Mad Men: The Construction of the Capital

This chapter discusses how the city of Washington is in the process of being constructed, but as usual politics play a major role in its construction. Well you know it wouldn’t be Washington DC if politics wasn’t involved in it. The main problem that I notice from this chapter was how all the key actors involved all had different opinions on how the city should be constructed, but none wanted to COLLABORATE or try to find middle grounds with each person different view. And as a result, “Rome” couldn’t be built in a day.

           

            The underlying issues that caused a rift between the two sides have to deal with what path the United States should take as it move forward. It is the same problem discussed in the previous two chapters pertaining to the conflict between Jefferson and Hamilton. One side of the country want America to be centered on agriculture, (the southern region) and the other region America to be based on industry, merchants, and traders. This argument stem over to where the capital should be too. Of course the north wanted the capitol in the north (specifically New York), and the south wanted the capital in the south. The reasoning behind this was that whichever region had the capital would be the region that gets to impose their philosophy over the newly formed country. For example if the north would have gotten the capital then the country would be pushed to become more industrial instead of agriculture. But thankfully, there was a guy named Washington who believes in meeting both sides in the middle; and he literally put the capital in the middle. And there you have it folks, your Capital: Washington DC in Virginia.

            In my opinion, the most interesting part of the reading was the different views of how the capital should be built by each president. Washington wanted a big fancy version of the city to show symbolism to a strong government through the creations of a lot of buildings, roads, and gardens. And on the opposite end of the spectrum was Jefferson, who favored the capital being in a small town and laid out in a rectangular grid that would grow organically over time. Unfortunately, Washington did not live long enough to see the creation of the nation’s capital, but his death did ignite President Adams to turn his attention towards the capital. But for Adams unluckiness he had gotten pushed out of the office of the Presidency by Jefferson who, in my opinion, took a radical and a very disappointing position about the capital and the gardens.

When Jefferson became the President of the United States, he would make the garden almost invisible to reflect how the federal government should be as invisible as possible. It would exude neither grandeur nor power that would should more of the farming society of America instead of “flashiness”. It was very unfortunate that out of the three men that would have the most influence over the capital would be Jefferson. In my opinion, Jefferson philosophy of structuring the capital and the gardens was a bad one that the country at its young stage should not have gone through. Although, the end result came out to be positive, this ordeal between these three men shows the struggle that was fought both socially and politically over how the creation of the capital and the gardens in it should be portrayed.