in 1814, the British captured the city, they entered the legislative halls, held a mock session of Congress, and soon the building was in flames. In 1815 Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow $500,000 to begin repairs (for the walls stood), and in 1818 undertook the erection of the central part. B. H. Latrobe took the architectural superintendence of the restoration, while the new central structure was planned and supervised by Charles Bulfinch. The original building was completed in 1827, at a cost, including the grading of the grounds, repairs, etc., of not quite $2,500,000. A fire in the library compelled the rebuilding of the western front in 1851, when additions were made, and the same year the corner-stones of the extensions, now known Cost. as the House and Senate wings, were laid; but these were not completed until 1859 (at a cost of nearly $9,000,000). Meanwhile the low wooden dome which had temporarily covered the rotunda was removed in 1856, and the erection of the present iron dome was begun.

Add to the sums above noted a million dollars for additional space for the grounds and the obtaining of water, two millions for improvements of the grounds and terraces, another million for repairs and improvements on the building itself, and various other items, and the cost of the Capitol approaches $15,000,000.

The original and proper front of the Capitol is the eastern, and the city has grown behind rather than before the statehouse of the nation, as it was expected to do. This contingency has been met by improvements at the rear of the building to increase the stateliness of its approaches, so that the Capitol now has two faces, different but substantially equal in merit. The western front, although on the side from which most visitors approach, requires a long, toilsome climbing of terraces and steps; whereas the street cars carry passengers to the level of the basement on the south side, and on the north side almost to the very entrance. It is therefore easier, as well as more proper, to begin one's survey of the great structure at the architect's original front door.

East Front.

This eastern front is imposing from every standpoint. One of the most satisfactory views of it is that obtained from the little car-passengers' shelter on the north side of the grounds. The massive and classic proportions of the Senate wing are near at hand, and its ornamental front cuts deeply into the dome, whose supports sink away in grand perspective to the Representative wing, while the majestic dome itself rises tier upon tier of columns and circling architraves to its convergent roof and statue-crowned tholus. There is a wonderful feeling of breadth and grandeur, yet of buoyancy, in this oblique aspect of the noble pile - all sunny white, save the color in the folds of the flag.

The Capitol is 751 feet long, 350 feet in greatest width, and covers nearly four acres of ground, with 153,112 square feet of floor space. It is 155 feet high to the cornices of the main roof, or 288 feet to the crest of the Liberty statue. The dome is of iron, weighs nearly nine million pounds, and was completed in 1865, replacing the earlier wooden dome. The architecture is modified Corinthian upon a rustic base, plus a dome, and the material of the older central part is Virginia (Aquia Creek) sandstone, painted white, but the newer wings are built of Massachusetts marble.

Style and
Dimensions.

In front of the building stretches a broad paved plaza, and three flights of broad steps lead up the central entrance and to each wing, lending a very effective appearance of breadth and solidity to the whole mass, whose walls are largely hidden Crawford's by the rows of monolithic, fluted columns of Maryland marble that Group. sustain the three broad porticos. The porticos of the wings have each twenty-two columns, and ten more columns on each of their northern and western fronts. The pediment of the southern wing, which contains the House of Representatives, has no statuary, but the façade of the northern wing, where the Senate

A TOUR OF THE CAPITOL.

19

sits, is doubly adorned. The tympanum is filled with an immense group by Thomas Crawford, emblematic of American progress, which has displaced the Indians with the arts of agriculture, commerce, and industrial production, supported by the sword. This

is considered the chef-d'œuvre of this talented American sculptor and will repay careful study. Crawford was paid $17,000 for the models, and the cutting of the marble (from Lee, Mass.) by several skilled Italian carvers cost $26,000 more.

The grand central portico, which dates from 1825, is 160 feet wide, and has twenty-four columns carrying a pediment of 80 feet span filled with an allegorical group cut in sandstone, after a design by John Quincy Adams when Sec

retary of State. It was

Central Portico.

executed by Luigi Persico, a prominent Roman sculptor, who had many commissions here. This group represents the "Genius of America." America, armed, is resting her shield upon an altar, while an eagle perches at her feet. She seems listening to Hope, and points in response to Justice, who holds the Constitution, inscribed September 17, 1787 (the date of its adoption), and her scales. From the level of the portico extend two great buttresses, each adorned with pieces of colossal statuary in marble. That upon the south side represents Columbus, and is entitled "The Discovery of America." The sculptor was Persico (1846), who exactly copied the armor from a suit worn by Columbus, yet preserved in Genoa. The opposite group (north) is by Greenough, and represents an incident of frontier life as typical of " Civilization, or the First Settlement of America." Each of these groups cost $24,000.

GREENOUGH'S "THE RESCUE."

Central Portico.

The inauguration of Presidents of the United States has taken place upon this portico since the time of Jackson. A draped staging is extended outward to accommodate the high officials who form a part of the ceremonial, and here the oath of office is administered by the Chief Justice in full view of a multitude of citizens.

In the center of this portico is the great Rogers bronze door which opens directly into the rotunda under the dome, and is among the most interesting objects at the Capitol. It was designed in Rome in 1858 by Randolph Rogers, who received $8,000 for his plaster models, and was cast in Munich, in 1861, by F. Von Müller, who was paid $17,000 in gold, then at a high premium. It is nineteen feet high and weighs ten tons. The leaves or valves of the door, which is double, stand in superbly enriched casing, and when opened fold back into fitting jambs. Each leaf is divided into eight panels, in addition to the transom panel under Bronze Door. the arch. Each panel contains a complete scene in alto-relievo. The scenes portrayed constitute the principal events in the life of Columbus and the

Rogers

discovery of America, with an ornate enrichment of emblematic designs. On the key of the arch of the casing is the head of Columbus, and on the sides of the casing are four typical statuettes in niches arranged chronologically-Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. The remainder of the casing is embellished with a running border of ancient armor, banners, and heraldic designs, and at the bottom, on either side, an anchor, all in bassorelievo, and emblematic of navigation and conquest. On the frame of each leaf of the door, set in niches, are sixteen statuettes of the patrons and contemporaries of Columbus, given in the order of their association with the announcement and execution of his theory of geographical exploration. The first eight figures are associated in pairs when the doors are closed, and divided when opened. All are labeled. The sixteenth is Pizarro, conqueror of Peru. The panels illustrate the career of Columbus, the third

Rotunda.

scene being his audience at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. Between the panels are a series of heads, representing the historians of the voyages of Columbus, prominent among whom are Irving and Prescott.

Niches on each side of this imposing entrance hold statues of Mars or War (on the right-a noble figure of a Roman warrior) and of Ceres or Peace (on the left a female figure with flowers and fruits) modeled by Persico and costing together $12,000; while above the door is a bust of Washington, crowned by Fame and Peace, which was sculptured by A. Capellano in 1827. Capellano is not known beyond his carvings here.

Passing through the bronze doors, we enter the Rotunda. It occupies nearly the whole width of the center of the building, and is unbroken to the summit of the dome.

It is 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet high to the canopy. Its center is the center of the Capitol. The pavement is of sandstone, and the walls are plas

tered and broken into panels by engaged pillars, above which there is a broad entablature. This is surmounted by a gallery (which has as good a "whispering" echo as that of St. Paul's), formed of Corinthian columns connected by a balustrade; and this gallery and the Rotunda are lighted by a belt of large windows, outside of which is the circular row of columns that form the external visible supports of the dome. From the entablature carried upon these pillars springs the concavity of the dome, arching inward to an opening 50 feet in diameter, at the base of the lantern, called the eye. This opening is encircled by a gallery and canopied by a painted ceiling, consisting of a circular piece of iron, covered with stucco, 65 feet wide.

In the vast and somewhat obscure space of this immense apartment only a colossus, like the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, would seem a fitting ornament. It was proposed to cut away the floor in the center and rect Greenough's figure of Washington, now on the plaza, upon an elevated pedestal approached from the crypt; but this was

not done, and all attempts at decoration have been confined to the walls, except the placing of a few statues.

Four doors open out of the Rotunda, and over each is a marble panel carved in high relief. That over the eastern, or main, entrance and exit is by Enrico Causici of Verona, a pupil of Canova, and represents the "Landing of the Pilgrims"; that over the northern door is by N. Gevelot, a Frenchman, and pictures William Penn making a treaty with the Delaware Indians; over the southern door is another group by Causici "Daniel Boone in Conflict with the Indians"-

Rotunda
Doors.

in which Boone's face was copied from a portrait by Hardinge, and over the western door

THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS AT SAN SALVADOR.- Painting by John Vanderlyn, Rotunda.

is Capellano's "Pocahontas Saving the Life of John Smith." These sculptors were all

men who worked here about 1827, and each was paid $3,500.

Rotunda

Wall

Paintings.

Each of the lower wall spaces carries one of the big historical paintings (18 by 12 feet), familiar to everybody through innumerable reproductions even upon the paper currency and Columbian postage stamps of the Government. All are by American artists. Each has attached to it a label and key-picture, giving the names and positions of all the persons represented by carefully drawn portraits in its groups. They fall into two classes-"Early historical" and "Revolutionary." The former are to a great degree imaginative, particularly the De Soto; but the latter are accurately true to the times and scenes they purport to represent. In the first class is the "Landing of Columbus at San Salvador," in 1492, painted in 1839 by Vanderlyn, who was paid $10,000 for it in 1842. The "Discovery of the Mississippi" by De Soto, in 1541, was painted by Wm. H. Powell in 1850, and the price was $12,000. The Baptism of Pocahontas" at Jamestown, in 1613, is nearer the truth, since the artist, J. G. Chapman, did his best to represent the portraits and costumes of Rolfe, Sir Thomas Dale, and other Virginian colonists and Indian chieftains, who may be supposed present at the ceremony. Its cost was $10,000, and its date is 1836. The last of this colonial series, by Professor Weir,

66

date 1840, price $10,000, is a picture of the farewell service on board the unseaworthy Speedwell, before it sailed from Delft Haven (the port of Leyden, Holland) for America, bearing the first colony of Pilgrims, who were finally landed on Plymouth Rock by the Mayflower.

The four Revolutionary paintings are by Col. John Trumbull (1756–1843), who was son of Gov. Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut. For several months the young officer was aid and military secretary to Washington. After the war he studied in Europe, and conceived an ambition to produce this series of national paintings, in which each face is drawn from life, so far as sittings could be obtained, while others are copied from approved portraits. This faithfulness of detail interferes with the best artistic results, giving a certain hardness to all parts, but increases the historical value of the compositions. They were painted between 1817 and 1824, and cost the nation $32,000 — a large sum in those days. Beside each picture is a "key," by consulting which the names of most of the persons may be learned.

The first is "Signing the Declaration of Independence" in the Old Hall in Philadelphia in 1776, the arrangement of the group of figures having been made as Jefferson, Franklin, and others of the fathers described it to him. The presiding officer is John Hancock. TheSurrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga" to General Gates is from sketches made by Trumbull on the spot, October 17, 1777. The artist was also present at the "Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown," portrayed in the third painting, where the British are marching between the lines of the American and French allies. The fourth of the series is "The Resignation of Washington" as commander-in-chief of the American armies, which took place, closely as depicted, at Annapolis on December 23, 1783, where Congress was then in session in the old Maryland State House. The commission he then surrendered is preserved in the Department of State, and the coat worn by Washington upon this occasion may be seen at the National Museum.

Above each of the eight paintings are panels with arabesque designs by Causici and Capellano, containing medallion heads of the four great pioneers of American discov ery — Columbus, Raleigh, Cabot, and La Salle. They were done in 1827, and cost $9,500.

The frieze, ten feet wide, just beneath the gallery, was left blank for many years, but in 1878 the talented Brumidi began a series of paintings intended to encircle the

Rotunda
Frieze.

room (300 feet) and to carry out the historical theme to which all the rotunda decorations conform. They are chiaroscuro drawings in distemper- that is, expressed merely in light and shade and painted with a glutinous medium upon the plaster. A procession of somewhat conventional figures in strong relief, imitating the alto-relievos which the architect had intended to place here, beginning over the western door and progressing to the right (north) and so on around, marches through the cardinal scenes in American progress. Brumidi had completed less than half of the circle when he died, in 1880. The work was then continued by his Italian assistant, Costagini, but is not yet completed. estimated expense of so decorating this frieze was $10,000-the favorite congressional figure for art pieces and it has often been spent to worse advantage than here.

The

On the canopy of the dome is Brumidi's masterpiece, "The Apotheosis of Wash

* Constantino Brumidi was born in Rome in 1805, studied art, and became a member of the Academy at thirteen. He painted frescoes in several Roman palaces, and worked in the Vatican for three years under Gregory XVI. The tradition is that he became involved in the European revolution of 1848, and was thrown into prison, whence he was freed, on account of his reputation, by the influence of Pius IX, but was banished from Italy. At any rate, after the French took possession of Rome he came to America, where he remained until 1854, and then went to Mexico to do frescoes. Returning to Washington, he was employed to take charge of the mural decorations of the Capitol. He began with the room of the House Committee on Agriculture, and these pictures are said to have been the first frescoes in the United States. He also did frescoes for St. Stephen's Church in New York and for