WASHINGTON. 



749 



qnently republished by Van Nostrand, New 

 York. In 1 853 he was made commander, and in 

 1857 was appointed to the command of the re- 

 ceiving ship North Carolina, lying at the Brook- 

 lyn Navy Yard. At the commencement of the 

 hostilities resulting in the present war, Captain 

 Ward was summoned to Washington to aid the 

 Government by his counsels. Here he remain- 

 ed and organized the Potomac flotilla, to the 

 command of which he was appointed on the 

 16th of May, 1861. On the 31st of May he, 

 with the Freeborn, Anacosta and Resolute, 

 cannonaded the Confederate batteries at Ac- 

 quia Creek, silencing three of them, and only 

 retiring when his ammunition became exhaust- 

 ed. The next day, aided by the Pawnee, he 

 resumed the attack, and succeeded in silencing 

 the guns. On the 26th of June, upon discov- 

 ering that a battery was being erected at Mat- 

 thias Point by the Confederates, he sent to the 

 Pawnee for aid to throw up breastworks ; 

 when completed, as the men were returning to 

 the boats for the guns, a destructive fire was 

 opened upon them by the enemy in ambush. 

 The crew hastened to the steamer, the Freeborn 

 covering their retreat. Captain Ward gallant- 

 ly stood at his post sighting one of the guns, 

 when he was struck by a Minie ball and almost 

 ^instantly killed. His body was carried with due 

 honor to New York, where it was received and 

 laid in state on the North Carolina. After 

 many testimonials of respect and affection, it 

 was conveyed to Hartford and, after appropriate 

 funeral honors, was buried by the side of his 

 parents. 



WASHINGTON, the political capital of the 

 United States, is situated on the left bank of 

 the Potomac River, between two small tributa- 

 ries the one on the east called the East Branch, 

 and the one on the west called Rock Creek, 

 the latter separating it from Georgetown. It 

 is 38 miles south-southwest of Baltimore, and 

 122 miles north of Richmond. Virginia. 



The Constitution of the United States provides 

 that the Federal Government shall have exclu- 

 sive jurisdiction over a territory 10 miles square, 

 in which shall be located the capital of the 

 nation. Quite a strife arose in the early sessions 

 of Congress relative to the location of the seat 

 of Government. Many places were proposed, as 

 Trenton in New Jersey, Philadelphia and Har- 

 risburg in Pennsylvania, Wilmington in Dela- 

 ware, and Baltimore and Georgetown in Mary- 

 land. The measure finally became combined 

 with what was called the "Assumption Bill.'' 

 This bill proposed that the Government should 

 assume the debts of the several States, which 

 were contracted during the revolutionary war. 

 This bill, and the one to locate the seat of Gov- 

 ernment, had failed in Congress by small major- 

 ties. There was a strong sectional party in 

 favor of each, but not a majority. The Eastern 

 and Middle States were for the assumption, and 

 the Southern States against it ; the latter de- 

 sired the location of the seat of Government on 

 the bank of the Potomac ; the former upon the 



Susquehannah. The discontent was extreme 

 on each side at losing its favorite measure. 

 At last the two plans were combined. Two 

 members from the Potomac, who had voted 

 against the assumption, agreed to change their 

 votes ; a few from the Eastern and Middle 

 States who had voted against the Potomac, 

 agreed to change in its favor. Mr. Jefferson 

 gives the following account of it : " This 

 measure (the assumption) produced the most 

 bitter and angry contest ever known in Con- 

 gress before or since the union of the States. I 

 arrived (from France) in the midst of it ; but a 

 stranger to the ground, a stranger to the actors 

 in it, so long absent as to have lost all famili- 

 arity with the subject, and as yet unaware 

 of its object, I took no concern in it. The 

 great and trying question, however, was lost 

 in the House of Representatives. So high were 

 the feuds excited on this subject that, on its 

 rejection, business was suspended. Congress 

 met and adjourned from day to day without 

 doing anything, the parties being too much ont 

 of temper to do business together. The Eastern 

 members threatened secession and dissolution. 

 Hamilton was in despair. As I was going to 

 the President's one day I met him in the street. 

 He walked me backwards and forwards before 

 the President's door for half an hour. He 

 painted pathetically the temper into which the 

 Legislature had been wrought the disgust of 

 those who were called the creditor States the 

 danger of the secession of their members, and 

 of the separation of the States. He observed 

 that the members of the Administration ought 

 to act in concert that, though this question 

 was not of my Department, yet a common duty 

 should make it a common concern that the 

 President was the centre upon which all adminis- 

 trative questions ultimately rested, and that all 

 of us should rally around him, and support, 

 with joint efforts, measures approved by him; 

 and that the question having been lost by a 

 small majority only, it was probable that an ap- 

 peal from me to the judgment and discretion of 

 some of my friends, might effect a change in the 

 vote, and the machine of government, now sus- 

 pended, be again set in motion. I told him that 

 I was really a stranger to the whole subject ; 

 that not having yet informed myself of the sys- 

 tem of finances adopted, I knew not how far 

 this was a necessary sequence ; that, undoubted- 

 ly, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of 

 the Union at this incipient stage, I should deem 

 that the most unfortunate of all consequences, 

 to avert which all partial and temporary evils 

 should be yielded. I proposed to him. however, 

 to dine with me the next day. and I would in- 

 vite another friend or two, bring them into 

 conference together, and I thought it impossible 

 that reasonable men. consulting together coolly, 

 could fail, by some mutual sacrifices of opinion, 

 to form a compromise which would save the 

 Union. The discussion took place. I could 

 take no part in it but an exhortatory one, because 

 I was a stranger to the circumstances which 



