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I'm listening to John Ferling's Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. Right at the beginning of the book, he remarks that Jefferson, traveling from Charlottesvile to Georgetown and then on to the Federal City, crossed into the District of Columbia when he took the ferry across the Potomac into Georgetown.
No. No, no, no. He crossed into the District of Columbia when, after watering his horses at a tavern in Falls Church, he travelled east across the land that would be incorporated as the County of Alexandria in 1801. This area, formerly part of Virginia, had become part of the District on the latter's creation in 1790 and it's surveying in 1792.
Prof. Ferling is unquestionably an outstanding scholar of early American history. Anyone can make mistakes. And this is a pretty small one. But it's also a bit of a howler.
No. No, no, no. He crossed into the District of Columbia when, after watering his horses at a tavern in Falls Church, he travelled east across the land that would be incorporated as the County of Alexandria in 1801. This area, formerly part of Virginia, had become part of the District on the latter's creation in 1790 and it's surveying in 1792.
Prof. Ferling is unquestionably an outstanding scholar of early American history. Anyone can make mistakes. And this is a pretty small one. But it's also a bit of a howler.
