Source: Through A Fiery Trial

pg 487: [Abigail Adams] "lamented that her nephew was 'in the only spot in America where from particular circumstances of local and partial views of interest sa it respects the federal city, the passions of individuals are excited and their animosity kindled against each other to the interuption of that harmony, friendship, cordiality, and freedom of intercourse so desirable in every neighborhood.' It was 'the very source and hot bed of dissension".

pg 554: "She would go to the city [Abigail Adams] but she did admit that she was "seomewhat discouraged from the account of roads, and from the account of the PResident's house which is represented so very large and like to be uncomfortably cold, situated from all society, without furniture, for what is containde in the house, 'tis said, will be lsot in that. Into that house the President is determined to go and part of it I hope may be got ready so as to accommodate him for the session"

pg 594 "After a harrowing ride in which they got lost between Baltimore and the city, Mrs. Adams, her son THomas, her niece, and her servant arrived on the 16th. 'As I expected to find it [the city] a new country, with houses scattered over a space of ten miles, and trees abnd stumps in plenty with a castle of a house, so I found it,' she wrote to her sister Mary Cranch. "The PResident's house is in a beautiful situation in front of which is the Potomac with a view of Alexandria. The country around is romantic but a wild,a wilderness at present.' After pledging not to complain, she admitted she preferred the house in Philadelphia:'not one room or chamber is finished of the whole. It is a habitabke [only] by fires in every part, thirteen of which we are obliged to keep daily, or sleep in wet and damp places".

pg 619: When John Quincy landed in Philadelphia he sent his wife on to her family in Washington, while he went to Qunicy to see his. His mother told him not to go to Washington before October, the end of the sickly season, advice he did not obey. His wife, Louisa, was sending him glowing reports of the city;"I'm quite delighted with the situation of the place, and I think should it ever be finished it will be one of the most beautiful spots in the world The President's house and the Captiol are the two most superb buildings and very well worth coming to see. The publick offices are likewise very handsome"

pg 585: [Margaret Bayard Smith] "...We entered a long and unshaded road, which rises a hill and crosses a vast common covered with shrub oak and black berries in abundance. I looked in vain for the city, and see no houses, although among the bushes I see different stonesm which here and there mark the different avenues. Foot paths and roads dissect the extensive plain, which is exactly like the common the other side of the Raritan, only mroe extensive and mroe productive of black berries and sweet briars. At last, I perceive the Capitol, a large, square, ungraceful white building; approaching nearer I see three large brick houses and a few hovels scattered over the plain. One of the brick houses is the one where we lodge.

"We drive to it It is surrounded with mud, shavings, bricks, planks, and all the rubbish of building. Here then I am. I alight, am introduced to Mr. Sill and led into aa large handsome parlor. I seat myself at the window, and while Mr. SMith is busied with the baggage, survey the scene before me. Immediately before the door is the place and whence the clay for bricks has been dug and which is now a pond of ditry water. All the materials for building, bricks, planks, and c. are scattered over the space which lies between this and the Capitol, and which is thickly overgrown with briars abd blackberries and intersected with footpaths. The Capitol is about as far from here as Col. Nelson's from you. Some brick kilns and small wooden houses are seen at or by the scene. ABout half a dozen brick houses are seen at a small distance. THe Capitol stands on a hill which slopes down towards teh Potomac, from the bottom of this hilol, to the river, extends a thick and noble wood, beyond this you see the river and the scene is then closed by a range of hills which extend north and south far as the eye can reach.

"I had time to take this scene before I was conducted to my chamber. It is about as large as yours. THe windows look upon the scene as I described. It is a western exposure and as I entered the rays of the setting sun fell upon the white walls. A neat ebd with a little counterpane stands opposite the fire place. A toilet is placed between the two windows, a wash table on the other side of the room, a tea table on one side of the fireplace, whtie windsor chairs with stuffed bottomsd, red copperplate curtains compose the furniture of this neat and comfortable apartment. I immediately change my dress, and then sat down by the window. The sun had now set, tho' the horizen still glowed with the richest crimson. A few tears started to my eyes when I gazed on the enw scene before me. When I felt that in this place, I was a stranger, unknowing and unknow. He drew a cahir close to me, he pressed tenderly to my boson and mingled his tears with mine. They were trars of the purest happiness"

pg 592: "They did not like the luxurious president's house. "THe impression of its folly was stronger than that of its greatness." She preferred the "honest industry" at the Navy Yard, where, walking along an uneven, broken shore, she found "an hundred men were employed in digging away a hill and piling up a wharf". They also admired the sugarhouse.

pg 582:Mrs. Fenwick's dispute with James Barry.

"James Barry began doubting that the commissioners and the original proprtietors had the will to make a city.Long before the city was laid out, the Fenwick family had farmed the Carroll family's land at the point. The death of Captain Ignatious Fenwick changed nothing, as eleven slaves continued to work the farm for his widow, Mary. Her house stood in the intersection of South Capitol St, Georgia Avenue, and R street, surrounded by gardens and the huts of her slaves, inckuding one but nine feet square. From his house and wharf at the end of New Jersey Avenue, Barry decided not to follow his friend Law with investments up the avenue to the Capitol but to invest and develop the waterfront between his wharf on the Eastern Branch of the Potomac. In May he asked the commissioners to open up Georgia Ave, the thoroughfare that united his properties. It was a nice way of saying he wanted Mrs. Fenwick and her gardens and slaves removed.

The board passsed on Barry's request to the widow and she complained to Daniel Carroll's mother, who in turn complained to her son. He took up her cause, telling the board that she did not object to removing " real obstructions to any one intending to build" but that the avenue was so wide folks could apss by without bothering her and vice versa. But if all had to go, she would cooperate as soon as she was paid a fair value for her property. The board summoned Barry and Mrs. Fenwick to attend a meeting. Barry attended, but MRs. Fenwick did nt, and only one member of the board was present. Barry lost his patience. It was "as if time was to stand still." while building season passed. "Can it be expected," he complained to the board" situated as I am, surrounded by shades of all colors that I am to breakground by placing a building or improvement within 30 or 40 feet of the hovels and purlieus of this class." THe board ordered Mrs. Fenwick to cut back her garden "to allow free passage of all carriages on the street" and tor emove one small building and one hovel that were inn the street. Barry demanded that the avenue and streets be completely opened."

279: Mrs Deblois (daughter of Tobias Lear) to Nicholson-

" Let me entreat you for a few moments to think about my situation watching my best friend in I fear a dangerous illness, om a stramge place with three female infants, my case id deplorable....I never saw such gloomy days".

291: Mrs Stephen Hallet

"On his return to Philadelphia the president got a long letter from Mrs. Hallet. Her husband did not want his old job back even though the plan of the Capitol was his and no one could superintend its construction better. She begged the president only to pay their debts as compensation for their considerable suffering. "I shrink still at the remembrance of three children torn out of my breast by death here, on this very spot....The exorbitant price of any kind of provisions in this retired place; a heavier rent for a house in the woods than we should have paid in Philadelphia for a more decent and more comfortable one;...who can rise and object mismanagement, pleasure, or ostentation in the midst of the woods far from all society have brought us to this cruel situation?"

She wanted $550, enough money to return the family (two children survived) to Philadelphia and pay off their debts. THe commisioners in turn were unmoved, explaining to the president that they had given Hallet $250 more than called for merely out of regard for the suffering of his family.

References to Eliza Custis Law:

347:

Law did not let the trouble over the deeds weigh him down. On January 19 he sent a plan to retire teh British natinal debt to an English friend and added that as for himself, "I hope to obtain the heart of Miss Custis the President's grand daughter. I mean to set up an Agency for India in Washington" So busy was his oursuit of Eliza Custis (he was then proving to David Stuart, her stepfather that he was worth a little over $ 250,000 and could settle 10,000 pounds sterling on Eliza)....

409

" Nicholson made getting titles for him his next project, though not out of any respect for Law. Nicholson blamed Law's wife for all the complaining. "Youw ill say I have got her on my back..." he joked with Morris, "no matter back or belly or whom is on or off, I give her credit for many of the visits I have from him. He comes in full charge and after a little conversation he is reasonable."

626

Law had failed in his effort to raise money for a canal in 1802. THe notable result of his trip to England was his wife's infatuation with marine officers. THe Laws separated. He sais she was "insane" and of course veryone in the city had a file of stories demonstrating his insanity)