by the District of Columbia and one-half by the United States. The revenue of the District, which is derived from a property tax and from various licences, is paid into the United States Treasury; appropriations, always specific and based on estimates prepared by the commissioners, are made only by Congress; and all accounts are audited by the Treasury Department. The government owns the waterworks, by which an abundant supply of water is taken from the Potomac at the Great Falls, conducted for 12 m. through an aqueduct 9 ft. in diameter and filtered through a sand filtration plant.
The government of the District has been uniformly excellent, and the laws therefor have been modern in their tendency. The employment of children under fourteen years of age in any factory, workshop, mercantile establishment, store, business office, telegraph or telephone office, restaurant, hotel, apartment house, club, theatre, bootblack stand, or in the distribution or transmission of merchandise or messages is forbidden, except that a child between twelve and fourteen years of age may with the permission of the judge of the juvenile court be employed at an occupation not dangerous or injurious to his health or morals if necessary for his support or for the assistance of a disabled, ill or invalid parent, a younger brother or sister, or a widowed mother. No child under fourteen years of age may be employed in any work whatever before six o'clock in the morning, after seven o'clock in the evening, or during the hours when the public schools are in session.
History.—During the War of Independence Philadelphia was the principal seat of the Continental Congress, but it was driven thence in 1783 by mutinous soldiers, and for the succeeding seven years the discussion of a permanent site for the national capital was characterized by sectional jealousy, and there was a strong sentiment against choosing a state capital or a large city lest it should interfere with the Federal government. The Constitution, drafted in 1787, authorized Congress “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding 10 sq. m.) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States.” Virginia and Maryland promised such a cession; President Washington was known to be in favour of a site on the Potomac, and in July 1790 Alexander Hamilton, in return for Thomas Jefferson's assistance in passing the bill for the assumption of the state war debts by the Federal government, helped Jefferson to pass a bill for establishing the capital on the Potomac, by which the president was authorized to select a site anywhere along the Potomac between the Eastern Branch (Anacostia) and the Conococheague river, a distance of about 80 m., and to appoint three commissioners who under his direction should make the necessary surveys and provide accommodations for the receptipn of Congress in 1800. The commissioners—Thomas Johnson (1732-1819) and Daniel Carroll (1756-1829) of Maryland and Dr David Stuart of Virginia—gave the city its name; Major L'Enfant drew its plan, and Andrew Ellicott laid it out. When, in 1800, the government was removed to Washington it was “a backwoods settlement in the wilderness”; as a city it existed principally on paper, and the magnificence of the design only served to emphasize the poverty of the execution. One wing of the Capitol and the President's House were nearly completed, but much of the land surrounding the Capitol was a marsh; there were no streets worthy of the name, the roads were very bad, and the members of Congress were obliged to lodge in Georgetown. For many years such characterizations as “Wilderness City,” “Capital of Miserable Huts,” “City of Streets without Houses,” “City of Magnificent Distances” and “A Mudhole almost Equal to the Great Serbonian Bog” were common. Resolutions were frequently offered by some disgusted member of Congress for the removal of the capital. In 1814, during the second war with Great Britain, the British, after defeating on the 24th of August an American force at Bladensburg, Prince George county, Maryland, about 6 m. N.E. of Washington, occupied the city and burned the Capitol, the President's House, some of the public offices, and the Navy Yard. In the following year when a bill appropriating $300,000 for rebuilding was before Congress it met with formidable opposition from the “capital movers.” The question of removal was again to the front when, in 1846, the Virginia portion of the District was retroceded to that state in response to the appeal of Alexandria, which had suffered from the neglect of Congress. The lethargy of the nation toward its capital suddenly vanished at the outbreak of the Civil War. At the close of the first day's bombardment of Fort Sumter (April 12th, 1861) Leroy P. Walker (1817-1884), the Confederate Secretary of War, boasted that before the 1st of May the Confederate flag would float over the Capitol. The North, alarmed at the threat, speedily transformed Washington into a great military post and protected it on all sides with strong earthworks. Throughout the war it was the centre of the military operations of the North: here the armies were officered and marshalled, from here they marched on their campaigns against the South, here was the largest depot of military supplies, and here were great hospitals for the care of the wounded. Although several times threatened by the South, Washington was never really in danger except in July 1864 when General Jubal A. Early advanced against it with 12,000 veterans, defeated General Lew Wallace with about 3500 men at Monocacy Bridge on the 6th, and on the 11th appeared before the fortifications, which were at the time defended by only a few thousand raw troops; the city was saved by the timely arrival of some of Grant's veterans. In the city, on the 23rd and 24th of May 1865, President Andrew Johnson reviewed the returning soldiers of the Union Army.
The population of Washington increased from 61,122 to 109,199 or 78.6% in the decade from 1860 to 1870, and the stirring effects of the Civil War were far-reaching. The city had been founded on too elaborate and extensive a plan to be left to the initiative and unaided resources of its citizens. But under the new form of government which was instituted in 1871 a wonderful transformation was begun under the direction of Alexander R. Shepherd (1835-1902), the governor of the District and president of the board of public works. Temporary financial embarrassment followed, but when the Federal government had taken upon itself half the burden and established the economic administration of the commissioners, the problem of beautifying the nation's capital was solved.
Bibliography.—C. B. Todd, The Story of Washington, the National Capital (New York, 1889); R. R. Wilson, Washington, the Capital City (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1901); C. H. Forbes-Lindsay, Washington, the City and the Seat of Government (Philadelphia, 1908); F. A. Vanderlip, “The Nation's Capital,” in L. P. Powell's Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York, 1900); William V. Cox, 1800-1900, Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Seat of Government in the District of Columbia (Washington, 1901); J. A. Porter, The City of Washington, its Origin and Administration, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. iii. (Baltimore, 1885); C. Howard, Washington as a Center of Learning (Washington, 1904); Tindall, Origin and Government of the District of Columbia (ibid., 1903); A. R. Spofford, The Founding of Washington City (Baltimore, 1881); and Glenn Brown, Papers on Improvement of Washington City (Washington, 1901).
WASHINGTON, a city and county-seat of Daviess county, Indiana, U.S.A., about 50 m. N.E. of Evansville. Pop. (1890) 6064, (1900) 8551, of whom 391 were foreign born and 255 negroes, (1910 census) 11,404, It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio South Western (which has repair shops here) and the Evansville & Indianapolis railways. The city has a public library and a city park of 45 acres. It is the shipping point of the surrounding farming, stock-raising and coal-mining region, and there are deposits of kaolin and fireclay in the vicinity. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,166,749 (48.6% more than in 1900). The municipality owns and operates the electric lighting plant. Washington was settled in 1816 and chartered as a city in 1870.
WASHINGTON (or Washington Court House), a city and the county-seat of Fayette county, Ohio, U.S.A., on Paint Creek, 35 m. S.E. of Springfield. Pop. (1880) 3798, (1890) 5742, (1900) 5751 (708 negroes); (1910) 7277. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley (Pennsylvania Lines), the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railways. It is in a rich farming and stock and poultry-raising region, has a large poultry-packing house and various manufactures. Washington, or Washington Court House as it is often called to distinguish it from the
