e moment the expected commerce languishes. This is attributed to
the heavy taxes. Whatever may be the cause many citizens are
emigrating or planning to emigrate. Some ships of Alexandria are now
trading regularly with the West Indies and at New Orleans.[48]

[Illustration: Classical Revival in mantel and doorway]

THE FEDERAL PERIOD

It was not long after the Revolution that the seat of the new federal
government was selected near Alexandria. In fact, one old story has it
that Alexandria was chosen as the site, and the patriot Washington was
twitted with the advantages that would accrue to him, with such vast
holdings of land so near the new capital. The tales go on that
Washington waxed very angry and replied that never, if he could help it,
should a public building be put south of the Potomac.

Be this as it may, the Virginia Assembly ceded to the federal government
on December 3, 1789, a generous slice of Fairfax County to be
incorporated with the State of Maryland's larger portion into a district
for the federal capital, ten miles square. The Congress of the United
States was pleased to accept this, and later an additional act of
Congress of March 3, 1791, amended and repealed a part of the first act,
naming Alexandria part of the ceded territory. And so for the next
fifty-six years we have no longer Alexandria in Virginia, but Alexandria
in the District of Columbia.

The Federal City (afterward Washington) which did not officially become
the nation's capital until 1800, was an undrained marsh in 1790.
Travelers visiting Alexandria about that time described it as having
"upwards of three hundred houses," many "handsomely built."[49] In 1795
Thomas Twining passed through Alexandria and commented: "What struck me
most was the vast number of houses which I saw building ... the hammer
and the trowel were at work everywhere, a cheering sight."[50] The Duc
de la Rochefoucauld in the following year stated: "Alexandria is beyond
all comparison the handsomest town in Virginia and indeed is among the
finest in the United States."[51] That same year, 1796, Isaac Weld
remarked, "Alexandria is one of the neatest towns in the United States.
The houses are mostly of brick."[52]

Virginians were largely their own architects. Thomas Jefferson designed
Monticello, the University of Virginia, and the Capitol at Richmond;
George Mason built Gunston Hall; and George Washington directed the
transformation of Mount Vernon