Historical society provided video of this event. Is the enoch girl scholars series. We thought we would start with our own. One of the nations finest scholars on the First Congress. That early time in the development of our country. We have been fortunate to have him as part of our society team. He was 20 seven years working on the First Congress program. He has put together a very imaginative presentation. Using primary sources, letters of the time, where people wrote to one another about science, food, culture. The back and forth that made early days in washington. Usinvite you to stay with for questions and answers. Will do his presentation and i will work through the questions. Questionscouple of during the presentation. The majority will calm at the conclusion. Andse put your questions in i will try to work them through both at the end and as we move away. Thank you very much. For the work you have done to put this together. Welcome to the platform. Welcome, everyone. I am very glad we could all this off. Let your minds go. This is not a straightforward narrative. We will touch a lot of points. The point of departure for me came with the publication of a book. Some of you have seen it before. This is a painting of him. I added a volume of his letters. The point of departure for me was his attendance on the last session of the six congress. She comes to washington dc when the federal government first moved here in 1800. For many new englanders, this exposure to washington is their first exposure to rural slavery. He writes, the ground as you approach georgetown is excellent for roads. But it is in very bad repair. Here was exhibited the precious effects of slavery. What of the capital . It is but one weighing of the original design. The body has only appeared to the imagination. This is the capital that they appear at at the end of the century. I show this because many people knocking to see this evidence. This is a blueprint of the main floor of the capital at that time when Congress First sin. The gallery is depicted here. The house of representatives is where theeeting library of congress will eventually meet. , im sorry, session there is no third session. Hethe second congress, realizes he has been reelected. Is the only congressman to be reelected at that point in history. Maine was part of massachusetts at that time. He gives up his seat in congress. You see him on the right here. Scientist from salem, massachusetts. Applies for patents from congress before he is elected in 1800. He only serves this one session. Reside in a boardinghouse. That was common. Wadsworth finds other housing. This is a congregational minister from hamilton, massachusetts. He is kind of in every man. A lawyer, a merchant. He is a subject of a book about the ohio country. He is a main lobbyist. He promotes settlement. These are the voices you will be hearing. Left records of their writings. Mostly up in salem massachusetts. They are colleagues spatially. They inhabit the same boardinghouse room. I dont know if you can see my cursor. Is where the library of Congress Jefferson building sits now. They occupied the southern most on the far right. Just the way he described it to his daughter. The is the first session of seven congress. This is the first entire congress that is called washington home. It is situated east of the capital. He might have the most pleasant room in the house. You can imagine how beautiful that mustve been. He added that he was exceedingly happy. I am not much pleased with the capital. With a huge pile built handsome stone. This is what they would be seeing. That odd structure is called the oven. You may have seen images of it before. None of this would be contemporary. These are all reconstructed images. There were stairways to the galleries. They stayed there through the seventh congress. I will be using the words of these three men. At some point i will be throwing in some words from another man who was a senator from new hampshire. He came a year later to fill a vacated seat. Spinoffsese things are of my book on thatcher. What happened after he left . Ongress the people who were left behind to carry on the federalist fight . This looks at how quakers and others dealt with the restoration after the english civil war. I wanted to see how they dealt with defeat. Episode, chronological i teased out for themes. They all cover micro history. List a few days. The first days of 1802. I begin to realize that what they are talking about is basically the politicization of everything. We are talking about food, science, historical memory. The social life in washington revolved around the white house. Occupant at this point was thomas jefferson. He had been inaugurated in march of 1801. We all know from his famous first inaugural where he says, we are all federalists. We are all republicans. He is trying to conciliate all parties. Are he really meant was we all republicans. The federalist just dont know it yet. Rightofway it sets up a contrast with his predecessors. This is a mid19th century view. Martian washingtons levees look like. Just a couple of days into the session. He writes, under the new order of things, there is nothing like this. But members are invited to die with theprep dine president in rotation. This is the blueprint. You can see in the upper left where these dinners would have taken place. The number in a day was generally eight. We were honored with a pretty early invitation. Jefferson wanted to create this idea of having a very informal white house. Could think toi illustrate this is one of these wonderful porches. He depicted jefferson study. That is this room right here. It is now the Southwest Corner of the state dining room. Jefferson is trying to depoliticize these dinners. He hates conflict. Though politics were to be discussed at the dinner table. My friend and colleague wrote about this. , he mayg to defuse this have fostered a deeper division. Jeffersons invitations to dinner were sent out under thomas jefferson, not the president of the United States. He wanted to create this image that it was more democratic, just a gathering of friends, not a political meeting. Inviting people under his own name instead of the office of president was an excuse to invite you he wished. As time goes by, he uses these dinner invitations as a way to honest members. You remember some of the words of william plummer. Decided that jefferson used friendly conversation and good food and wine to bind congressman to his self. He had no doubt of this being the true ground. They were not invited to dine with him. Gentlemen these recent against some of his favorite measures. As president , he vowed never to act toward an individual as if he knew what was said for or against him on the floor of the house. Behavior goes into the way he gives out these dinner invitations. Im sure many of you turned in to figure out what this means. Days ofirst few january, 1802, on new years day , we pick up with this journal. Although the president has no levees, a number of federalists went to the capital and wait upon him with the compliments of the team. We were received with politeness. The president invited us to go to the mammoth room and see the mammoth cheese. This was a gift to jefferson from the Baptist Community of cheshire, massachusetts. To thank him for his work promoting religious freedom. The cheese was four feet wide, 15 inches high, way to 30 pounds. 230 pounds. We have no image of it but we have a famous painting. This was the one given to andrew jackson. This is the one that was presented to jackson in 1835. It was there for people to munch on for a couple of years. It looks ridiculous. Really a symbol of jeffersonianism it is impractical. The idea of it is driven by folly. Theoesnt help at all that cheeses presented by the leader of a Baptist Community. Last sunday, the conductor of this monument of human weakness was introduced as the preacher to both houses of congress. A great number of gentlemen and ladies. The president made one in the audience. Have neverormance i heard before and i hope to never again. This was never heard by any decent auditory before. Shame appeared in every countenance. Whatever glamour the cheese might have added, jeffersons white house soon began to lose its luster. Later, on new years as1803, he writes again, we were passing through the great hall, i thought of the massive cheese. I asked one of the servants and waiting whether it was still in the room. That is the east room today. The president had just told us when we talk to him that 60 pounds have been taken out in the middle because of the popping up and symptoms of decay. If you wonder what happened to it, he writes about it a couple years later. He said at that point it was very far from being good. It was last seen a year later in 1805. Some think it was dumped into the river. He was quoting jefferson verbatim. It was a novel use of the expression mammoth. Credited with coining the adjective mammoth. By the time the cheese arrived in washington, people have picked up on this terminology. People said it was serving no practical purpose. This was not a neutral word. Usageld suffer widespread that the word atomic would have in the 20th century. It means something. What are the origins . Un was a phenomenon that historians of science and social historians begin to recognize as one of Thomas Jeffersons hobbies. Himself, among others, as a scientist. Just like benjamin franklin. Life, heof his public is interested in science in a way that refutes the arguments made by a french philosopher, a natural philosopher, who insisted on a theory of american degeneracy. The megafauna found in the north american western hemisphere are essentially inferior to those found elsewhere in the world. They degenerate. With jefferson, it became a patriotic article of faith that americans had megafauna at least as mega as europe did. State ofhis on the virginia in 1775. He specifically charges him under history to make notes on the mammoth that he might find. The mammoth is particularly recommended. Jefferson is really excited. Charles wilson peel is told about mammoth bones in the hudson river valley. It is not always called mammoth. They did not know what it was. But they did have some bones. You can see the diagram here. He hired some men to rig up this contraption to dig out the remnants of the skeleton of what they are calling a mammoth. Jefferson is calling it mammoth, although we know today thanks to the work of and anatomist that is a newnitim species entirely, which he named a mastodon. Breasts, and don, teeth. Mammoths were found further out west. Lewis finds them in the ohio valley. But the east coast valley becomes known as the mastodon. This famous painting is quickly renamed the xo nation of them the exhumation of the mastodon. Thes erected in headquarters of the u. S. Philosophical society. The skeleton ends up in independence hall, where he opens his museum eventually. You can see it in the background on the right, partially hidden by the drapery. Despite its obvious significance, the federalists follow jeffersons lead in using it as a political symbol. It jeffersons search for the mythical mammoth became a byword for jeffersonian political quackery. That is a direct quote from one of nathan reeds letters. Days, reed and other federalists are calling the Jefferson Administration the mammoth and company. Rights two years later how the word is used in a different context, yet with the same intent. Laterstwo years writes, the baker of the navy erected an oven and made a barrel of flour into a love. He baked it and called it the mammoth loaf. It was carried on the shoulders of men and carry to a Committee Room adjoining the senate chamber. A large sirloin of roasted beef, casks of wine, cider, and whiskey were deposited in the same place. At 12 00, the chamber was crowded with people of all classes and colors, to the meanest and vilest virginia slave. Mr. Jefferson took his jack knife and cut and eight of the beef and bread. He compared this drunken frolic to the sacrament of the lords supper. You can imagine what that is doing to new england federalists. Skeleton took on a life all of its own. Today, the focus in kids books, for example, is on the search for scientific truth. Cheese ismammoth presented to kids either as a and about the Ingenuity Community spirit of one new england village, or a triumphant exploration of the joys of Rural America and the debts we owe to our history, our parents, and ourselves. Ore i move on where is the mastodon today . Peels mastodon, is it in the white house now . It is it is chuck not in the white house. It is not in the capital. I am not sure it ever made it to washington. It ended up in philadelphia. Eventually, peel opens a museum in baltimore and it is there until the 1840s when they move it over to europe to try to sell it in europe. They thought they had a buyer in france, then the revolution of 1848 kicks in. So it ends up in germany. That is the picture i showed you earlier of the full mastodon skeleton there in germany, in a museum in germany. The neat thing about the subject of my talks and everything going in washington is the mastodon is now you know what, jane . I have to swallow my words. The mastodon is here in washington. It was moved for the first time in 170 years to the smithsonian, where it was erected in the museum of american art for an exhibit on Alexander Von Humboldt and the United States. They thought the skeleton represented the highest aspirations of American Science and european science meeting together. They actually brought it here. It was supposed to open this month. Obviously that did not happen. Perhaps the shutdown will end before we have to ship the mastodon back. Day 1802. W years after taking an early dinner, eight of us set off for mount vernon. The politicization of George Washingtons memory is another major theme i wanted to touch on. It comes out in this little vignette of a congressmans visit to mount vernon. But the bigger story of memorializing George Washington at this time is told in a wonderful book about the efforts to bury washington in the capital building. So they make it from gatsbys tavern in alexandria. They arrive in mount vernon on the second of january, the day after new years. Cutler writes to his daughter again, a servant conducted us to madam washingtons room, where we were received in a very cordial manner. Misses washington appeared as much rejoiced to receiving our visit as if he had been of her nearest connections. We were all federalists, which evidently gave her great pleasure. Her remarks were frequently pointed and sometimes very sarcastic on the new order of president she administration. She spoke of the election of mr. Jefferson, who she considered one of the most detestable of mankind as the greatest misfortune our country had ever experienced. Her unfriendly feelings toward him were to be expected after the abuse he offered to general washington while living. After breakfast, these federalist members from massachusetts rambled about until they arrived at the venerable tomb of washington himself. This tomb contains the remains of the great washington. This precious monument was the first object of our attention. I will not attempt to describe our feelings or the solemn boon on every countenance. The tomb opens nearly toward the river in an upright door which was locked, and the stonework is covered with earth, overgrown with tall grass. Between the tomb and the bank and narrow foot paths much trodden and she with trees, here misses washington in a gloomy solitude takes her melancholy walks. Here, every visitor in slow and solemn steps approaches this venerable mound, while we took precious relics of our own. I shall enclose a twig of a cypress and a leaf of the holy. A few months later, he writes his daughter, because he is going down to visit the same place and pay the same kind of homage to washington and his relics. He writes, we view the garden situation before dinner and the tomb of the great washington. There was off in the very there was awe in the place. How disgraceful to the United States to suffer these remains after being solicited of and granted by the relics to remain unnoticed. Will not the almighty blessed of gratitude with this ungrateful country . Your loins have not have the merit of his little finger. Pitiful revenge and glorious triumph. Fact did have plans to honor George Washington. Most of us know up the existence of a tomb below the crypt level of the capital building. It was intended to hold washingtons remains. Permission before she died a few years later. But it was a moot point. Jeffersonians resisted efforts in the 1800s and periodically thereafter to have a muzzle liam built the washington a mausoleum built washington. Burying him in the capital was a moot point until that central portion of the capital could be finished, where the tomb was created. Early 1840sas the and the washington family had changed their minds and they left washington in the new tomb they had created for him in mount vernon. That is where he can be found today. But long before that, jeffersonians had other ways of consigning washingtons memory to oblivion. A few months later on the friday before washingtons birthday in 1802, the house was listening to one of the crazy debates on the judiciary bill. At the end of the debate, a toeralist member rises adjourn tuesday. Workers the to give chance to install ventilation in the oven. That was the makeshift House Chamber i showed you earlier. It was called the oven because it got quite stuffy. The federalists also wanted to remind members that it was washingtons birthday, and he presumed so much respect would be paid to washingtons memory that congress would do no business on that day. It was the intention of those who venerated that great character to a celebration of the man. As soon as jeffersonian members found this out and realized what was happening, they suddenly decided, we need it to be on monday. They did not want any recognition being paid to the fact it was washingtons birthday. Cutler rights, have we lived to see the day that the memory of washington should be with marked content contempt and so markedly . The federalist mets that day regardless. Reedagain is nathan writing to a friend that month. In the evening, the vp of the United States aaron burr joined us and gave us sentiment which would prove fatal to him. Not beested it might published, and we have no wish to do it as we do not esteem ourselves much honored by his company. Burr from the in hamilton play. Sermon isunday of the the last sunday sermon given in congress. The house of representatives, some of the audience might know, is actually holding religious services in the House Chamber, in the capital building, because it is the largest Single Chamber in the young city. The last sunday sermon of that session i have been focusing on was in may of 1802. We know about it through cutlers journal, where he says he attended the hall. Mr. Parkinson preached. William parkinson was the house chaplain but had the same representation in a federalist mind as the chief monger. Nathan reed rights to a friend, our chaplain, who is an illiterate man, preaches in the same style. They disgrace the cause of religion and bring it into contempt. The was probably one motive democrats had in choosing a chaplain. Regardless of his style, you have to admit, he is a little tone deaf because he chose to preach as the subject of his sermon the biblical passage about lot leaving sodom. This is on the eve of congress leaving washington, d. C. It is strange that neither seemed to mention that with any sense of sarcasm. Ao days later, cutler takes packet with reed and other members of congress. Ton to delaware, then philadelphia, where he visits peels museum and sees the skeleton of the mammoth. The skeleton has existed in the Baltimore Museum in the 1830s. Tour of then our landscape of the very first months of the First Congress, the first full congress to meet in washington, and how different aspects of society, science, social life, the way you memorized and memorialized people, how it is all politicized during this day when the federalists are still hanging on, although the jeffersonians have created the first major regime change in national history. That is the end of the talk. Hopefully there are some questions i can answer from people. We have a number of questions, chuck. And we have one piece of good news for the viewers, which is that there is an exhibition tour with the curator that you can see online the mastodon. It is called art, nature, and culture. Through be reached those smithsonian website. Tohink we can find out a way and the link so you can go see what is going on at the smithsonian while they are under the work from home order like the rest of us. Chuck it is a wonderful tour she gives, by the way. A couple people indicated they know about it and it is a fabulous tour. It is now available online. But here is the question that a couple people asked. You have really gotten to know these people. Heard doris goodwin, when she is presenting one of the books she has written, whether it is lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt or franklin or whoever, she always talks about them as my people. She feels sort of sad to leave them when the book is finished. It sounds like you built a relationship with these individuals. How does thatbe work and how does it feel and how do you maintain the relationship with people who lived 200 years ago . Isck in some ways, it easier than relationships with people in our lives today. [laughter] reality that we know of them of letters. Ty most people whose letters survived were important enough that they knew their letters with the saved. Would be saved. He had a magnificent correspondence with his wife. Two of her only letters for the several hundreds we know she wrote because the family did not think her letters were worth keeping. There is this big blank in my heart for his wife. George thatcher, like most of the members of the First Congress, and the early political figures in the republic, you cannot help but fall in love with them. Book calledonderful founding brothers instead of founding fathers. They are all equals, all bumbling along trying to figure out how to move ahead in life. They are trying to figure this out in real time. For us to look back from 200 years earlier and see what it must have been like when you did not know how the story would end , it is a real treat and an honor to have access to these letters and to be able to make sense of them. Sometimes you get so embedded in them that you forget there is a post 1802. In this case, i made very few references to anything that happens after 1802. Kent bowie, my colleague, is famous for saying if you ask him anything about anything after 1803, he is like, that is Science Fiction to me. I dont know what you are talking about. Because the real world ends when these letters end. It is a wonderful experience. Even amateurs, people interested in genealogy, the first thing you should do is get your hands on the letters, then provide some context. Read secondary literature and so on. But start with the letters because it will provide the passion that is the basis of historical research. One of the questions a couple people asked is, is there anything in the letters that talked about how they traveled from washington dc to alexandria . Was that a difficult trek . Chuck yes, because there are no 14 street bridges. There was also no traffic, either. But it involved a fairy at this point in time it involved a ferry at this point in time. If you left in the morning around noon time, when they were done visiting jefferson at the time, youe at noon had to allow a full overnight trip to mount vernon if you were going to make that pilgrimage. We know many of them did. Toward the end of my talk, it is mostly overland at first until you get to the bay. Then you might want to take the water route up the bay. It is a very interesting thing that comes out in the letters. Today when we write letters, we dont often write about how we get somewhere because we assume the recipient will be experiencing the same thing. When you find references to travel, it is kind of a big deal. And it is always enlightening because we are always surprised at how difficult it was. I think i can honestly say if most of the audience had to confront what these people confronted just in the course of getting to work if you were a congressman, you probably would not do it. You would probably just stayathome. In george thatchers case, the distance from home was a deterrent for him coming back to congress. He was always complaining about how far away from home he was. He was doing it when he was in new york. That was one third of the distance from washington, d. C. So you can imagine. One of the other questions, someone was asking about the religious services. Were they held in the House Chamber . Is that what they called the oven . Where were these Services Held . Chuck the references i found to they refer to it as the hall. A congressng because representative is using that expression that he is referring to the oven, which is bigger than the senate chamber. I am thinking that is where they were held. Congressional chaplain from the very first week of the very First Congress, but they opened the religious services to all different denominations. So we saw for example leland. We know there were episcopalian. The people who were speaking during these religious services in the capital were not technically servants of the government. They were just utilizing government space in a communitarian space. It isd be careful to say government endorsing any particular religion or even the idea of religion. When you that in mind read about religious worship in the capital building. Those Services Continue . They continued through jeffersons presidency. Chuck they did. I dont know. Something for me to look into. I imagine when other space became available, certainly churches were being built at this time. First of all, a catholic would never be seen outside of a church sanctuary. So we know that catholics were not doing it. But there is a Catholic Church in georgetown, for example. I cant remember when the first catholic parish in the city of washington starts, but it is not long after this period we are talking about. At some point, they do move out of the capital building. I dont know when. Chuck, one of the questions we have a couple folks who are still interested in the cheese. We have two questions. One is maybe not quite in your venue, but nevertheless. It was called the Cheshire Cheese because it came from cheshire. Or was it Cheddar Cheese, what is the relationship between Cheshire Cheese and Cheddar Cheese . Chuck i dont know. They both begin with the same letter. Jane there you go. Chuck that is the only connection i can think of. It was called the Cheshire Cheese also, which makes the expression mammoth cheese all the more pointed. Someone went to the trouble to call it mammoth cheese. As i said to coin the word at the same time. But it was also known as the Cheshire Cheese because it came from cheshire, and it was cheddar. Maybe cheddar lasts longer. Maybe that is why they opted for cheddar. Has your friend in durham been enjoying the talk and sends you his greetings. But he has a very important question. Is that where they came up with the idea of calling the president the big cheese . Chuck dick what ask that. [laughter] when thatow expression started, but i am probably not the only one who is going to google after this is over and finding out the origins of that expression. Navy it is. It would make sense. And i am not sure that jefferson would not appreciate it, to be honest. Ask, werethe people the religious Services Open to the general public, or just for members of congress. Chuck it was the general public. Was a Public Service to the community. To have them in the capital. It was intended as a Public Service, so yes. The public was invited. You noted in your comments jefferson was not very conflict diverse. But on the other hand, it appears he was very much in conflict with the federalists. How do you reconcile those two things . Attempts torsons suppress conflict, it never works. We know this in our personal lives as well. It will come out sideways one way or another. Jefferson in avoiding conflict, and he would do it in his cabinet meetings as well. Some of his cabinet would start fighting with each other and he would pull madison aside and say, make sure that doesnt happen again. He liked having his ducks all heed up to the point where is frustrated that there is no allowance made for debate because all the votes are rearranged. With johnmade sure, randolph in roanoke and some of the others, all jeffersonians at this point, that as soon as the orders came down from the Jefferson White house, all you had to do was vote on it, and that was it. You are suppressing conflict, but in the very act of suppressing it, you are not acknowledging other peoples input. When people are not involved in the process, they double down. We know this from the way politics is done today. I would say jefferson was a failure at certainly did not make any attempt to reconcile, but he was also a failure to kind of erase conflict. He is actually aggravating conflict by not giving a voice. Two morewill have questions because we could carry this on for the rest of the day and be fascinated, but we are trying to be respectful of your time and everyone elses time. Has anyonen was, ever done an analysis of the people who ran for congress and didnt win, and who were they and what was the context of those campaigns when you talk about experience . Chuck in this period . In this period. Jane yes. Chuck i would like to think of myself as well read on the secondary literature, but you will find only snippets. There is no systematic way of looking at how many lawyers lost reelection. I did it with my thatcher book. I did a Detailed Analysis of who he ran against, what the issues were, and why that person ultimately lost to george thatcher. It would be so difficult. It would be lovely if it happened. There are great websites i want to encourage people to go on. America votes and the american antiquarian society. It is free. It will tell you every vote recorded from every office, from local dogcatcher to president of the United States up the 1820s. That is whether the candidate is known outside his own family. And if you got a vote, he is on that list in that website. It is fascinating. Jane you have to love our audience because they are better than google. Chuck [laughter] jane we have an answer to one of the questions. This is about the Church Services that were moved to intuary hall, that began 1807 and were there through 1857. As the first catholic to preach in the capital was bishop john onland, who preached there january 8, 1826 for two hours. Chuck wow. Jane now you know something you did not know before. Chuck i would bet that is an episcopalian bishop and not a catholic bishop. Says the jane it first catholic according to shane mccarthy. Chuck mccarthy should know. Jane he put his name behind it. A couple people asked about your book. Could you just hold it up again so people can see it . Chuck my baby. Jane there is the book. Thes available through United States capital historical society. If you go to our website, there is a shop feature and you can get all kinds of wonderful memorabilia of the capital. We have christmas ornaments made with marble from the capital, and we have books like chucks books. If you want to get the book, come join us if you want to be part of the continuing exploration of capital history. We hope you become a member and supporter of the capital historical society. Thank you very much. We appreciate the depth of your knowledge. Chuck it was fun. Thank you. Jane thank you, take care. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this is American History tv on cspan3, for this is American History tv on cspan3, where each weekend, of programmingrs exploring our nations past. Between 1
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