Several States were applicants for the permanent seat of government, but diplomacy and a good dinner settled the question in favor of its present site. We are apt to think everything was done in _that_ day on the high plane of patriotism, but prejudice, provincialism, and avarice each played its part. Hamilton was desirous of having his treasury policy adopted. The North favored this policy, but the representatives from that section, accustomed to the comforts of New York and Philadelphia, had no inclination to establish the Capitol on a swampy Southern plantation, away from the usual lines of travel. Washington was with the South. Jefferson gave a great dinner, where, under the influence of rare old wine and the witching words of Hamilton, Northern ease, in exchange for Southern consent to the treasury policy, gave way to the Southern desire that the nation’s Capitol should be located in its present position. The land was purchased from four planters—Young, Carroll, Davidson, and David Burns. Mr. Burns was not willing to part with his land at the rates offered. When Washington remonstrated, the old Scotchman said: “I suppose, Mr. Washington, you think that people are going to take every grist that comes from you as pure grain; but who would you have been if you had not married the widow Custis?” Posterity is apt to inquire, Who would ever have heard of the widow Custis if she had not married George Washington? But government had ways, then as now, of bringing about conclusions when property was wanted for public purposes. II A GENIUS FROM FRANCE Among the pathetic figures of the early days of the Capitol City is that of Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who was selected by Washington to draft plans for the new city. L’Enfant was a skilful engineer who had come to America with Lafayette in 1777. He did not go back to France with his countrymen in 1783, but remained in this country, and was employed by Washington as an engineer in several places. He devoted the summer of 1791 to planning, not the capital of a small nation, but a city which could be sufficiently enlarged should this continent be densely populated from the Atlantic to the Pacific. There was no other man in this country at that time who had such knowledge of art and engineering as Major L’Enfant. Plans of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam, Paris, Orleans, Turin, Milan, and other European cities were sent to him from Philadelphia by Washington, who had obtained the plan of each of these cities by his own personal effort. [Illustration: Photo by Clinedinst BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON, LOOKING EAST FROM THE MONUMENT ]