Is the nations capitol. He knew to take metro onto reletting night. [laughter] and he came down from saratoga springs. Despite the fact that he is a new yorker i should say that no less a local source than the Washington Post saying he succeeds in showing us the human face of washington, and too often perceived as faceless, that is achievement enough. Tom lewis. [applause] thank you very much. Im glad that you knew microphone. Take the metro. I will be getting to it. I am glad that you knew to take the metro. I want you to no that i invited several people to come tonight, as my guest. And i have been in the back of the green room and have gotten frantic messages saying, we are stuck in traffic. And i said, ditch your cars, grab a metro, and get off at federal triangle. They will be coming in late, and i expect others, too, will be will be that way as well. I want to thank rebecca very much for her introduction and think the Smithsonian Associates for inviting me. Delighted to be here, on it to be here. And i also want to thank James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and joseph henry. Now, you all know, but it is good to remind ourselves, James Smithson gave 100 thousand pounds, which translated into 500,000 in us currency and ultimately enter 105 sacks of gold. And he said that that money should be used in america for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. And John Quincy Adams, we have to thank him and i certainly thank him. I think he is greatly underrated as a president and as a congressperson, too. John quincy adams shepherded that money through and often resistant and reluctant congress. John c calhoun wanted to return the money to the to england because it would expand the role of the federal government and the states he had to persuade congress again to take the money because it fell into the hands temporarily of president van buren secretary of the treasury. And he lost most of it in the shady arkansas bond deal , and he had to and now John Quincy Adams had to get the congress to put pressure on the treasury to restore the money, and that unfortunately happened. We also, and i especially have to thank joseph henry as a pioneer and electromagnetism. We never touch a computer, we never push aa little button on our cell phone, never even turn on the light without being touched by one of joseph henrys discoveries and electromagnetism. And he became, of course, the 1st secretary, and he thought and made sure that everyone else youd to his thinking that the smithsonian should be, for the benefit of men of all countries and of all times for the extension of the boundaries of fraud, and you the smithsonian out of the hands of people like stephen douglas, Lincoln Douglas fame who wanted to expend all of James Smithsons money on agricultural schemes and projects. And he kept it out of the hands of andrew johnson, the president , who wanted to rename the smithsonian Washington University for the benefit of indigent children of the District Of Columbia. Now, perhaps his greatest achievement in washington was surviving for 30 years from 1846 to 1878 as secretary. That is no mean feat, especially as joseph henry in the civil war was a man of decidedly southern sympathies but stayed on and served and survived in the smithsonian survived because of him. So that is my thank yous, but i do want to also tell you why i wrote this book and what this book means, at least to me. I began writing this book as a young child. Standing up, about five and six years old in the back of my fathers 1946 studebaker as he drove from philadelphia to virginia and would come in on what i later realized was new york avenue into the capitol, and i would see it and be quite stunned by it and then later as a young and in your schoolchild i had a little bit of an argument with my High School Teacher who told me that washington, people could not vote. They dont vote because there are not many of them. And they dont really live there. They just go back to their states to vote . This did not sit well with me that wrangle me and bother me for many years. Later in the 1980s and 1990s i did a variety of projects which brought me to washington dc, spent a great deal of time wandering the streets at night, walking and all sorts of neighborhoods just downtown, the washington that is in everyones minds does not live here and i came this is a city i wanted to investigate and explore more the writing and research to have the ideas reinforced to understand that there are three things that are working in my book and themes that work in my book ended washingtons history. Right from the very beginning. And that is washingtons trouble with governance rippled through the two centuries plus and the many ways it has merit what has gone on and i came to the conclusion this might annoy people that washington belongs to washingtonians, but it also belongs to me. Belongs to every citizen of the United States, and it should end after all it is our representatives, our senators who control your destiny as washingtonians. That, of course, is something ill be returning to time and time again this evening. Washington is our city, not just the capitol of the United States. But as i put in the subtitle of my book the history of our national city. Phyllis talk about how were going to do our job tonight. He received a sheet about them. Which will tell you something about them. Dont think you have been cheated. There are many other images that will come along as the evening progresses. So, without further ado lets take a look at this picture, Edward Savages portrait of the washington family, as it is called. I actually like the title the president and his family , the full size of life which is the way it was presented in 1796 on washingtons birthday at the columbia gallery in new york city. Now, washington has set for Edward Savage beginning in 1790. And really seemed to like savage as an artist. And you might if you are historically inclined to ask why. And i think there are several things that are important in the picture despite what are some shortcomings. Ive nevers been quite as little eye contact in obtaining in my life. We have to take this into account. You see that it is an extraordinarily symbolic portrait. You see washington with his time to have had on table beside his sword. And there you see him in his full military dress that he wore especially for paintings. He liked this dress for paintings. Washington, by the way, i have fallen in love with George Washington. And that is in some ways not easy to do. But i think he is really important. We have fallen in love, everyone is in love with lincoln, but washington always seems a somewhat more distant figure, and indeed he shows that in his painting, but look where his right hand and arm rests on the shoulders of young George Washington cusp this from a known to the family is washy. George washington, if you look down here you will see that he has a compass in his hand, and is and is resting on the globe of the world, and shortly we have gotten to see that George Washington cusp this is the future of the country. Country. They did not exactly work out that way for George Washington. But that doesnt matter. This is democracy coming down through washington, through George Washington cusp this and spreading across the world, and on this side of course we have Martha Washington and Young Eleanor or nelly. Martha washington has, of course, iran on what is so important to us to all of you as well. The map of the city of washington, and we will return to this painting again as we go forward here. As i think i wrote in my notes, it became an engraving, and Edward Savage wrote about that until washington he made 10,000. That was almost cheeky of the essay. Matt melbourne and going to the morning and there is George Washington and his family looking down on the table where George Washington and his family used to take there breakfast. It is almost like the morton salt girl going down down down. But i do think that it is a magnificent engraving, and extremely, extremely important in the history of the country. Popular because this picture represented what the country was, and we have more to talk about in that painting in a minute. They have to talk about what washington was up against. The capitol, the seat of government on the banks of the potomac. Washington was given the task of siding it in the 100mie potomac and actually was given up to as the constitution says to create Federal District up to 10 miles square. He created a diamond district, if you will, diamond shaped district command you can see the tops of the diamond going up to maryland as they do, as im sure your all familiar, but they went down across the potomac to alexandria. It gave him not 1 penny to carry out the job. So it was rather a trendsetting of the congress at the time to vote for something and yet not give it any money. And so washington had to contend with that, and we will talk briefly about that. He also really had to contend with Thomas Jefferson on the one hand who had a vision of the city which was very different. In fact, it was not a city at all. It was a federal town, and this is it right here, this is rock creek coming in here. You see the town. Jeffersons capitol will take in 20 dwelling houses for those who belong to the government then washington did not think that way and we have to remember that washington invited someone to come up with a plan. And the planet he came up with which is the older plan done by Andrew Ellicott was for a city of about 750,000 people. At the time the largest city in the United States was 40,000 people in 1790. Ellicotts plan is adapted. He used words like empire, american empire, words like wealth, and he used the word which was important also. He thought not of the United States as it was, but as the United States would be. And could be. And jefferson had designed the town. Because of washington not having any money to build the city he had to resort to ridiculous schemes of course thats not so ridiculous today. Lottery has been very much a part of the United States history and raising money in the United States. Youll see down at the bottom a man named Daniel Blodgett started. It would be a great lottery. The completely and utterly failed and cost money. Had it succeeded it would have been close to 5 million he would have gained, but he actually cost the government money, but he did lower others into land schemes, and one of those was James Greenleaf of greenleafs point, a man who was one of the most remarkable scoundrels in the history of the United States , and a great deal more should be known about him. We talked a lot about the federal government, and what i have chosen to call troubled governance, but now we have to think about something else, and you notice, i ami am sure you have known that i have left out something. And that is the slave. The slave is wearing washington which interestingly enough mirrors washes over here. And the slave has a collar that is very much like washingtons as well, only it is turned up. I think the slave is actually quite important. A gray coat and ate salmon red waistcoat. He possesses almost a princely quality. His blackcomb back here frames that dark face which is unknowable. And a prominent nose that he has. His left hand is i think somewhat enigmatically concealed in that waste wescott, and the slave remains in shadow. Now, i want to Say Something about the slave. The slave is one who is responsible for two doctoral dissertations that have been written, people are Walking Around with doctorates who one of them claimed that the slave is without question billy lee, and another one has claimed without question that it is james riley who was not one of washington slaves, but a slave who the artist captured in london where he worked on the painting. Savage captured that art slave in london. I say does not matter. I think what is important about it is that the slave is so unknowable, and i think that is absolutely important. But it does point out something that is captured in this work. And that is very much a part of the structure of the United States. Before moving on from this, i cannot resist telling you that the painting went after savage sold it and his son soldsons sold it and it went from various places and ended up in new york where in 1892 the new york sun reported that it had been given a vigorous and good cleaning with soap and water and salt. Somehow i dont think the National Gallery was involved. We will go on to another painting which is actually quite a wonderful one which is, negro life. Which was painted by Eastman Johnson in 1859. Now, johnson was a very fine artist and i think somewhat underrated in this country, but a very fine portrait artist. And this is actually a remarkable painting. By the way, it immediately became after it immediately became the old kentucky home. I am not sure what that was, whether it was an uncomfortable fact that people thinking about this as washington dc, and if you look at the words of stephen fosters song, is valid, they are pretty rough on the idea of slavery, too. Im not really sort of that out. Those get back to the things that are important in this. If we captured this from the rear yard of his fathers house. This was an image of a slave which was, driven across in front of the capitol of the United States that is the capitol will remember, the british had something to do with it in 1850. What you have here are the two houses, the senate and the house, the tao of the capitol has yet to be built. The dome will undergo many changes over the years. This was, and we have to understand that when johnson came here, and he came from the state of maine, by the way, or what was later the state of maine. He was born in massachusetts, but after 1850 it divided into maine. Johnson came here and was quite appalled by the idea of slavery, and the fact of the matter was that by 1840 when johnson arrived, slavery and slave trade was in full form in both washington dc and in alexandria, and most especially in alexandria. One of the reasons for the retrocession which took the bottom of the diamond away was that alexandria was one of the major slave trading emporiums in the United States. There were plenty of slaves, slave places, slave pens, as you are aware, and washington dc. The Decatur House was, for a time, in the hands of a slave trader. There was the old capital and then the old capitol prison. Which was also a slave holding pen. And there were several others situated around the capitol. So, the abolitionists who were really growing in congress by this time in the 1840s and 50s for also sitting in the center of the slave trade. And it was everywhere. Here is another picture. It is blown up from the one that you just saw. Which shows the slaves being driven across the capitol which has its dome. This is a view of the Patent Office looking across backyards about 1846. And i think it is very important to see this picture because it does show the rear of houses. We now can return to the picture itself, which i find endlessly fascinating. The painting, of course, has these wonderful vignettes going. I love this man having an interesting conversation with this mulatto woman. The fact of the color of her skin speaks volumes about what might be going on in the house next door. Interestingly enough, there is a ladder up against the house. This is obviously the white gentrified house here, and across almost virtually nextdoor, in fact virtually nextdoor is the house in just appalling repair, the child on this right here at the window, the roof about to collapse, the terrible disrepair of this particular wall, and then coming through here is the white woman coming from obviously the owners, the white owners house into the back cover into this house, and she is almost startling these people, interrupting, intruding on their space, if you will. Just as, obviously, there have been other intrusions as the color of the skin suggests of this woman suggests from the house on the right, the white owners house into the black. I think it is an extraordinary painting in the New York Historical society, i urge you. It is always up, and i urge you to go see it. It is worth studying and thinking about. We have to move on quickly to a wonderful image which is the Washington Monument. Now, robert mills, as i think i told you, designed the Washington Monument in designed the Washington Monument in 1836. He won the competition for it, for doing so. But in that competition he beat out other people, and the competition, and they were people who were unhappy about his wedding. Mills at the time was running high. He had just secured the Patent Office, which he also designed, and he also had secured the addition to the treasury, which destroys pennsylvania avenue, and he was not so much r