From George Washington to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 29 January 1797
To the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Philadelphia 29th Jan: 1797
Gentlemen,
Having received a letter from Mr George Walker, of which a copy is enclosed, with my answer; a sense of duty to the public, and of propriety as it relates to yourselves; requires the transmission of both, to you; for the purpose which is expressed in the latter.1
After the severe weather we have had, I think it probable there will be an early Spring:2 In which event, I persuade myself that great exertions will be used to forward the Capitol in preference to any other object.3 All others indeed depend, in a high degree, thereon, and are, or ought to be, subordinate thereto. As well therefore with a view to remove those unhappy jealousies (which have had a baneful influence on the affairs of that City) as to invigorate the operations on that building, I cannot too often, nor too strongly enjoin it upon those who have not already taken their stands in the City, to do it without delay; and as convenient to the important theatre, as they can be accomodated.
It may be relied on, that even among the best disposed friends to the Act for establishing the seat of government, on the Potomac, there are many who intermix doubts with anxiety, lest the principal building should not be in a situation to accomodate Congress by the epoch of their removal;4 and it is not less certain, that private buildings (wch are essential for the accomodation of their members) will progress no faster than the other: nay less, as buildings around the Capitol will be erected principally by the wealthy—by those who would take in boarders—and by Shop-keepers; the whole of these, more than probable, will wait until the accomplishment of the first (the prospect of it I mean) is reduced to a moral certainty.
It is not only of infinite importance therefore to make all other measures yield, in reality to this, but in appearance also; especially, under the present difficulty of obtaining loans, and the uncertainty of your funds;5 which must depend upon public opinion, and the confidence which is placed in the administration of them. To what I have here said, I shall only add the esteem & regard of Gentlemen Your Most Obedt Servt
Go: Washington
ALS, DLC: U.S. Commissioners of the City of Washington records; ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. This letter is docketed: “recd 4th Feby.” The commissioners replied to GW on 6 February.
2. Philadelphia and other towns along the eastern seaboard of the United States had been plagued by a cold winter season and icy waterways (see GW to James Anderson, 8 Jan., and n.14; and Anderson to GW, 11 Jan., and n.11).
The Herald; A Gazette for the Country (New York) for 11 Jan. printed a report, dated 7 Jan., that forecasted “a continuance of two or three weeks severe weather,” and advised readers that the temperature that day at sunrise measured nine degrees. In her diary for 3 April 1797, Philadelphian Elizabeth Drinker recorded: “a spring day, the most so we have yet had, feels like one … and actualy is one” (, 2:903). However, Drinker recorded cool or cold weather for several other days that month (see , 2: 904–12).
3. For the ongoing construction of the U.S. Capitol, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 17 March 1796; GW to the commissioners, 22 May 1796, and n.5 to that document; and GW to Gustavus Scott, 25 May 1796, and n.2 to that document.
4. The “Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States,” 16 July 1790, directed the relocation of the federal government to Washington, D.C., on the first Monday in December 1800 ( 130).
5. The Bank of the United States had denied a loan to the commissioners, who also had experienced difficulties in securing funds from the Netherlands (see the D.C. commissioners’ first letter to GW of 31 Oct. 1796; see also GW to the commissioners, 7 Nov., and n.3 to that document, and 11 Nov., and n.3 to that document).