CHAP. VI,

Emotions on entering the City of Washington. The Plan of the Place. The inaugural Speech of Mr. Jefferson to both Houses of Congress assembled at the Capitol.

"In this City may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and

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magnanimity, that constancy and self-government, which "adorned the great character whose name it bears, be for "ever held in veneration! Here, and throughout America, "may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion, flou"rish for ever!"

THE mind of the Traveller must be abstracted from all local emotion, who can enter unmoved the city at the confluence of the Potomac, and Eastern Branch. He witnesses the triumph of freedom over oppression, and religious tolerance over superstition. It is the capital of the United States that fills his imagination! It is the country of Jefferson and Burr that he beholde! It is the rising mistress of the world that he contemplates!

The tract chosen for the City of Washington, is situated at the junction of the Potomac river, and Eastern Branch; extending about four miles along their respective shores. This territory, which is called Columbia, lies partly in the State of Virginia, and partly in the State of Maryland; and was ceded, as every body knows, by those two States, to the United States of America; by

which it was established the seat of Government, after the year of 1800.

The City of Washington is to be. divided into squares, or grand divisions, by streets running due North and South, and East and West, which form the ground-work of the plan. But from the Capitol, the President's house, and some of the important ereas, are to be diagonal streets, which will prevent the monotony that characterises Philadelphia.

We here perceive the superiority of taste in a travelled Frenchman, over a homebred Englishman. Penn was the founder of Philadelphia; the plan of Washington was formed by Major L'Enfant.

The great leading streets are to be one hundred and sixty feet wide, including a pavement of ten feet, and a gravel walk of thirty feet, planted with trees on each side; which will leave eighty feet of paved street for carriages: the rest of the streets will, in general, be one hundred and ten feet wide, with a few only ninety feet, except North, South, and East Capitol streets, which are to be one hundred and sixty feet in breadth.

The diagonal streets are to be named after the respective States composing the Union; while those which run North and South, are, from the Capitol eastward, to be called, East first street, East second street, &c. and those West of it, are, in the same manner, to be named West first street, West second street, &c.

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The streets running East and West are, from the Capitol northward, to be called, North A street, North B street, &c. and those South of it are to be named, South A street, South B street, &c. There is not much taste, I think, displayed in thus naming the streets: Generals and Statesmen might have lent their names, and helped in their graves to keep patriotism alive.-A wag would infer that the North and South streets received their names from a pilot, and the East and West ones from an Alphabetical teacher.

The squares, or divisions of the city, will amount to eleven hundred and fifty. The rectangular squares, will, generally, contain from three to six acres, and be divided into lots of from forty to eighty feet in front, and from forty to three hundred feet in depth, according to the size of the squares. The irregular divisions produced by the diagonal streets are partly small, but commonly in valuable situations: their acute points are without distinction to be cut off at forty feet, inasmuch that no house in the city will have an acute corner: all the houses will be of stone or brick.

In a southern direction from the President's house, and a western one from the Capitol, are to run two great pleasure parks, or malls, which will intersect and terminate upon the banks of the Potomac ; and they are to be ornamented at the sides by a variety of elegant buildings, and houses for foreign Ministers.

Interspersed through the city, where the principal streets cross each other, is to be a number of open areas formed of various figures: fifteen of these areas are to be appropriated to the different States composing the Union; and, while they bear their respective names, be consecrated to the erecting of statues, obelisks, or columns, to the memory of their departed Heroes, Statesmen, and Poets. Upon a small eminence, where a line drawn due West from the Capitol, and another due South from the President's house, would intersect, is to be placed an Equestrian Statue of General Washington.

The Navy-yard and Marine-barracks are partly constructed. The Navy-yard is formed by the projection of a wharf into the Eastern Branch, from which a dock will be produced of great capaciousness; and the Marine-barracks are designed to form a mass of brick buildings two stories high.

A road is making from the Capitol to Georgetown, and another on the New Jersey avenue, between the Capitol and Eastern Branch: in effecting the last object, the declivity of the abrupt hill to the South of the Capitol has been effectually removed.

Of the public edifices, the Capitol and Presisident's house are the most magnificent. They are built of freestone, (resembling the white and red Portland), which is dug from inexhaustible

quarries on the banks of the Potomac. To the builder of the President's house might be applied the epitaph of Vanbrugh.

Lie heavy on him Earth ;—for he
Has laid a heavy load on thee!

The Treasury and War-office are constructed with brick. Some have objected, that the public offices are so remote from each other, as to obstruct the business of State. A shallow, gothic remark! The symmetry of the city would have been destroyed, had these buildings been more contiguous.

The Capitol is admirably situated on an ascent called Capitol Hill. The name of Capitol associates the noblest ideas in the mind. It has a Roman sound! In our enthusiasm we behold Virtue and Freedom, which, alas! have been so long extinct, again descending from heaven, and fixing their abode in the western world.

Between the Capitol and President's house, there has been dug a well, which suddenly overflowed, continues to overflow, and will probably for ever overflow. The proprietor of the well informed me, that having dug it about eleven feet deep, and five and a half in diameter, the water rose with impetuosity, and increased the diameter to ten feet. He afterwards sounded with a plummet, and found it had sunk another foot. It had continued to overflow without remission, and runs into the woods across the road