CHAP. XVI.

History of the City of Washington-Formation of the district of Columbia-Seat of government established there by law-Choice of the position for the new city-Plan and design of General Washington-Topography and details of the streets, &c.— Public buildings-the Capitol-Scale of the edifice-Style of architecture-Sculptured subjects in the Rotunda-Historical pictures in the Rotunda-Description of the senate chamberArrangement and modes of doing business-Description of the hall of representatives-Regulation of taking seats by members -General order and decorum of their proceedings-Great advantage of day-sittings over night-meetings-Hall of the supreme court of justice-Library of the Capitol, history and present condition The President's house, size, style, and character-Public offices of government near the President's-State department— original Declaration of Independence-War department-Portraits of Indian chiefs-Treasury department-Standard weights and measures-Arsenal-Navy-yard, and general post-office-Indian department-Land department-Patent office-Destruction of models and records-Places of public worship in Washington -Anecdote of the Congressional chaplains-Colleges, banks, hotels, and boarding-houses-Theatres-Mr. Forrest, the American actor-Anecdote of southern sensitiveness on slaveryPlay of Othello and of the Gladiator proscribed-Exclusion of coloured persons from the representations-Private buildings of the city, style and character-Population of Washington-City government-Revenue, taxes, licenses, debt, and appropriationRegulations respecting the coloured population-Restrictions as to the heights of houses in building.

THE history of the City of Washington is so recent, that it may be very briefly told. In the year 1790, when General Washington was President of the United States, he first conceived the idea of fixing

the seat of government, which was then at Philadelphia, at some central position, so as to be equally accessible to the members of Congress coming from all parts of the Union. This design was embodied

in a bill, which originated in the Senate on the 1st of June, passed the House of Representatives on the 9th of the same month, and received the sanction of the President on the 16th of July following. The votes taken on this occasion, however, were not unanimous; the division in the Senate being fourteen to twelve; and in the House of Representatives thirty-two to twenty-nine. This bill authorized the setting apart of a territory, not exceeding ten miles square, on each side the river Potomac, to be taken with consent from the States of Maryland and Virginia, between which the Potomac was the then existing boundary-line, to be called "the district of Columbia," and to be made the permanent seat of government. Such a territory having been marked out by commissioners appointed for that purpose, and the arrangements with the two States from which it was taken being satisfactorily completed, the district was formally recognized by law, and made subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress.

General Washington next planned and designed the city which was to bear his name, as the legislative capital of the Union; and in 1793, the Capitol or great hall for the meeting of the two houses of Congress, was commenced. In 1800, the seat of government was removed from Philadelphia to Washington, during the presidency of John Adams;

since which it has always continued here without interruption.

The situation of the city is well chosen, lying as it does between the main stream of the river Potomac, by which it is bounded on the west and south-west, and the river Annacosta, sometimes called the Eastern branch, by which it is bounded on the east and southeast; while the broad stream of the Potomac, after the junction of these two rivers, flows onward beyond it to the south, till, after a navigable course of about eighty miles, it empties itself into the Chesapeake, and thus communicates readily with the

sea.

The city is mapped out upon an extensive scale, being about fourteen English miles in circumference, of an irregular shape, approaching to an oblong square, about five miles long from east to west, and four miles broad from north to south. The plan is not so remarkable for its symmetry as those of many American cities; for though there are three great avenues running the whole length of Washington from east to west,-each therefore nearly five miles long, and 150 feet broad, and these again are crossed by four similar avenues at right angles running nearly north and south, yet these are intersected by so many diagonal lines, and the smaller streets are made to run at angles so oblique to the general design, that amidst much that is straight and regular, there is also much that is crooked and confused.

The greatest defect of the city, however, is this, that very few portions of it are built up in continuity; the dwellings are so scattered over it in detached

groups, fragments of streets, and isolated buildings, that it has all the appearance of a town rising into existence, but gradually arrested in its progress, and now stationary in its condition. The Capitol, which is placed on a rising ground in the centre of the plan, was intended to be the centre of the city; and if measures had been taken, when this edifice was erected, to let off only those lots of land which were around the Capitol, so as to confine the buildings to its immediate vicinity before any others were erected beyond it, and thus progressively to have spread from the centre to the extremities, it would even now have been a handsome city. But, from the distant lots of land having been sold as freely as those near the centre, the purchasers have built up their mansions and planted their gardens around the extremities, so that Washington has been truly called "a city of magnificent distances ;" and it might have been added, "with barren tracts and swampy morasses between them."

Its

The public buildings of Washington form its only ornament, and without these, the aspect of the city would be mean in the extreme. The first and most important of these buildings is the Capitol, the edifice expressly erected to contain the halls of legislature for the general Congress of the United States. situation is admirably chosen, being on the summit of a rising ground which overlooks the city to the west and north-west; while on the east and southeast, it is on a level with the general soil. The building is so placed as to have its principal front to the east, where it is seen on the same level as the

other buildings east of it. The other front is to the west, and overlooks the western portion of the city below it, the slope of the western declivity being ornamented with terraces, walks, and shrubbery.

The area of the public grounds thus laid out, and in the centre of which, or nearly so, the Capitol stands, is about thirty acres; the whole of this is enclosed by a low wall of stone with good iron railings, and is entered by well-built gateways, opposite to the different avenues leading to and from it as a general centre.

The Capitol, as a whole, has a front of 352 feet towards the east and west, and a depth of 121 feet for the main body of the building, in addition to 65 feet of projection for the portico and steps of the eastern façade, and 83 feet for a similar projection on the western part, making therefore the whole length of the façade 352 feet, and the whole breadth 269 feet, covering nearly an acre and three quarters of ground. The height of the two wings,