I never really realized how much had gone in to our capital city until reading Chapter Six of Andrea Wulf's "Founding Gardeners", "City of Magnificent Intentions". Even the location of a capital was full of controversy. Obviously, the North wanted it in the north and the South in the south, this was a heavily political debate. Federalists were pulling for the North, and Republicans for the South. After much deliberation, President Washington, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, had agreed that between Virginia and Maryland was the place for the nation's capital.
I spent my summer in D.C, riding the metro almost every day, deeper and deeper into the Capitol. One name I immediately recognized in this chapter was, L'Enfant, the French architect commissioned by President Washington to design a capital city. This name I only had heard from the metro stop "L'Enfant Plaza", never really understanding the reasoning behind the title. Only to realize he wanted a magnificent capital city for the United States, which was incredibly controversial and ended in his dismissal.
On that note, I never realized how many issues would come by simply deciding on a capital city's design. The idea that our founding fathers had gotten so aggressive toward one another over a design was something I would've never imagined. President Washington had commissioned L'Enfant, with hopes of a Federalist-inspired layout for our country's capital, however, Thomas Jefferson wanted the exact opposite. Their argument lasted through Washington's presidency. When John Adams became president, the United States was having conflicts with the French. Even while Adams was enduring the pressure of a potential war, he was criticized for not working on a design for the Capitol.
John Adams, in my opinion, had the right idea. He did not pay attention to the design and focused on the future of the country he was now in charge of. The fact that he was criticized for this is absolutely insane in my opinion. Wulf even points out that George Washington himself was attempting to design a capital city behind Adams's back, which just seems so petty. Why couldn't he simply have the country's support during such a critical time? Instead of so much criticism for not caring about a design. John Adams even stated he would rather go between Philadelphia and New York for governmental issues, instead of worrying about a new capital city, clearly showing what he truly cared about: the nation's well being.
Once Washington passed away, Adams's did begin to look at the future capital city's layout, and he began with a garden. This was also frustrating to me, seeing as the city was lacking fully completed buildings for legislature and didn't have roads. I really don't understand the reasoning for wanting to begin with a garden, especially when Adam's had seem so government-oriented before Washington's death, regardless of is botanical background.
Thomas Jefferson, Adam's Vice President, was now back into wanting his Republican-inspired Capitol layout. When it was time for another election, Jefferson won over Adams. This was after much false slander about Adams who, in my opinion, was the one out of the three first presidents that actually took the position as a nation's leader seriously. Jefferson started his presidency stressing the want for simplicity, dressing like a simple man and wanting the Capitol to reflect the same idea. Finally, after six years of presidency, Jefferson began to focus on the streets and government buildings of Washington, D.C. Wulf describes the city as absolutely nothing special, pointing out that many people weren't even aware when they were in the center of the capital of their country. Muddy roads, and lack of any sort of grandness, Jefferson got what he so wanted, a Republican Capital.
In my opinion one of these presidents should have simply commissioned a designer to do the basics for the city. We were in the middle of lots of debt and conflict, and the fact there was so many issues over a starting design seems beyond unnecessary when a country was still in it's early stages.
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