![JEFFERSON, Thomas, President. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as Secretary of State, to Mr. [Charles William Frederic] Dumas, Philadelphia, 2 February 1793. [With:] [ELLICOTT, Andrew]. Plan of the City of Washington. [Philadelphia:] Thackara & Vallance [1792]. JEFFERSON PUBLICIZES THE NEW "CITY OF WASHINGTON ON THE POTOMAC" IN EUROPE](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/NYR/1999_NYR_09178_0206_000(115057).jpg?w=1)
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JEFFERSON, Thomas, President. Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as Secretary of State, to Mr. [Charles William Frederic] Dumas, Philadelphia, 2 February 1793. [With:] [ELLICOTT, Andrew]. Plan of the City of Washington. [Philadelphia:] Thackara & Vallance [1792]. JEFFERSON PUBLICIZES THE NEW "CITY OF WASHINGTON ON THE POTOMAC" IN EUROPE
A letter which vividly testifies to Jefferson's deep personal involvement in the planning and construction of the new capital city of Washington, D.C., Jefferson writes: "Taking for granted that before the arrival of the vessel by which this goes, Mr. Short will have left the Hague on a temporary mission to Madrid, I have taken the liberty of addressing to you a packet of plans of the city of Washington on the Potomak, with a desire that they may be exhibited (not for sale) but in such shops, houses, or other places, where they may be most seen by those descriptions of people who would be the most likely to be attracted to it, & who would be worth attracting. The sea port towns are the most likely to possess persons of this description. With every wish for your health and happiness..."
The Secretary of State's "association with the beginnings of the new capital on the Potomac, which he and Washington generally called the 'Federal City,' was more intimate than that of any other high official of the government except the President himself" (D. Malone, Jefferson and the Rights of Man, p.371). While the site on the Potomac had been chosen by Washington himself, it was Jefferson who drew the first rough city-plan in March 1791, "very likely the first plan of the city...ever drafted" (Nelson R. Burr, "The Federal City Depicted," in A La Carte: Selected Papers on Maps and Atlases, Washington, 1972, p.133, with illustration). Jefferson's "rough sketch" was sent by Washington to Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French engineer who had served in the Continental Army and was responsible for designing the insignia of the Order of the Cincinnati and the remodeled Federal Hall in New York (site of Washington's inauguration). L'Enfant had offered his services in preparing the actual street and building plan; for this purpose, L'Enfant also studied a collection of city plans which Jefferson had collected in his European travels. L'Enfant's detailed site plans, which superimposed a radiating grid of wide avenues over a rectangular street grid, were approved by Washington in June 1791, but L'Enfant was asked to resign before these had been engraved. Finally the plans were copied by surveyor Andrew Ellicott, and engraved by Samuel Hill of Boston ("Plan of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia"). Not long afterwards, the Philadelphia publishers Thackara and Vallance also published a large plan, generally regarded as the official plan, since it was issued in the temporary seat of government. The Ellicott/L'Enfant plan was also widely copied in the periodicals of the day, and by other engravers; still, it is likely that Jefferson forwarded to Dumas copies of the Thackara and Vallance plan.
A letter which vividly testifies to Jefferson's deep personal involvement in the planning and construction of the new capital city of Washington, D.C., Jefferson writes: "Taking for granted that before the arrival of the vessel by which this goes, Mr. Short will have left the Hague on a temporary mission to Madrid, I have taken the liberty of addressing to you a packet of plans of the city of Washington on the Potomak, with a desire that they may be exhibited (not for sale) but in such shops, houses, or other places, where they may be most seen by those descriptions of people who would be the most likely to be attracted to it, & who would be worth attracting. The sea port towns are the most likely to possess persons of this description. With every wish for your health and happiness..."
The Secretary of State's "association with the beginnings of the new capital on the Potomac, which he and Washington generally called the 'Federal City,' was more intimate than that of any other high official of the government except the President himself" (D. Malone, Jefferson and the Rights of Man, p.371). While the site on the Potomac had been chosen by Washington himself, it was Jefferson who drew the first rough city-plan in March 1791, "very likely the first plan of the city...ever drafted" (Nelson R. Burr, "The Federal City Depicted," in A La Carte: Selected Papers on Maps and Atlases, Washington, 1972, p.133, with illustration). Jefferson's "rough sketch" was sent by Washington to Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French engineer who had served in the Continental Army and was responsible for designing the insignia of the Order of the Cincinnati and the remodeled Federal Hall in New York (site of Washington's inauguration). L'Enfant had offered his services in preparing the actual street and building plan; for this purpose, L'Enfant also studied a collection of city plans which Jefferson had collected in his European travels. L'Enfant's detailed site plans, which superimposed a radiating grid of wide avenues over a rectangular street grid, were approved by Washington in June 1791, but L'Enfant was asked to resign before these had been engraved. Finally the plans were copied by surveyor Andrew Ellicott, and engraved by Samuel Hill of Boston ("Plan of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia"). Not long afterwards, the Philadelphia publishers Thackara and Vallance also published a large plan, generally regarded as the official plan, since it was issued in the temporary seat of government. The Ellicott/L'Enfant plan was also widely copied in the periodicals of the day, and by other engravers; still, it is likely that Jefferson forwarded to Dumas copies of the Thackara and Vallance plan.