Part 2

It is not our purpose to give a minute description of the building. We have said that it faces east, for the founders of the Capitol believed the city would grow in that direction, but the landholders of early days asked such high prices that the city began to stretch toward the northwest, which is to this day the fashionable part for residences, although Capitol Hill is much more beautiful as to situation.

The base of the building is ninety-seven feet above the river. The central structure is of Virginia yellow sandstone, which is kept painted white. The wings are of Massachusetts marble, and the one hundred columns of the extension porticoes are of Maryland marble.

The building covers three and one-half acres. It is seven hundred and fifty-one feet long and three hundred and fifty feet wide.

The height of the dome above the rest of the building is two hundred and fifty-seven feet, and its weight is eight million pounds. This dome is surmounted by Crawford's statue of Freedom, nineteen and one-half feet high, and weighing fifteen thousand pounds. The entire edifice constitutes the highest public building in America not located on a mountain, being sixty-eight feet higher than Bunker Hill monument, and twenty-three feet higher than the steeple of Trinity Church, in New York City.

Thomas G. Walker resigned his place as architect in 1865, and was succeeded by the late architect of the Capitol, Mr. Edward Clark, who died early in 1902. His great work had been to finish the west front facing the city, and to harmonize the conflicting and foreign tastes of the many decorators of the building.

Mr. Elliott Wood, the successor of Mr. Clark, had been the latter's chief assistant. Mr. Wood had long been virtually in charge of the Capitol.

The architects had a candidate ready because Mr. Wood was practically an engineer; to meet this and yet give a faithful man his due, the name of the position was changed to that of Superintendent of the Capitol. He, like his predecessor, has much to do in getting rid of the foreign artists' effects and in Americanizing the whole.

Mrs. Mary Clemmer Ames says of the Capitol: "It not only borrowed its face from the buildings of antiquity, but it was built by men strangers in thought and spirit to the genius of the new republic, and to the unwrought and unembodied poetry of its virgin soil. Its earlier decorators, all Italians, overlaid its walls with their florid colors and foreign symbols; within the American Capitol they have set the Loggia of Raphael, the voluptuous anterooms of Pompeii, and the baths of Titus. The American plants, birds, and animals, representing prodigal nature at home, are buried in twilight passages, while mythological barmaids, misnamed goddesses, dance in the most conspicuous and preposterous places."

An office building for the use of members of the House has been constructed (1909) on the block on B Street, between New Jersey Avenue and First Street, southeast of the Capitol. A similar building has been erected northeast of the Capitol, for the use of Senators. The two buildings are connected by an underground road, on which swift automobile-like cars run for the convenience of legislators. The House offices contain 410 rooms, the Senate offices 99 rooms. The appropriation for each building was $2,500,000. There is a general feeling in Washington that too much luxury pervades these buildings.

IV INTERIOR OF THE CAPITOL

IN 1808 Jefferson made Benjamin Henry Latrobe supervising architect of what we now call the old Capitol, being the central portion of the present building.

He constructed the original Senate Chamber, now the Supreme Court Room, on the plan of the old Greek theater, the general outline of which it yet retains. The House (now Statuary Hall) also had a decidedly Grecian aspect. It was finished in 1811. Statuary Hall is semicircular in shape, and has a vaulted roof. Its ornamentation is not yet completed. This is right. It would not be well to occupy all the space in one generation. We need the perspective of time to know that which will be of permanent interest to the world.

Here Clay presided, here Webster spoke, and here Adams stood for the right of petition and for the abolition of human slavery. What pictures these scenes would make! A plate in the floor southwest of the center marks the spot in the House where John Quincy Adams fell stricken with paralysis. In a room opening from the Hall is a memorial bust, whose inscription reads: "John Quincy Adams, who, after fifty years of public service, the last sixteen in yonder Hall, was summoned to die in this room February 23 1848."

The room has special acoustic qualities which in early days occasioned much trouble. A whisper scarcely audible to the ear into which it is breathed is distinctly heard in another part of the hall. It is one of the most remarkable whispering galleries in the world, and its peculiar properties, accidentally discovered, produced no end of disturbances before they were fully understood. Their effect has been much modified by a recent change in the ceiling.

Each State is now permitted to place in Statuary Hall two statues of its most renowned sons.

Virginia has Washington and Jefferson. Think of that! New Hampshire has Daniel Webster, who made these walls echo with his thrilling, patriotic sentences, and John Stark, of Bunker Hill fame, who cried: "See those men? They are the redcoats! Before night they are ours, or Molly Stark will be a widow!"

Pennsylvania has Robert Fulton, the inventor, and John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, the preacher, Major-General in the Revolution. He was also Senator and Member of Congress. New York has Robert R. Livingston, of the Continental Congress, and Alexander Hamilton. The latter was Washington's Secretary of the Treasury during both of his Presidential terms. He had much to do with securing a good financial system for the new government. His pathetic death enhanced his fame and ruined Burr; but under the search-light of history one can not help wondering had Burr been killed and Hamilton survived that duel, would the halo of the latter have faded? The statue of Hamilton is one of the best in the Hall. It was made in Rome by Horatio Stone.

The Illinois memorial is the famous Vinnie Ream statue of Lincoln. I wish, because it was done by a woman, that I could like it, but it is weak and unworthy. In every line of his strong, patriotic face lived the gospel of everlasting hope. This figure might well stand for one vanquished in the race. (Was Jesus vanquished? Was Paul? Was Luther? Was Lincoln?)

There is a small bust of Lincoln, by Mrs. Ames, which approaches nearer the true ideal of the great apostle of Liberty.

Illinois is further represented by James Shields, Senator. It would seem that men like Washington and Lincoln, who were the product of national influences, should be venerated as representatives of the nation rather than of individual States.

Missouri is represented by Frank Blair and Thomas H. Benton; Vermont, by Jacob Collamer and Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga; Oregon, by Edward Dickinson Baker, whose fine statue is by Horatio Stone.

Jacques Marquette (by G. Trentanore), in the garb of a Catholic priest, represents Wisconsin. Ohio has President Garfield and William Allen.

Roger Sherman and John Trumbull represent Connecticut, and Rhode Island memorializes Roger Williams and General Nathanael Greene, of Revolutionary fame—the former, in his quaint sixteenth century garb, standing as well for religious freedom as for the State which he founded.

Massachusetts presents Samuel Adams's statue, by Annie Whitney, and John Winthrop's, by R. S. Greenough. What a goodly company they are, those New England heroes![2]

Footnote 2:

Since the above was written a statue of John James Ingalls, of Kansas, has been placed in Statuary Hall; as well as a statue of Frances Willard, of Illinois, who is the first woman in the United States to be so honored.

Will Kansas have the courage to place there the statue of John Brown, of Osawatomie? He yet is a type of that unconventional State, which regards no precedent, follows no pattern; that State which, in a blind way, is striving to put the Ten Commandments on top and to uphold the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, no difference what man or what party goes down in the strife; that State of which Whittier truthfully said:

We cross the prairie as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free.

Upbearing, like the ark of old, The Bible in our van, We go to test the truth of God Against the fraud of man.

A brave fight the State has made against fraud. The fight is yet on; but who doubts that the truth of God "shall yet prevail," and who would better stand for such a people than one who went down in that fight with the "martyr's aureole" around his grizzled head?

Much, of course, must be left untold here; but it is hoped that what has been said will create a desire to see and learn more of those whom the State and the nation has here honored.

V THE ROTUNDA

IT is not the purpose in these sketches to go into any minute descriptions of places or things in Washington. To do that volumes would be needed, and then much left untold.

The Rotunda is the central part of the old building of the Capitol, and lies beneath the dome. It is circular in form, with a diameter of ninety-five feet, and with a height to the canopy above of a little over one hundred and eighty feet.

The panels of the Rotunda are set with life-size pictures, illustrating important scenes in American history. There are "The Surrender of Burgoyne, October 17, 1777"; "The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, October 19, 1781" and "The Resignation of Washington, December 23, 1783." These are by Trumbull. They may not be perfect, considered as works of art, but they commemorate events whose memory should never die.

The surrender of Burgoyne was the greatest triumph of American over British arms up to that date (October 17, 1777). Had his twelve hundred Hessians been English patriots the result might have been different. When the British officer was sent to inquire their condition for a fight, the answer of the British was, "We will fight to a man." But the Hessians replied, "Nix the money, nix the rum, nix fighten."

It was in a cold, drizzling rain that Lord Cornwallis made his surrender. He sat on his horse with his head uncovered. General Washington said, "Put on your hat, my lord; you will take cold." He replied, "It matters not what happens to this head now." In our exultation we are apt to forget his side.

No writer that I know of praises the scene of Washington's resignation, yet the faces are so clear-cut that you recognize every face which other pictures have made familiar. The costumes are correct historical studies, and I would not wish a line of them changed.

Another picture of the Rotunda is "The Declaration of Independence." How familiar, how dear each face has become, from Lee, Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Livingston, to the plain Quaker who stands by the door! Adams afterward wrote: "Several signed with regret, and several others with many doubts and much lukewarmness." That shows in the picture, and contrasts with the enthusiasm of the few, who with clear vision felt the dawn of a larger liberty for the race.

We are so apt to enjoy the music and forget the singer, to enjoy the painting and forget the artist, that we venture a reminder concerning Colonel John Trumbull, the artist aide-de-camp of General Washington. He studied art in this country and in Europe. In London he painted John Adams, our first Minister to England, and, in Paris, Thomas Jefferson, our Minister to France. General Washington gave him sittings, and he traveled through the entire thirteen colonies securing portraits. It was not until 1816, after thirty years of careful preparation, that Congress gave him the commission to paint the four great historical paintings now in the Rotunda. They are the best authentic likenesses now in existence of the persons represented.

"The Embarkation of the Pilgrims," by Wier, is considered the best picture of the Rotunda. All the self-sacrifice of leaving country, home, and friends is in the women's faces, "All for God" is in the men's faces. It is the little leaven of Puritanism which yet keeps this country sweet.

It is amusing to see the bands of Indians who are sent here to meet the "Great Father" stop before "The Baptism of Pocahontas," painted by Chapman. Evidently neither the faces nor the costumes suit them, for they hoot and laugh, while they grunt with evident approval at the picture of Boone's conflict with the savages and that of William Penn's conference with the Indians of Pennsylvania.

At a height of sixty-five feet above the floor, and encircling the wall at that point, about three hundred feet in circumference, runs a fresco, by Brumidi and Castigni, in imitation high relief, which well depicts periods of American history, illustrating from the days of barbarism to civilization. It is incomplete at this time.

Brumidi was, while yet a very young man, banished from Italy for participating in an insurrection. He went to Mexico, and finally was brought to Washington through the instrumentality of General Meigs. His first work is in the room of the Committee of Agriculture of the House, where he represented Cincinnatus leaving the plow to receive the dictatorship of Rome; General Putnam, in a similar situation, receiving the announcement of the outbreak of the Revolution, and other fine works are scarcely appreciated by the clerks who daily work beneath them. For eight dollars a day, the compensation he first received, Brumidi did work which thousands of dollars could not now duplicate. Almost every one knows that Brumidi began the decoration of the frieze around the Rotunda of the Capitol. He had completed in charcoal the cartoons for the remainder of the decoration, and these drawings he left to his son, supposing that the designs would be purchased from him by the successor selected to complete the work. This man, however, obtained in some unknown way an idea of the sketches Brumidi had made, and attempted to carry them out without the aid of the originals.

At the east door of the Rotunda are the famous bronze doors designed by Randolph Rogers at Rome in 1858, and cast at Munich. The high reliefs illustrate leading events in the life of Columbus.

From near the Rotunda one can ascend to the dome and overlook the entire District of Columbia.

VI CONCERNING SOME OF THE ART AT THE CAPITOL

AMONG the interesting pictures in the Capitol is Frank B. Carpenter's picture, "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862." Mr. Lincoln was accustomed to speak of the act which this picture represents as the central act of his administration. Historians have recorded it the leading event of the nineteenth century.

It changed the policy of the war, and was received by the army and the people as a necessary war measure. According to Mr. Carpenter, he takes the moment when Mr. Lincoln has just said: "Gentlemen, I now propose to issue this Emancipation Proclamation."

Montgomery Blair said: "If you do, Mr. President, we shall lose the fall elections." To this no one offered a reply. Mr. Seward, who sits in front of the table, said: "Mr. President, should we not wait for a more decisive victory, so that the rebels may know we are able to enforce the Proclamation?" Mr. Lincoln leaned forward and said, in a low voice: "I promised my God, if Lee were driven back from Maryland, to issue the Proclamation." Mr. Seward said: "Mr. President, I withdraw every objection." Chase, who stands back of the President in the picture, and who was not always in sympathy with Mr. Lincoln, laid his hand affectionately on Mr. Lincoln's shoulder, to show the President that in _this_ matter they were in perfect accord.

The Proclamation came just after the battle of Antietam, which was far from being a decisive victory. The Proclamation set forth that, unless rebellion ceased by January 1, 1863, the slaves at that time would be declared free. It was a case of "man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Another picture which well merits a full description (which we have not space to give) is W. H. Powell's spirited picture, "The Battle of Lake Erie, September 13, 1813." It represents Commodore Perry transferring his colors from the disabled flagship _Lawrence_ to the _Niagara_ in the midst of a fire from the enemy. Perry deserved all the glory he so richly won.

Mary Clemmer Ames thus beautifully describes that great picture, "Westward the Star of the Empire Takes its Way." The picture is in the stairway of the south wing:

"At the first glance it presents a scene of inextricable confusion. It is an emigrant train caught and tangled in one of the highest passes of the Rocky Mountains. Far backward spread the eastern plains, far onward stretches the Beulah of promise, fading at last in the far horizon. The great wagons struggling upward, tumbling downward from mountain precipice into mountain gorge, hold under their shaking covers every type of westward moving human life. Here is the mother sitting in the wagon front, her blue eyes gazing outward, wistfully and far, the baby lying on her lap; one wants to touch the baby's head, it looks so alive and tender and shelterless in all that dust and turmoil of travel. A man on horseback carries his wife, her head upon his shoulder. Who that has ever seen it will forget her sick look and the mute appeal in the suffering eyes? Here is the bold hunter with his raccoon cap, the pioneer boy on horseback, a coffeepot and cup dangling at his saddle, and oxen—such oxen! it seems as if their friendly noses must touch us; they seem to be feeling out for our hand as we pass up the gallery. Here is the young man, the old man, and far aloft stands the advance-guard fastening on the highest and farthest pinnacle the flag of the United States.

"Confusing—disappointing, perhaps—at first glance, this painting asserts itself more and more in the soul the oftener and the longer you gaze. Already the swift, smooth wheels of the railway, the shriek of the whistle, and the rush of the engine have made its story history. But it is the history of our past—the story of the heroic West."

There are pictures and busts, or full-length statues, of almost every great man of our nation. Some of them, within one hundred years, will be turned over to the man's native State or town, with complimentary notes and speeches the inner meaning of which is: "We need the room for bigger men."

Before leaving the Capitol plaza a word must be said of Horatio Greenough's statue of Washington, which sits in lonely grandeur before the Capitol. Greenough was much in Rome, and the antique became his model. The statue represents Washington sitting in a large chair, holding aloft a Roman sword, the upper part of his body naked, the lower part draped as Jupiter Tonans.[3]

Footnote 3:

On May 27, 1908, Congress appropriated $5,000 to move Greenough's statue of Washington to the Smithsonian Institute. The removal was made November 21, 1908.

This conception brings out the majestic benignity of the face of Washington, and shows to the life every muscle and vein of his magnificent form. Greenough said of his own work: "It is the birth of my thoughts; I have sacrificed to it the flower of my days and the freshness of my strength; its every lineament has been moistened with the sweat of my toil and the tears of my exile. I would not barter its association with my name for the proudest fortune that avarice ever dreamed of."

The work, however, has met with more of criticism than of praise. A statue should represent a man in the costume of his time. Washington should have been shown either in the knee-breeches or in the full military costume of his period. We want no foreign effects in our statues. Washington had no aspiration to be either Jupiter or Mars, but he earnestly desired to be a good and useful man.

In this connection a few words in relation to the character of future paintings that shall be selected for the adornment of the Capitol may not be amiss.

In Paris, at the Exposition in 1900, the writer was greatly impressed by the manner in which France perpetuates historic events. The best picture of the commission which settled the Spanish-American War was painted by a Frenchman, the best picture of the Peace Commission at the Hague was also French. One picture, which will ever be valuable, represented President Carnot and his Cabinet in the Exposition of 1889 receiving the representatives of all the colonies of France.

Our country should have pictures of the inauguration of the President, with his leading men about him; also of the receptions on New-year's day, showing faces of foreign Ministers, the Cabinet, Members of the Supreme Court, and our naval and military commanders.

I remember one brilliant company at Secretary Endicott's, during the first Cleveland administration. The Ministers of various foreign nations, in court costumes and with all their decorations, were present. General Sheridan, full of life and repartee, was there. General Sherman had come over from New York to grace with his presence the reception given by the Secretary of War. General Greely, of Arctic fame, wore for the first time the uniform of a brigadier-general. All the leading army officers, in brilliant uniforms, were present. Senators Edmonds, Sherman, Logan, Evarts, Ingalls, Wade Hampton, Leland Stanford, Vance, Voorhees, Allison, with many others, were part of that memorable company. Mrs. Stanford wore the famous Isabella diamonds. Among the guests were Secretaries Vilas, Whitney, Bayard, and their accomplished wives; Mr. Carlisle, then Speaker of the House, and his stately, genial wife; and President and Miss Cleveland, who made an exception to the Presidential rule of non-attendance at such functions, and by their presence added to the pleasure of the occasion. Chief Justice Waite and Justices Field, Miller, Blatchford, Gray, and Strong were present.

What a picture for history that representative company would now be! We need an art fund—perhaps the Carnegie University beneficence may provide it. Concerning the Capitol building, Charles Sumner said: "Surely this edifice, so beautiful, should not be open to the rude experiment of untried talent."

The Commission of Artists said: "The erection of a great National Capitol occurs but once in the life of a nation. The opportunity such an event affords is an important one for the expression of patriotic elevation, and the perpetuation, through the arts of painting and sculpture, of that which is high and noble and held in reverence by the people; and it becomes them as patriots to see to it that no taint of falsity is suffered to be transmitted to the future upon the escutcheon of our national honor in its artistic record. A theme so noble and worthy should interest the heart of the whole country, and whether patriot, statesman, or artist, one impulse should govern the whole in dedicating these buildings and grounds to the national honor."

VII THE SENATE CHAMBER