good benefits
they were to derive from having the Federal City laid off upon their
lands the President may retain any number of squares he may think proper
for public improvements or uses at the rate of L25 ($66.66 in Penn.
currency) per acre. For the streets they should receive no compensation.
Each proprietor was to retain full possession of his land till it should
be sold into lots." The men who signed, in order of signing, were:
Robert Peter, David Burnes, James M. Lingan, Uriah Forrest, Benjamin
Stoddert, Notley Young, Daniel Carroll, of Duddington; Overton Carr,
Thomas Beall, of George; Charles Beatty, Anthony Holmead, William Young,
Edward Peirce, Abraham Young, James Peirce, and William Prout. At a
later date the following men joined in the agreement and are often
counted among the original property holders: Robert Morris, Samuel
Blodget, William Bailey, Samuel Davidson, William Deakins, Jr., James
Greenleaf, Thomas Johnson, Robert Lingan, Dominick Lynch, John
Nicholson, John H. Stone, Comfort Sands, Benjamin Oden, John P. Van
Ness, George Walker, and the legal guardians of Elizabeth Wheeler.

It was in this little town that the President issued his proclamation
concerning the permanent seat of government of the United States. It
reads thus:

Done at George Town, aforesaid, the 30th day of March in the year of
our Lord, 1791 and in the Independence of the United States the
fifteenth.

By the President,
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Having satisfactorily accomplished this business, General Washington
proceeded to Mount Vernon, whence he wrote on April 3, 1791, to the
Commissioners to proceed at once with the Attorney-General in regard to
deeds so that the sale of lots and public buildings might commence as
soon as possible. He quotes a letter from Mr. Jefferson:

... that on the 27th of March a bill had been introduced in the
House of Representatives for granting a sum of money for building a
Federal Hall, a house for the President, etc.

At a meeting of the Commissioners on September 9, 1791, in reply to a
letter from Major L'Enfant a letter was written saying:

... that the title of the map he was making was to be, "A Map of the
City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia," and that the
streets were to be named alphabetically one way and numerically the
other, etc