"We Have A City, but Nothing Else."

   

     Partisan politics is said to be the theme of our current government. You hear people talking about how corrupt politics have become and how gridlocked Washington is today, but what if it was the same way 220 years ago? Well, it was. From the Revolutionary War loomed debt and the incredible job of building a nation from the ground up, literally.

     With the war over, George Washington and his colleagues had a massive task in front of them. Finding a permanent city to occupy as the capitol. After many debates, a nice dinner at Thomas Jefferson's, and a small compromise, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton were about to come to an agreement on where the city would be. Shortly following the passing of the Assumption Bill and the Residence Act, Washington D.C. was to become a reality.

     But like any great task, every government official wanted to make all the decisions. The Federalists believed the capital should reflect their vision of government. So it was only right that the city be small and almost unnoticeable. While the Republicans wanted a city of magnificence that people marveled over.
   
     Washington was chosen to over see the designs of the city, and so he chose French Major Charles Pierre L'Enfant as the chief architect. L'Enfant had already been commissioned by the United States to renovate New York City's City Hall in order for Congress to convene there, so Washington had great trust in L'Enfant.

     But when President John Adams first arrived in D.C. to move into the White House the dream they had once envisioned seemed to be more of a nightmare. What was supposed to be closed to finished, was nothing more than a mess. "But instead of magnificent tree-lined avenues, elegant houses, shaded gardens and thriving shops, his carriage passed marshy fields and forests, dodging filthy deep puddles and ruts along the way. Where roads should have been, cattle grazed in pastures divided by fences, and none of the streets he had seen on a large map that the city's architect had drawn were recognizable," wrote Andrea Wulf.

     Everything was behind schedule and the dream of a capital city looked to be more like a nightmarish mess.

     Slowly, but surely the city began to develop, but even after being "finished" there were problems. Adams and his wife, Abigail, lived in what she called the "Huge Castle" without servants and furniture. It was not what they had envisioned and they were running out of money and the political climate at that time was one to be rivaled.

     Even with all the odds stacked against them, these great men, our Founding Fathers, found a way to develop one of the most marveled cities in the world which in itself is a testament to the kind of men these were and the path this great nation would walk for the next 200 plus years.