laid out on a magnificent scale, in 1791, and George Washington, with
masonic ceremonies, laid the corner-stone of the capitol building in
1793, the seat of government was not removed there until the year 1800.
The site for the city was a dreary one. At the time when the seat of
government was first moved there, only a path, leading through an alder
swamp on the line of the present Pennsylvania Avenue, was the way of
communication between the president's house and the capitol. For a
while, the executive and legislative officers of the government were
compelled to suffer many privations. In the fall of 1800, Oliver
Wolcott wrote:

"There is one good tavern about forty rods from the capitol, and several
houses are built or erecting; but I don't see how the members of
congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live
like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or
twenty in one house. The only resource for such as wish to live
comfortably will be found in Georgetown, three miles distant, over as
bad a road in winter as the clay grounds near Hartford.

"... There are, in fact, but few houses in any one place, and most of
them are small, miserable huts, which present an awful contrast to the
public buildings. The people are poor and, as far as I can judge, live
like fishes by eating each other. ... You may look in any direction over
an extent of ground nearly as large as the city of New York, without
seeing a fence or any object except brick kilns and temporary huts for
laborers. ... There is no industry, society or business."

On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated and commenced his
first term under favorable auspices. He was then fifty-eight years of
age--a tall, bony man, with grizzled sandy hair and rather slovenly