A manual on the origin and development of Washington

by H. Paul Caemmerer

The act of July 16, 1790, was thereupon amended accordingly by act approved March 3, 1791, as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That so much of the act, entitled “An act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the government of the United States,” as requires that the whole of the district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on the river Potomac, for the permanent seat of the government of the United States, shall be located above the mouth of the Eastern Branch be and is hereby repealed, and that it shall be lawful for the President to make any part of the territory below the said limit, and above the mouth of Hunting Creek, a part of the said district, so as to include a convenient part of the Eastern Branch, and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof and also the town of Alexandria, and the territory so to be included, shall form a part of the district not exceeding ten miles square, for the permanent seat of the government of the United States, in like manner and to all intents and purposes, as if the same had been within the purview of the above recited act: Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall authorize the erection of public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potomac, as required by the aforesaid act.

Thus within a period of nine months the limits of the Federal territory were established. The corner stone was set with appropriate ceremonies at Jones Point, Alexandria, Va., April 15, 1791. Not a cent was advanced by Congress for buildings or grounds. In fact, the Treasury was empty, and without credit Congress was unable to give financial assistance. Washington himself drew up the original agreement by which the owners were to convey the land to the Government which the Cincinnatus of the West bought from the landholders at £25 per acre.

Of George Washington, Daniel Webster said, at the ceremonies for enlarging the Capitol to its present size, on July 4, 1851:

He heads a short procession over naked fields, he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree, he ascends to the top of this eminence, where original oaks of the forest stood as thick around as if the spot had been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performed the appointed duty of the day.

In earlier years Washington had noted the beauty of the broad eminence on which the Capitol was destined to be reared, and had marked the breadth of the picture and the strong colors of the landscape with its environing wall of wooded heights, which rolled back against the sky as if to inclose a beautiful area fit for the supreme deliberation of the governmental affairs of a great Republic in the New World, founded on the truths “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These truths, as set forth in the unanimous declaration of the thirteen original colonies of the United States of America adopted July 4, 1776, formed the basis of the Magna Charta of American liberty, known to us as the Declaration of Independence.

HISTORY OF EARLY SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE POTOMAC

Somewhat more than a century and a half before (in 1608) Capt. John Smith and his men sailed up the Patawomeck and visited the site of the future Federal City. The famous adventurer only partially explored the country, the principal item in the log book of his voyage being that they found the river full of luscious fish and its shores lined with ferocious savages. They met with opposition from Chief Powhatan and were subject to continual attacks. Nevertheless the exploration was continued up the Potomac as far as Little Falls, about 5 miles above the city of Washington. At the time of this exploration there were about 30 tribes, principal and subordinate, living along the shores of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia. The chief of these principal tribes were the Powhatans, the Manahoacs, and the Monacans. The Powhatans lived along the shores of the Chesapeake as far north as the Patuxent in Maryland, and the other two lived in the territory contiguous to the York and Potomac Rivers. The Manahoacs and the Monacans, who were continuously at war with the Powhatans in Virginia, inhabited the present District of Columbia. The Manahoacs were almost exterminated by war, pestilence, and spirituous liquors, and about 1712 migrated to the west, joining the Iroquois and the Tuscaroras. Among the smaller tribes were the Nacotchants and the Toags, who were friendly to Capt. John Smith. The Toags lived near Mount Vernon, as is shown by the name Tauxement on Capt. John Smith’s map. The Moyaones lived directly opposite Mount Vernon, in Maryland, at the mouth of the Piscataway. The Nacotchants lived just below the Eastern Branch, within the District of Columbia.

There is a tradition of the early settlers of Maryland that the valley at the foot of Capitol Hill, drained by Tiber Creek, was a popular fishing ground of the Indians, and that they gathered not far from there, at Greenleaf’s Point, for their councils. The Indians of Maryland and Virginia closely resembled each other. Those of Maryland were descendants of the same race as the Powhatans and spoke dialects of the great Algonquin language. Powhatan claimed jurisdiction over the Patuxent, but it is doubtful whether he ever enforced the claim.

The Indians lived along the banks of the rivers in this part of the country, and thus many Indian names, suggested by the suffixes “annock” and “any,” have come down to us, as the Susquehanna, Rappahannock, Allegheny, and Chickahominy. The name Chesapeake is said to have come from the Algonquin language, and Potomac comes from the Indian name Patawomeck. The Powhatans were won over to the English by the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe, but the marriage, though notable in history, offered no advantages to the settlers. The original inhabitants were finally driven out by the relentless Iroquois. Among the early fighters against the Indians was Col. John Washington, who came to America in 1657 and settled at Bridges Creek, Va., later called Wakefield. He led 1,000 men against the Susquehannas. The Maryland tribes were gradually consolidated with the Piscataways, and about 1700 they moved to a new settlement on the lower Susquehanna, near Bainbridge, Pa. Here, in 1765, they numbered about 150 persons and were under the jurisdiction of the Iroquois. Thereafter they moved to the Ohio Valley and joined the Delawares.