Rendezvous of the Lincoln Conspirators 274 A Herdic Cab 286 [Illustration] _Walks About Washington_ CHAPTER I A CAPITAL MADE TO ORDER With the possible exception of Petrograd, Washington is the only one of the world’s great capitals that was deliberately created for its purpose. Look for the origin of London, Paris, Berlin, or Rome, and you find it enveloped in a cloud of myth and fable, from which, it appears, the city emerged and took its place in history because certain evolutionary forces had made it the nucleus of a nation and hence the natural seat of government. Not so the capital of the United States. Here the Government was already established and seeking a habitation; and, since no existing city offered one that seemed generally satisfactory, a new city was made to order, so that from the outset it could be shaped as its tenant-master deemed best. The creative force at work in this instance found its outlet through a dinner. Of the ready-made cities which had competed for the honor of housing the Government, New York and Philadelphia were regarded by the Southern members of Congress as too far north both geographically and in sentiment, while the Northern members were equally unwilling to go far south in view of the difficulties of travel. Another sectional controversy broke out over the question whether the Federal Government, since it owed its birth to the War for Independence, were not in honor bound to assume the debts incurred by the several States in prosecuting that war. The North, as the more serious sufferer, demanded that it should, but the South insisted that every State should bear its own burden. In the midst of the discussion, Thomas Jefferson, who happened to be in a position to act as mediator, invited a few leaders of both factions to meet at his table; there, under the influence of savory viands and a bottle of port apiece, they arranged a compromise, whereby the Southern members were to vote for the assumption of the debts, in exchange for Northern votes for a southern site. The program went through Congress by a small majority, and the site chosen was a tract about ten miles square on both banks of the Potomac River, the land on the upper shore being ceded by Maryland and that on the lower by Virginia. The Virginia part was given back in 1846. As far as we know, the first map of this region was drawn by Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame and published in 1620 in his “Sixth Voyage to that Part of Virginia now Planted by English Colonies, whom God increase and preserve”; and the picturesque river which runs through it was described by him as the “Patawomeke, navigable 140 myles, and fed with many sweet rivers and springs which fall from the bordering hils. The river exceedth with aboundance of fish.”