Presented to George Washington. This presentation from Smithsonian Associates and the Historical Society of washington dc is about one hour. I do not have any visuals and i can claim that is because i do not know how to do it, but the truth is that i never know how i will say it until i get here. I hope you will forgive me for the lack of visuals. My title is dreams, nightmares and neglect. I will start with earlier than 1783. I will start with the european explorations the early part of , the 17th century, so it is going to be almost a 200year dream, but it will go fast, as i concentrate on what happened once the dream was realized. In 1607, john smith entered the sevenmile wide mouth of the Potomac River and headed north. Whether he got this far north, we are actually not certain, but People Living here, algonquin peoples called the place it as the place where something is brought, a training place, a place to which tribute is brought. It was a beautiful area in which the tidewater from the ocean stopped. The river narrowed, and as you know, north of georgetown, it is a very different river. But here, there was a huge tidal marsh, and this is the origin of the swamp myth. Washington dc was not built in a swap. It is an insult to George Washington to think he would locate the capital of the United States in a swamp. It was a very well drained area of ancient Potomac River terraces. Think of the cathedrals coming down to Dupont Circle and eventually down to the level of the white house, to where it sits now. Very well drained. In fact, if there was a torrential rainstorm in the 18th or 19th century, logs and dead cattle would slow down the creeks. In the 17th century, the calvert family began to provide speculative land grants in the area. So, there were places here plantations if you will, although they were not settled at the time named variously rome, widows mite, huckles the light the light [laughter] all of those were encompassed in what became the federal city. Settlement took place at the end of the 17th century, and through the 18thcentury so that by 1749, when georgetown was founded and soon became the largest tobacco exporting port in maryland, there were many plantations, tobacco plantations and in fact by the 1770s the land had pretty much been exhausted of tobacco. Slave economy. Very prominent Catholic Community as well. It was the route of these fairy ferry that crossed from virginia to georgetown and up to ballmer in philadelphia and new york. The revolutionary war was not fought here. It was fought elsewhere in the United States. The revolutionary war lasted seven and a half years. But, the revolution was much longer. Since im sure most of you are americans you know very little about the revolution. [laughter] that is because we deny that we had one. It was actually a 30 to 40 year event from 1762 about 1800. And the location of the capital is very much a metaphor for what happened constitutionally during that revolution. More property was appropriated taken by the states in the United States during that revolution and more people fled then fled france during the french revolution. Like all revolutions, pretty much a minority event. Probably a third of the people supported it. It had an ideology. Republicanism. The belief that a people were capable of governing themselves and they did not need a king or some strong executive figure. Secondly, there was something called the westward course of empire. There was a belief that empire the concept, had a life of its own and since the time of the fertile crescent in egypt, it had been progressively traveling westward. Greece, rome. In the 18th century it was a competition between england, france, and spain over which would be the great new empire and which empire, which country would control the new world. Americans, of course, thought that americans should control it and american revolutionaries were very familiar with this concept and in fact, they saw it continental leey. Many of them, rather. The pacific was going to be part of the United States. We were going to go across the continent in time. 1783, the war came to an end and suddenly there were 17 of englands 32 colonies that were no longer british. The people had very strong prejudices against people and other colonies. Indeed, the man who drafted the United States constitution and owned the south bronx, his fathers will provided any amount of money necessary to educate him anywhere in the world except for the colony of connecticut, where the people hide behind god, but are really abolitionist criminals. He did not use the word criminals, but it was that kind of prejudice. You can imagine the attitude that new englanders had towards southerners and southerners had toward new england. What held the United States together after 1783 . It was very fragile, believe me. A national debt. 25 million. A common language. And the pride in having defeated the strongest military, and especially naval, power in the world. Well, from where was Congress Going to govern this country . We had a constitution. It was called the articles of confederation. It may be states supreme over the federal government. It was ratified in 1781. It granted the United States of America Power over foreign affairs, war, and a post office. That was it. If congress wanted money, which of course it needed, it had to requisition it from the states. Every year, congress would adopt a budget, and would have to tell each state what their share would be. Often the money never arrived. Congress had no power over commerce. No power of revenue, no taxation and certainly no power to create as it would, later a 100square mile Federal Territory over which the United States congress had exclusive jurisdiction. In 1783, congress consisted of the 13 states. Each delegation could have as many members as it could pay for, but only one vote. It took seven votes to do anything and nine votes to do anything that cost money. Consequently, it did not get too much none. So, immediately there were attempts to amend it, to strengthen it, to give congress the power to tariff. Like all revolutions, when the articles of confederation were first written, everybody was on the same side of things, so they put in a provision in the articles that in order to amend the articles, it took the unanimous vote of all 13 states. Never happens. Very quickly, the Patriot Party divided into two camps. Those who believed in strong states, the dominance of the states and those who increasingly saw the necessity of a stronger federal union, if indeed the United States was going to survive. In early june 1783, while it was sitting in philadelphia, where had congress that since 1774 except on two occasions when it fled to baltimore and then to lancaster to avoid the british army. On june 4, congress invited these states to submit proposals for a place within their boundaries that might be the seat of federal government. The offers came quickly. There is going to be eventually more than 50 places between newport news and Norfolk Virginia that were either mentioned in the newspapers as possibilities or are actually offered by states. The offers that came in in the summer of 1783 were very limited in size and jurisdiction. From onemile square, over which congress would have limited jurisdiction, but with places like princeton and New Brunswick and newark, new jersey and williamsburg and annapolis. Each offer trying to top the previous offer so that by the end of the summer, they were talking about 36 square miles. Congress was not in philadelphia when the decision was made. Congress informed the states in june, please make your offers. We are going to make a decision the first week of october. Congress was not in philadelphia because of an event. Probably the most destructive event in washington dc history. On june 21, a saturday, soldiers of the continental army, wearing their arms, marched on what we call independence hall. It was the Pennsylvania State house. That is where the assembly of pennsylvania met, the Supreme Executive Council of pennsylvania, and to give you an idea of the relative unimportance of the congress of the United States, the congress of the United States met in the Pennsylvania Statehouse. But the soldiers were not stupid. What they wanted was to demand that pay and various other promises made to them. The new congress had no revenue. There was no point confronting congress. It was the states that had the revenue. They chose saturday because Congress Never met on a saturday, but the executive they surrounded the statehouse, and alexander hamilton, who was the chairman of a Congressional Committee to deal with this mutiny that had been going on now for five days got congress to call a special session. The congressman went into the building, because hamilton and congress wanted it to appear this was a demonstration against the United States of america. This was the horror of the republic, the military rising against civilian control. And that would appeal to the american peoples feelings and they would come to the defense of congress. So, congress, even though they did not get a quorum, congress was not surrounded by these troops, it nonetheless represented to the Supreme Executive Council and asked the president or governor if you will, of pennsylvania, the great John Dickinson to call on the philadelphia militia and drive the continental soldiers away from the building. Dickinson looked at the congressman and set you nuts . Do you think the militia of philadelphias going to take up arms against the men that one independence for them . Thats not going to happen. Nobodys been harmed. Its a political demonstration and indeed Congress Left the building and a half and the soldiers went back to their barracks. That night, Congress Held an emergency session at which there was a quorum and it voted that if pennsylvania, since pennsylvania did not defend the congress of the United States, the congress of the United States is going to move. It was going to move to princeton, new jersey, the Little Village of princeton, and that is exactly what it did. What happened was quickly there were oped pieces in the newspapers saying this should never happen again. What Congress Needs is an exclusive jurisdiction, some territory where the federal government is supreme and controls everything. This idea had been talked about privately by members of congress for three or four years but it was so threatening to the constitutional basis of the republic in which the states were supreme that it was never brought out publicly until after the demonstration when the idea came out of the closet and to the floor of congress. Another one of these amendments to the constitution, to the articles of confederation, that would allow congress to have a small territory over which it had exclusive jurisdiction. It was laughed off the floor of congress because the states controlled congress. In 1787, that Committee Report was taken out of the files of the pages of the Continental Congress and written into the United States constitution. It was not one mile or three miles. It was a Federal Territory of up to 100 square miles over which congress would have exclusive jurisdiction. The term capital was not used. Capital was really threatening. States have capitals, of course. Richmond was the capital. Boston was a capital. Athens was another capital. What they had was a State Government in one city or town and rotated around the state. The term seat of federal government or seat of government is a term in the constitution. As our next speaker will point out, people of the United States did not refer to this place as the capital of the United States until the 1870s, except for a very few people such as not George Washington, who would not use the word because he was so careful about doing things constitutionally. But certainly, lenfant, the american, Peter Lenfant who designed washington, d. C. , and who i will talk about. Im highly offended to hear the word pierre. This man was an american. French born, but american. He was an american citizen. The pierre nonsense was created by the American Institute of architecture in the late 19th century in order to claim our capital was not designed by some mere american slob but by a frenchman, and indeed a parisian. This was picked up by the french ambassador at the end of the 19th century, who was trying desperately to find frenchmen who had been involved in the creation of the country so he could have a second lafayette to hold up against the prussians who were arguing von steuben was more important than lafayette. Now the prussians were the germans before 1900. Everybody in the diplomatic world knew there was going to be a war. His duty as ambassador to the United States was to create a french hero in the minds of the americans so this germanic nation would go to war on the side of france and not germany. That is where this pierre nonsense comes from. In my book, i call him pierre. I did not know any better. Americans did not know any better. I did not know until i discovered in his own handwriting, Peter Charles lenfant. He is never called Pierre Lenfant in public records. Now im way ahead of my story. Let me back up a bit. We are approaching october 1783. The vote is held, where to locate this seat of government this federal town. Each state has one vote. They called the roll starting with how many states wanted to be in new hampshire, massachusetts, all the way down to georgia. The state that won was new jersey. It could have been pennsylvania, but it happened to be new jersey. Somewhere near trenton, new jersey. The committee is appointed to view the delaware river. They could have chosen the pennsylvania side for a small federal town. It was very upsetting to the southerners. They very much wanted the seat of government to have a southern atmosphere. Of course, it was not mentioned exactly why. But of course, everybody knew the issue was slavery. If you have a southern town as the seat of government, it is going to have a southern atmosphere. Southern officeholders, southern bias, newspapers, etc. Arthur lee from virginia, if you saw the great musical 1776, best thing written was the coming of the arthur had been in congress and was part of the lees of virginia. The radical seat of the revolution. These people had led the revolution. Thousands of americans had died in the revolutionary war. As i said, many had fled the country. But here we have for the first time the south saying we are not going to remain in a union which locates its seat of government so far to the north as trenton new jersey, when everybody knows, and it is a lucky fact for our friend George Washington, the exact northsouth center of the United States was arlington house in arlington cemetery. I recently saw a wonderful print, a birds eye view of the city of washington in the 1830s from arlington house. Very unusual. Most birds eye views are from the capital. You can see the vast expanse of tidal marsh south of georgetown. Lee went to his friend and said we have got to find a solution. Weve got to hold the union together after all the sacrifice made. We are not going to tolerate a seat of government so far to the north as trenton. They came up with a wonderful compromise called the dual residence. Seat of government, federal town, these terms are not in the dialogue. Dual residence. They would have six months in the trenton area on the delaware and six months on the potomac in the environs of georgetown maryland. This is a government that had no source of revenue, sometimes could not even pay the interest on its debt. Certainly could not pay all the claims of americans from the war itself. It is now going to build two federal towns. Philadelphians were outraged. Philadelphia in the 18th century and perhaps in the 21st philadelphians viewed themselves as the only thing between philadelphia and heaven was london. [laughter] and how in the world could congress have the audacity to bypass philadelphia and go to the potomac . And so, francis hopkins, a signer of the declaration of independence and one of americas earliest event planners, wrote a wonderful oped piece saying congress youre such a wise body. In august you voted to appropriate money which you did not have to build an equestrian statue of George Washington at the seat of government. That was the term used. In october, this was written in november of 83, you have decided to have two seats of government but only one equestrian horse. What can you do . Hopkins said, obviously, you build it on wheels. Twice a year you drag the horse. Why not make the horse large enough so you can put all of the me