, as a result of this conf
promise, the citizens of Montgom-
cry County, Maryland, along with
their neighbors in Prince Georges
County and northern Virginia,
were destined to play a fateful
role in the Nations history - one
:, too often taken as a matter of
\ course, even by the generations
of descendants who have follow
ed them.
A sizeable group of owners
already held land within the area
that destiny was to choose TO be
the District of Columbia. Among
the names in the musty records
relating to this story were those
OF some of the Calverts, as well
as the CAROLS. the DiggcS', the
Jones', the AddiSons, the Bealls
and others.
Most of the land was held as
plantations" or "manors". and
there were also two small but
thriving communities close by -
Alexandra and Georgetown.
Life in this region had long
since assumed the pattern then
typical in tidewater country - a
comfortable agricultural exist
ence with chief emphasis not
upon the raising of Tobacco -
for it was no longer a very profit.
able crop 49, but upon corn,
wheat and other food products.
A number of planters. following
\ Washington's example. were tax.
ing grain to mills and turning
it into flour, some Of which was
shipped to the West Indies.
Trade with the interior parts
of the country also was coming
to prominence, and much Of the
business of Alexandria and
Georgetown was of this nature
the Potomac being a principal
route into the West.
Yet with all of the hectic un.
certainticS of the future in this