Bicentennial Bywords

(All Text in capitalization)

(Left Side Text: BICENTENNAL BYWORDS BY RICH AHERN)

(Photo Caption: CONGRESS HALL, INDEPENDENCE HALL, OLD CITY HALL & PHILOSOPHICAL HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PA.)

The United States Capitol: An Architectural Metaphor

The predominant character of a nation is embodied in its architecture. More than any other building, the United States capitol, at each stage of its growth, has expressed the evolving character of America.

For the first quarter century following independence, the state of the union was precarious. indeed, our itinerant government moved ten times from one temporary capitol to another before settling in its new capital city on the banks of the Potomac. The nearly concurrent creation of both the political structure of a new nation & the physical structure of its capital was a rare event in history. Cooperation & comprehensive planning, no less than individualism & expediency, have been part of our heritage ever since.

During the 2nd quarter century, simplicity & economy marked both the government & its capitol. Jefferson hoped for an agrarian economy decentralized political power, stewardship of the land, freedom from monopolies & freedom from standing armies in times of peace. Similarly, the original design of the capitol was "simple, noble, beautiful... & moderate in size," According to Jefferson. Alas, due to insufficient funds, conflicting egos & the war of 1812, the low, handsome dome was never built.

By the beginning of the 3rd quarter century, our nation had grown into the greatest power in the western hemisphere; the president had boldly proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine. Not surprisingly, when a dome was finally added to the capitol in 1825, it was loftier more complex & more pretentious than the original design.

(Left Picture Caption: ORIGINAL DESIGN, 1792)

(Right Picture Caption: THE DOME AS BUILT, 1825)

At mid-century, American believed it to be our "Manifest Destiny" To overspread the continent. After the war between the states, Hamiltonian tenets prevailed" industrialization, urbanization, militarization & centralized political power. Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest" was misapplied to human affairs to justify Laissez-Faire economics, monopolies & despoliation of the land. Freedom, especially economic freedom, surpassed the right to life as our highest value; the constitution acquired the aura of sacred text; & government began to assume the semblance of a civil religion. By the end of the century, American power extended to China, Japan & the Philippines. Washington had become, as it's planner, L'Enfant, prophesied. "The seat of government of a vast empire!."

The physical growth of the nation was accompanied by the expansion of the capitol to nearly its present size, while the change of national temperament was reflected in the shape of a new dome. Lincoln knew well its symbolic importance when, in the midst of war, he defended the cost of its completion: "If people see the capitol going on." He said, "it is a sign we intend the union shall go on." The towering, elaborate dome, completed in 1863, was inspired by the domes of St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London & St. Isaac's in St. Petersburg, (Now Leningrad). A statue of freedom was placed atop the lantern of the dome where a cross would ordinarily be. The capitol had been transformed into a veritable Cathedral of political power.

Today the power & Interests of the United States extend to nearly every part of the globe and far into outer space. Within the nation, power has steadily shifted from the people to Congress & even more from Congress to the presidency. indeed, the greatest power of all, the power to make war, originally guarded jealously by congress, has in practice become the prerogative of the presidency. With the  advent of nuclear weapons technology, control & command, never has the power over the lives of so many been entrusted to the hearts & minds of so few.

The Legislative & Judiciary functions are now dispersed throughout a score of monumental buildings crowning Capitol Hill. And whereas all executive functions where once housed in the White House alone, they have long since outpaced congressional requirements until they now occupy a vast multitude of buildings across the nation; and the largest of these by far is the Pentagon.

The time may not yet be too late to heed the warning of George Washington to "Avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty & which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." Yet, if present trends continue, our national government will soon have an all-powerful, imperial presidency, an acquiescent Congress & a subservient supreme couty, all serving & served by an entrenched military industrial-information complex. Such was, essentially, the fate of Ancient Rome. Now, as then, our freedom is as vulnerable to oppression from within as it is to aggression from without.

(Picture Caption left to right: SENATE OFFICE BLDGS. - SUPREME COURT - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - HOUSE OFFICE BLDGS. - CAPITOL HILL)

There is a viable alternative: not only can modern technology destroy all of life on earth, it is equally capable of providing the material necessities of life for all of humanity. Henceforth material justifications for war are obsolete. furthermore, all of humanity has become part of the global ecological continuum. Jefferson realized this: "It is a kind of Law of Nature," he said, "That the prosperity of nations depends on the prosperity of others." If this golden rule of international relations were to prevail, the psychological causes of war would also vanish. Unlike the abolition of slavery, the abolition of war cannot be brought about by force of arms but only by the powers of reason & compassion, of science & conscience, of "The Laws of Nature & of nature's God." Idealism is but long-term realism.

For many years the last remaining portion of the original sandstone walls of the capitol has been crumbling, shored up by temporary timers. Congress faced two options: to extend the capitol beyond the walls or to restore them. It wisely voted for restoration. Society not only creates architecture in its own image; it is also influenced by it. Precedence suggests the hope that restoration will signify a revitalization of our original vision (on every dollar bill) of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" : "A new order, of the Ages."

Rich Ahern, 1983