CHAPTER VI.

There they shall found

Their government, and their great senate choose.

Where commonwealth-men, starting at the shade
Which in their own wild fancy had been made,
Of tyrants dream'd who wore a thorny crown,
And with state bloodhounds hunted Freedom down.

To rear this plant of Union, till at length,
Rooted by time and fostered into strength,
Shooting aloft, all danger it defies,

And proudly lifts its branches to the skies.

MILTON.

CHURCHILL.

On the following day (Sunday) I felt so sore and shaken with my rough journey, and the thermometer stood so high (upwards of ninety in the shade), that I kept within doors until evening, when I strolled down the broad Pennsylvania Avenue for an hour before sunset; but immediately after breakfast, the next morning, I set off to feast my eyes and ears upon the grand object of my expedition from Philadelphia: to wit, the Capitol, and Congress in full convention. I had rather hurried my journey, lest the House should adjourn; and considered myself fortunate in finding, upon my arrival, that the tariff and bank bills were before it, and in all human probability would fully occupy it for the next six weeks.

A few hundred paces from the hotel, up the Pennsylvania Avenue, I crossed a small muddy creek, classically

denominated the Tiber, and soon after gained the large iron gates at the entrance of the area within which the Capitol is situated. It is upon a lofty eminence, overlooking the plain upon which the city is built; and several broad flights of steps lead to the principal entrance. The first stone was laid by Washington, during his administration, in September, 1793; but it was not finished to its present state until some time after the conclusion of hostilities in 1815, previously to which the wings only were built of substantial materials, the intermediate space between them, now occupied by the Rotunda, being formed of wood. It was consumed in the conflagration of the public buildings which ensued on the entrance of the British into the city, on the evening of the 24th of August, 1814. It is situated nearly in the centre of the area, which contains 22 acres of ground, and is surrounded by a low wall and strong iron balustrade, a small shrubbery of low trees being planted within the railing. The western front, towards the city, is tastefully laid out in grass terraces and gravel walks; while on the eastern a garden has been fenced off within an iron railing, to which however every one has free access. The eastern front of the building stands upon higher ground than the western; and, to remedy this defect in the appearance, an earthen terrace was formed at some distance (probably 20 feet) from the basement story on the latter side, which, in addition to answering the primary object, affords, by being underbuilt, excellent cellars for fuel. The entrance, then, is from this terrace into the Rotunda, which is on the second story, and paved with stone, receiving light from the dome, 96 feet above the floor. Its diameter is also the same; and the echo of footsteps along the pavement, or the voices of people conversing, almost equals that in the

whispering-gallery of St. Paul's. The western side of it is ornamented with four large oil-paintings, by Colonel Trumbull, an officer of the American army and Aide-decamp to Washington during the revolutionary war. Retiring from the service in disgust at the irregular promotion of some officers over his head, he cultivated his natural talent for drawing, by studying under his countryman, West, and others of the most eminent artists in Europe. The paintings are placed in niches about ten inches deep in the wall, and are from 20 to 21 feet in length, and about 13 in height. They are all historical subjects, taken from the most important events of the era connected with the Revolution; representing the Declaration of Independence in the State House, Philadelphia, 4th July, 1776; Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, 17th October, 1777; that of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, 19th October, 1781; and Washington's Resignation of his Commission into the hands of Congress at Annapolis, 23d December, 1783. All have considerable merit, and their value is enhanced by most of the figures represented on the canvass being from portraits taken for the express purpose by Colonel Trumbull. But, in the last-mentioned one, the two stiff lines of French and American troops, stationed at attention, and looking at each other from opposite ends of the painting, with the British army and General O'Hara at their head, marching up the centre in lengthened array, appear as formal and old-fashioned as the straight rows of Lombardy poplars in the Pennsylvania Avenue. The four niches on the opposite side of the Rotunda are vacant; and, being merely plastered over, look shabby and bare, contrasted with the richly gilt frames which surround them. Captain Hall says that, when he was in the States, the subject of filling them with suitable

paintings was brought before Congress, but that they came to no decision respecting them; nor have they made any farther progress as yet. Various reasons were assigned to me for the neglect of what any one would imagine was but a very simple undertaking, and required little or no discussion. A young artist proposed to fill up one of the vacant niches gratuitously, thinking the name he should earn, and the patronage which would ensue in consequence of such an act, ample remuneration: but the House declined accepting his offer, as one party (the Battle of New Orleans being the subject proposed) would never consent to any thing which might tend to add lustre to the deeds of General Jackson; and another stated that though the artist might paint one gratuitously, yet he would expect and Congress would almost be bound to give him an order to fill up the remaining three niches, that too much money had already been lavished upon Colonel Trumbull by the present generation, and that posterity might fill the others. There are two entrances into the Rotunda from the area without, and two others from the Senate House in the northern wing, and from the House of Representatives in the southern wing. Over each of them is a large historical piece of sculpture; two are from the chisel of Enrico Causici, of Verona, who studied under Canova; the one representing a combat between Daniel Boon, an early settler in the west, and an Indian, in 1773; the other represents the landing of the Puritan settlers at Plymouth in 1620. A third, by A. Capellano, also a pupil of Canova's, is the narrow escape of Captain Smith from death (when captured by the Indians in 1606), through the intercession of Pocahontas, the king's daughter, who, in 1609, prevented the entire destruction of the colony at Jamestown, by informing the