Ten Years in Washington: or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. GarfieldClemmer, Mary
History
Ten Years in Washington: or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. Garfield
Clemmer, Mary
Washington (D.C.) -- Description and travel; Washington (D.C.) -- History
He lived for many years on the Digges’ farm, the estate now owned by
George Riggs, the banker, situated about eight miles from Washington. He
was buried in the family burial-ground, in the Digges’ garden. When the
Digges family were disinterred, his dust was left nearly alone. There it
lies to-day, and the perpetually growing splendor of the ruling city
which he planned, is his only monument.
He was succeeded by Andrew Ellicott, a practical engineer, born in
Buck’s County, Pennsylvania. He was called a man of “uncommon talent”
and “placid temper.” Neither saved him from conflicts, (though of a
milder type than L’Enfant’s,) with the Commissioners. A Quaker, he yet
commanded a battalion of militia in the Revolution, and “was
thirty-seven years of age when he rode out with Washington to survey the
embryo city.” He finished, (with certain modifications,) the work which
L’Enfant began. For this he received the stupendous sum of $5.00 per day
which, with “expenses,” Jefferson thought to be altogether too much. In
his letter to the Commissioners dismissing L’Enfant, he says: “Ellicott
is to go on to finish laying off the plan on the ground, and surveying
and plotting the district. I have remonstrated with him on the excess of
five dollars a day and his expenses, and he has proposed striking off
the latter.”
After Ellicott concluded laying out the Capital, he became
Surveyor-General of the United States; laid out the towns of Erie,
Warren and Franklin, in Pennsylvania, and built Fort Erie. He defined
the boundary dividing the Republic from the Spanish Possessions; became
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Land Office, and in 1812 Professor of
Mathematics at West Point, where he died August, 1820, aged 66.
Ellicott’s most remarkable assistant was Benjamin Bancker, a negro. He
was, I believe, the first of his race to distinguish himself in the new
Republic. He was born with a genius for mathematics and the exact
sciences, and at an early age was the author of an Almanac, which
attracted the attention and commanded the praise of Thomas Jefferson.
When he came to “run the lines” of the future Capital, he was sixty
years of age. The caste of color could not have grown to its hight at
that day, for the Commissioners invited him to an official seat with
themselves, an honor which he declined. The picture given us of him is
that of a sable Franklin, large, noble, and venerable, with a dusky
face, white hair, a drab coat of superfine broadcloth, and a Quaker hat.
He was born and buried at Ellicott’s Mills, where his grave is now
unmarked. Here is a chance for the rising race to erect a monument to
one of their own sons, who in the face of ignorance and bondage proved
himself “every inch a man,” in intellectual gifts equal to the best.
CHAPTER IV.
OLD WASHINGTON.
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