the life of Mr. Lenox and presented the portrait. Mr. Henry F. Lowe, the principal, made the address of acceptance and Mr. Hosmer M. Johnson, the Supervising Principal of the Ninth (School) Division, was also a speaker. The pupils made a demonstration of approval, to which Miss Simpson made acknowledgment. Present were Mr. Glenn Brown, President of the Washington Society of Fine Arts, and Mrs. Brown and the Rev. Cornelius S. Abbott. The children enlivened the ceremonies by singing patriotic airs.

WASHINGTON CITY, ITS FOUNDING AND

DEVELOPMENT.

BY FREDERICK L. FISHBACK.

(Notes on an illustrated lecture for the Society, November 21, 1916.)

"History teaches us to hope." One cannot know the history of Washington without having unbounded faith in its future and in the future of the nation. The growth of the nation itself is reflected in the development of its Capital. Any story about Washington City, however, is incomplete which does not tell of the various places at which the Continental Congress, and the Congress under our present Constitution as well, met prior to the establishment of the seat of government on the Potomac, and how it came to be located here.

It seems strange that the Continental Congress was such a wandering body. It met for the first time September 5, 1774, in Philadelphia, in Carpenters' Hall which had been constructed four years earlier as the home of the Carpenters' Company, a society of Master Carpenters of the City and County of Philadelphia organized in 1724, which had for its object instruction in architecture and the assistance of its members who through accident were in need of support, and of the widows and minor children of such members. From Carpenters' Hall, the Congress moved to the old State House on Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets, which had been erected between 1729 and 1734, and which soon after the Declaration of Independence was adopted there came to be known as Independence Hall, so that its original use as the seat of British au

thority in Penn's Province has been almost forgotten. In 1776, a committee from the Continental Congress waited upon the young widow, Betsy Ross, and employed her to make the first flag of thirteen stars and thirteen stripes which was adopted as the national ensign. She was carrying on the upholstery business of her husband, John Ross, who had lost his life thus early in the Revolution, and her home which was also her workshop was only a few blocks from the meeting place of Congress. It stood on Arch Street which Dr. Weir Mitchell tells us in his delightful story of Hugh Wynne was formerly called Mulberry Street, coming to be known as Arch Street because Front Street, near the Delaware River, was carried over it by an arched bridge.

On December 12, 1776, on the approach of the British troops under Lord Cornwallis, Congress adjourned to Baltimore. Its sessions began there December 20, 1776, in a building which stood on the corner of Baltimore and Liberty Streets, and continued in that city until February 27, 1777, when it adjourned to meet again in Philadelphia, re-assembling there March 4, 1777. September 18, 1777, the military situation necessitated the removal of the Congress again, and on that day it adjourned to meet at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which had been decided upon September 13, as the place where it should convene whenever the anticipated necessity for leaving Philadelphia should arise. It met in Lancaster one day only, September 27, 1777, the day after the British under Lord Howe entered Philadelphia. The session was held in a building in the center of the city on the site of the present monument to the men and boys from Lancaster County who fought for the Union. From Lancaster the Congress adjourned to York, Pennsylvania, at which place it convened Sep

tember 30, 1777. Sir Henry Clinton supplanted Lord Howe as Commander of the British troops in Philadelphia, May 11, 1778. The British departed from the city June 3, 1778, and the American troops under Benedict Arnold immediately took possession. The Congress continued its sessions in York until Saturday, June 27, 1778, when it adjourned once more to the city of Brotherly Love and resumed its work there. Thursday, July 2, 1778. Philadelphia remained its meeting place thereafter throughout the Revolution and until June 21, 1783, when by reason of a threatened attack against Congress by some of our own unpaid Pennsylvania soldiers, who had but recently enlisted and who had seen no real service, it was obliged to leave the city. It adjourned, to meet at Princeton or Trenton, as the President of the Congress, who at that time was Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey, might direct. It would seem that the meeting place was left to be fixed by him in order that the soldiers who were threatening the Congress might not know at which place to re-assemble to continue their intimidations when it convened again. At any rate, upon Boudinot's call, the Congress met at Princeton only nine days later, June 30, 1783, in old Nassau Hall of Princeton College, and its sessions were held there until November 4, 1783. On the twentysixth of that month, it began its sessions at Annapolis in the old Capitol of the British colony of Maryland, continuing there until June 3, 1784. There, on December 23, 1783, George Washington, happy that peace had come and that he might take up again the quiet pursuits of life at his Mount Vernon home, returned to Congress his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

In "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Byron asks: "Where are thy men of might thy grand in soul?'' and

answers: "Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were." Important events of the past sometimes seem so hazy to us that we need to see old records and documents concerning them in order to realize that they actually occurred. It is, therefore, worth while to read that commission itself. Here then is that certificate of authority from the Continental Congress under which Washington acted throughout the War:

"COMMISSION AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

IN CONGRESS.

"We the delegates of the United Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Castle, Kent & Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina

"To GEORGE WASHINGTON Esquire

"We reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, conduct and fidelity do by these presents constitute and appoint you to be GENERAL AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF of the Army of the United Colonies and of all the forces raised or to be raised by them, and of all others who shall voluntary offer their service and join the said army for the defence of American Liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof. AND you are hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you shall, think for the good and welfare of the service.

"AND we do hereby strictly charge and require all officers and soldiers under your command to be obedient to your orders, & diligent in the exercise of their several duties.

"AND we do also enjoin and require you to be careful in executing the great trust reposed in you, by causing strict discipline and order to be observed in the army and that the soldiers are duly exercised and provided with all convenient necessaries.

"AND you are to regulate your conduct in every respect by the rules and discipline of war (as herewith given you), and punctually to observe and follow such orders and directions. from time to time, as you shall receive from this or a future