Congress Finds a Permanent Home
"Congress Finds a Permanent Home" details the journey of the United States Congress from its initial meetings in various locations to its establishment in Washington, D.C. The narrative begins with Congress's early sessions during the American Revolution, which took place in cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York, influenced by the political climate and British military presence. As the United States sought a more central location for its government, the decision was made in the late 18th century to establish a permanent capital along the Potomac River.
The Capitol building, designed by William Thornton and later completed by other architects, became the iconic home for Congress when it officially convened there for the first time on November 17, 1800. The design and construction of the Capitol reflect early American architectural ambitions and symbolize the nation's growing governance. Over the years, the Capitol has undergone significant expansion and restoration, especially after destruction during the War of 1812. Today, it stands as a monumental representation of American democracy and legislative authority. This history underscores the evolution of the U.S. government and its efforts to create a cohesive and accessible center for its legislative processes.
Congress Finds a Permanent Home
Congress Finds a Permanent Home
Before its first session at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on November 17, 1800, Congress (like its predecessors during the American Revolution) met in a number of locations.
In 1774 America was comprised of 13 mainland colonies and approximately 2.5 million people. Only five percent of the population lived in communities of more than 2,000 residents, but these urban areas greatly influenced politics, commerce, and intellectual life. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with 28,000 residents, was America's foremost city. The other leading cities were New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; and Charleston, South Carolina.
Politics and practicality made Philadelphia the first capital of the united colonies. Britain's imposition of what came to be known as the Intolerable Acts on Massachusetts as a punishment for the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, prompted Massachusetts Bay Colony legislators to seek stringent economic sanctions against Britain. More moderate patriot leaders instead sought to contain the radicals and called a Continental Congress to develop an appropriate American response. They chose Philadelphia to be the site of their gathering, as it was both geographically and politically located in the center. Furthermore, unlike New York and Boston the city of Philadelphia was free from garrisons of British troops.
Twelve colonies sent 56 representatives to the First Continental Congress-with only Georgia abstaining. Joseph Galloway, the conservative speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly, suggested that the colony's statehouse be the meeting chamber. However, the convention members decided instead to accept the local carpenters' offer of their own building. They foresaw this decision as “highly agreeable to the mechanics and citizens in general.” The First Continental Congress thus met at Carpenters' Hall from September 5 to October 26, 1774, having resolved to reconvene on May 10, 1775, if British harassment continued.
Meanwhile, what was to develop into the American Revolution had commenced. It began with bloody encounters between American militiamen and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. In the face of the precarious situation, the colonies held fast to their intention to meet again. The Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775, as planned. This time it held its sessions in the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall. Over one year later in the same hall, on July 4, 1776, the delegates voted to accept Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, which officially renounced America's allegiance to Great Britain.
Britain's military superiority threatened the colonial cause. General Sir William Howe's troops occupied New York City on September 15, 1776, and by November George Washington's men were in flight to New Jersey. On December 11, 1776, the British chased the rebels into Pennsylvania and on December 12 Congress decided to abandon its hazardous position in Philadelphia. During the following months Henry Fite's three-story brick house in Baltimore, Maryland, served as the new location for the congress.
However, American forces soon scored surprise victories in New Jersey-at Trenton on December 26, 1776, and at Princeton on January 3, 1777-which secured New Jersey for the colonials and bolstered morale in neighboring Pennsylvania. Congress soon left its Baltimore refuge and returned to Philadelphia on March 4, 1777. In the summer of 1777, however, General Howe sailed with 15,000 men against Philadelphia. On September 19, the Continental Congress once again fled the city. The representatives met on September 27 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the next day moved on to York, Pennsylvania, where they convened on September 30. Meanwhile, Howe captured Philadelphia on September 26. The rebel legislators endured their exile until the British evacuated the city in June 1778, after which they returned to Philadelphia.
The Continental Congress remained at Philadelphia for the remainder of the Revolution. Later, a demonstration by 300 American soldiers seeking redress of various grievances prompted the body to remove to Princeton, New Jersey on June 24, 1783. While there, the congress met in the faculty room of Princeton College in Nassau Hall. Under a plan requiring alternate sessions in Annapolis and Trenton, the legislature adjourned on November 3, 1783, to go to Maryland. The delegates met in Annapolis from November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784, and at Trenton from November 1 to December 2, 1784. New York City was the final seat of the congress meeting under the Articles of Confederation, with sessions held there from January 11, 1785, to March 2, 1789.
The Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, devised a new frame of government under which elections were held late in 1788. On March 4, 1789, the new Congress convened in New York City, but it did not obtain a quorum until April. Both the Senate and House of Representatives met at Federal Hall at the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets in lower Manhattan. The building had long served as the New York city hall, but the French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant refurbished it at a cost of $50,000 to suit the needs of its new tenants.
Political exigencies soon had Congress on the move again. On January 14, 1790, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton delivered his “First Report on the Public Credit” in which he advocated that the federal government take the responsibility for $21.5 million worth of debts incurred by the states during the Revolution. Hamilton believed the assumption of debts would increase world confidence in the United States and would also strengthen the central government by connecting its well-being with that of the businessmen who held most of the public debt.
Southerners, fearful of national encroachment on state powers, effectively blocked the assumption plan which Hamilton saw as vital to the American economy. He finally won the support of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Representative James Madison, and the Virginians who led the opposition, by agreeing to have the national capital relocated to a more southern area. On July 10, 1790, the House of Representatives authorized the president to pick a ten-mile square district, within a 105-mile stretch on the Potomac River's banks, to be the site. Philadelphia would serve as the interim capital until 1800.
On December 6 Congress began a decade's tenure in Philadelphia, meeting at the county courthouse at Sixth and Chestnut Streets just west of the Pennsylvania State House. The representatives met on the first floor of the building and the senators on the second. The structure, donated by the state for the use of the legislature, became known as Congress Hall. Pennsylvania also built a President's House on Ninth Street between Elm and Chestnut Streets, in which the president resided. The commonwealth hoped, in vain, that its generosity would persuade the federal government to remain in Philadelphia.
President George Washington spent two weeks in October 1790 inspecting possible locations for the nation's capital along the Potomac River. He finally chose a spot on the east bank, as far south as the congressional mandate allowed. The site included land in both Maryland and Virginia, but the city was to be autonomous. The government then bought the property from its owners for $66.50 an acre, which was five times the market value.
Three commissioners, including Associate Supreme Court Justice Thomas Johnson of Maryland, supervised the development of the capital. They made it known in 1791 that it would bear the name of Washington. Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant designed the city by imposing a series of avenues radiating from circles on a grid of numbered and lettered streets. Thomas Jefferson selected the locations for the Capitol (the seat of the Congress) and for the White House.
Congress met in Washington, D.C., for the first time on November 17, 1800. In the same year, President John Adams moved into the White House. The capital had an appropriate frontier quality: Adams swam in the Potomac before breakfast and his wife Abigail dried the family laundry in the East Room. On March 1, 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in the new city.
The Capitol is an impressive example of early American governmental architecture. The 432-room structure, which covers three and a half acres, is 751 feet long, 350 feet wide, and 287 feet high. Thomas Crawford's bronze statue Freedom, erected to the accompaniment of a 35-gun salute on December 3, 1863, stands atop the Capitol dome.
After a 1792 competition, William Thornton was selected by President Washington to design the Capitol, notwithstanding the fact that his entry arrived months after the competition had closed. Thornton shares the credit with French architect Étienne Sulpice Hallet for the basic conception of a central dome flanked by north and south wings. Retained to supervise the execution and revision of Thornton's plans, Hallet sought to introduce changes and was dismissed in 1794. President Washington himself had meanwhile laid the cornerstone in 1793, and construction proceeded under various hands for years. The architect Benjamin H. Latrobe, working from 1803 to 1817, modified the original plans. Charles Bulfinch, who succeeded Latrobe in 1817, completed the structure in 1830. Thornton died in 1828, before the Capitol was completed.
The north wing, the first one finished, originally served as quarters for the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. In 1807 the House moved to the new south wing, leaving the north section to the Senate. A wooden walkway joined the two wings. British soldiers burned the Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812. Following the war, reconstruction was done to the Capitol, and by December 1819 it was once again ready for occupancy and its north and south wings were restored. The central portion of the Capitol, which Bulfinch had begun in 1818, included the east and west fronts and the central rotunda. Topped with a copper-covered wooden dome, the rotunda was virtually completed by 1824.
In 1849 Congress authorized plans for vastly extending the north and south wings and for adding a massive new dome to match the building's new proportions. The new legislative chambers were essentially completed by 1859. Construction on the 4,500-ton cast and wrought iron dome began in 1855 and continued until its completion in 1863. The Capitol then remained undisturbed until 1959, when the east front was moved forward 32 feet to provide greater architectural balance.