President Millard Fillmore Instructs His Secretary of the Interior to Manage the Water and Streets Improvement Project in Washington DC: An uncommon letter from a sitting president to a cabinet member delegating responsibilities.

In his State of the Union message to Congress delivered on December 6, 1852, Fillmore made a special point of emphasizing that a reliable supply of clean water for the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. must be a top priority. The lack of such water had been a problem in the past and posed a public health risk besides.

The President’s stated, “Permit me to invite your particular attention to the interests of the District of Columbia, which are confided by the Constitution to your peculiar care. Among the measures which seem to me of the greatest importance to its prosperity are the introduction of a copious supply of water into the city of Washington and the construction of suitable bridges across the Potomac to replace those which were destroyed by high water in the early part of the present year. At the last session of Congress an appropriation was made to defray the cost of the surveys necessary for determining the best means of affording an unfailing supply of good and wholesome water. Some progress has been made in the survey, and as soon as it is completed the result will be laid before you. Further appropriations will also be necessary for grading and paving the streets and avenues and inclosing and embellishing the public grounds within the city of Washington.”

But by the time he delivered this message, Fillmore was already devising methods of accomplishing his goal. And although Congress had started on the road to appropriating the necessary funds earlier in the year, as Fillmore relates, more funds were required. In this letter, the President delegates to his Secretary of the Interior the responsibility for managing the streets improvement process, and the necessity of involving the Mayor and leaders of Washington, DC. in the project.

Letter signed, Washington, September 15, 1852, to the Secretary of the Interior, Alexander H.H. Stuart. “You may recollect that at the last session of Congress an appropriation was made to complete & revise the grades of the streets and to determine the plans for the drainage and sewerage thereof. I called upon the mayor for any suggestions he might have to make in regard to the matter, and have now the honor to enclose you his letter dated September 14, 1852, with the request that the engineer now employed in determining the grades of the streets should be requested to furnish a plan for drainage and sewerage, if he can do so, but if not, that you will report to me some suitable person to discharge this duty. I would suggest that any change in the grade of streets, as well as plans for sewerage and drainage, should be first submitted through the Mayor to the corporate authorities, for their consideration and approval.”

Letters of sitting presidents to members of their cabinet, delegating responsibilities, are quite uncommon. We’d had only a few over the years.