Jean Jules Jusserand (18551932). With Americans of Past and
Present Days. 1916. II. Major LEnfant and the Federal City
LITTLE more than a century ago the hill on which rises the
Capitol of the federal city and the ground around it were
covered with woods and underbrush; a few scattered farms had
been built here and there, with one or two exceptions mere
wooden structures whose low roofs scarcely emerged from their
leafy surroundings. Not very long before, Indians had used to
gather on that eminence and hold their council-fires. As far now
as the eye can reach the picturesque outline of one of the
finest cities that exist is discovered; steeples and pinnacles
rise above the verdure of the trees lining the avenues within
the unaltered frame supplied by the blue hills of Maryland and
Virginia. Debates and competitions had been very keen; more than
one city of the North and of the South had put forth pleas to be
the one selected and become the capital: Boston, where the first
shot had been fired; Philadelphia, wh