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قراءة كتاب A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia
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A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia
seat of the Federal Government. The story of the compromise which led to the selection of a site on the Potomac is told in all the history books.[21] These, however, rarely give the details of how the exact area which became the District of Columbia came to be chosen.
In 1789, the Virginia legislature adopted an Act[22] offering to cede "ten miles square, or any lesser Quantity of Territory within the State" to the United States for the permanent seat of the general government. Section I of this Act recited the motive: "Whereas the equal and common benefits resulting from the administration of the general government will be best diffused, and its operation become more prompt and certain, by establishing such a situation for the seat of the said government, as will be most central and convenient to the citizens of the United States at large, having regard as well to population, extent of territory, and a free navigation to the Atlantic Ocean, through the Chesapeake bay, as to the most direct and ready communication with our fellow citizens in the western frontier; and whereas it appears to this Assembly that a situation combining all considerations and advantages before recited, may be had on the banks of the river Patowmack, above tide water, in a country rich and fertile in soil, healthy and salubrious in climate, and abounding in all the necessaries and conveniences of life, where in a location of ten miles square, if the wisdom of Congress shall so direct, the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia may participate in such location."
It is clear from the inclusion of Pennsylvania as one of the participating States, and the reference to "above tide water" that the Virginia legislators of those days had in mind a tract somewhat higher up the river than that which was eventually chosen. Indeed, the first Act of Congress[23] dealing with this subject set the limits within which the Federal District was to be established "on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Connogochegue" (a tributary of the Potomac some 20 miles south of the Pennsylvania State line) and authorized the President to appoint three commissioners to survey and "by proper metes and bounds" define and limit the district to be accepted by the Congress.
By a proclamation of January 24, 1791,[24] President Washington directed that a survey should be made.
"… after duly examining and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the several situations within the limits aforesaid, I do hereby declare and make known that the location of one part of the said district of 10 miles square shall be found by running four lines of experiment in the following manner, that is to say: Running from the court-house of Alexandria, in Virginia, due southwest half a mile, and thence a due southeast course till it shall strike Hunting Creek, to fix the beginning of the said four lines of experiment.
"Then beginning the first of the said four lines of experiment at the point on Hunting Creek where the said southeast course shall have struck the same, and running to the said first line due northwest 10 miles; thence the second line into Maryland due northeast 10 miles; thence the third line due southeast 10 miles, and thence the fourth line due southwest 10 miles to the beginning on Hunting Creek."
Since the tract thus specified did not lie within the limits set by the Act of July 1790, the Congress was asked to authorize the moving of the southern boundary point of the "ten miles square" farther south to include the Eastern Branch and the town of Alexandria. Accordingly, the Act of July 16, 1790, was amended by an Act approved March 3, 1791:
"… it shall be lawful for the President to make any part of the territory below the said limit [the confluence of the Eastern Branch with the Potomac] and above the mouth of Hunting Creek, a part of said district, so as to include a convenient part of the Eastern Branch, and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof and also the town of Alexandria...."
No time was lost in establishing definite boundaries for the new district, and on March 30, 1791, President Washington issued a proclamation declaring
"that the whole of the said territory shall be located and included within the four lines following, that is to say:
"Beginning at Jones's Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek, in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of 45 degrees west of the north, and running in a direct line 10 miles for the first line; then beginning again at the same Jones's Point and running another direct line at a right angle with the first across the Potomac 10 miles for the second line; then from the termination of the said first and second lines running two other direct lines of 10 miles each, the one crossing the Eastern Branch aforesaid and the other the Potomac, and meeting each other in a point.
"… and the territory so to be located, defined, and limited shall be the whole territory accepted by the said acts of Congress as the district for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States."[25]
The cornerstone was set at Jones Point, on the bank of the Potomac below Alexandria, on April 15, 1791. Many of the original stones, set at intervals of one mile along the boundary, are still in place though badly showing the effects of time.[26] The stone referred to earlier—at the northwest corner of present Arlington County—is chipped and almost overgrown by the great oak tree near which it was placed. A small tract surround this stone has been set aside as a public park, jointly owned by the City of Falls Church and the counties of Arlington and Fairfax.
It is interesting that the Acts of Congress setting up the District of Columbia should have specified that no public buildings were to be erected on the Virginia side of the Potomac.[27] The Act of 1790 empowered the commissioners to buy or accept the gift of land for the site of public buildings only on the eastern side of the Potomac. The Act of 1791 made this limitation more explicit:
"… nothing herein contained, shall authorize the erection of public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potomac."
It is curious that this should have been so since the General Assembly of Virginia in 1789 followed its Act ceding territory for the formation of a Federal District by a joint resolution promising to appropriate not less than $120,000 (a considerable sum in those days) for public buildings in this territory if Maryland would put up an amount not less than three-fifths as much. The fact that there were no Federal office buildings