Albert Beveridge - The Life of John Marshall, Volume 3 - Conflict and construction, 1800-1815

Such was the City of Washington, with Georgetown near by, when Thomas Jefferson became President and John Marshall Chief Justice of the United States – the Capitol, Pennsylvania Avenue, the "Executive Mansion" or "President's Palace," the department buildings near it, the residences, shops, hostelries, and streets. It was a picture of sprawling aimlessness, confusion, inconvenience, and utter discomfort.

When considering the events that took place in the National Capital as narrated in these volumes, – the debates in Congress, the proclamations of Presidents, the opinions of judges, the intrigues of politicians, – when witnessing the scenes in which Marshall and Jefferson and Randolph and Burr and Pinckney and Webster were actors, we must think of Washington as a dismal place, where few and unattractive houses were scattered along muddy openings in the forests.

There was on paper a harmonious plan of a splendid city, but the realization of that plan had scarcely begun. As a situation for living, the Capital of the new Nation was, declared Gallatin, a "hateful place." 11 11 Gallatin to his wife, Aug. 17, 1802, Adams: Gallatin , 304. Most of the houses were "small miserable huts" which, as Wolcott informed his wife, "present an awful contrast to the public buildings." 12 12 Wolcott to his wife, July 4, 1800, Gibbs, ii, 377.

Aside from an increase in the number of residences and shops, the "Federal City" remained in this state for many years. "The Chuck holes were not bad ," wrote Otis of a journey out of Washington in 1815; "that is to say they were none of them much deeper than the Hubs of the hinder wheels. They were however exceedingly frequent." 13 13 Otis to his wife, Feb. 28, 1815, Morison: Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis , ii, 170-71. This letter is accurately descriptive of travel from the National Capital to Baltimore as late as 1815 and many years afterward. "The Bladensburg run, before we came to the bridge , was happily in no one place above the Horses bellies. – As we passed thro', the driver pointed out to us the spot, right under our wheels, where all the stage horses last year were drowned, but then he consoled us by shewing the tree, on which all the Passengers but one , were saved. Whether that one was gouty or not, I did not enquire… "We … arriv'd safe at our first stage, Ross's, having gone at a rate rather exceeding two miles & an half per hour… In case of a break Down or other accident, … I should be sorry to stick and freeze in over night ( as I have seen happen to twenty waggons ) for without an extraordinary thaw I could not be dug out in any reasonable dinner-time the next day." Of course conditions were much worse in all parts of the country, except the longest and most thickly settled sections. Pennsylvania Avenue was, at this time, merely a stretch of "yellow, tenacious mud," 14 14 Parton: Life of Thomas Jefferson , 622. or dust so deep and fine that, when stirred by the wind, it made near-by objects invisible. 15 15 Plumer to his wife, Jan. 25, 1807, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong. And so this street remained for decades. Long after the National Government was removed to Washington, the carriage of a diplomat became mired up to the axles in the sticky clay within four blocks of the President's residence and its occupant had to abandon the vehicle.

John Quincy Adams records in his diary, April 4, 1818, that on returning from a dinner the street was in such condition that "our carriage in coming for us … was overset, the harness broken. We got home with difficulty, twice being on the point of oversetting, and at the Treasury Office corner we were both obliged to get out … in the mud… It was a mercy that we all got home with whole bones." 16 16 Memoirs of John Quincy Adams : Adams, iv, 74; and see Quincy: Life of Josiah Quincy , 186. Bayard wrote to Rodney: "four months [in Washington] almost killed me." (Bayard to Rodney, Feb. 24, 1804, N. Y. Library Bulletin, iv, 230.)

Fever and other malarial ills were universal at certain seasons of the year. 17 17 Margaret Smith to Susan Smith, Dec. 26, 1802, Hunt, 33; also Mrs. Smith to her husband, July 8, 1803, ib. 41; and Gallatin to his wife, Aug. 17, 1802, Adams: Gallatin , 304-05. "No one, from the North or from the high country of the South, can pass the months of August and September there without intermittent or bilious fever," records King in 1803. 18 18 King to Gore, Aug. 20, 1803, Life and Correspondence of Rufus King : King, iv, 294; and see Adams: History of the United States , iv, 31. Provisions were scarce and Alexandria, across the river, was the principal source of supplies. 19 19 Gallatin to his wife, Jan. 15, 1801, Adams: Gallatin , 253. "My God! What have I done to reside in such a city," exclaimed a French diplomat. 20 20 Wharton: Social Life , 60. Some months after the Chase impeachment 21 21 See infra , chap. iv. Senator Plumer described Washington as "a little village in the midst of the woods." 22 22 Plumer to Lowndes, Dec. 30, 1805, Plumer: Life of William Plumer , 244. "The wilderness, alias the federal city." (Plumer to Tracy, May 2, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.) "Here I am in the wilderness of Washington," wrote Joseph Story in 1808. 23 23 Story to Fay, Feb. 16, 1808, Life and Letters of Joseph Story : Story, i, 161.

Except a small Catholic chapel there was only one church building in the entire city, and this tiny wooden sanctuary was attended by a congregation which seldom exceeded twenty persons. 24 24 This was a little Presbyterian church building, which was abandoned after 1800. (Bryan, i, 232; and see Hunt, 13-14.) This absence of churches was entirely in keeping with the inclination of people of fashion. The first Republican administration came, testifies Winfield Scott, in "the spring tide of infidelity… At school and college, most bright boys, of that day, affected to regard religion as base superstition or gross hypocricy." 25 25 Memoirs of Lieut. – General Scott , 9-10. Among the masses of the people, however, a profound religious movement was beginning. (See Semple: History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia ; and Cleveland: Great Revival in the West .) A year or two later, religious services were held every Sunday afternoon in the hall of the House of Representatives, which always was crowded on these occasions. The throng did not come to worship, it appears; seemingly, the legislative hall was considered to be a convenient meeting-place for gossip, flirtation, and social gayety. The plan was soon abandoned and the hall left entirely to profane usages. (Bryan, i, 606-07.)

Most of the Senators and Representatives of the early Congresses were crowded into the boarding-houses adjacent to the Capitol, two and sometimes more men sharing the same bedroom. At Conrad and McMunn's boarding-house, where Gallatin lived when he was in the House, and where Jefferson boarded up to the time of his inauguration, the charge was fifteen dollars a week, which included service, "wood, candles and liquors." 26 26 Gallatin to his wife, Jan. 15, 1801, Adams: Gallatin , 253. Board at the Indian Queen cost one dollar and fifty cents a day, "brandy and whisky being free." 27 27 Wharton: Social Life , 72. In some such inn the new Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, at first, found lodging.

Everybody ate at one long table. At Conrad and McMunn's more than thirty men would sit down at the same time, and Jefferson, who lived there while he was Vice-President, had the coldest and lowest place at the table; nor was a better seat offered him on the day when he took the oath of office as Chief Magistrate of the Republic. 28 28 Hunt, 12. Those who had to rent houses and maintain establishments were in distressing case. 29 29 See Merry to Hammond, Dec. 7, 1803, as quoted in Adams: U.S. ii, 362. Public men seldom brought their wives to Washington because of the absence of decent accommodations. (Mrs. Smith to Mrs. Kirkpatrick, Dec. 6, 1805, Hunt, 48.) "I do not perceive how the members of Congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or twenty in a house; and utterly excluded from society." (Wolcott to his wife, July 4, 1800, Gibbs, ii, 377.) So lacking were the most ordinary conveniences of life that a proposal was made in Congress, toward the close of Jefferson's first administration, to remove the Capital to Baltimore. 30 30 Plumer to Thompson, March 19,1804, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong. And see Annals , 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 282-88. The debate is instructive. The bill was lost by 9 yeas to 19 nays. An alternative suggestion was that the White House should be occupied by Congress and a cheaper building erected for the Presidential residence. 31 31 Hildreth: History of the United States , v, 516-17.