Year: 1874

purpose of diminishing The. ascent from Che
west q little, making Nj: C6rcoran's Lo,ise
Home, If that is the name Of Il, little mons
conspicuous from Fourteeuth street and the
Circle-a matter about which Mr.. Coreoran
had before spoken to me In Fespcet to having q
little shaving taken of from the hill west of
me, and to which had replied that while
had not the least objections myself-as, of
course, 1t did not affect me at all-that
would not sign any petition or consent to any
such thing unless all the others assented, be-
cause did not want to bc the instrument OF
doing them an injustice to the west when there
was no public necessity for II, but a matter Of
mere taste; and that leads me to remember that
it was certainly before the Board of Public Works
came into power that this was first spoken Of
Then I made these inquiries of the board and
was told that three or four feet was the most
that the street would be cut; and that was the
object of it. I made the same remark then
that had before made TO Mr.. Corcoran him
self, that while Il did not affect me at all, and
did not care anything about It, yet would
no. be party to any wrong upon the other
gentlemen who owned property west of me;
that did not see any ground for it; that
would not be the means of subjecting these
people west of me to very serious damage by
so great O cut as that upon mere question of
taste.


The natural surface of the land slopes from
Tenth street to the west until 1t comes out to
Mr.. Wilson's and Mr.. Morsell's house, and
slopes more rapidly downward to the west
again, and the slope of the street, as fixed by
the original city people. and upon which
thought, harmonizes with that undulation of
the natural surface of the ground, whereas the
cut downward as It is now, from Fourteenth to
Fifteenth street, makes tho street pitch one
way, and the slope upon which the houses
have been built the other way, which of
u. l. IL -
of what is proper in point of taste-in fact,
makes q man feel as If he had a cross-cut
saw upon his leg to look at 1t. The Board
of Public Works told me that only the crest of
the hill to the west would be taken of, and
that they were going to do the right thing with
the people who owned the land there. Of
course I saw no objection. 1t was nothing
which in any legal sense concerned me at all.
This was early In the spring of 1872, believe.
Then l went home to Vermont, leaving the
thing in that way, being informed that the
only disturbance OF the existing order of things
that the Board of Public Works would make
would be to take Just shaving of from the
crest of this gently uDdulating, beautiful row,
like those still left in various parts of the city,
| for some reason or other.


did not know anything more about it until
came back again, in the fall of 1872, to
attend the session of Congress; and when I
got back, about the first week in November,
| found that instead of three or four feet being
taken off the crest, they had begun at the line
of Fourteenth street at circle and made one
deep cut, and drawn a true grade to the west
clear down to Sixteenth street, which, instead
of not cutting at all in front of my property,
or just taking Oft an inch or two, had cut
down somewhere from eight to ten feet do
Dot know precisely--and had left me- that dis
tance up in the air, In addition to the original
grade, which had been settled and fixed, and
upon which bought there, so that WAS left
aboat sixteen feet, I should say, above the
surface of the street. Aud then, instead of
parking the street, as YES talked of, like New
York avenue, so as to lesye the carriage-ways
somewhere near the sides of the street, the
parking had been done or the sides, and the
| curbsteae was removed aboGt thirty feet from
where twas before, the consequence Of which
was that was eight or ten ieet higher up in
the air, and thirty feet or:so further away
| from the street.


Well, inasmuch as I believed there was no
possible foandation for such proceeding,
either In pofst Of taste or pus3ie utility-for
there was no heavy draught Of teams crossing
| there, and the grade was such that when
went away any reasonable spon of horses
could draw thsyty hundred up or down without
trouble-I was very indignant, and / felt, per-
haps unjustly-although had no Sact to base
It upoa-I felt that some private interest had
produced an influence upon the board, because
do not wish TO make any imputation against
anybody, but I thought something besides q
general regard to private rights and public in
terests must have produced that extraordinary
performance. accordingly, with the candor
that think always ought TO characterize ones
intercourse with public officials, wrote q letter
to the board. II was sent to them, and it was
received by them, and they have produced It
to-day at my request. 1t is as follows:


...-.r.. WASHINGTON. November i1,-ls72.