run “lines of experiment” – District of Columbia Quarter Coin

Today, the District of Columbia Quarter Coin remembers the actions of President Washington that began the identification of the new area for the seat of government 225 years ago.

In the Origin and Government of the District of Columbia, printed in 1909, William Tindall included the text of the document signed by the president and the description of the early boundaries of the District.

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George Washington, President of the United States.

To all who shall see these presents, greeting:

Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the integrity, skill, and diligence of Thomas Johnson and Daniel Carroll, of Maryland, and David Stuart, of Virginia, I do, in pursuance of the powers vested in me by the act entitled “An act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States,” approved July 16, 1790, hereby appoint them, the said Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart, commissioners for surveying the district of territory accepted by the said act for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States, and for performing such other offices as by law are directed, with full authority for them, or any two of them, to proceed therein according to law, and to have and to hold the said office, with all the powers, privileges, and authorities to the same of right appertaining each of them, during the pleasure of the President of the United States for the time being.

In testimony whereof I have caused these letters to be made patent and the seal of the United States thereto affixed.

Given under my hand at the city of Philadelphia, the twenty-second day of January, in year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety -one and of the Independence of the United States the fifteenth.

George Washington.

By the President:

Thomas Jefferson.

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The requisite area for the present site of the seat of government was offered to Congress by the States of Maryland and Virginia. The former State, by an act of its general assembly passed December 23, 1788, directed its Representatives in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States to cede to the Congress of the United States any district in said State not exceeding 10 miles square which the Congress might fix upon and accept for the seat of government.

The latter State, by an act of its general assembly passed December 3, 1789, ceded a like tract or any lesser quantity of Virginia territory for the same purpose.

A tract 10 miles square on the banks of the Delaware was also offered by certain citizens of Pennsylvania and New Jersey as a site for the seat of government.

The general assembly of Maryland, by an act passed December 19, 1791, formally ratified the cession provided for in its act of December 23, 1788.

Maryland also gave $72,000, and loaned $250,000 more for the erection of public buildings in the District for the use of the General Government.

Virginia made a grant of $120,000 for the same purpose in case of the acceptance by Congress of the cession of the site offered by it for the seat of government.

The southern limit of the area of selection for the site of the District was placed by the act of March 3, 1791, at Hunting Creek, an estuary of the Potomac River which enters that river from the west immediately below Alexandria, Va.

The northern limit was fixed by the act of July 16, 1790, at a small stream named “Connogochegue Creek,” which enters the Potomac River from the north, at Williamsport, Md. , about 80 miles above the southern limit.

In anticipation of the enactment of the statute of March 3, 1791, and to advance the work of locating the boundary lines of the District as far as possible pending its consideration, a tentative boundary of the District was laid out by Commissioners Thomas Johnson, David Stuart, and Daniel Carroll, who were appointed by President Washington on January 22, 1791, pursuant to the act of July 16, 1790, and directed by a Presidential proclamation dated January 24, 1791, to proceed forthwith to make a preliminary survey, or, in the President’s words, to run “lines of experiment,” which were substantially in accord with the lines subsequently adopted as hereinafter mentioned.

Mr. Carroll was a Delegate from Maryland, in the House of Representatives of the United States, when this appointment was first made, and declined to accept it while a member of Congress.

Consequently only two Commissioners were on duty until March 4, 1791, when Mr. Carroll’s Congressional term expired and he accepted a new commission which the President sent to him.

The point of beginning for the lines of experiment was found by “running from the court-house of Alexandria, in Virginia, due southwest half a mile, and thence a due southeast course, till it shall strike Hunting Creek.”

The area of selection having been enlarged by the act of March 3, 1791, the site of the District was finally located, partly in Prince George and Montgomery counties, in the State of Maryland, and partly in Fairfax County, in the State of Virginia, by proclamation of President George Washington, March 30, 1791, within the following bounds:

Beginning at Jones Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek, in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of 45 degrees west of the north, and running in a direct line 10 miles for the first line; then beginning again at the same Jones Point, and running another direct line at a right angle with the first across the Potomac 10 miles for the second line; then from the terminations of the said first and second lines running two other direct lines of 10 miles each, the one crossing the Eastern Branch aforesaid and the other the Potomac, and meeting each other in a point.

The corner stone which indicates the point of beginning in the boundaries of the District was laid at Jones Point, on the Virginia shore, with Masonic ceremonies, April 15, 1791, and now forms part of the foundation of the retaining wall of the terrace or garden around the Jones Point light-house.

It is under the gateway, and almost directly south of the center of the light-house, on the north bank of Hunting Creek.

A survey of the District, which was commenced in 1881 under the direction of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, demonstrated that the boundary lines as laid down by the commissioners in 1790 are incorrect. The northern point is 116 feet west of the meridian running through the southern corner, and each of the sides exceeds 10 miles in length.

The land boundary of the District of Columbia is marked on the ground by sandstone mileposts 1 foot square and 2 feet high, numbered from 1 to 9, from right to left. They bear on the side facing the District the legend, “Jurisdiction of the United States,” and the number of miles they respectively are from the corner at which the numerical series to which they belong begins.

On the opposite side they bear the inscription “Maryland,” on the third side the year 1792, and on the fourth side the variations of the compass.

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Today, the District of Columbia no longer resembles a square on the diagonal.

In 1886, Congress and President Polk re-ceded the area of Alexandria back to the State of Virginia.

But, in the interest of history, the District of Columbia Quarter Coin shows against an early boundary map with the “box” around the defined area for the new seat of the federal government.

District of Columbia Quarter Coin