Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. Thomas Jefferson and the National Capital: Containing Notes and Correspondence exchanged between Jefferson, Washington, L'Enfant, Ellicott, Hallett, Thornton, Latrobe, the Commissioners, and others
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L'ENFANT TO JEFFERSON

major l'enfant to thomas jefferson

Philadelphia, February 26, 1792
Sir;

   I received your favor of the 22nd instant; the sentiments
therein expressed I have attentively considered, nor can I dis-
cover any idea calculated to accomodate those dissentions
which so unfortunately have invaded the interests of the Fed-
eral city. I am well aware that the season for preparing for the
operations of the ensuing summer, if any are intended, has far
advanced. Indeed the time in which I conceived they ought to
have been in readiness, past. You well know my wishes for ar-
rangements tended in great measure to that object, conse-
quently fault cannot be mine, as my every exertion to accom-



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plish it was impeded by the Commissioners; The circumstances
attending these inconvencies [sic] have afforded me much anxi-
ety, solicitous as I have always been for the interest of that city;
at the same time I acknowledge that I am not a little surprised
to find that a doubt has arisen in the mind of your self or the
President of the uncertainty of my wishes to continue my serv-
ices there; the motives by which I have been actuated during
the time I have been engaged in it; the continual exertions I
have made in its promotion, the arrangement for this purpose
which I lately handed to he President, indeed every step I
have taken, cannot but evince most strongly how solicitously
concerned I am in the success of it, and with what regret I
should relinquish it -- .

   My desire to conform to the judgment and wishes of the
President have really been ardent. and I trust my actions al-
ways have manifested those lesires most uncontrovertably; nor
am I conscious in a single instance to have had any other mo-
tive than an implicit [unclear: ] to his will. Under this impres-
sion at the most early period of the work, no attention nor po-
liteness as a gentleman has been wanting in me to attain the
confidence and secure the friendship of the Commissioners -- I
coveted it, I sincerely wished it, knowing that without a perfect
good understanding between them and myself, whatever exer-
tions I should make, would prove fruitless; and embracing in
my mind the immensity of the business to be undertaken,
evinced to me the necessity that I should be disengaged from
every concern, and be devoted wholly to forming and carrying
into execution a plan in which I promised myself every support
from them, trusting they felt a similar interest in the prosperity
and success of the undertaking, and that therefore they would
freely have relied upon me in all matters relating to my profes-
sional character, and requested from me all the information
and assistance in my power to aid them in the performance of
their share of the business, which in men so little versed in the



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minutiae of such operations would have been judicious and
might in propriety have been done, without descending from
that pride of office which, I am mortified to be obliged to say it,
has been their chief object... and has afforded me much con-
cern, knowing that the President had always entertained a
different opinion of their dispositions, and delicately situated as
I was, put it out of my power to assure him that his expecta-
tions of these gentlemen adhering to their protestations to him
... were erroneous; as on the contrary, though apparently
acknowledging themselves obliged to me for affording neces-
sary information, on receiving it have uniformly acted in op-
position thereto... and appear rather to have endeavored to
obtain that knowledge from me the more effectually to defeat
my intentions... The inquietude I feel must continue to the
end to impede the business, which will oblige me to renounce
the pursuit of that fame, which the success of the undertaking
must procure, rather than to engage to conduct it under a sys-
tem which would... not only crush its growth but make me
appear the principal cause of the destruction of it... seeing
there is much stress laid upon the propriety of their conduct
and the motives by which... [it] is inspired lays me under the
necessity, in justification of my own feelings, to enumerate
some instances that occurred in the course of the work, in which
in my opinion, they have been rather deficient, and such as the
President himself will recollect -- In the first instance then, you
must remember what difficulties were encountered to obtain
ground proportional to the plan then under consideration of
the President, and how greatly these difficulties were aug-
mented by the non-concurrence of the Commissioners in any
steps I had taken to that effect. -- Also the unwearied efforts
made by them to cause some alterations in the plan since ap-
proved by him, all which evinces in them a greater concern to
favor individual interests, than attention to secure the public
good. -- This disposition has been particularly manifested in



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the business of the Boundary line... before the President him-
self had determined... [its] extent... directing Mr. Ellicott
to proceed according to their own ideas. The consequence of
this... was a general opposition to deed the land granted the
public, every individual justly conceiving they had as much
right to partiality as Mr. Notley Young, whose interest it
seemed to be the sole object of the Commissioners thereby to
benefit. The difference with Mr. Stoddert originated from this
source alone, by leaving out of that line his spring, which it was
intended to exclude and which became a forciable argument to
that gentleman to obtain his wish -- to the evident disfigura-
tion of the plan. Afterwards... when I actually prevailed upon
Mr. Robert Peters... to... wharf that part of the harbor be-
longing to him on terms advantageous to the public; this idea
the Commissioners rejected... conceiving that this improve-
ment would be injurious to the Carrollsburg interest, which in
fact it would have... promoted... The object of the canal...
they prevented from being begun... disregarding the benefit
... to the city in an easy transportation to the various parts...
under the influence... [of] the Georgetown opposition... as
injurious to the rapid development of that place...

   Constantly mislead by the allurement of parties... with a
temperament little addicted to business... involving them-
selves in contention and disputes... [they] have created dis-
sentions with the principles concerned in the execution and
encouraged mutiny among the people.

   Admitting however their confined ideas... to be a kind of
apology for the injudicious manner in which the business...
has been conducted,... yet... how wonderfully deficient
they have been in the prosecution... of contracts of supplies of
provisions etc... their inattention to a regular and economical
method to obtain necessary supplies and the uncertain mode of
procuring money... are facts so evident as to need no com-
ment.




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   The only purchase of any magnitude was that of the stone
quarry. For full information of the manner in which this busi-
ness was conducted I refer you to the enclosed letter that I
wrote to Mr. Brent upon particular application from his
brother, a copy of which has been forwarded by me to
Georgetown...

   It is also necessary to enter upon the subject... of those pro-
ceedings for which every dispassionate, impartial observer
must... condemn them -- the imprisonment of Mr. Rober-
deau acting under my orders and without even a suspicion of
their design, was highly injurious and rash seeing... I shall be
obliged publically to expose these transactions in my own justi-
fication, to their dishonor and to the evident disadvantage of
the public cause...

   I rest satisfied that the President will consider... that erect-
ing houses for the accomodation of Government, is not the only
object, nay, not so important an one, as the encouragement to
prepare buildings at those principal points, on the speedy settle-
ment of which depends the rapid increase of the city... while
the prosperity of the undertaking depends upon that spirit of
enterprise by which all improvements must be made and that
prudent manner by which the sale of lots and all establish-
ments both public and private shall be conducted.

   ... nor must it be expected that anything short of what I
propose will answer that purpose... to change a wilderness
into a city, to erect and beautify buildings etc. to that degree of
perfection necessary to receive the seat of Government of a vast
empire the short period of time that remains to effect these ob-
jects is an undertaking vast as it is novel -- and reflecting that
all this is to be done under the many disadvantages of opposing
interests... the only expedient is to conciliate and interest the
minds of all ranks of people... by holding out forcible induce-
ments...

   I hope it will be... too well evidenced that all my opposi-



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tion to them [the Commissioners] and the determination I have
taken no longer to act in subjection to their will and caprice, is
influenced by the purest principles and warmest good wishes to
the full attainment of the main object...

   If therefore the law absolutely requires without any equivo-
cation that my continuance shall depend upon an appointment
from the Commissioners -- I cannot nor would I upon any
consideration submit myself to it...

   I have the honor to be -- etc. etc.



[Elizabeth S. Kite, l'enfant and washington, pp. 145-50. The dots in the text are here
reproduced as printed by Miss Kite. Reprinted through the courtesy of the Johns Hop-
kins Press, Baltimore, Md.]