From George Washington to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 26 December 1796
To the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Philadelphia 26th Decr 1796
Gentlemen,
Your letters of the 30th & 30th of November,1 and 5th of the present month, are now before me; the receipt of which have, until now, remained unacknowledged.
I have not been unmindful however, of the contents of that, which relates to public property, &ca in the federal City;2 but, laying it with the two former Powers, & other Papers before the Attorney General of the United States, you will receive his opinion thereon under cover with this letter.3 It would have been sent sooner, had I not been desirous of a personal conference with that Gentleman; but which, for ten or twelve days or more, has been prevented by his indisposition, & this still confines him to his chamber.
I shall be ready, while I remain in Office, to execute any Power which you may suggest—the Attorney General approve—and the nature of the case will warrant—for the purpose of designating, and conveying the different descriptions of property therein—and it will lye with the Commissioners to bring these matters forward, as their attention must be more immediately turned to objects of that sort than mine possibly can be.
With respect to the claims of individual proprietors, to be compensated for the spaces occasioned by the intersection of Streets and Avenues, I should conceive that they might, with equal propriety, ask payment for the Streets themselves; but the terms of the original contract, or cession, if a dispute on this point should arise, must be recurred to,4 for I presume the opinion of the President, in such a case, would avail nothing. But, if angles are taken off, at these spaces, the case is materially altered; and, without designing it, you make a square where none was contemplated, and thereby not only lay the foundation of claim for those angles but for the space also which is made a square by that act.
I have never yet met with a single instance, where it has been proposed to depart from the published plan of the City that an inconvenience or dispute of some sort, has not, sooner, or later occurred5—for which reason I am persuaded there should be no departure from it, but in cases of necessity, or very obvious utility.
The Deed is returned.6 and with very great esteem and regard I am 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. The commissioners docketed the ALS: “enclosing Atty Generals Opinion respecting order to Trustees to convey to Commrs.” The commissioners received this letter on 2 Jan. 1797, along with “the Opinion of the Atty General respg City property” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802).
1. Only one letter from the commissioners to GW of 30 Nov. has been found.
3. Attorney General Charles Lee’s enclosed opinion has not been found. The “two former Powers” refer to executive orders directing the conveyance to the D.C. commissioners of land designated for public use (see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 5 Oct., and n.2 to that document; and Executive Order to Thomas Beall and John Mackall Gantt, 10 Nov., printed as an enclosure to GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 11 Nov.).
4. The Agreement of the Proprietors, 30 March 1791, had disallowed compensation to the federal district proprietors for property they conveyed for the Federal City that was laid out as streets. The agreement authorized compensation only for tracts reserved for public buildings or uses in the Federal City. For more on the commissioners’ dispute with proprietors, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 30 Nov., and n.7.
5. GW refers to the plan of the Federal City drawn by Andrew Ellicott and engraved by James Thackara and John Vallance (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 1 Oct. [first letter], and n.5).
6. The deed has not been found. For the deed that described the public reservations in the Federal City, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 31 Jan. 1797, and n.1 to that document. For the contents of deeds of trust, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 1 Oct. (first letter), and the source note and n.9.