White House Politics

In Chapter 6 of Founding Gardeners Andrea Wulf discusses the origins of the Washington D.C. capitol location and the early construction of the White House. The founding fathers all agreed that a building needed to be constructed for the President of the United States to live and conduct his duties. While they did agree on a house for the President to reside, they all disagreed on how and where it should be built. Northerners wanted the capitol in a large commercial city and Southerners wanted the capitol closer to their state.

            In 1790, Alexander Hamilton drafted the Assumption Plan in efforts to pay off the countries Revolutionary War debts. The Assumption Plan called for a central government to pay off the remainder of the debt using national funds. Southern states had already paid off their own debts and many politicians such as Jefferson and Madison despised the idea of giving a state’s economy over to a large central government. Madison successfully delayed the plan’s ratification until the summer of 1790. To compromise the disagreement, Jefferson took Madison and Hamilton to a dinner in New York City to discuss the issue. In the end, Hamilton agreed to let the South choose the location of the capitol if they passed the Assumption Plan. Hamilton’s plan was passed and the South chose the current site of Washington D.C. for the capitol’s location. This was only the beginning of the controversial construction of the new nation’s capitol.

            The Founding Fathers each differed in their design ideas for the White House. John Adams disagreed with the whole idea of the new city’s location due to its underdeveloped and empty location. Jefferson wanted the house to be modest an unimpressive, arguing that the nation’s capitol should not reflect a large central government. Surprisingly, Washington believed it should be built larger than any of the current cities in order to symbolize a strong central government. Washington hired the French Major Charles Pierre L’Efant to design the new city. L’Efant’s design was incredibly large and expensive to metaphorical symbolize the large central government. L’Efant also implemented the layout of the capitol building and White House to represent the executive and legislative branches. He also named the connecting road Pennsylvania Avenue to symbolize the state where the nation was originally created in 1776.

            In 1800, John Adams moved into an unfurnished White House in the middle of its construction. He was finishing up his four-year term as President and had spent the first three years in the nation’s temporary capitol of Philadelphia. Adams did not support the move from Philadelphia, but gracefully served the remainder of his presidency in the unfinished White House. When Jefferson took office he did little to implement changes on the construction of the new capitol. Jefferson wanted a much more humble and simple capitol and spent the majority of his time in office with politics rather than the development of Washington D.C.. In retrospect, following Jefferson's vision for the new city would have been a mistake. Washington D.C. would be insignificant and too small for our current size and global position. Washington's approach to build a capitol city large enough to grow with the nation was best for the United States. Today, we can admire our capitol city as a symbol of our nation's heritage and philosophical roots.