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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



cessity for his dismissal in .1792 because 

 of his differences with the Capital Com- 

 missioners I need not dwell upon. It is 

 sufficient to say that L'Enfant's plan was 

 carried out with excellent judgment by 

 Ellicott, seconded by Washington. While 

 the initiation and foresight of Washing- 

 ton were indispensable to the making of 

 the plan, Jefl'erson, who entered heartily 

 into the project, was most useful in its 

 development. He showed his active sym- 

 pathy by sending to Major L'Enfant on 

 the lotii of April, 1791, the plans of 

 Frankfort-on-the-Main, Carlsruhe, Am- 

 sterdam, Strasburg, Paris, Orleans, Bor- 

 deaux, Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, 

 Turin, and Milan on a large and accurate 

 scale, which he said had been procured 

 by him while in those respective cities. 

 Speaking of the plans to L'Enfant, he 

 said : 



"As they are connected with the notes 

 I made in my travels and often are neces- 

 sary to explain them to myself, I will beg 

 your care of them and to return them 

 when no longer useful to you, leaving you 

 absolutely free to keep them as long as 

 useful. I am happy that the President 

 has left the planning of the town in such 

 good hands and have no doubt it will be 

 done to general satisfaction. Considering 

 that the grounds to be reserved for the 

 public or to be paid for by the acre, I 

 think very liberal reservations should be 

 made for them." 



Again he wrote to L'Enfant : 

 "Having communicated to the Presi- 

 dent, before he went away, such general 

 ideas on the subject of the town as oc- 

 curred to me, I make no doubt that, in 

 explaining himself to you on the subject, 

 he has interwoven with his own ideas 

 such of mine as he approved. For fear 

 of repeating, therefore, what he did not 

 approve, and having more confidence in 

 the unbiased state of his mind than in my 

 own, I avoid interfering with what he 

 may have expressed to you." 



A LOVER OF GOOD ARCHITECTURE; 



The detailed plans of Jefferson for the 

 buildings of the University of Virginia, 

 at Charlottesville, and the calculations of 

 their cost still extant, show his skill and 

 talent in architecture and his practical 



familiarity with methods and cost of con- 

 struction. One cannot visit Monticello 

 without realizing his love of natural 

 beauty and his power as a landscape 

 architect. 



I was much interested in a recent visit 

 to the University of Virginia to note the 

 effect of good architecture in the uni- 

 versity buildings upon a student body. 

 Everything on the grounds conforms to 

 the original plan of Jefferson, except one 

 building constructed soon after the Civil 

 W^ar according to the unsophisticated and 

 inartistic plans of the donor. That struc- 

 ture, although a large one and useful be- 

 cause of the space it affords, is an eye- 

 sore to every student who breathes in the 

 catholic and cultivated spirit of Jefferson 

 in his daily life, and they long for the 

 day when they can dispense with it. The 

 students' attitude shows the educational 

 effect of good architecture upon those 

 who live with it. 



Jefferson, like Washington, had an ade- 

 quate conception of the future of the 

 Federal City, for he says in his letter 

 w^ritten at Washington to Dr. Joseph 

 Priestley, the great Unitarian, under date 

 of April 9, 1803 : 



'T have not heard particularly what is 

 the state of your health ; but as it has 

 been equal to the journey to Philadelphia, 

 perhaps it might encourage the curiosity 

 you must feel to see for once this place, 

 which nature has formed on a beautiful 

 scale, and circumstances destine for a 

 great one." 



ITS DAY OF SMAI.L THINGS 



In its history Washington city has had 

 to live through the day of small things. 

 The plan of L'Enfant met the obstinacy 

 and lack of the artistic sense of certain 

 legislators who closed the vista between 

 the White House and the Capitol by in- 

 sisting on the erection of the Treasury 

 across the line of Pennsylvania avenue. 

 Then later on, when Congress seemed de- 

 termined to minimize everything national, 

 it retroceded to Virginia the part of the 

 ten miles square on the south side of the 

 Potomac River and furnished substantial 

 proof of its contracted view of Washing- 

 ton's future. This was quite a departure 

 from the broad, liberal attitude of Jeffer- 



