Documentary History of American Water-works

Salomon Proposal

A Communication from Messrs. P. G. Washington and J. C. F. Salomon, in relation to a proposition for supplying this city with water.

Corporation of Washington. Board of Aldermen, Monday, February 2, 1852. The Chair laid before the Board a communication frmo Messrs. P. G. Washington and J. C. F. Salomon, in relation to a proposition for supplying this city with water, which was read as follows:
To the Mayor, Board of Aldermen, and Board of Common Council of the City of Washington:
Gentlemen: We propose to contract with the Federal Government to furnish a constant and abundant supply of pure and wholesome water for the uses of Government and the cities of Washington and Georgetown.
For that purpose we have lately presented our memorial to Congress. The two Houses have duly referred that memorial to the judgment and actions of the appropriate committees. But we do not desire to progress in this weighty enerprise without the knowledge and approbation of our public authorities and fellow-citizens of the District. And a proper respect for them, whose wishes and interests you represent, elads us to express our sentiments and reflections upon this interesting subject.
The value and magnitude of the enterprise we propose to conduct deserve the fullest consideration' and we have not looked at them with a hasty eye, not weighed them with a careless presumption.
In the welfare of the District of Columbia the People and the States of our Confederacy hold a common stake. Here the Representatives of the People and of the States yearly assemble. Here the public officers reside. Here foreigners and citizens equally resort, fix their abodes, and invest their funds, in the expectation and belief that Congress, which has ample and exclusive jurisdiction over the District, will afford every reasonable comfort and protection to persons and property. Here foreign Ministers from distant parts continually come, to expound and interchange those public laws, treaties, and conventions which affect the destinies of mankind. Here is a vast amount of public property--real, personal, and mixed. Here the vouchers and settlements for accumulated millions of public debt, which the nation owed and paid. And here are the archives of our great and growing Republic, showing the progress of our noble institutions, and the proud recollections of our national renown. These present no light and trifling spectacle to the presentative wisdom of a great, wealthy, and powerful people.
Under the fostering guidance of a wholesome and judicious management, Washington and Georgetown must become highly important cities. The vast masses of mineral treasure; extensive fields of the finest coal; fertile regions of the richest soil on either side of the noble Potomac; inexhaustible volume of water power which the Great Falls afford; and the constant and increasing expenditure of money here, all announce the growing importance of the District, the increase in the value of its property, and the confidence anticipation of its prospective greatness. Costly, elegant and commodious buildings every where adorn it, and every season adds to the number of them. The eye of patriotism looks with delight upon the growth, the comforts, and embellishments which promise to adorn the National Metropolis of America. And we trust the day is not distant when the District will become--what the great Founder of it wished and intended--the happy and indissoluble bond of union and affection among our confederated States. But without a constant, convenience, and abundant supply of sweet and wholesome water, these growing interests of the District must suffer, until Congress may be forced to remove the seat of our National Government to some other point where this indispensable supporter of human life can be gotten without stint.
Water is a blessing of such constant, exclusive, and inestimal value that all must unite in a desire to procure it. Health, comfort, security, and existence depend upon it. And a demand for this universal and inestimable necessary of animal existence always increases with the increasing commerce, business, population, and improvements of a city. More than double the quantity of pure and wholesome water is now carried into the city of New York, over and above what fully supplied that city thirty years ago. And this remark may apply to all other cities that have made much progress in wealth, commerce, and population; and to none more aptly than to the city of Washington.
Feeble springs and humble rivulets might have satisfied the District some forty years ago; but as well might an entire regiment expect to subsist upon rations served to a corporal's guard, as to limit the District to the supplies which satisfied it forty years ago. The lack of water here becomes more obvious and distressing every year. For want of this common necessary of ife, portions of the district are sickly and tenantless, while other portions are sadly exposed to the double casualties of disease and fire. The constant and increasing inconvenience from the present and alarming scarcity of water has lately created a strong, general, and commendable desire for a speedy introduction into the District of an ample supply of this indispensable blessing. Without it neither private not public property is secure; and sudden conflagration may at any time lay the Federal cities in ashes, without the possibility of saving the property. The fatal facility with which the public Treasury, the Post Office, and the public Library have sadly perished, under the eyes of the Government, cannot fail to beget an anxious solicitude to prevent recurrence of such heavy and disastrous mischief.
We cannot doubt that the public authorities will cordially unite with private individuals in invoking the earnest attention of Congress to this important subject. It belongs to the wison, the justice, and honor of Congress to exercise a careful and benignant guardianship over the welfare of the various persons whom the Government has called here, and who have fully confided their persons and property to the National Legislature which the constitution has created to control them. The comforts, protection, and security which residents in other towns enjoy, the citizens of Washington and Georgetown may reasonably expect to receive. To provide this comfort and security to the District was a favorite desire of the Father of his County when he founded the city which gears his name; and this desire cannot cease to be felt and expressed by every thoughtful and patriotic citizen. But it is matter of regret, as well as of surprise, that so much useless time and discussion have been vainly expended upon this important subject.
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Notes
John Charles Frederick Salomon Swami Laura Horos a Professor of Music at Greenville Female Institute, also known as Daughters' College, now the Beaumont Inn. Her given name was Ann O'Delia Salomon.
Peter Grayson Washington Find a grave
William Selden Wikipedia

References
1852 Daily National Intelligencer, February 5, 1852, Page 1.
Board of Aldermen, Monday, February 2, 1852. A communication from Messrs. P. G. Washington and J. C. F. Salomon, in relation to a proposition for supplying this city with water.

1852 Daily National Intelligencer, February 19, 1852, Page 1.
City Affairs. Corporation of Washington. Board of Aldermen, Monday, February 16, 1852.
Mr. French, from the joint committee to which was referred the resolution in relation to bringing water into the city, reported the same with an amendment to strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following:
Resolved, That the two Boards have had under consideration the proposition submitted to them by Messrs. P. G. Washington, J. C. F. Salomon, and Wm. Selden, and have given it that consideration which the great importance of the subject required; and are of opinion that the best interests of the city prompt us to dissent from said proposition.
Resolved, further, That the committee representing the interests of this Corporation before Congress be instructed to oppose the adoption of said project by the Congress of the United States, and urge upon that body the adoption of some plan that would accomplish the object and give control of the matter to the Government or the Corporation, or jointly.

1852 Republic, May 17, 1852, Page 3
Proposed Supply of Water.--A bill has been reported in the Senate of Maryland to incorporate a company, (with a capital of twenty thousand shares of $100 each,) consisting of the Hon. Thos. G. Preatt, Hon. Philip F. Thomas, Hon. Samuel Hambleton, Hon. W. Cost Johnson, and W. H. Dunkinson and E. Gaither, esqs., who are to have power to construct a railroad from the Point of Rocks to some ont on the line dividing Montgomery county, Md., from the District of Columbia; and also to furnish the United States Government, and the citizens of the District of Columbia, with a full supply of pure water from the Potomac or its tributaries, by means of iron pipes laid along the line of the proposed railroad.

1852 Daily National Intelligencer, June 16, 1852, Page 1
City Ordinances. Joint Resolution instructing the committee having charge of the interests of this Corporation before Congress relatively to bringing water into the city.
Resolved, &c. That the two Board have had under consideration the proposition submitted to them by Messrs. P. G. Washington, J. C. F. Salomon, and William Selden, and ahve given it that consideration which the great importance of the subject required, and are of opinion that the best interests of the city prompt us to dissent from said proposition, or any proposition confiding it in individuals or chartered company, if possible.
Resolved further, That the committee respreseting the interests of this Corporation before Congress be instructed to oppose the adoption of said project by the Congress of the United States, and urge upon that body the adoption of such some which would accompish the object and give the control of the matter to the Government or the Corporation, or jointly. Approved, February 19, 1852.

1854 Plan of water works for the cities of the District: with explanatory remarks : also, letters from Robert Mills, Esq., architect and civil engineer, and Hon. Francis O.J. Smith of Maine. By John C. Fr. Salomon, February 14, 1854.

1854 Daily National Era, February 23, 1854, Page 2
Water-Works for the District of Columbia.--John C. Fr. Salomon has presented to us a pamphlet, containing his memorial to Congress on the subject.

1854 House debate over proposed $500,000 water works appropriation, May 23, 1854, The Congressional Globe, 28:1272-1277, also on May 24 pags 1288-1290. Includes discussion of the Salomon proposal.

1854 Daily Evening Star, May 27, 1854, Page 2
"The Defeat of the Water Works Appropriation"

1860 New York Herald, February 12, 1860, Page 5.
Died. Salomon.-- in the city of New York, Saturday, Feb. 11, of disease of the heart, John C. F. Salomon, aged 66 years, 10 months, and 5 days.