Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/502

 482 WASHINGTON GEORGE WASHINGTON selected by Washington, and commissioners were appointed to lay out the city. The gov- ernment was established here in 1800, congress assembling on Nov. 17. On Aug. 24, 1814, the British took possession of the city and burned the public buildings. Washington was under municipal government from 1802 to 1871, when a territorial government was or- ganized for the entire District. This was abol- ished by the act of June 20, 1874, which placed the District under three commissioners appoint- ed by the president with tlie consent of the senate. The apprehensions of an attack upon Washington had an important bearing upon military operations during a great part of the civil war. Slight works were begun before the city at an early date, and after the defeat at Bull Run these became formidable, and at times were strongly garrisoned. After Pope's defeat at the second battle of Bull Run, the Union army was concentrated behind the intrench- ments at Washington, McClellan being placed in command of all the troops in the vicinity of the capital. In July, 1864, Washington was left actually unguarded, and Lee ordered a sud- den raid by which he hoped to induce Grant to withdraw so much of his force around Peters- burg and Richmond as to involve at least a temporary raising of the siege. This operation was intrusted to Gen. Early, with about 12,000 men, who crossed the Potomac, and at Mono- cacy, on the 9th, defeated Gen. Wallace. On the morning of the llth he was in front of Fort Stevens, almost in sight of Washington. Grant meanwhile had sent Gen. Wright with the 6th corps from Petersburg. On the 12th ho attacked Early, who retreated during the night, and recrossed the Potomac. WASHINGTON, a borough and the county seat of Washington co., Pennsylvania, 31 m. 8. W. of Pittsburgh by the Chartiers railroad ; pop. in 1870, 3,571. It is connected by a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad with .Wheeling, W. Va. There are two iron founderies, a woollen factory, two coach fac- tories, and various other manufactories, a na- tional bank, a savings bank, several schools, three weekly newspapers, and 11 churches, viz. : Baptist, Disciples', Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist (3), Presbyterian (3), and Roman Catholic. Washington is the seat of Wash- ington female seminary, and of Washington and Jefferson college (Presbyterian), formed in 1865 by the union of Jefferson and Wash- ington colleges. It occupies fine grounds, on which commodious new buildings have been re- cently erected. It comprises preparatory and collegiate departments, the latter having clas- sical and scientific courses. The libraries con- tain 8.000 volumes; the endowment amounts to $220,000. In 1875-'6 there were 10 in- structors and 21 preparatory and 136 collegi- ate students. Jefferson college, at Canons- burg, Pa., was chartered in 1803J and grew out of the Canonsburg academy, opened in 1791. Washington college was chartered in 1806, and grew out of Washington academy, chartered in 1787 and opened in 1789. The number of graduates of Jefferson college is 1,890; of Washington college, 846; of Wash- ington and Jefferson college (1876), 298. WASHINGTON, Bnshrod, an American jurist, born in Westmoreland co., Va., June 5, 1762, died in Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1829. He was the son of John Augustine Washington, a younger brother of George Washington. In the winter of 1780-'81 he volunteered in a troop of horse commanded by Col. J. F. Mer- cer, and continued to the service till the dis- banding of the troop after the siege of York- town. He afterward studied law in Philadel- phia, practised in his native county, in 1787 was elected to the Virginia house of delegates, and in 1788 was a member of the convention to ratify the constitution of the United States. In 1798 President Adams appointed him one of the judges of the supreme court of the United States. By the will of Gen. Washington he became the possessor of the Mount Vernon estate, and resided there ; he bequeathed it to his nephew, John Augustine Washington. WASHINGTON, George, the first president of the United States, born in Westmoreland co., Va., Feb. 22 (old style, 11), 1732, died at Mount Vernon, Dec. 14, 1799. The house in which he was born was in a parish called by the family name of Washington, near Pope's creek, a small tributary of the Potomac, about half a mile from its junction with that river. It was destroyed by fire during the boyhood of Washington, but in 1816 a stone with a suit- able inscription was placed on the spot by George Washington Parke Custis. The fam- ily to which Washington belonged has not yet been satisfactorily traced in England. The genealogies accepted by Sparks and Irving and his other biographers have recently been proved to be inaccurate. His great-grand- father, John Washington, emigrated to Vir- ginia about 1657, with his brother Lawrence. George Washington was the son of Augus- tine Washington and his second wife Mary Ball. After the burning of the house at Pope's creek, his father removed to a house on the Rappahannock, a short distance below Frederickshurg. Here he died in 1743, leaving a large landed property to his widow and five children. To his oldest son Lawrence he be- queathed an estate on the Potomac afterward known as Mount Vernon. George received only the education of the schools of the neigh- borhood, and his instruction at them did not go beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the addition, which must have been somewhat exceptional, of bookkeeping and surveying. He paid some attention to the French lan- guage after the army, of Count de Rocham- bean arrived in this country, but never at- tempted to speak or write it. His orthography was rather defective, a very common fault a century ago. Uniform tradition represents him to have attained an early development of