This, the first engraved and published plan of the city, was urgently needed by the Commissioners for use in the sale of lots. It was engraved in Boston by Samuel Hill. L'Enfant's refusal, from a strange fear of aiding speculators, to allow the Commissioners to use his original plan for reproduction, had caused ill-feeling and unpleasant complications, and several buildings had been erected which encroached upon street lines.

A few days after the date of this letter, Major L'Enfant having continued his obstinate attitude, was dismissed. Jefferson announced this on March 6, 1792, to the Commissioners as follows:-"It having been found impracticable to employ Major L'Enfant about the Federal City in that degree of subordination which was lawful and proper, he has been notified that his services are at an end. . . . Ellicott is to go on and finish laying off the plan on the ground and surveying and plotting the district. The enemies of this enterprise will take advantage of the retirement of L'Enfant to trumpet an abortion of the whole. This will require double exertions, to be counteracted."2

When L'Enfant was dismissed, early in March, 1792, he took his original manuscript plan away with him and refused to allow any use to be made of it in the preparation of the revised plan of the city by Major Ellicott. As Washington wrote, years afterwards: "His obstinacy threw every difficulty in the way." After L'Enfant's dismissal Andrew Ellicott re-drew the entire plan. As engineer in charge of the survey of the new District of Columbia he was familiar with L'Enfant's map of the city and he retained as far as practicable, all of L'Enfant's ideas, but made the necessary changes desired, and added, with Washington's approval, many modifications of his

own.

This plan (the second engraved plan) was engraved

2 "Writings of Thomas Jefferson," Vol. III, pp. 336.

in the fall of 1792 by Thackera & Vallance of Philadelphia and is known as the "official" or "engraved" plan.

Five years later President Washington stated in a personal letter to the Commissioners, dated February 20, 1797:

". . . That many alterations have been made from L'Enfant's plan by Major Ellicott with the approbation of the Executive, is not denied. That some were deemed essential is avowed, and had it not been for the materials which he happened to possess, it is probable that no engraving from L'Enfant's draughts ever would have been exhibited to the public, for after the disagreement took place between him and the commissioners, his obstinacy threw every difficulty in the way of its accomplishment.

Mr. Davidson3 is mistaken if he supposes that the transmission of L'Enfant's plan to Congress was the completion thereof; so far from it, it will appear, by the message which accompanied the same, that it was given as matter of information only, to show what state the business was in, and the return of it requested.4

On June 1, 1799, after his retirement from the Presidency Washington wrote in reply to an inquiry: "It has always been my invariable opinion, and remains still to be so, that no departure from the engraved plan of the city ought to be allowed, unless imperious necessity should require it, or some great public good is to be promoted thereby."5

A letter from three later commissioners to Mr. Dennis, chairman of a committee of Congress, headed "At the Commisisoners Office, March 23, 1802," states that

. . Major L'Enfant's plan of the city was sent to the House of Representatives on the 13th December 1791, by President Washington for the information of the House, and afterwards withdrawn. Many alterations were made therefrom by Major Ellicott with the approbation of the President and under his

3 The Mr. Davidson referred to was one of the original land proprietors who objected because the changes made by Ellicott in the original L'Enfant plan had cut into some of his holdings. He therefore claimed that the L'Enfant map was the official one; but Washington decided against him.

4 American State Papers, Class X, Vol. I, Misc. p. 334.

5 Ibid., p. 336.

authority. All the appropriations (except as to the Capitol and the President's house) were struck out, and the plan, thus altered, sent to the engraver. These changes from L'Enfant's plan took place in the year 1792, and the public plan appears to have been engraved in October of that year. This plan being made partly from L'Enfant's draughts and partly from material possessed by Ellicott.6

And in the report communicated to the House of Representatives by Mr. Dennis, April 8, 1802,7 he says:

Your committee finds that the plan of the City was originally designed by Mr. L'Enfant, but that it was in many respects rejected by the President of the United States and a plan was drawn up by Mr. Ellicott, purporting to have been made by actual survey, which recognized the alterations made therein and which was engraved and published by the order of General Washington in the year 1792.

This plan was circulated by the Government throughout the United States and sent to the public agents in Europe, by authority of the Government, as the plan of the city, and is the only one which has ever been engraved and published.8

The late Hon. Joseph C. G. Kennedy, M.A., LL.D., of Washington, D. C., a grandson of Andrew Ellicott, was director of the United States Census in 1850 and 1860 and widely known as a scholar and expert statistician, who frequently represented the United States on important scientific commissions abroad. In 1866 King Christian of Denmark presented him with a gold medal in recognition of his statistical work. Mr. Kennedy possessed one of the pair of large silver goblets given by Washington to his grandfather on the completion of his work on the Washington plan and survey, and three commissions issued to him by the Government.

The plan-"Philadelphia griddled across Versailles”— was carried out and completed by Major Ellicott in 1792. "This plan being made partly from L'Enfant's draughts and partly from his (Ellicott's) own materials," to quote

6 Ibid., p. 333.

7 Ibid., p. 330.

8 Except, of course, the first map prepared by Ellicott and engraved at Boston in 1792, for use in the sale of lots.

the above letter from the three later commissioners of the District to Mr. Dennis. Ellicott used his knowledge of L'Enfant's plan "wherever practicable, and as far as practicable," introducing, of course, the numerous changes suggested by Washington, and he combined all these ideas with his own personal material to produce the final completed plan of the city.

In the Library of Congress I was shown recently a faded, discolored and badly damaged old map of Washington, bearing L'Enfant's name and stated to be his original manuscript plan. In 1887 a careful tracing of it was made, and this has been reproduced by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, as Chart No. 3035a. The breaks here and there in the reproduction are due to faded-out or broken spots in the original which could not be deciphered. This map bears L'Enfant's name in small letters and credit is given to Ellicott for fixing the meridian and for the survey.

The "official" or "engraved" map of the city, prepared by Andrew Ellicott and engraved by Thackera & Vallance of Philadelphia, November, 1792, has also been reproduced in fac-simile as Chart No. 3035. These two maps are very similar in general outline, but a critical comparison will show many changes and differences in the "official" or "engraved" map as drawn by Ellicott. [See note, page 48.]

The earlier map prepared by Major Ellicott in February 1792 and engraved by S. Hill of Boston, has also been reproduced as Chart No. 3043.

Both of the engraved maps have the original credit to Mr. Ellicott for the fixing of the meridian and for the survey, but the modified plan itself is not signed for either L'Enfant or Ellicott. Some criticism has arisen on this account, but as L'Enfant had absolutely refused to change a line in his original plan his name could hardly be used on a modification of that plan containing many changes,

at least without an explanation, which the authorities, indignant at the difficulties he had placed in the way of carrying out the work, apparently did not care to make. It must be remembered that all changes or omissions from the original plan were made only with Washington's approval.

9

The original L'Enfant manuscript plan was carried away and retained by him for several years after his dismissal, March 6th, 1792; but on December 1, 1796, it was evidently again in Washington's hands, as he wrote the Commissioners on that day promising to send it to them. On December 5th, 1796, the Commissioners acknowledged the receipt of the plan. In a letter signed by them, dated February 2, 1797, they speak of having the L'Enfant plan in their possession and state that they had no knowledge of it "till about two months ago," and that "the engraved plan has been the general rule in our transactions." The "engraved" or "official" plan is the one published in the Fall of 1792, with the many changes made by Major Ellicott, which was officially adopted and used thereafter.

The L'Enfant manuscript plan remained in the commissioners' office until 1798, when it was transferred to the office of the Commissioners of Public Buildings. In November, 1918, it was transferred to the Library of Congress, where it now is.

On January 1, 1793, Andrew Ellicott reported to the Commissioners "the completion of the survey of the four lines comprehending the Territory of Columbia"-the ten mile square. His map, signed by him, was engraved in 1794 and a reproduction of it is published by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.

Ambassador Jusserand of France in his book, "With Americans of Past and Present Days," published in 1916, gives a sympathetic account of Major L'Enfant from

9 Columbia Historical Society Records, 1899, Vol. II, p. 62.