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 IN BEHALF OP THE 
 
 CORPORATE AUTHORITIES 
 
 AND ALMOST THE 
 
 ENTIRE POPULATION OF GEORGETOWN, D. C, 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 THE PETITION OF COL. ROBERTS AND TWELVE OTHER CITI- 
 ZENS TO CEDE AWAY A LARGE PORTION OF 
 THE TERRITORY OF SAID CITY. 
 
 rOLKlKMORH, PH., D SI. BET. 6TH 1 tTH, WAIMJNItTON. 
 

 ant. 
 
 W. Li. Snoemaiier 
 7 S '06 
 
 V 
 
^votimntt. 
 
 -»•»- 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — Your honorable comiuittee having decided mi 
 to cede as much of our territory as was requested by Mr. Roberts and 
 a few other persons, but only that part of it which lies north of Road 
 and Eighth streets, I desire very briefly to state our objections to the 
 measure in that amended form. 
 
 The Potomao river and Rock creek present impassable boundaries 
 to the eastern and southern portions of Georgetown. We advance 
 but little towards the west before we are met by a boundary as prac> 
 tically impassable, in a range of possessions owned by the Georgetown 
 College and '' The Academy of Visitation"-^which are retained in a 
 state of seclusion, which is appropriate to the educational and reli- 
 gious purposes to which they have been devoted for more than fifty 
 years. These possessions are not likely ever to be disturbed, or ap- 
 propriated for any municipal purpose whatever. At the north, nine- 
 tenths of the property on the north side of Road street has ever been 
 within our limits. It will, then, be seen, by reference to the map 
 and plat, now before you, that Mr. Roberts proposes to take from us 
 almost entirely the only remaining territory over which our popula- 
 tion can hereafter expand. That is simply the proposition before 
 you, and to which we are opposed, for reasons which I shall now pro- 
 ceed to state. 
 
 You are asked to separate a people who earnestly desire to remain 
 United, and abide a common destiny. Those who are to be disan- 
 nexed are a frugal, industrious and most respectable people. Most of 
 them are natives of the town, with whose laws and institutions they 
 are familiar, and to which they are devotedly attached. They have 
 felt the degradation incident to the anomalous political condition of 
 the District of Columbia, but they cling with pertinacity to the fevf 
 remaining rights, and almost imperceptible symptoms of self-govern- 
 ment which are supposed to be guaranteed to them in the charter of 
 Georgetown. Mr. Roberts has told you, in his memorial, something 
 
4 
 
 about the peculiar blessings of " self*governnient," which, by this 
 measure, he intends to confer upon theio. 
 
 Why, sir, these people have sense enough to know that they will 
 not be turned loose and allowed to do as they please ; they know that 
 they will be governed or misgoverned by somebody. They have 
 sometimes read the acts of Congress, which were approved May Ist, 
 1802, and July Ist, 1812, and know that these will hand them over 
 to the government of a body of men, who reside far away from their 
 limits, many of whom they don't know, and never saw, and with 
 whose selection and appointment they will have nothing to do. That 
 very body of men, sir, from whose intervention in their aifairs, the 
 people of Georgetown have long desired to be released, and for which 
 purpose a bill has recently passed the Senate. Mr. Roberts would 
 soon learn, from the presentation of tax bills, that there was a very 
 dignified body of gentlemen, assembling once a month in the City 
 Hall of Washington, whose business it is to tax everybody upon whom 
 they can lay their hands. 
 
 The extension of municipal authority and wholesome police regula- 
 tions over that section of the town is a matter of indispensible import- 
 ance to our whole population. You have seen that High street is our 
 only northern outlet, and that it terminates in a junction with the 
 turnpike road which leads to Maryland. It would never do to let our 
 main thoroughfare pass out of our hands — it would never do to allow 
 disorders to prevail there, or allow it to become dangerous or impass- 
 able from any kind of abuse or neglect. 
 
 It is known, too, that every city needs surburban accommodations, 
 where are generally localised all such establishments as would be in- 
 suflferable nuisances in the midst of a more crowded population. 
 Thirty years ago, our slaughter-houses and butchers' pens, were, by 
 an ordinance of the Corporation, confined to that distant section. 
 Police regulations have to be strictly enforced to prevent them from 
 forming dangerous evils and loathesome nuisances, even there. Com- 
 ply with Mr. Eoberts' request, and can any body tell how long it will 
 be before he will find such establishments within a few yards of his 
 premises ? There is at least one large lot just behind him which is 
 peculiarly eligible for such business, and would, in all probability, be 
 thus occupied before the end of the present year. 
 
 It is there, too, where the Corporation purchased nearly twenty 
 

 
 acres of land, on which we have a large establishment for the com- 
 fortable accommodation of the destitute poor of the town, and for the 
 confinement and employment of vicious and disorderly vagrants. Un- 
 less we can command that establishment, and preserve it from annoy- 
 ins influences, we would have to abandon it. 
 
 As the streets which bound Mr. Roberts' premises have all been 
 finished, he cannot dread any imposition of taxes for their repairs for 
 many years to come. The only tax to which he can refer is the gen- 
 eral one, for general purposes, and which everybody pays just in pro- 
 portion to the assessed value of their property, real and personal. 
 Mr. Roberts complains of the exorbitant rate at which his property 
 is assessed, and prays to be put outside of the corporate limits, main- 
 ly, if not exclusively, on that ground. It is a very easy thing for a 
 person to suppose himself to be harshly treated, and vexatiously op- 
 pressed, without reason, as it will appear from the following state- 
 ment of his assessed taxes : 
 
 His real property is assessed at |8,G(.)0 
 
 His personal estate ♦' 1,3U0 
 
 Whole assessment, |9,900 
 
 The tax upon that assessment is at the rate of 87 cents for the $100, 
 which amounts to the sum of $86 13, and which can be reduced by 
 him, if he paid the bill when presented, to the sum of $81 13. Now, 
 the question is, to what extent is he oppressed in his own estimation ? 
 Suppose his assessment ought to be reduced one-third — his tax would 
 then be $51 03, and then it would be clear that his whole hardship 
 resides in the payment of twenty-seven dollars and four cents more 
 than he thinks he ought to pay. 
 
 Gentlemen, is a difi'erence of opinion, as to a mere matter of fact, 
 involving that inconsiderable sum, between three gentlemen appraisers 
 of the highest respectability, acting under the solemnity of an oath, 
 on one side, and Mr. Roberts on the other, a thing of such dignity and 
 momentousness, as to demand an imposing act of Congressional in- 
 terposition ? Was it worth while to pester and worry those distin- 
 guished statesmen, who are our best friends in Congress, with a sub- 
 ject so purely trivial, when they have so many other and far more 
 important matters demanding their hourly attention f We deplore 
 "the proceeding, because it is calculated to hv'iug our affairs under 
 
public derision, and excite the impatience and disgust of Congress i^ 
 self, and for wliicli we are in no way responsible. 
 
 It will not do for him to talk about the hardships of the impositioa 
 ot street taxes. The part of High street, which runs the whole 
 length of that northern section, has hardly eyen been taxed at all. 
 The whole expense of its improvement, to this day, amounts to the 
 sum of 16,436 53, all of which should have been paid by the prop^ 
 erty by which it is bounded. But the whole town being peculiarly 
 mterested in the preservation of its only northern thoroughfare, we 
 paid out of the common treasury, $3,553 19 of the above expense. 
 Sii", does that look as if the taxes imposed upon, the heights " goes 
 wholly to the improvement of the business streets in which your peti- 
 tioner has no interest ?" or does it not rather look like taking the 
 « business town's'' money, and expending it liberally on the broad 
 avenues of " the heights^" 
 
 Now, sir, I will ask you if it would be right to inflict a great injury 
 upon Georgetown produce, strife and confusion, and permanent dis- 
 content among ten thousand people, to put about forty dollars in the 
 pocket of Mr. Roberts ? It would be a mistake, perhaps, to say that 
 that was his only or principal object. How far a certain fact may in- 
 fluence him I cannot tell ; but it is proper that it should be brought 
 to the notice of this honorable committee. 
 
 From inattention to street boundaries, and the carelessness of 
 builders, some of the people who reside in the northern part of the' 
 town have encroached seriously upon the streets by enclosing land to 
 which they had no earthly title. Public attention has been somewhat 
 called recently to that fact, and a good deal of uneasiness has thereby 
 been created in the minds of those who have strong reasons to believe 
 that their own lots are in that unfortunate condition. It is simply a 
 matter of justice that no one should invade the public streets and ap- 
 propriate portions of them to their own private use. Such encroach- 
 ments deform the outlines of the streets and seriously injure adjacent 
 property. To what extent Mr. Roberts is in that unfortu nate category 
 I am not precisely informed, but a late surveyor tells me that the 
 person who originally owned that gentleman's residence did trench 
 about three feet upon the whole line of his southern front, and how 
 much upon the other two streets, by which he is bounded, he does 
 not know. Now there is no other way of avoiding the consequences 
 
of these Inconsiderate aggressions than by having the whole of that 
 part of the town ceded to the adjacent country where narrow roads 
 -can be substituted for hroad streets. It is to be presumed that the 
 Corporation of Georgetown will take proper measures to ascertain the 
 extent of these misappropriations of portions of the public thorough- 
 fares, and have their lawful lines defined and maintained for the 
 future. 
 
 In the mere item of taxation, it is seen that Mr. Roberts, by being 
 transferred to the country, would save about sixty dollars. For that 
 small sum, and tlie tax upon his furniture, he secures all the compen- 
 sating advantages of a city government. He has the uninterrupted 
 use of the whole of our paved streets, and one of them illuminated 
 to his very door. He is in hail of the police, night-watch and fire- 
 eompanies ; and is so pecularly located that he enjoys all the advan- 
 tages of city life with almost perfect freedom from any of its annoyances. 
 
 This proposition, too, is one to sunder the bonds by which we have 
 long been held together in a common union and most congenial fellow- 
 ship. It is to disturb associations with which we were contented and 
 which we thought were to be perpetual. Such a scheme is certainly 
 worthy of the careful consideration of Congress. In the whole pro- 
 ceeding we have been taken by surprise, and with but little opportunity 
 to oppose it with becoming seriousness and formality. We have a 
 most profound respect for this honorable committee and the illustrious 
 body of which it is the organ. We feel safe in appealing to your 
 magnanimity, and humbly ask, if agreable to you, that the usual forms 
 of legislation may be observed in a matter which so deeply concerns 
 the welfare of those who are entirely dependent upon your protection. 
 We would be glad of the opportunity to approach the house commit- 
 tee upon this measure, should it be rcccommended by you and adopted 
 by the Senate. We will have that opportunity if you will kindly 
 consent to report it, if you should deem it your duty to do so, in the 
 usual form of a bill. I allude to this particular in consequence of 
 having been informed by our esteemed friend Grovernor Hamlin, that 
 the measure is to be presented in the form of a short amendment to 
 be appended to one of the appropriation bills. I am by no means 
 conversant with parliamentary law or the rules which govern the pro- 
 ceedings of Congress, but if I am not greatly in error, the measure, 
 if placed in that position, will never be considered by the District 
 
Committee of the House, aad may eventually become a law, even 
 should it be unanimously rejected by the House itself. It would then,, 
 probably, in the last hours of the session, go to a committee of con- 
 ference, with scores of other rejected amendments, and for the mere 
 purpose of conciliation and the prompt despatch of public business^ 
 it might be found necessary to let us slide. For that, and other rea- 
 sons which I have not time to state, we would, should you still deter- 
 mine to grant, in part, the prayer of those petitioners, greatly prefer 
 that you would adopt the form of a bill, that we may have secured to 
 us all the usual and legitimate opportunities of opposing it. 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I beg leave to tender you, and the 
 other gentlemen of this honorable committee, my thanks for opening 
 this subject again at my request, and to apologize for the tedious and 
 imperfect manner in which I have endeavored to explain our views in 
 regard to it. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS