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Essay on Constitutional Framers

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The Constitutional Framers envisioned a national government that, like Plato’s cave, would be “at a distance and out of sight” of the everyday affairs and thoughts of ordinary Americans. They had envisioned Washington D.C. to be a cultural mecca on par with the capitals of European nations, both economically and socially. The reality of the Washington Community was a disaster compared to the lofty ambitions of the founding fathers; a desolate purgatory to be endured. The socially and economically barren capital combined Spartan living conditions with isolation. High turnover was prevalent in both the house and senate; a disappointment to the Federalists who had hoped for institutional memory within congress. Instead of creating the …show more content…

“The lack of historical precedent for building a governmental center ex nihil did not apparently, generate any misgivings about the bold enterprise” (Young, p. 96). The capital was destined to be a success; so sure of this fact, funds for public buildings were expected to be raised through private land speculation. Reality was a colossal failure; the founders were so successful at removing congress from the minds of Americans that few thought to invest in the land speculation. The capital was an economic disaster, a backwater community saved only by financial intervention from neighboring states. “For it was states, not citizens, that were revealed to have a proprietary interest in the national establishment, and it was states that came to the rescue when the entire project was threatened with collapse” (Young, p. 99). Even with external funds, the Washington community remained a desolate swamp no one wished to inhabit. Limited buildings, commerce and trade produced an environment of barbaric day to day living conditions for congressmen. “They worked together, daily assembled in the noisy auditoriums of the Capital, with no offices but their desks on the floor itself. They lived together in the same lodging houses. They took their meals together around the same boardinghouse tables. Privacy was no more to be found during leisure than at work, not even privacy when they retired; in their lodging houses “they lay two in

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