106 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
The success of the American Revolution made clear
that the colonists had many different visions of
their political future. Their first attempt to establish
an administrative framework came in the Articles
of Confederation, which produced a weak central
government as a reaction against monarchy. The
shortcomings of the Articles led to fierce debates
about how to proceed. Those advocating an entirely
new Constitution and a stronger central government
dubbed themselves Federalists. They met passionate
resistance from Antifederalists who feared that
concentrated national power directly threatened their
liberties. As a result, the new Constitution included
ten amendments that prioritized individual rights and
placed limits on national authority.
Just after the states ratified the Constitution, the
newly empowered government faced its first serious
test. Alexander Hamilton had long argued that
the nation should assume the state debts incurred
during the Revolutionary War. But many Southerners
remained skeptical, concerned that this would enrich
the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans.
In 1790 Hamilton forged a compromise with James
Madison and the newly appointed Secretary of State,
Thomas Jefferson: Southerners would not object to
the federal assumption of war debts, and in return
the nation’s permanent capital would be located
in the South.
The new Congress codified this compromise in the
Act of 1790: after a ten-year stint in Philadelphia, the
capital would move to a location between Maryland
and Virginia, two Southern and slaveholding states.
This gesture was designed to affirm both the influence
and interests of Southerners. President George
Washington selected the site for the new national
capital at the confluence of the Potomac and the
Anacostia rivers (then known as the Eastern Branch),
not far from his Mount Vernon home. The Potomac
seemed particularly appealing given its central
location in the nation. Moreover, with headwaters
that lay near the Ohio River, the Potomac held out the
promise of linking the seaboard to the interior. On the
detail at right, depth soundings are shown along the
Potomac River to indicate its navigability.
ENGINEERING THE NATION’S CAPITAL
Andrew Ellicott and Pierre Charles
L’Enfant, “Plan of the City of
Washington, in the Territory of
Columbia,” 1792
To design the capital, President Washington
appointed Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French
architect who had fought alongside the patriots in
the Revolutionary War. Two hundred years later,
L’Enfant’s plan still frames the city. Like most
eighteenth-century American towns, Washington was
organized on a grid, though L’Enfant added a series
of diagonals to facilitate movement across the city.
As shown on the detail below at right, he established
a central axis along Pennsylvania Avenue to connect
the president’s home to the legislature. Jefferson
suggested wide boulevards and limited building
heights to ensure both light and air, and to lend
the capital a stately atmosphere. In a similar vein,
L’Enfant reserved a few elevated sites around the city
for anticipated monuments to commemorate the
Revolution. The main avenues would be named after
the fifteen states, while a series of central squares
would provide space for relaxation and yet more
national memorials.
L’Enfant finished his plan in the summer of 1791,
though before it was approved he was fired for his
inability to compromise. Andrew Ellicott stepped in to
formally submit the plan, aided in these final stages
by the freeborn African American Benjamin Banneker.
Once approved, the plan was engraved in Philadelphia
by Thackara & Vallance in late 1792. This was just
weeks after the cornerstone of the White House—
marked as “President’s House”—was laid by slaves.
Multiple editions of the layout were published in
the United States, Paris, and London, indicating the
widespread interest in this new national capital. The
diamond-shaped plan of the city became a familiar
image in the early republic. In the 1790s Edward
Savage painted the Washington family seated around
a large copy of L’Enfant’s plan (page 6). Savage knew
that viewers would recognize the map even with just a
portion exposed. For the next several decades, in fact,
American schoolgirls commonly copied, painted, and
embroidered the L’Enfant plan as part of their civic
education. The map of this new planned city was a
fixture of popular culture, and a symbol of national
independence itself.
If the capital appears slightly unfamiliar here,
that is because of changes made after 1900. The
mall was extended, and wider streets reflect the City
Beautiful movement that had taken the nation by
storm. Yet L’Enfant’s original plan largely survives—a
national capital designed from scratch. Unlike Paris
and London, Washington, D.C. would be primarily
a center of political power, geographically separate
from its cultural and financial capitals. If that is still
true, it is also by design.