remainder of the War, and at its close continued the practice of his profession in America. He prepared the Halls of Congress in New York and Philadelphia, and built for Robert Morris a fine mansion, having the first mansard roof in America. The badge of the Society of the Cincinnati was also his design. L'Enfant was directed to prepare the plan for the city, and although it was not strictly followed out, its more important features were retained, and have given the country the best-planned city in the world. L'Enfant's plan, damaged by usage and yellow with age, is still preserved in the office of the Architect of the Capitol.

L'Enfant had as an assistant Andrew Ellicott, a young man from Pennsylvania, and, for a time, they worked in great harmony with each other and with the Commissioners.

The Commissioners soon found that the troubles in regard to the Capital had by no means ended with the passage of the Act defining the site. Most vexatious delays arose on account of the avarice and obstinacy of the proprietors of the ground. They were, with one or two exceptions, of a very grasping nature, and determined to get as much and give as little as possible. The most exaggerated ideas were afloat in regard to the future greatness of the city. Many expected that in a few years it would rival New York and Philadelphia in size and importance, while some believed a population of a million to be a near possibility. Inflamed by the visions of vast wealth, the owners for a long time refused to part with their land except on the most extravagant terms. Washington was accustomed to ride over from Mount Vernon and meet the Commissioners at a famous tavern at Georgetown, known as Suter's, where the negotiations were carried on. Many a bitter wrangle took place within its walls. One of the proprietors was a crusty, vulgar old Scotchman, who had little reverence for any person on earth. He greatly offended Washington by remarking one day: "I suppose, Mr. Washington, you think people are going to take every grist from you as pure grain, but what would you have been if you hadn't married the rich widow Custis?"

After great trouble and delay, the proprietors and the Commissioners arrived at an agreement, and the work of laying-out the city began.

The agreement gave the Government all the land needed for highways free, and all used for public buildings and reservations at the rate of twentyfive pounds (Maryland money, or sixty-six and two-thirds dollars) per acre. The rest was to be laid off in lots, and one-half of the amount realized at their sale was to be given to the proprietors.

There were quite a number of landowners, some of whom possessed quite extensive tracts. Of the large proprietors, Daniel Carroll, by reason of his wealth and position, was the most prominent. His career was a strange one. He was the largest owner and possessed a large amount of ready money. As one of the Commissioners he succeeded in having the Capitol located on his ground. Much of the land to the east was his, and he expected to become very wealthy by its sale. He built a fine mansion, known as Duddington Manor-House, and lived in a very extravagant style. He refused to sell his

lots except at a most exorbitant price, believing that he would eventually obtain several millions for them. The high prices asked drove people to other sections of the city, and the development of the east has been slow. His taxes were high and he soon became financially embarrassed. He managed to save his home for his family, but the rest of the property passed out of his hands, and he died a poor man.

Another famous owner was David Burns. His property stretched from the Potomac, where the Monument now stands, to New York Avenue, and contained the ground now occupied by the Treasury and White House. By the sale of his lots he became a very wealthy man, but made no change in his humble way of living. He had a miserable little log hut, a story and a half high, with scanty accommodations, but would never leave it. He was very fond of liquor, though his hard head probably allowed it little effect, and it was in this habit that the only change was observable-" he took his bottle to Georgetown oftener."

Burns had a daughter, Marcia, a beautiful girl, of agreeable manners and good education. She had been brought up in Baltimore, but returned to live with her father in his little cabin. As she was her father's heiress she soon had a number of suitors. Burns himself was very fond of her, and is reported to have said on his death-bed: "Marcia, you have been a good daughter, and now you will be the richest girl in America."

From her many admirers, Marcia Burns chose General John P. Van Ness, son of Peter Van Ness, a Hollander, who had settled at Kinderhook, New York, and who was quite wealthy. General Van Ness was a member of Congress and afterwards Mayor of Washington. When his wife got possession of her property, they built a magnificent mansion close by Burns's old cabin, but Marcia would never allow the latter to be removed. She seemed to take pleasure in her former home and frequently showed her distinguished visitors through its small, narrow rooms. Mrs. Van Ness was much esteemed for her many amiable qualities and her charity. She was one of the founders of the Washington Orphan Asylum, and was its second president. She died in 1832, her husband surviving until 1851. As they had no children, the property passed to distant heirs, and now the only mementos of their life in Washington are the old mansion and the mausoleum at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Notley Young, a retired sea-captain, was another owner with whom the Commissioners had considerable trouble. He was not so crabbed and grasping as Burns, but desired to determine for himself what to sell and also what to hold. His property lay in the North-West, and the dispute arose concerning what is now Lafayette Square. Young wanted to retain it, well knowing that when divided into building lots, its location, opposite the President's House, would make it very valuable, and the Commissioners had a hard time in getting him to give it up for park purposes.

The Commissioners had further trouble with L'Enfant. He insisted on having everything his own way, and refused to disclose the details of his plan, alleging that if he did so speculators would pick out the most desirable

lots. The Government desired a copy of the map but could not obtain it. One of the Commissioners, Daniel Carroll, began the erection of his house across the line of New Jersey Avenue. L'Enfant pulled it down. The angry Commissioner complained to Washington, who ordered it rebuilt, though not in the same place. The disagreements finally became so aggravating and L'Enfant's behavior so arrogant that Washington was compelled to dismiss him from the Government service, March 1, 1792.

While dissatisfied with L'Enfant's conduct, the Government wished to testify its high appreciation of the work he had done, and offered him five hundred guineas (about $2500) and a lot in the city as compensation for his services. He declined to receive anything, doubtless from pique at his removal. Little was heard of him for twenty years. President Madison offered him the position of professor of engineering at West Point, but he returned the commission, writing, “Not accepted, but not refused." James Monroe, while Secretary of War, in 1812, appointed him to construct Fort Washington, on the Potomac. He made the plans, and, for a time, superintended the work, but soon had a disagreement with the War Department, and resigned.

The remainder of his life was passed without employment. Much of his time he lived in the manor-houses of the Digges family, of Maryland, a pensioner on their bounty. He died June 4, 1824, at the home of Dudley Digges, near Bladensburg, and was buried on the estate. It was a sad ending to the career of a talented man. No stone marks his resting-place, nor has any monument been erected to the memory of the man who made possible the beautiful city of to-day.

one.

Although L'Enfant had refused to disclose his plan to the Commissioners, either before or after his removal from office, its general nature was known, and his assistant, Andrew Ellicott, was enabled, by means of notes he had taken under L'Enfant's orders, to design a new plan very similar to the old The details have not been carried out exactly as originally intended, but the changes have been slight and unimportant. It was this planning entirely in advance of construction that made Washington what it is, and gave it such vast possibilities for the future. Most large cities have grown out of small hamlets, and the streets are narrow and ill-arranged. In Washington the highways form part of a well-devised system.

THE BUILDING OF THE CITY.

The corner-stone of the President's House was laid October 13, 1792, and that of the Capitol September 18, 1793. The work on these important buildings was carried on as rapidly as the meagre appropriations of Congress would allow. Had it not been for gifts and loans made by Maryland and Virginia, it is doubtful if they would have been ready for occupancy at the appointed time, 1800. However, the White House was so far finished that the President's family could live in it, though Mrs. Adams has left a graphic description of some of its discomforts. Of the Capitol, only the north, or

Senate, wing was finished, and that was so badly constructed that it was afterwards torn down.

A very good description of Washington, as it appeared in 1800, was written by John Cotton Smith, member of Congress from Connecticut. He wrote: “Our approach to the city was accompanied with sensations not easily described. One wing of the Capitol only had been erected, which, with the President's House, a mile distant from it, both constructed with white sandstone, were shining objects in dismal contrast with the scene around them. Instead of recognizing the avenues and streets portrayed on the plan of the city, not one was visible, unless we except a road, with two buildings on each side of it, called the New Jersey avenue. The Pennsylvania avenue, leading, as laid down on paper, from the Capitol to the Presidential mansion, was nearly the whole distance a deep morass covered with elder bushes, which were cut through to the President's House; and near Georgetown a block of houses had been erected which bore the name of the 'six buildings.' There were also two other blocks consisting of two or three dwelling-houses in different directions, and now and then an insulated wooden habitation; the intervening spaces, and, indeed, the surface of the city generally, being covered with scrub-oak bushes on the higher grounds, and on the marshy soil either trees or some sort of shrubbery. The desolate aspect of the place was not a little augmented by a number of unfinished edifices at Greenleaf's Point, and on an eminence a short distance from it, commenced by an individual whose name they bore, but the state of whose funds compelled him to abandon them. There appeared to be but two really comfortable habitations in all respects within the bounds of the city, one of which belonged to Daniel Carroll and the other to Notley Young. The roads in every direction were muddy and unimproved. In short, it was a new settlement."

THE HISTORY SINCE 1800.

The Seat of Government was transferred from Philadelphia to Washington in October, 1800.

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There were but three thousand inhabitants, and the transition from the populous and comfortable Quaker City was anything but agreeable to the officials. They made no concealment of their discontent, writing letters to the Northern newspapers in which the Capital was spoken of as a mud-hole almost equal to the great Serbonian bog," a Capital of miserable huts," city of streets without houses," "without one solitary attractive feature." Notwithstanding, the city grew rapidly. Its population in 1810 was eight thousand, and in 1820 fourteen thousand. Its progress was made in the face of much adverse criticism. Congress sneered at it, and the people generally manifested no interest in its condition. The Presidents did their best, but could not always persuade Congress to grant the necessary money. Jefferson got some appropriations to continue the erection of the public buildings, and had Pennsylvania Avenue opened and planted with trees. Madison did what he could, but was greatly hindered by the war with England.

The invasion of the city by the British, in 1814, was a great calamity. It was rumored during August that the enemy might attack the Capital, but it was supposed that a force could be collected sufficient to repel their advance. But the Americans soon realized that seven thousand raw militia were but ill adapted to contend with four thousand veterans, whose boast it was that for years they had not slept under a roof. General Ross, indeed, made a perilous experiment in marching sixty miles into the heart of an enemy's country, and had the Americans repeated the tactics of Lexington, and fought the British from behind stone walls and hedges, probably few would have escaped. As it was, they risked a pitched battle and were speedily routed. This battle took place at Bladensburg, August 24, 1814.

The British continued their march to Washington, and arrived on the eastern grounds of the Capitol the evening of the same day. Accounts of what followed are somewhat confused. According to the British statement, General Ross had sent in a flag of truce before entering the city, intending to levy a contribution, but not to destroy it. The flag was fired upon, and the destruction of the city followed. The buildings set fire to were the unfinished Capitol, with the contents of the Library of Congress, and many valuable paintings and archives, the Treasury, the White House, the Arsenal, and some private dwellings. Owing to a sudden alarm and subsequent hasty retreat, they could not complete their work, and a heavy rain setting in prevented the complete destruction of the buildings.

According to their own story, when they arrived at the President's House, they found dinner ready, devoured it, and then set the house on fire. Mr. Madison sent a messenger to his wife to bid her flee. She wrote to her sister, ere going: "Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting till the large picture of General Washington is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall." She finally secured it, and went off in her carriage with her sister, Mrs. Cutts, bearing the original parchment of the Declaration of Independence, which also owes its safety to her. The Federalist papers made plenty of fun of her retreat, and Mr. Lossing has preserved a fragment of one of their ballads in which she says to the President, in the style of John Gilpin :

"Sister Cutts and Cutts and I,

And Cutts's children three,

Shall in the coach, and you shall ride

On horseback after we."

But, on the whole, the lady of the Presidential "palace" carried off more laurels from Washington than most American men.

The news of the burning of Washington was variously received in England. The British Annual Register called it "a return to the times of barbarism," but the London Times saw in it, on the contrary, the disappearance of the American Republic, which it called by the withering name of an association." That ill-organized association is on the eve of dissolution, and the world is speedily to be delivered of the mischievous example of the existence