Notwithstanding the incongruous and somewhat disgraceful picture which Sir Augustus paints of the Capital City of the new Republic, he goes on to say: “In spite of its inconveniences and desolate aspect, it was I think the most agreeable town to reside in for any length of time,” which if true insures our pity for what the remainder of our native land must have been. CHAPTER V. THE CAPITAL OF THE NATION. A Ward of Congress—Expectations Disappointed—Funds Low and People Few—Slow Progress of the City—First Idea of a National University—A Question of Importance Discussed—Generous Proposition of George Washington—Faith Under Difficulties—Transplanting an Entire College—An Old Proposition in a New Shape—What Washington “Society” Lacks—The Lombardy Poplars Refuse to Grow—Perils of the Way—A Long Plain of Mud—“The Forlornest City in Christendom”—Egyptian Dreariness—Incomplete and Desolate State of Affairs—The End of an Expensive Canal—The Water of Tiber Creek—American “Boys” on the March—Divided Allegiance of Old—The Stirring of a Nation’s Heart—Ready to March to her Defense—A Personal Interest—Patriotism Aroused—The First-born City of the Republic—Truly the Capital of the Nation. Washington was incorporated as a city by act of Congress, passed May 3, 1802. The city, planned solely as the National Capital, was laid out on a scale so grand and extensive that scanty municipal funds alone would never have been sufficient for its proper improvement. From the beginning it was the ward of Congress. Its magnificent avenues, squares and public buildings, could receive due decoration from no fund more scanty than a national appropriation. At first Congress appropriated funds with much spirit and some liberality, but there were many reasons why its zeal and munificence waned together. At this day it has not fulfilled the most sanguine expectations of its founders. In Jefferson’s time its population numbered but five thousand persons, and for forty years its increase of population only averaged about five hundred and fifty per annum. Many stately vessels sail down the Potomac to the Chesapeake and the James and out to the ocean; but the Potomac is far from being the highway of commerce. The wharves of Washington and Georgetown are empty compared with those of New York, or even of Baltimore. For generations there was neither commerce nor manufacture to induce men of capital to remove from large cities of active business to the new city in the wilderness, whose very life depended on the will of a majority of Congress. Washington’s idea of the National Capital far outleaped his century. His vision of its future greatness comprehended all that the capital of a great nation should be. He foresaw it, not only as the seat of national commerce, but the seat of national learning. One of the dearest projects of his last days was the founding