750 



WASHINGTON. 



should govern it. But it was finally agreed 

 that, whatever importance had been attached to 

 the rejection of this proposition, the preservation 

 of the Union and of concord among the States 

 was more important, and that therefore it would 

 be better that the vote of rejection should be re- 

 scinded to effect which some members should 

 change their votes. But it was observed that 

 this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the South- 

 ern States, and that some concomitant measure 

 should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them. 

 There had before been propositions to fix the seat 

 of Government either at Philadelphia or George- 

 town on the Potomac, and it was thought that 

 by giving it to Philadelphia for 10 years, and 

 to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this 

 might, as an anodyne, calm in some degree the 

 ferment which might be excited by the other 

 measure alone ; so two of the Potomac mem- 

 bers agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton 

 undertook to carry the other point." Con- 

 gress accordingly continued its sessions at 

 Philadelphia until suitable preparations were 

 made, and then removed to Washington. The 

 'subsequent growth and improvement of the 

 city have been on a scale corresponding to its 

 importance. The population in 1860 was 61,123. 

 In January of 1861, it was reported at Wash- 

 ington, then the scene of the greatest political 

 excitement in the country, that the President 

 elect, Mr. Lincoln, had contemplated coming 

 to Washington from the West by the route of 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but in conse- 

 quence of apprehended dangers had changed his 

 purpose. This led to the following letter from 

 the mayor of Washington to the president of 

 the railroad company : 



MAYOR'S OFFICE, "WASHINGTON, ) 

 February 1, 1861. ( 



SIR: I learn that the President elect, until very 

 recently, contemplated passing over your road from . 

 Wheeling to this city, and that, owing to rumored in- 

 tentions on the part of citizens of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia to interfere with his travel to our capital, you 

 were induced to make diligent inquiry as to the truth 

 of these threats. If correctly informed, will you do 

 me the favor to state the result of your inquiries 

 touching this matter ? 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



JAMES G. BEKRET, Mayor. . 

 Jxo. W. GARRETT, 



Pres. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Comp'y. 



On the 4th of February Mr. Garrett replied : 

 I can assure you that there is not and has not been 

 the least foundation for any of the rumors to which 

 you refer, and which have been industriously circu- 

 lated in the Northwest. They are the simple inven- 

 tions of those who are agents in the West for other 

 lines, and are set on foot more with a hope of inter- 

 fering with the trade and travel on the shortest route 

 to the seaboard than with any desire to promote the 

 safety and comfort of the President elect. His safety 

 and comfort would have been perfectly assured from 

 the Ohio River to Washington, had he adhered to his 

 original purpose. 



Our road is regarded, both in Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia, as a monument of the common enterprise of 

 their people and as the means of a common prosperity. 

 This feeling is of itself sufficient to protect the travel 

 and freight of the road from all annoyance. I can 

 only regret that the purpose of the President elect 



to travel by another route should serve to give coun- 

 tenance to stories which are in every respect un- 

 founded. 



Rumors of an attack upon Washington by 

 bodies of men sympathizing with the secession- 

 ists had prevailed for some time previous. . The 

 substance of them was that an organization had 

 been formed with the design of capturing the 

 city. Small bodies of the regular army were 

 therefore from time to time concentrated there. 



On the 4th of February the Senate of the 

 Virginia Legislature adopted a resolution, that 

 in their opinion, there were " no just grounds 

 for believing that citizens of Virginia med- 

 itate an attack on or seizure of the Federal 

 property, or an invasion of the District of Co- 

 lumbia, and that all preparations to resist the 

 same are unnecessary so far as this State is 

 concerned." 



Ex-Governor Wise of that State, upon whom 

 such a design had been charged, in a speech at 

 Richmond on Feb. 14, " denounced as false the 

 report that he ever contemplated the invasion 

 of Washington to prevent the inauguration of 

 Mr. Lincoln. He deprecated civil war, but coun- 

 selled active preparations to resist coercion. He 

 was for the Union and the Constitution, but 

 would never submit to a Northern Confederacy. 

 He believed that if Virginia would take a firm 

 stand and do her duty faithfully, all would yet 

 be well. But she should demand that the Gov- 

 ernment should vacate the forts and arsenals 

 in the South, and stand as a mediator between 

 the North and the South." 



On the llth of February the House of Repre- 

 sentatives of Congress adopted a resolution re- 

 questing the President to communicate " the 

 reasons that had induced him to assemble so 

 large a number of troops in this city, and why 

 they are kept here ; and whether he has any 

 information of a conspiracy upon the part of 

 any portion of the citizens of this country to 

 seize upon the capital and prevent the inaugu- 

 ration of the President elect." To this resolu- 

 tion the President replied on the 1st of March, 

 stating that the number of troops in Washing- 

 ton was 653, exclusive of marines, who were at 

 the navy yard as their appropriate station. He 

 further stated that these troops were ordered to 

 Washington to act as a posse comitatus, in strict 

 obedience to the civil authority, for the purpose 

 of preserving peace and order in Washington, if 

 this should have been necessary before or at 

 the period of the inauguration of the President 

 elect. At a time of high excitement, conse- 

 quent upon revolutionary events when the 

 very air was filled with rumors, and individuals 

 indulged in the most extravagant expressions of 

 fears and threats, the President did not think 

 that, before adopting this precautionary meas- 

 ure, he should have waited to obtain proof of 

 the actual existence of a conspiracy to seize the 

 capital. The safety of the immense amount of 

 public property in the city, and that of the ar- 

 chives of the Government, in which all the 

 States, and especially the new States in which 



