728 



THK NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



different kind, a city of a novel type, a 

 city to which there will be nothing like in 

 this country and hardly anything like in 

 any other country. 



It was, we shall all agree, an act of 

 wisdom on the part of the founders of 

 the Republic when they determined to 

 plant its capital in a place where there 

 was not already a city and where there 

 was no great likelihood that either com- 

 merce or industry conducted on a great 

 scale would arise. It is true that one of 

 the reasons assigned for choosing this 

 spot was that here Avas the head of navi- 

 gation on the Potomac, and that the spot 

 would be a good commercial center for 

 supplying the back country. Fortunately, 

 that has not turned out to be so. The 

 trade of Washington is not, and is not 

 likely to be, a disturbing element. 



It was wise to have the Capital City, 

 the seat of the legislative, executive, and 

 judicial branches of the government, re- 

 moved from the influences of an im- 

 mense population. You are a great deal 

 better here for the purposes of conduct- 

 ing your politics in a calm and deliberate, 

 a thoughtful and a philosophic spirit 

 than if you were in New York, Phila- 

 delphia, or Chicago. Your city, it is 

 true, is large and growing larger, but 

 it is not likely to be the home of any 

 vast, excitable, industrial population such 

 as is growing up in these other cities. It 

 is not receiving those crowds of immi- 

 grants which are making New York, 

 Chicago, and, to a less extent, Cleveland, 

 Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and St. Louis 

 almost as much foreign as American. 



In these circumstances, may not the 

 city of Washington feel that its mission 

 in life is to be the embodiment of the 

 majesty and the stateliness of the whole 

 nation ; to be, as was well said by the pre- 

 vious speaker, a capital of capitals, a capi- 

 tal of the whole nation, overtopping the 

 capitals of the several States as much as 

 the nation overtops those States ; repre- 

 senting all that is finest in American con- 

 ception, all that is largest and most lumi- 

 nous in American thought, embodying 

 the nation's ideal of what the capital of 

 such a nation should be. 



This it should accomplish partly by the 

 stateliness and number and local disposi- 



tion of its edifices ; but above all by their 

 beauty. What one desires is that this 

 capital city should represent the highest 

 aspirations as to external dignity and 

 beauty that a great people can form for 

 that which is the center and focus of 

 their national life, and there is in the ef- 

 fort to do this here nothing to disparage 

 the greatness of other American cities 

 which have much larger populations and 

 larger pecuniary resources. 



WHAT A CAPITAI, CAN DO FOR A NATION 



Paris is the most striking instance in 

 the modern world of a capital that has 

 exercised a powerful influence on a great 

 country. Some have thought its influence 

 was too great, for it used to be the home 

 not only of art, but also of revolution. 

 Paris sometimes assumed for all France 

 the right of saying what form of govern- 

 ment France should have and who should 

 hold the reins of power; but notwith- 

 standing that, we must not ignore the 

 great things Paris has done for France. 

 In polishing the language, in forming a 

 brilliant type of social life, and in being 

 the center of the literary and artistic cul- 

 ture which has been radiated out over 

 the whole country, Paris has done won- 

 ders. 



But an even more striking instance of 

 Avhat a city can do is to be found in 

 the ancient world ; it is the instance of 

 Athens. You all remember that wonder- 

 ful speech in which the greatest of Athe- 

 nian statesmen described what his city 

 did for Greece, not only for the narrow 

 territory of Attica, but for the whole of 

 Greece. He showed how his city had 

 made itself the finest embodiment of the 

 Hellenic spirit. The highest creative 

 talent in literature and art was concen- 

 trated in that one spot, where every in- 

 tellectual influence played upon and re- 

 fined every other ; and as Athens repre- 

 sented the finest embodiment of ancient 

 culture, so you would like Washington to 

 represent your American ideals. 



You would like it to give by its exter- 

 nal splendor a sort of esthetic education 

 to the people. You would like it to be a 

 model of other cities, a model which the 

 capitals of the greater States may all seek 

 to vie with, as most of these States have 



