 Greetings from the National Archives. I'm David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to today's virtual book talk with Robert Watson, author of George Washington's Final Battle, The Epic Struggle, to build a capital city and a nation. Before we begin, I'd like to tell you about two upcoming programs you can view on our YouTube channel. On Monday, February 22nd at noon, Robert Elder will tell us about Calhoun, American heretic. His new biography of John C. Calhoun, one of the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. Elder argues that Calhoun's story is crucial for understanding today's political climate. And on Thursday, February 25th at 7 p.m., we invite you to the panel discussion on the Black Family, Representation, Identity, and Diversity, which is the theme of this year's Black History Month. The panel will discuss the Black Family as the foundation of African American life and history and examine its place in history, literature, the arts, and social policy. I come to you from the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., the federal city built on the site chosen by our first president, George Washington. The location for a permanent capital was hotly contested in 1790, and Washington actively advocated for a site along the Potomac River, not far from his own home of Mount Vernon. When the commissioners of the federal district named the new capital for Washington in 1791, they not only honored the wartime commander-in-chief, but also acknowledged his guiding role in the selection of the young nation's seat of government. Although we did not live to see the government officially relocated here, his vision shaped the national capital for years to come. In George Washington's final battle, Robert Watson highlights Washington's political skills and reveals how he worked behind the scenes to establish the new city. Robert Watson is distinguished professor of American Studies at Lynn University and senior fellow at the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship. He's the author of numerous books on history and politics, including The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn, The Nazi Titanic, and America's First Crisis, The War of 1812, and is the editor of two encyclopedias, The American Presidents and American First Ladies. Professor Watson has served on the board of the Harry Truman Foundation, the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, and the George McGovern Library and Center for Public Service. Professor Watson has also served as a visiting scholar with many organizations, including the Truman Presidential Library, Gerald Ford Presidential Museum, Illinois Holocaust Museum, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Now let's hear from Robert Watson. Thank you for joining us today. Everyone, I'm Robert Watson. I'm here to talk about my latest book, George Washington's Final Battle, The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City and a Nation. So virtually any American school child knows that George Washington was heroic and stoic. He was a great and courageous commander on the battlefield, and of course, one of our greatest presidents, who threw his every action and inaction, everything he said, and didn't say pretty much carved out the precedents for the presidency. But what we don't always know is that George Washington had another side to him. This is typically missed in history. He could be a visionary and a dreamer, and he also could be a political player, if not a political chess master. By the same token, almost all Americans have been to our capital city. Americans love their capital city. It's spacious grand boulevards with memorials and monuments, the majestic government buildings, the tree-lined mall. But very few Americans know the story of how the capital city came to be and almost didn't come to be. That's why we're here today to talk about it. Okay, so our story begins, the backdrop for our story begins in Newburgh, New York. This is along the edge of the Hudson at the end of the Revolutionary War, not too far today from FDR's Hyde Park or West Point, anybody's been there. So the main battle of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of Yorktown, which was September, not October 1781. After Yorktown, that would be the last major battle of the war. After Yorktown, for about two years, there was what we could call a cold war. The British hunkered down in New York City, George Washington and the Americans went up the river to Newburgh, which you see right here in my slides. And for almost two years, they just hunkered down there in this cold war. It would be Washington's longest headquarters, but a new type of challenge emerged. That was the challenge of boredom. Without fighting, the army had not been paid. They were hungry, bitterly cold winter after another bitterly cold winter. And Washington was worried that the army would fall apart, or mutiny, just as we were ready to seize victory in the Revolutionary War. So go ahead and go to the next slide. So what happened in, here's images of Newburgh. In March of 1783, on March 10th, and the war would end that following fall. On March 10th of 1783, there an unsigned letter circulated in Washington's Newburgh camp, calling for mutiny, calling for rising up against George Washington. Washington was alarmed to say the least. It appears that this mutiny, this insurrection is coming from inside his own headquarters. And then on March 11, the mutineers met. They met in a large building called the Temple. You can go to the next slide for this so-called Newburgh conspiracy. Now, Washington decided to respond, but did so brilliantly by letting the mutineers, the insurrectionists, show their hand. Then on March 15, he called for a meeting in the temple. They all gathered. Instead of Washington being there early, and it was always punctual, he comes a minute late and comes in from the back door. He walks up in general Horatio Gates and others had shown themselves and were on the stage, the mutineers. Washington demands that they surrender the stage. He then has a two-part speech. One, he explodes. You can see the wording here. The patience, the fortitude, you know, the long sufferings of this army are unexampled in history. So Washington is saying that the army has swords in their hand. They are ready to rise up. They are at their limits. They cannot pick anymore. Next slide. And you can see here his argument. There's an artist's depiction of Washington addressing the army. There would have been many, many more soldiers, so it's not completely accurate. Washington says, how inconsistent with the rules of propriety, how unmilitary, and how subversive of all order and discipline, Washington really lays it on. He explodes like a volcano. Can you be a friend of the country if you are a mutineer? Then after all that, Washington calms down. Next slide. Washington calms down and says to the men, I want to read a letter from a Congressman Jones from Virginia. Now, the army had never seen Washington wear spectacles. The army had never seen Washington appear weaker older. He was, you know, a man among children, a massive and powerful man. Washington reaches in his pocket and pulls out this letter he wants to read. Like me, the last few years who needs glasses, he holds it at arm's length. Then he pulls out spectacles and puts them on. No one had seen him wear the glasses. Washington shakes his head, puts the spectacles in the letter back in his pocket and says, gentlemen, will you permit me to put on my spectacles? For I have not only grown gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. After he puts them back in his pocket, he asks the men from the heart that I ask only one more full measure of unexampled patriotism and patriotic virtue. Stay with me. We're going to win this. A tear comes out of his eye and Washington walks off the stain. Talk about the theatrics of the moment and letting the army down easy. After he does, General Henry Knox, as artillery general, takes the stage and asks the men if they would sign a document showing their support of Washington. They charge the front of the stage and sign the document. So that's the so-called Newberg mutiny or conspiracy, almost an uprising at Newberg at the end of the war. Washington brilliantly and theatrically puts it down. But what he realizes is this new government, this new country, is going to be weak and fragile. It could be harder to frame a government and run a government. And it was the fight and win of war for the opportunity to frame a government. And after Newberg, it doesn't have long to wait for another challenge. Next slide. This is the Philadelphia mutiny. June 20th of 1783, just weeks later, a group of several hundred unpaid, disgruntled veterans march on Philadelphia to the building we know today as Constitution Hall. The Pennsylvania Assembly and some of our nation's elected officials are inside the building. It is surrounded by angry, unpaid mutineers. Citizens of Philadelphia come pouring out a taverns drunk. And now you have a drunken, unruly mob and angry unpaid soldiers. They're ready to take legislators hostage. Congress is worried and the Pennsylvania Assembly is worried that they have to flee for their lives. They asked George Washington to put down this mutiny. Washington tells the mutineers, go home. Just go home. He pardons people. And for a second time, he brilliantly handles a near mutiny. By this time, Washington realizes this new experiment in popular government is going to be very difficult to run. Next slide. Washington starts to put together a vision, a dream, if you will, for what kind of nation we need to have. So the war ends at fall of 1783. And pretty much the question is now what? What happens next? We had a political and economic and a civil vacuum. The loyalists, the royalists, those who were voted loyal to the crown, they left. And that meant the physician, the bankers, the architects all left. This new young republic has little on the way of schools and colleges and museums and libraries, few trained professionals. The country is war torn. Veterans have not been paid. The currency is worthless. So everybody on everyone's mind is the question now what? And few had an answer except George Washington. Next slide. So Washington puts together what's known as a circular letter to the states. This is basically his farewell. And newspapers around the country put this letter. And you can see the beginnings of Washington's vision are a strong nation, a capital city, and the kind of robust and vigorous government that we would have. Washington says we have a debt of honor. We need to repay our veteran. We need a national governing body. We need more trade. We need positive relations abroad. We need peace. And mostly we need to be united. We need this nation needs a sense of national identity. If you were to take a time machine back to 1783 and ask Thomas Jefferson about his nation, he would answer Virginia. There wasn't a sense of national identity, not a capital letter you united states, a small letter you the states. So Washington knew we needed a sense of unity. We need a sense of national pride, national spirit. We needed to come together as a nation. Otherwise, this will never, ever happen. Next slide. So this country went from 1775 to start of the Revolutionary War all the way until 1800, 25 years, a quarter of a century without a permanent capital city, without a seat of government. That's no way to start a nation without having a capital city. I made a list here. You can see some of the possible cities that were considered. Over 30 cities were considered as a possible seat of government or a possible capital. Here's the problem. Everyone in Connecticut wanted Hartford or New Haven. Everyone in Delaware wanted Wilmington. Everyone in Massachusetts wanted Boston. Parochial interests reigned. Nobody wanted a capital to be in another state. They all knew that political power would follow the capital. That it would be an economic boom. And no one wanted another city to have a leg up. Everybody wanted its own city. And for 25 years, there is a fight over where the capital city should be. Next slide. Or functioning government. We were working under the Articles of Confederation, a loose, quote unquote, league of friendship. You know, it took several drafts and years to even ratify the articles. The problem, the articles didn't have a president. Didn't have courts. But at a unicameral legislature, that's it. They couldn't raise money to pay back the veterans. They couldn't govern. It was utterly and wholly ineffectual. So we lacked a capital city. We lacked a functioning government. Good luck with that. And this is what Washington responds to. Next slide. On everyone's minds, and it was written in newspapers, have we fought for this? Washington weighs in. Says we are either a united people that are united for federal purposes, or we are 13 independent sovereigns contradicting each other. Washington notes to friends and speaks and says, I see no greater evil than disunion. Political factions, what we know as parties start to form, the north against the south, the eastern seaboard against the west, more urban areas versus more rural areas. And within these factions, the federalists and the anti-federalists, instead of one being an opposition party, much like recent years, it's an obstructionist arrangement with gridlock. Washington is upset about this, and in this vacuum, in this crisis, this is where he emerges. Next slide. We have Shays' Rebellion. In the 1780s, farmers are rising up, ready to declare war against their own government. Pennsylvania and New York are almost fighting one another. States can't agree on how to trade whiskey or corn across state borders. Washington says, we have errors to correct. We need a stronger government. Washington asks Alexander Hamilton to get involved, and in 1786, Hamilton calls for a convention in the city of Annapolis in Maryland. The problem, only a handful of states showed up. Everybody argued and embarrassingly walked out. That's no way to start a government. Washington stays with it and pushes, along with Hamilton, for a convention the following year, 1787. They're going back to Philadelphia, hoping that lightning strikes twice. They have errors to correct. They have to improve the articles. They would ultimately create a new constitutional system of government, strengthen our government, and find ways of moving forward in a more united way. Next slide. So what we don't know is people know all about the founding debates over slavery, over the electoral college, over how do we pick a president. But there was another, I always call it the other, founding debate. And that was over, should we have a capital city? Should we have multiple capitals? Where should it be? What should it look like? It's nature, the size of it. They couldn't even agree on one capital. At one point, to try to satisfy everybody, even Ben Franklin, threw out the idea we should have multiple capital. The joke was, because it's Congress, nobody would want Congress to come to their city. The joke was like ancient, you know, the Trojans, they would get a horse, make a giant Trojan horse and Congress would hide in it and they'd have to wheel it into each city. And Congress would get out and do its business. So this was the other founding debate. We have multiple quotes from George Washington and other framers that the debate over a capital city was even more heated, even more contentious, even more potentially ruinous than all the other founding debates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The debate over the capital city almost undermines this nation just as we're getting started. So those are the other founding debates. Next slide. Enter into this vacuum George Washington who has his vision for the country. Washington states with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved. He called it the most intense and explosive debate of the entire session at Philadelphia, that being the fight over the capital city. Selecting the seat of government Washington said is proving to be pregnant with difficulty and danger. So Washington was very cognizant of the fact that this debate could undermine the country. Yet without a strong capital city, he did not know that this country could endure. So Washington has as a vision, he proposes the following things. I have them on your screen. Number one, a strong national government. Number two, he wants to unite the people behind a national character. Only a capital city could imbue us with that national character. Our government is not seen as credible in the eyes of the European powers, a great and glorious capital city will give credibility to this new fledgling Republic. Washington wanted a grand capital city, a city he said for the ages. Thomas Jefferson and others wanted a simple brick federal town. No, Washington wanted Rome built on the Potomac River. He wanted it near the Potomac River. Washington had what other founders would joke and call Potomac fever. George was not well traveled. Washington thought that the Potomac was equal to the Sen, the Thames, the Danube, the Rhine all put together. I like the Potomac, but it's hardly equal to any one of those yet alone, all of them. But the Potomac connected the community next to it, the future capital city with the Chesapeake, which meant access to the Atlantic. Rivers were important in a day of primitive transportation and rudimentary communication. Also the Potomac flows westward. It will unite Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the roads from the edges of the tributaries of the Potomac would run west into what is today the Ohio territory, Pittsburgh, and so forth and so on. So the Potomac would then connect north and south as it was equal distance between the two, connect east and west, it would serve to function, it would serve to unite the new capital city with the Atlantic Ocean and so on and so forth. That's Washington's vision. Next. Now in the Constitution, over the debate over the debate over the capital city, Article 1 Section 8, it agreed that the capital city should be 10 miles square. It's 100 miles. What it means is that this capital city, almost laughably, this capital city will be larger than Paris, London, and the great capitals of the world, yet it would be built out of bogs and woods. The question remained, however, where would these 10 miles square be? Next slide. So the initial argument was New York City would serve as our interim capital. Washington is inaugurated. It's supposed to be on March 4th, 1789. He's late. It's not until April 30th, 1789. And Mrs. Washington arrives even later yet. Maybe she was still getting dressed. So Washington is inaugurated in New York City in late April 1789. New York City at Federal Hall, and you can see the picture of it here, and on the right is Osgoods Home on Cherry Street, where Washington used as his residence. New York City would be but an interim capital. No one seemed happy with New York City. New York City was slow to ratify the Constitution. This is why Hamilton and Jay and Madison wrote the Federalist Papers. They didn't know that New York City would even ratify it. Washington was worried, will I go to New York City for my inaugural? It's not even ratified as a state. Would that undermine everything? Could I even be the president if we don't have a city? At nobody, it seemed like New York City, unlike today where everybody likes New York City. Thomas Jefferson claimed of New York City, he said, spring and fall they never have, as far as I can learn. They have 10 months of winter, only two in summer. They would agree right now as I'm taping this with the snow and the cold. Fisher Ames said of New York City, he longed for the company of Springfield. He described New York City as overrun by hogs, dogs and garbage, and not much else. So no one liked New York City. They spent only months in New York City and then there was a deal cut. Next slide. The deal would be cut in New York City on June 20th, 1790 in what is probably the second most famous dinner party in history, I guess behind the last supper. The dinner party was between, and you can see the pictures there, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton. Madison and Jefferson were allies, anti-Federalists. Hamilton was their nemesis as a Federalist. They have two big issues that they're trying to contend with. One is where should the capital city be? And in the other issues, how should it look? How do we build it? Should it be a simple brick federal town or a glorious Romanesque capital? The second argument was debt assumption. We were in debt after the war. So Jefferson calls for the dinner party. He and Madison are going to team up and they're going to defeat Hamilton. What would happen at that dinner party was they would resolve all these issues. They would decide basically on where the capital would be. And Hamilton would end up playing Jefferson and Madison like a guitar. He played victim and got everything he wanted. So on the debt, Virginia said we're not paying our debt. The South didn't want to pay the debt. Hamilton wanted the debt to be paid. So he surrenders and says, okay, you don't have to pay your debt. Little did Jefferson and Madison know if the South is not going to pay its debt, what that means is the federal government can come in and assume the debt under the treasury. And who's the secretary of the treasury? Hamilton. Hamilton would become one of the most powerful Americans. Hamilton wanted a stronger federal government. Jefferson wanted a weaker federal government. By Hamilton giving up the fact that Virginia and the South wouldn't have to pay its debts, pretty much a guarantee that Hamilton would get a strong federal government, a bank and a strong treasury. So Hamilton gets whatever he wants even though he plays that he lost. The second argument is where's the capital going to be? Jefferson and Madison wanted it in the South in Virginia. What they didn't know is what Hamilton knew, George Washington had already pretty much decided that the capital should be in Virginia near his home. So Hamilton gave up that the capital would be there. He gave up something that was already done. So he plays Jefferson and Madison. Ultimately, Jefferson wants a simple federal brick town of only a few acres. So Hamilton agrees that they could have a design contest. Jefferson could chair the committee that picks the winning design. It appears that Jefferson submits his own design anonymously for a little brick town and then picks it. What Jefferson didn't know was even though he said here's the design, when it went to Washington, Washington said, nope, we're going to pick my Romanesque capital. So there you go. The Residence Act of 1790 solidified or codified this great compromise, the capital would be in Virginia, but 10 years later, in the meanwhile, in the interim, it would be in Philadelphia while they have to build the city that would eventually be named for George Washington. And that's the Residence Act of 1790. The votes on a lot of these difficult measures fail. And here you see George Washington playing political chess master. When Washington wanted to flip a vote, you bet he did. Washington strategically picked a couple of members of Congress, met with them personally, and flipped every single vote to get the votes he needed to get his capital city. Next slide. Washington then would play a further role. Washington not only helps pick the location of the capital, he picks the architect you're looking at in Long Font. He picks the architect for the President's House, Hoban. Washington helps survey the land. Washington helps sell the plots. Washington helps raise money. Washington helps to decide what buildings would go in it. So Washington, Washington, Washington, it is his pet project. It is his near obsession. So Washington picks the brilliant Frenchman Long Font, which was a great selection. Long Font was classically educated. Most importantly for Washington, he shared Washington's vision of a Romanesque grand capital with large boulevards, public squares filled with monuments and memorials. He did not like Jefferson's vision of a small federal town. So Long Font does Washington's bidding and brilliantly designs the capital. Unfortunately, Long Font will answer to no one but Washington and turns out to be more difficult than he was worth. Some accounts suggest he was fired. Others said he quit. They both happened about the same time. So the answer is C, all of the above. Next slide. Here's the image of Long Font's capital city, which you all recognize today. Right there running diagonal horizontal next to the Potomac River near the P and Potomac is the National Mall that we all recognize today. You can see the great squares and grand boulevards at Intersect named for the States. And so forth and so on. Long Font is part inspired by Rome and part inspired by Paris. And even though he would be fired, it's his design that continues to define this great city to today. Next slide. Washington not only picked a foreigner, Long Font, a Frenchman, but he picked Obann, an Irishman, to design the President's House. Obann was also well educated and it designed beautiful buildings in Charleston and South Carolina. Washington immediately fell in love with the design. It reminded him of Rome. It looked a bit like marble. So Washington then pushes by hiring Hoban and they build what they refer to as a presidential palace. Now they run into construction problems and funding problems. So there's good and bad news here. They found brilliant Scottish stone mason so they brought more Europeans in. However, tragically, they would rely on slave labor. So yes, slave labor built a good deal of the capital, the President's home, and the capital city because it was cheaper and they ran out of funding for it. Next slide. Here's the image. You can see it. You recognize that of the White House today. This is Hoban's original design, which pretty much held constant. Next slide. And let me bring this to a close by simply saying they weren't sure what they were going to name the city, but everybody knew it was going to be named for Washington. Somebody proposed Washingtonopolis. Now part of me thinks it's ridiculous. The other part of me thinks I like that name. George Washington's legacy is multiple. He would win the Revolutionary War and resign from power once, leading King George III to say Washington's the greatest man alive because he did what no man did voluntarily, voluntarily relinquish power. Washington would do it again after the presidency, leading King George III to revise his statement and said Washington's the greatest man of all time. He carves out the presidency. He is the father of this nation. But I think ultimately one of Washington's great legacies, it was his vision for the capital city. It was Washington's every action, his stewardship, his oversight that produced this great and glorious capital city. And in doing so, it helped to imbue us with a sense of nationhood. It gave Americans a sense of American identity, which we didn't have. It helped to unify the country, a degree of civility. It gave our government legitimacy in the eyes of the world. And today we have this great and glorious capital city. We always like to say Washington slept here, slept there in pounds around the country. It would be the one place he didn't sleep. Washington would die on December 14th, 1799, a little less than a year later on November 1st, 1800, is when the capital city would open up. Washington's last words were his well. And one can only imagine that he was thinking about his wonderful capital city, that he invested so much of himself in. And that's his true legacy. Thank you, everyone.