Washington: The City of Lost Intention

I was truly shocked at Jefferson's hard pressed determination to keep the nation's capital so....natural. After being described in his political years as the perfectly coiffed, elegant dressed diplomat, you would think he understood there would be a right time and place to sport a little opulence. It was almost annoying to see him so hell-bent on crushing Washington's plan for the nation's capital. I do not think that Washington had a ridiculous intention or ideal for D.C. I believe that grandeur he was trying to convey was well intended and necessary to showing off national pride. The people of this nation needed to look towards a capital that spoke to all of them, and was the epicenter of American pride. Jefferson's fears, I think got the better of him, and was truly worried that if they built a palace, the nation would find a king. That may have very well been true, but in what Washington envisioned by establishing a botanical garden and university did not speak to an ostentatious display of wealth or power. Jefferson's actions during his administration were so overly done to keep intact a republican capital that it was a major set back to the development of our nation as a whole. It was as if someone moved into a home that was being remodeled and simply ceased all work on it. I think his fear was too strong and was detrimental, showing little pride for his country and even less for his favorite pastime.