George Washington Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Washington, George" AND Period="Washington Presidency"
sorted by: date (descending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-21-02-0343

From George Washington to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 27 February 1797

To the Commissioners for the District of Columbia

Philadelphia 27th Feb. 1797.

Gentlemen,

As the curtain is about to close on the political scenes of my life; and consequently to terminate the agency I have had in the affairs of the Federal City; I will, as far as a very hurried situation will permit, take notice of such parts of your several letters as remain undecided on.1

Having already informed you, that a Bill is pending in Congress for incorporating the Commissioners of the City of Washington,2 I shall say, or rather do nothing, relative to the Power you sent me, until the fate of that Bill is known.3

I am obliged also to be silent respecting the reference of the dispute with Mr Law; as the Attorney General, into whose hands the Papers were placed for an official opinion, has not yet made his final Report. So soon as it is received, it shall be transmitted, and my sentiments therewith.4

With regard to the open areas in the City, occasioned by the intersection of the Streets and avenues, explained more minutely by one of the Commissioners (Doctr Thornton) in a letter to me, dated the 12th instant, my opinion is, if I understand the matter rightly, that the Proprietors are entitled to no allowance for the spaces which are occasioned—simply—by the width of those Streets and avenues: but, where the areas have been enlarged by taking of the angles, in order to encrease the size of the squares, or to throw them into a circular form, it appears reasonable and just, that they should receive payment for the proportion secured to them by contract, for all such additions;5 but without any encroachment thereon, or change in the plan.6

The Plans of the buildings for the Executive departments are in the hands of the Officers who are at the head of them. If possible, I will give some direction concerning them before I resign the Chair of Government; in order that every thing which has been refered to me, may have met with a decision.7

I come now, Gentlemen, to the consideration of your sevl letters relative to the representation made to me by Mr Geo: Walker.8 It is not to be supposed that my communication to you proceeded from any alteration in the good opinion wch I have always had reason to entertain of you; but from other motives which were on a former occasion expressed: and it affords me pleasure to declare to you, before I go out of Office, my real satisfaction with your conduct as Commissioners of the City. I think the United States are interested in the continuance of you in their service, and therefore I should regret, if either of you by resignation, should deprive them of the assistance which I believe you are able to give in the business committed to your care.

As those representations were more particularly pointed against Mr Scott, a sense of justice seems to require me to express, that according to the best of my information the charges are unfounded; and that nothing in him is wanting, except residence in the City, to render him a useful & valuable member of the board of Commissioners. the necessity of which I am persuaded he must see and will yield to accordingly.9 With very great esteem & regard I am Gentn Your Obedient Hble Servt

Go: Washington

ALS, DNA: RG 233, entry 47, Committee Reports and Papers; ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.

The commissioners received this letter on 2 March. Their book of proceedings for that date indicates that they wrote GW that same day (see DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802). However, the commissioners’ reply to GW is dated 3 March and reads: “We had the honor of your favor of the 27th Ulto, & beg you to accept of our sincere thanks for your expressions of the approbation of our conduct: from you, to whom that conduct must have been best known, they are grateful, indeed, and are considered as a full reward for all the calumnies we have sustained.

“Mr Law’s titles have been a subject of unwearied applications & discussions, & we wish them drawn to an end” (LB, DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent). For more on Thomas Law’s difficulties receiving title to lots he had purchased, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 6 Feb. (second letter).

1GW probably refers to the commissioners’ letters to him of 6 (two letters [letter 1; letter 2]), 7, 20, and 21 Feb., as well as William Thornton’s letter to him of 14 Feb. (see n.5 below).

3The bill for incorporating the commissioners never became a law (see GW to the commissioners, 3 March).

The “Power” refers to the deed, or executive order, that described the public reservations in the Federal City and conveyed them to the commissioners. GW implemented that order on 2 March 1797 (see the commissioners to GW, 31 Jan., and n.1 to that document).

4For the dispute involving Law, the commissioners, Robert Morris, and John Nicholson, see the commissioners to GW, 6 Feb. (second letter). GW enclosed Attorney General Charles Lee’s opinion on that matter when he wrote the commissioners on 3 March (see n.5 to that document).

5The federal district proprietors had expected to receive compensation for the open spaces created by the intersections of streets and avenues. This issue, which had developed into an ongoing dispute between the proprietors and commissioners, was addressed in Thornton’s letter to GW of 14 Feb. (see also the commissioners to GW, 30 Nov. 1796, and n.7 to that document). A 1791 agreement with the federal government did not authorize the proprietors to receive compensation for their tracts of land that were laid out or divided into streets for the Federal City. It, however, had stipulated that the proprietors receive £25 per acre “for the squares, or Lands in any form which shall be taken for Public buildings or any kind of Public Improvements” (Agreement of the Proprietors of the Federal District, 30 March 1791, and the source note to that document).

6In the place of the previous two words, the letter-book copy has “their form.” The “plan” probably refers to the 1792 engraved map of the Federal City (see the commissioners to GW, 1 Oct. [first letter], and n.5 to that document).

7For the plans to erect buildings intended to house the executive departments, see the commissioners to GW, 31 Jan.; see also GW to the commissioners, 15 February.

8See George Walker to GW, 24 Jan., and GW to the commissioners, 29 January. The commissioners’ letters commenting on Walker’s 24 Jan. missive have not been found. For Walker’s disputes with the commissioners, see the commissioners to GW, 7 Oct. 1796, n.2; see also the commissioners to GW, 21 Nov. 1796, n.6.

9D.C. commissioner Gustavus Scott had a residence at Rock Hill, near Georgetown (see Thomas Law to GW, 6 Oct. 1796, and n.7 to that document; see also Walker to GW, 24 Jan. 1797, n.5). Scott continued to serve as commissioner until 1800.

Index Entries