Thinking Historically About the U.S. Capitol in the 19th Century

Zachary Cote: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Thinking Historically About. ⁓ today, as our guest, I have Andrew Tremel, who is the visitor operations manager for the United States Capital Visitor Center. Andrew, I'm really excited for this conversation. Not only do I love going to the Capitol whenever I'm in Washington, DC, ⁓ but this particular kind of subject of looking at the Capitol in the kind of mid nineteenth century is it particularly interesting because it was a very contentious time at the Capitol. But before we dive into that, ⁓ tell us about yourself. ⁓ what brought you to the Capitol and what do you do there? ⁓ what brought me here? ⁓ well thank first thank you, Zach, for having me on the podcast. ⁓ I'm glad to be here. Really excited. I've been at the Capitol building since the Capitol Visitor Center opened in two thousand eight. And what brought me here were a couple things. One was my master's in US history. I do focus on nineteenth century America, especially those years before and during and after the American Civil War. And I have some background some initially some national park sites brought me down to this area. I love the DC area. I've had a passing interest in politics, a long lifelong love of history and the Capitol buildings really where all of that comes together. Yeah. So I started as a visitor guy. That is our ⁓ If you come to the Capitol building and you see all the folks in the red blazers, that's them. They are le they're our interpreters, they lead our Capitol tours and other education many of our other education programs. ⁓ I spent many, many years in that role during COVID when we were closed ⁓ and doing telework. I ended up doing a lot of historical research for the curator of the architect of the Capitol. So that was one a couple of years that I got to masquerade as an art historian for a little bit. And after COVID I became a visitor operations manager. That's my current role. So now I manage the guides and our visitor assistants who are some of the other folks that you'll see working in the Capital Visitor Center. So ⁓ we I'm involved in customer service, interpretation, history, ⁓ management, human resources. I got my hand in a whole bunch of different projects. Can you tell us what the relationship is between like the US Capital Visitor Center and the architect of the Capitol? Yes, the Architect of the Capitol is the agency that is in charge of everything that you see on the Capitol campus. We think of the Capitol as a building, but it really is a blocks wide large campus. It includes a power plant, office buildings for the House and the Senate, the Library of Congress, and the US Botanic Gardens. And the Architect of the Capitol is the agency that oversees all of that. So you have everything from architects and engineers to Laborers and electricians and other blue collar occupations, but the Capitol Visitor Center is also under the jurisdiction of the architect of the Capitol. Got it. So one thing you said when you were introducing yourself that I never knew is that the the Capitol Visitor Center only opened in two thousand and eight. Right. Yeah. Capitol Building from the very, very beginning has been open to visitors. However, there's only been a visitor center since two thousand eight. It was something that was that architect of the Capitol and congressional officials started to talk about seriously going back to the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, ⁓ but it was something that was actually born of tragedy. In n July of nineteen ninety-eight, a gunman entered in ⁓ tr entered the U.S. Capitol. He was after a member of congressional leadership and two Capitol police officers were killed on the line of duty. So ground was broken right around the time of nine eleven, which of course created its own level of security challenges. And after years of years of construction we finally opened to the public on in ⁓ two thousand eight. So it was a long time coming, but again, ⁓ big changes from the old days when you had to line up for hours on the plaza. Wow. Yeah. And one other thing that was a big change after nine eleven was that prior to that you did have the option for guided tours. The Capitol Guide Service, which is really what the visitor center is descended from and all the ⁓ guides are descended from, goes back to eighteen seventy six or nation centennial. And tours were optional. Otherwise you could roam around the building as free as you wanted, as much as you wanted. But with the ⁓ the realities of post nine eleven age, that changed. So you do need to be on a tour to go into the Capitol building. Mm-hmm. Wow. And it's also, you know, we do have that job where stewards of the building in the sense that we allow for public access, but also the Capitol is a working office building. Right. Unlike a lot of other museums and other sites in DC. Yeah. ⁓ which I which is like part of the draw, I feel like every time I'm there is it's it's it's very active, it's vibrant, it's exciting to, you know, be in the space. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ so in in line with the construction, the construction of the the Capitol Visitor Center, what I'm always fascinated with the kind of construction of the Capitol. You know, it it took time, it didn't all happen at once, happen at once. It was political. but tell us about the the construction of the Capitol in the eighteen hundreds. In the 1800s. So by the time we get to the turn of this, in 1800, about at most a third of what you see of the Capitol building today was standing. It was only a portion of the original design. It's part of today's north or senate wing of the building. And it was by law after spending ten years in Philadelphia that the government had to move to Washington, D.C. They had to be here by the end of 1800. The there were a few problems that led to these construction delays. Part of it was a labor force. They did rely heavily on enslaved labor from local plantations that the US government rented. They also have ⁓ difficulty getting materials here. So in those early parts of the building, you're seeing functional stone, maybe not the best building material, but something that worked. So a lot of sandstone for Virginia and Maryland. And there were also various financial challenges in those decades following the American Revolutionary War that also had a pretty significant impact. Further with the Capitol building always being primarily a workspace for Congress, they do build the two wings first. Then we went to war with Great Britain in eighteen twelve. And in August of eighteen fourteen, about two years into the war, British marched into a largely undefended Washington, DC, after brushing aside some militia ⁓ not too far outside of the district line. And they burned the public buildings, and that included the Capitol. The outer wall survived. Most of the interiors were gutted and it took another four years to get the building in a usable condition. So the Congress had to fire temp find temporary quarters. I know we're going to get into sectionalism a little bit later, but one of the big sectional debates in the construction history came at that time in the aftermath of the War of 1812. Many from the North, New England, in particular, that opposed the War of 1812 were starting to pushed the idea of moving the Capitol building somewhere else, presumably Philadelphia. ⁓ there was actually even a big push within Philadelphia to move the Capitol there. And there were several votes in the House of Representatives that barely failed. And a lot of the arguments were well, this is what George Washington wanted. He wanted it here. And slavery did play a role in some of those discussions as well, because Washington DC was bordered by slave states. Sure. ⁓ the Capitol build, the original design for the building was finished by 18 by the mid-1820s, and that included the Capitol Rotunda with a smaller dome than what you see today. But also, this is a period that you do have that rapid expansion west. So the first major and until the visitor center, the largest expansion in the building's history began in 1851 when the current chambers of Congress were added. It it was as that construction was just getting underway. That the architect, the guy named Thomas Walter, realized that the original Capitol Dome was very out of proportion with the expanded building. It was leaking rather badly. It was ⁓ made of wood covered in copper, so there was also a fire risk that concerned everybody. There was always this fear of fire. Everybody remembers the War of 1812, but ⁓ there were fires in the Library of Congress in 1824 and 1851, and that was a period in which the library was in the Capitol building, so getting always this fear of fire. So Walter designed this American icon that we have today made of about ⁓ just under nine million pounds of cast iron, a durable, readily available and inexpensive building material that was popular in the 1850s. No real sectionalism in that construction for the most part, however, North and South, they ⁓ generally agree that We need more space. We're still a growing country. And take for instance, Jefferson Davis. He was a senator from Mississippi in the early eighteen fifties. He served a stint as Secretary of War under Fres President Franklin Pierce. And then he went back to the Senate late in the eighteen fifties. And all through that time, while he is an ardent defender of states' rights and slavery, at the same time, he also believes that a great nation ought to have a great capital building. So he really did champion the ⁓ construction. And I would imagine that he championed construction. And it sounds like this was like after the arguments, but that it was in DC rather than Philly with Right. Yeah. After after the the vo votes in it was like late eighteen fifteen. Mm-hmm. ⁓ ear or early eighteen fifteen, I think, is when the votes were to to move the Capitol, late eighteen fourteen, early eighteen fifteen. That pretty much settled that issue and there wasn't any real serious discussion of moving the Capitol at that point. You know, honestly, I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't know that there that that ⁓ Congress was debating moving it back to Philadelphia in i it's a really obscure debate. It didn't get a lot of press. ⁓ I stumbled upon it back in twenty fourteen for the first time when I was doing a lot of research on for our commemoration of the two inch anniversary of the building burning of the Capitol. And that's some we do activities every year around August twenty-fourth. The nearest weekend of that. So if you come to the Capitol building, go to Exhibition Hall. ⁓ we have a place called the Democracy Lab that has lots of hands-on activities aimed for students of all ages. And a lot of our activities around that last weekend in August are related to the fire. ⁓ were were those early nineteenth century debates sectional in nature? ⁓ like, you know, people from Philadelphia or North wanted it to go back to Philadelphia and people They were. Yeah. Yeah, they there they were. And it was largely the New England and some northerners, generally those who opposed the War of 1812 versus the South and maybe parts of the mid-Atlantic states. not strictly about slavery, but there was some implication that the sl that slavery was a factor in that. ⁓ rewinding to when the Capitol was in Philadelphia, many members of Congress and George Washington also was president and ⁓ many members of his cabinet would take their enslaved people with them to Philadelphia. Right. If but there were issues with Pennsylvania's anti-slavery laws. If you you if a an enslaved person was in Philadelphia for I think it was six months, they were freed. And George Washington, for example, was in the practice of kind of rotating his slaves between Philadelphia and and Mount Vernon. So the South certainly wanted to avoid that. The North did want to be in a free territory, but it it was really more the we've already invested a lot here in Washington, DC. This is what George Washington wanted. This is a central location that really carried the day. Mm-hmm. Was the cost of labor a factor at all in the I would imagine I would imagine it was because there w there was one I can't remember off the top of my head where he was from, but there was a member of Congress that was concerned about how ornate the Capitol building was and just wanted to build a small, simple structure in Georgetown, just the bare minimum at minimum cost for Congress. But again, by the eighteen fifties, a lot of these concerns are are non-existent as far as the building's construction is concerned. Sure. Yeah, so let's dive into the eighteen fifties. What's going on in Congress in the eighteen fifties? Well, at that point, we are in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War. ⁓ went from eighteen forty six to eighteen forty eight, ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. And in the aftermath of the treaty, the United States acquired Pretty much the whole southwest United States, all the way out to California. And The big question was, what do we do with all this new territory, especially after gold was discovered in California? California applied to be admitted to the Union as a free state. Up to that point, states have been admitted essentially in pairs, and there was an even number of free states and slave states, 15 of each, which is extremely important in the Senate, where you have that balance that even balance of power. So California's admission as a free state would have thrown that off. In early 1850, Henry Clay of Kentucky, who was an elder statesman at that point. He had been in Congress off and on since 1809. He was starting to feel the effects of tuberculosis tuberculosis, which would kill him a couple years later. ⁓ he excuse me, he introduced an eight-part compromise over this issue. And among those parts, you have California coming in as a free state. But all that other territory that we acquired in the Southwest, it was up to popular sovereignty. It would be up to the settlers of that territory to figure out w later whether they would be free or slave. There was an assumption of Texas debts from the years that they were an independent country, which was beneficial to southern bondholders, a settlement of the border between New Mexico and Texas, the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, DC, even though slavery was permitted. And the most controversial part of it was the ⁓ Fugitive Slave Act was passed in September that ⁓ enhanced fet the federal efforts to retrieve ins escaped enslaved people and return them back to their masters and so and the South. ⁓ in the aftermath of that, ⁓ that it when all this passes, when these measures pass in September of 1850, newspapers around the country, North and South, they really do proclaim the Union had been saved. But You start to see some cracks in the foundation is in the debates in March of 1850 that John C. Calhoun of South Carolina ⁓ then dying, he was actually so ill that he could not give the speech himself and had a colleague read it for him. But in the speech he said if Southern rights and western territories aren't respected, the South will secede. ⁓ you start to see abolitionists Can I can I like dwell on that for a second? Sure. What Why did Calhoun believe that Southern rights should dominate the West? Like like what what what sense of entitlement was there that the the way of life in the South should move West rather than the way of the Yeah, there was a sense that if slavery didn't expand, it would die. And it was all it it was it was ⁓ it was also this fear that as you start to see some anti-slavery third parties gaining a little bit of traction In some of these ⁓ presidential elections, like the Free Soil Party, the Liberty Party, they don't get anywhere near a majority vote, but one, but they do cost some Whig candidates the elections. You you start to see a concern over this vergeoning anti-slavery moving in the north. And there's a fear that if this if there's not this even balance of power, slavery will be scuttled. destroy the southern economy. The so really the whole nation national economy was built around slavery because you do have this northern reliance on southern crops. But on the other hand but also the the it's even more entrenched in the southern economy with with cotton and other crops. But through the eighteen fifties, and Calhoun really introduces this idea in his 1850 address on March 4th of 1850, that These prior compromises on slavery going back to the 1780s with the Northwest Territory, the Missouri compromise of 1820, when you look at a map that were really unfair to the South because they were ceding an incredible amount of territory to the north. So you and you start to see after Calhoun dies, you start to see other ⁓ other Southern members of Congress pick up this idea. Cool. Got it. Okay, so you have that. kind of southern vision. But then you started to talk about abolitionists in Congress too. So maybe keep going with that. Well you you don't you do have anti slavery members of Congress. And I do want to distinguish between anti slavery and abolitionists too. Anti slavery, they're opposed to slavery for various reasons. Could be economic, ⁓ but ⁓ you we see the more moral opposition among abolitionists that they see more of an equal to some extent some level of equality. They see the humanity behind it. They're often moral driven. So there are different reasons that people want to see slavery not expand or be eliminated. and it really varies. One one great example in going back a little bit before the 1850s is John Quincy Adams, ⁓ the son of our second president. He was sixth president in his own right. And he was the only person in history to serve in the House of Representatives after he was president from 1831 until his death in 1848. And he never considered himself an abolitionist, even though he was opposed to slavery. And but he ends up becoming an ally to the anti-slavery movement in Congress in something that is called the Gad Rule controversy. ⁓ there was a bill ⁓ as women and men and women who don't have a political voice, they find one in petition in Congress. But as women and men in the anti-slavery movement are starting to send petitions to Congress asking them to abolish slavery in Washington, prevent it spread out west, where Congress had jurisdiction, the House passed a rule in 1836 that ⁓ banned the discussion of these petitions. Mm-hmm. And became known as the gag rule. John Quincy Adams was really one of the leading figures. Fighting against it, and he did so on constitutional grounds. He believed that it violated the free speech rights of his constituents. So finally, after eight years and coming close to a congressional censure or ma or a formal rebuke on a couple of occasions, he was able to gather up enough votes to overturn the rule. What really starts to drive more abolitionists and more anti-slavery voices in Congress comes in the aftermath of the 1850s. You end up You end up I mentioned Clay and I mentioned Calhoun, but the third member of what was called the Great Triumvirate was a Massachusetts senator named Daniel Webster, who supported the compromise of eighteen fifty. And he had some okay cr anti slavery credentials, but in his speech supporting the compromise, he bel he blamed the anti slavery movement for unnecessarily rousing sectional tensions. So he ends up the the outcry against him is so great in Massachusetts. He resigned his seat in the summer of eighteen fifty and ended up becoming Secretary of State under ⁓ Millard Fillmore as a consolation prize until he dil died in eighteen fifty-two. Calhoun died in eighteen fifty. Clay died in eighteen fifty-two as well. So these three men that have been really holding the union together to some degree since the eighteen thirties through compromise, ⁓ they're gone and there's really nobody left to take pick up their mantle. Interesting. So yeah, so the what fills the vacuum? I mean like So what happens is in eighteen ⁓ not long after Webster's Webster resigns, within a year of that, Massachusetts appoints a new US senator named Charles Sumner. Mm-hmm. And Sumner was he worked at the sugregate Boston schools. He was a reputable Boston lawyer. I should mention I did use the word appointed for a reason because at this point the US ⁓ U.S. senators are chosen by the state legislators. It's not until the thirteenth the 17th Amendment in 1913 that we have the direct election of senators. So they go from someone who's willing to compromise with the South to someone who's a bit more of a hardliner on the slavery issue. And as the 1850s go on, you start to see an increase of anti slavery figures in the North because ⁓ north the North is tired of getting pushed around. They're they're tired of the Daniel Web they're starting to get tired of the Daniel Websters who are willing to compromise and they want their rights to be respected. And Sumner's story really helps to illustrate that a little bit. Yeah. So I I think often when I think of this moment in time, I'm gonna pull something off my shelf Peter. I know yeah I know that book. Yeah, like this image, right? ⁓ I feel like when I think of the eighteen fifties in Congress, I think of Joanne Freeman's book. ⁓ yes. So that's a favorite of ours here. So so there's tension. Tell us about that tension. Who how does that tension become realized on, you know, in the halls of Congress? In the halls of Congress. So I mean it goes back even beyond this. You you ⁓ her prior book, Affairs of Honor, also gets into this a little bit. Like going back to the seventeen nineties and up to the turn of the nineteenth century. But ⁓ going back even to the eighteen thirties, you end up with a duel between a congressman from Maine and one from Kentucky. The Maine Congressman is killed in the duel. You end up with fist fights breaking out, ⁓ people pulling knives. John Quincy Adams was not only facing these threats of a censure or rebuke from Congress, but he was also f receiving death threats by mail. He was for a also ⁓ there was a One of his frequent adversaries was ⁓ I just lost ⁓ Henry Wise of Virginia. And Henry Wise went said if it wasn't for quote the imbecility of old age, he would have faced the violence of the South. And and what ⁓ Dr. Freeman found in her book when she's researching these dozens of incidents of violence is that the common denominator is slavery. It's not like the bank war or tariffs that are really spering them on. Another example happens in those debates in over the compromise of eighteen fifty. There was a rather fierce debate over back and forth over weeks between a Mississippi Senator named Henry Foote and a Missouri senator named Thomas Hart Benton. Foote was pro-compromise. Benton opposed the compromise. He was an ins he was a slaveholder in Missouri, but he also believed that if you kept allowing slavery to expand, it would inevitably lead to civil war. He wanted to he believed that the only way to stop the rising sectional tensions was was to stop these issues once or for all once and for all. ⁓ Benton has an interesting story too because back in late eighteen tens, early eighteen twenties, he did kill someone in a duel was so ⁓ upset over that that he never dueled again. But on on one April day in eighteen fifty, Henry Foote sub said something that really riled him up. So he started to ch charge across the Senate floor to the rather diminutive Foot, who pulled a pistol and pointing it right at Benton's chest. And Benton ripped open his jacket and according to some accounts, his shirt, and started yelling, I stand back, I st I dare the assassin to fire, let the assassin fire. And the two were separated and the pistol was locked in a drawer before anything happened. That is wild. But interestingly enough, because you do see differences in the understanding of what is the honorable action. You see Benton losing his seat and foot hang hanging around an office. He usually I think became governor of Mississippi. And Benton had stayed in he'd been representing Missouri in the Senate for thirty years. ends up briefly in a house seat, but when I when we go to the Capitol today, how ⁓ how does this history show up? Like are there things that we can look for, things that we should see, you know, take note of? Like how does the place come alive in this history? Yeah, a lot of it ⁓ in a lot of different ways actually. So the people I mentioned, ⁓ as you could probably see in the paint the picture on the wall behind me, ⁓ In the Capitol Rotunda, ⁓ we don't really see the violence there. Actually, one story that Joanne Freeman talks about in her book is when Jonathan Silly, the representative from Maine, his funeral was in the House Chamber, and his casket was pre placed briefly in the Capitol Rotunda, and it was under the painting of the surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, one of the four Revolutionary War paintings by John Trumbull. Jonathan Silly's, I think it was his father, is in that painting. who fought at ⁓ Saratoga. So you have this poignant family connection in that moment. The it the Rotunda's the place where we i i in a lot of ways is a t I then a lot of our staff use this. I use this expression when I was on when I was more regularly the leading tours. And the room really is a time capsule and it's always been a place where the generations of Americans, ⁓ through their congressmen, through their senators have ⁓ wanted to tell the nation's story. And it's not just in art that we do that, it's also the ceremonies, and that is where people lie in state in recognition of their service to the country and a wit place that people could play pay tribute to them. So ⁓ Henry Clay was the very first person to lie in state in 1852. Charles Sumner, ⁓ later victim of a fierce caning because of anti-slavery set his anti-slavery sentiments in 1856. Would live another 18 years. And when he passed away in 1874, he hit Lincoln State. ⁓ in National Statuary Hall, you do see a lot of these figures portrayed in art, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, both in there. But it's also the room where a lot of this happened. There are brass plates on the floor that mark where Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams and others sat when they were in Congress, but it's also where they're debating these measures. Depending on what time of year you get to come here, sometimes we were able to ⁓ in the slower times of year, we're able to take visitors to the old Senate chamber. And that is where you get the that great those great Senate debates over the compromise of 1850, but also where Sumner was attacked in 1856, where that foot Benton showdown happened. ⁓ and it ⁓ through a lot of what our staff does in in telling these stories is really what helps to bring them alive, but it really is meaningful to many of our physics to be in the spaces when the nature of her democracy and the nature of her future the future of her country ⁓ was was debated. ⁓ other things that you can look for in other places like we d we do have ⁓ Some other ⁓ programs I'll I'll note as well, especially for especially good for teachers. We do have something that is called the vote program that is available ⁓ for teachers. The book is a student program in person. There's an online version as well. ⁓ there is ⁓ we and we have a number of other on site programs, ⁓ corp ⁓ especially Net Democracy Lab that I mentioned before. We have a a whole museum that talks about Congress and time. So you get to see ⁓ Items related to Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Charles Sumner. ⁓ we have a current exhibit right now called the Spirit of Seventy Six, looking at how our nation has commemorated past major anniversaries from the fiftieth anniversary in eighteen twenty six up to the bicentennial. ⁓ I I mean I'm I'm curious, are there even outside of you know, this kind of mid nineteenth century moment, ⁓ What what do you like to kind of dwell on when you're with people at the Capitol or what do you like to point out? What's interesting, fascinating? Yeah, I I admittedly do dwell in this area. Okay. Lately I've been ⁓ lately I've been leaning more a little bit into how we look at the revolutionary war in the Capitol Rotunda. And one of the scenes that I frequently point out is a moment that was foundational to representative government in the United States. And Is a painting again one of John John Trumbull's four Revolutionary War paintings, but it shows not a battle scene, but a scene, a civil scene at the end of the war in seventeen eighty-three, when George Washington, at a moment of turmoil, when we didn't have a presidency yet, when Congress is near bankrupt, and he he was the most powerful person in the country and could have taken power as commander in chief, he resigned this commission from the army and left that in the hands of Congress. It was an important moment that set the stage for the Constitutional Convention a few years later. Yeah. ⁓ was the the Rotunda finished in the 1850s? What or it was under construction really through the Civil War. ⁓ the r the rotunda the ⁓ in the room, the sandstone walls, they go back to the eighteen twenties. In the eighteen fifties when they tore off the original dome, they put a false roof in, they did cover up for at least part of the construction. A ⁓ ⁓ some covering over to protect the paintings. But they had this giant mast anchored on the rotunda floor that ran up. It was connected with a boom that along a swivel, which was connected to a steam engine on the roof of the Senate side of the building. And that's how they hoisted up all the cast iron and plate in into place. ⁓ during the war itself, it did serve briefly it served as quarters for Union soldiers. very, very early in the war for about six weeks. And in ⁓ August through October of eighteen sixty two it was a hospital. Right. From ⁓ Union ⁓ soldiers that were wounded at second battle of Bull Run and Battle of Antietam. In eighteen sixty five, when Lincoln and Lincoln State, there was still some work going on the inside. The Statue of Freedom on the outside of the dome, that was placed in December of eighteen sixty three. So the but there was still a little bit of work being on Done on the inside. So ⁓ when Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln State, a newspaper a journalist named Noah Brooks noted that there was a covering over that oculus that you see behind me as Constantino Vermiti, an Italian American artist paying a this apotheosis of Washington in eighteen sixty five. ⁓ all right, so I I I I'm gonna go a little bit past the eighteen fifties and and kind of hone in on that Statue of Freedom coming up in eighteen sixty-three. What kind of message is that? I mean, like we're that is the center of the Civil War. And here you have, you know, on this the seat of the American government, the statue of freedom being hoisted up. Yeah, a little bit of background on the Statue of Freedom. It was by an American sculptor who was working in Rome named Thomas Crawford, and he was kind of recruited for the project by Montgomery Megs. And if you've been to Arlington National Cemetery, you'll hear that name because during the war he started Arlington National Cemetery. But before the war, he's chief engineer here or supervising engineer of the current chambers of Congress in the Capitol Dome. And he hired Walter to ⁓ sorry, Thomas Crawford to make this sculpture. So he came up with this allegorical figure of freedom, and originally she was supposed to have a liberty cap or a phrygian cap. Think of a Santa hat but without the white buzz on it, and you kind of get the idea, but it's a symbol going back to the Roman Republic for ⁓ an enslaved person who had been freed, or someone who had reached their majority were no longer subject to their fathers. ⁓ it did have anti-slavery connotations in the United States. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, rejected it. Wow. Because we are a nation of people born free, was what he had said. So we get this kind of Americanized Roman military helmet with Eagle's head and eagle's feathers. ⁓ Crawford ⁓ died of a ⁓ of a of a brain tumor, and his widow shipped the model over in crates. If you come into the visitor center, you can see the plaster model assembled. Yeah. And it was it was put back together, went to Clark Mills, a local founder. And an enslaved person named Philip Reed proved instrumental in casting it at several phases of the process. And ironically, ⁓ was freed while working on the Statue of Freedom when DC slaver d ⁓ slavery ended in Washington DC. Now, that it does sit around on the Capitol grounds after it's cast. They're not ready to put it on the dome until late eighteen sixty three. And it takes about a week to get up there because of weather. But at noon on Decem on the morning of December second, eighteen sixty three, there was a blurb in the newspapers that, hey, this is going to happen today. And the architect of the Capitol looked out his window and saw thousands of people gathered for this occasion. And at at that point, earlier in the year, twel ⁓ almost a full year earlier, you got the Emancipation Proclamation. That summer of sixteen sixty three, you get the major victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg. And ⁓ you have some major victories out west also with Chattanooga in particular in the fall of eighteen sixty-three. So it does end up being this ⁓ big moment of coming together. ⁓ it is this big milestone for the country, is this big milestone for this decade-long construction that at noon workers hoist up that headpiece, bolted into place. ⁓ unscripted, they totally unscripted. They unfurled an American flag from the scaffold. And there were cannons on the Capitol grounds that all fired in salute to that moment. And they were answered by all of the cannon cannons at all of the forts that were around Washington, DC. What a moment. ⁓ I mean, that story alone, and really this whole conversation kind of already answers my last question. So we'll see where where we go. But You know, what I love about these conversations is the students engaging in the the resources. You know, they're reading primary sources, they're engaging with ⁓ the the stories and the narratives of the moments that they're studying, but then rooting them in a particular place, I feel like can come to life. And if students have the opportunity to to visit and and go see these things on the the Capitol grounds, it be it becomes even more meaningful. So with that kind of foundation, ⁓ to you, what makes the US Capitol historically significant? Why are you still there? Like like th this is kind of where you live and breathe. It is. And after even after all of these years, it never gets old. ⁓ and it it's all it around the world, the Capitol Dome is something that's meaningful. It is this as this symbol of everything our nation stands for. And as we celebrate the country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday this year, This is really where for almost all of that two hundred and fifty year most of that two hundred and fifty years we've tried to figure out what the work of the revolution is, what what it how that idea of ⁓ being a republic, ⁓ where all men create ⁓ all men are created equal, ⁓ what it means to be a ⁓ a representative democracy, where all of that really comes together. And ⁓ And even in the moment where we don't know what's next for a country, ⁓ we can look back on these moments and look at where we came from and looking at how ⁓ Congress navigated the challenges of the past, I think it better prepare us for the challenges that are of the future. Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ Andrew, I've loved this conversation and ⁓ I it's an amazing that I've learned so much and also I'm a little embarrassed that I've learned so much, but ⁓ You know, so helpful. I really appreciate that. There's always learn more to learn. ⁓ there's people who who've retired from here after thirty some years that they've probably forgotten more than I will ever remember. And I do want to note there are some student teacher resources. I'll I'll send them to you. So ⁓ they'll be you can put them in the show notes. But we do have the vote program that it really puts students in an immersive moment to navigate an issue. And a lot of the things that is a reminder that a lot of what Congress faces on the day to day. Doesn't necessarily have one right answer. Yeah. there's also a democracy lab in the classroom. So it's a classroom version of some of the activities that we have on site. Hopefully you can get here and try them on site too. Yeah. In in some other programming as well. ⁓ so we'll send out to you the ⁓ some of our resources. But hopefully all of your viewers can come see us at some point. Yeah. Please go. The Capitol is such a special place. ⁓ Andrew, thank you so much for this conversation. Thanks for watching. All right. Thank you, Zach.