In a previous blog post titled "The Nation's New Capital", I spoke about the building of the new capital, Washington D.C., and the struggle between Washington and Jefferson. Washington and Jefferson had conflicting ideas on how the city should be built and conflicting political ideologies. Washington wanted the capital of the United States to be grand and over the top, as well as, properly showing that our nation had a strong central government. Jefferson on the other hand, wanted the city to be practical (showing his roots as a farmer) and contrary to a Federalist view. For this week's blog post, I am going to go explore more into George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson's time at the White House and the capital.
George Washington announced the location of the nation's new capital in January of 1791 and hired Charles Pierre L'Enfant to design the new capital. (Jefferson would later fire L'Enfant.) Sadly, Washington would never get to see the capital built and would never live in the White House. Despite this, I think its important to acknowledge Washington because he is the namesake of our capital city and it is also important to note that on his death bed, Washington was completely consumed with the capital. I think this is particularly interesting because Washington was always much happier in his gardens than worrying about politics. His attitude towards the capital's design and construction could be seen as a change of heart, or even an attempt to leave a long lasting legacy. One of Washington's main ideas dealing with the new capital was the construction of a presidential tomb, but he would never be buried there. After a long day of riding throughout Mt. Vernon in cold, snowy weather, Washington returned to eat dinner and refused to change out of his wet clothing. He would then go out again the next day on his land to check on his gardens in much similar weather from the day before. Washington contracted a severe sore throat and died at approximately 10 o'clock in the evening on December 14, 1799. His death seems as though it was very true to his character. Washington loved his gardens and found solace in them; it would only be right that during his last days, he would be tending to his plants and land. His dedication towards his gardens quite possibly led to his death, but he was still concerned with the capital's future.
"I cannot but consider our Presidents as very unfortunate men, if they must live in this dwelling"
- Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury
John Adams arrived in Washington D.C. on November 1, 1800. Firstly, Adams was not exactly thrilled about the idea of a new capital; he would've much rather stayed at Philadelphia or moved the capital to New York every five years. When he arrived in the capital, it was not close to being completed, and Congress was suppose to meet in almost three weeks. Not one single room in the White House had been completed, but there were six rooms prepped for Adams arrival. Most rooms lacked furniture and there were not enough lamps to provide adequate lighting. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail the day after arriving to invited her to join him in the White House. The outside of the White House was considered to be much worst than the interior. There were no gardens or trees which could have provided the Adams' with produce. (Adams was a practical farmer and utilized kitchen gardens on his own land.) There were also many workers and carpenters who set up housing on the White House grounds. Due to the lack of accommodations in the city many were left without housing and so the workers had to come up with another option. The White House at this time was considered to be a cold, harsh place to live and it smelled of fresh plaster and mildew. But despite their overall dissatisfaction with the living arrangements, Abigail Adams praised it views. President Adams and his wife did not have to spend much time in the White House. By the time the next election rolled around and Adams was defeated by Jefferson, they only had to live in the White House for about four months.
When Thomas Jefferson arrived for his inauguration on March 4, 1801, Washington D.C. looked nothing like George Washington's idea. Due to lack of funding, the capital city looked much like a slice out of the rural country, and this is how Jefferson wanted to keep it. (This was in line with his idea that the United States should be an agrarian republic.) Because only four months had passed since Adams had moved into the White House, much of it looked the same. The election between Adams and Jefferson had become quite nasty, and as a protest to Jefferson's win, some people cut down the trees around the White House. They believed this would frazzle Jefferson who was known for his love of gardening and plants. Interestingly enough, this did not push Jefferson to immediately start planning a new garden and he would actually never end up planting a single tree or shrub on White House grounds. Jefferson lived alone in the White House with his secretary Meriwether Lewis, who he would later send on a journey across the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson did keep up correspondence with his grandchildren and daughter who would send him up to date information about his gardens on Monticello. Even though Jefferson did not have a garden to tend to, he spent a lot of time in his room tending to flowers, such as roses and geraniums. During Lewis and Clark's Expedition across the West, the White House became a central point for all of their discoveries. Lewis would send seeds from newly discovered plants to Jefferson who would catalogue them, and send them to another gardener or farmer. In fact Jefferson did this throughout his time in the White House. He requested that people send him native species from their particular state in order to swap and share with others in different states. This was done to see if plants from other areas of the county could be grown and cultivated as crops. I believe one of the most important things from Jefferson's presidency was the sharing of knowledge about plant species, and even though he was not able to build his own garden, he was still very involved with plants and techniques.
(Jeffersonia, named after Thomas Jefferson by Benjamin Smith Barton)
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