Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Jefferson's DC Capitol

  We have read about President Jefferson's ideas about the role of government as well as his early policies as president. after reading the description of the nation's new capitol answer the question below:

Is Washington DC, as it is described in our readings, a match
with the type of nation President Jefferson desires?

As is our practice, answer the question using KEY TERMS in the comment section and then reply to the comments of two of your classmates.


53 comments:

  1. Washington DC, as it is described in our readings, does not match with the type of nation President Jefferson desires. Neither the original plan nor the true outcome of what Washington was aligns with Jefferson's desires for America's look. Jefferson was a fan of localism and farmers. He believed in the importance of an agriculturally centered society. Furthermore, he was an owner of over 100 slaves, an aristocratic planter who appeared sophisticated, and publicly disdained pretension. However, this was not shown in what Washington D.C. turned out to be. For started the original plans were that of "broad avenues radiating outwards" built on a "grand-scale." Needless to say such unnecessary glamour and prestige did not align with the America that Jefferson envisioned. Furthermore, the reality of Washington D.C. was different, but also not in agreeance with Jefferson's desires. Washington became a "raw, inhospitable, community with few public with few public building of consequence." This contradicted Jefferson's image. Not was the city barren and bleak, much unlike the astute agricultural life it was supposed to present, there were few important buildings. Not only did it fail to capture the sophistication and education that Jefferson desired but it also was not able to represent the agricultural aspects of America that Jefferson wanted to be put forth. Overall, D.C. and Jefferson were quite contradictory.

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    1. I agree, Washington DC didn’t do anything to further Jefferson’s goals

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    2. I agree. Washington D.C. seemed to be at odds with most of Jefferson's policies and his image in general.

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    3. I agree. There was a lot within Washington DC that contradicted his plans for it.

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    4. I agree with you that the city of Washington did not turn out how Jefferson would have wanted it to be.

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    5. I agree that Washington DC didn't end up how Jefferson had wanted it to.

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    6. I agree because how Jefferson wanted Washington DC to look like was so much different then how it was meant to look.

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    7. I agree, he wanted it to be a prosperous place yet it was barren and devoid of spirit

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    8. I agree, Washington DC just became somewhere that was hostile rather than what Jefferson thought would happen to it

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    9. I agree washington dc did not live up to jeffresons vision

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  2. Washington DC, based on how it’s described in our readings doesn’t match with the type of agriculture, localist, farming view of America. The original plans were on a grand scale which contradicts the way Jefferson imagines America. however the outcome of those plans, while still not aligned with a Jefferson’s vision, Washington became a raw inhospitable community without many important buildings. Washington didn’t end up being the agricultural center that Jefferson hoped, and it failed to reach the educational goals Jefferson strived to achieved. In conclusion, Jefferson’s vision wasn’t shown in the way Washington DC turned out.

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    1. I agree. The city was not aligned to Jefferson's views and visions, in imagination or reality.

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    2. I agree. It was far from what Jefferson envisioned.

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    3. Id have to agree that the "inhospitable" town goes off track from what Jefferson imagined the capital to be.

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    4. True -- neither his vision nor the outcome ended up aligning with his ideas and plans for America as a whole

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    5. I agree that Washington DC ended up being far from how Jefferson had imagined.

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    6. i agree like his vision and what he ended up getting were very different like even the plans were different.

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    7. I agree, his vision called for something much more prosperous than what it became

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    8. I agree, it is nothing like Jefferson's ideas of what it would become

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  3. The vision for Washington D.C. did not match with the type of nation Jefferson desired, and neither did the final product. Jefferson was a supporter of localism, and states rights, not federal power, so a federal city would not have been appealing in the first place. Along with that, cities brought along industrialism and landless workers, which opposed Jefferson's dream of an agrarian society made of freeholders. The entire vision of Washington D.C. was not a match for Jefferson's desired country, and although the finished project didn't entirely capture the vision, it was still not really aligned with Jefferson's America. Pierre L'Enfant designed the city to rival the great cities of Europe, and be the Paris of the Americas. It was built on a grand scale, and had broad avenues. This glamour did not align with Jefferson's America, but the finished product had very little glamour. It was inhospitable and raw, and had few public institutions of any significance. On the drawing board, the city did not match Jefferson's ideas, and in reality, it didn't match, even though the city was drastically different.

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    1. I agree that the glamour of L’Enfants plan is at odds with Jefferson’s vision.

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    2. I agree. The idea of Jefferson being heavily invested in a federal city while also preaching states rights and localism does not make much sense.

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    3. I agree that the extravagant vision of Washington that Jefferson had in mind would not represent America, who was a provincial, homespun, and agricultural society at the time.

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    4. I agree that the city was more industrial and not as agricultural as Jefferson wanted it to be.

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    5. I agree jefresson wanted the city to rival paris and it never managed it.

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  4. Washington DC was far from what was envisioned by Jefferson. Jefferson planned for an agricultural center that was innovative and a desirable place to live. Washington became an inhospitable place to live. There were very few important buildings, and was a below-average city in the United States. It was far from the idea of having it resemble Paris despite handing over the vision to Frenchman Pierre L'Enfant.

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    1. Not only was the desolate place not representative of agriculture and localism but innovation was low due to the lack of important buildings and business.

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    2. I agree it was very off base in terms of resembling Paris.

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  5. Washington D.C. did not at all match with Jefferson's ideas for America, which was a largely agrarian society that was flush with new ideas and innovations. The capitol was far from that -- it was barren and inhospitable, with very few buildings. It was not the place he imagined it to be in the slightest. However, his original dreams of the city also did not match his general plans for the rest of America; it was meant to be a lavish grand city, which contradicts what Jefferson thought of as the ideal America.

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    1. Jefferson valued innovation and agriculture, and thus wanted America to follow his criteria for what it means to be a nation. However, D.C was far from that.

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    2. I agree that Jefferson wanted a grand lavish city although Washington was nothing like that.

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    3. I agree that it did not match, but I thought that L'Enfant's plans for the grand city were commissioned by the federalists, so Jefferson would disagree with that as well, because it wasn't the agrarian society he wanted.

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  6. Washington D.C did not match the vision of Jefferson and what he had in mind. Jefferson's idea of America was for it to be a mainly agrarian society with ideas and culture. However, it was instead an inhospitable with very few buildings, and it did not accomplish the educational goals in the slightest. His original dream of the city to be a grand and lavish place contradicted the values and beliefs of America and Washington DC did not match the ideas Jefferson had for the capital.

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  7. Washington DC didn't match with Jefferson's visions. Jefferson had lots of ideas for America but Washington DC became inhospitable with few buildings. Jefferson had lots of goals and hopes but Washington didn't match with what he wanted. Washington didn't become a place with lots of agriculture like Jefferson had wanted.

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    1. Washington had anything BUT agriculture, which is the exact opposite of what Jefferson wanted in a nation.

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  8. Based on the readings, it can be determined that Washington D.C was far from that Jefferson's ideal definition of a nation. Jefferson wanted to have a nation that was brimming with agriculture and localism. He also believed that an agriculture-based economy would suit the nation. However, Washington D.C didn't match this description at all. The readings described D.C as a "raw, inhospitable community with only a few buildings of consequence." This picture doesn't at all match Jefferson's ideals.

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    1. Washington D.C lacked everything Jefferson wanted.

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    2. I agree. Jefferson certainly did not envision a "raw, inhospitable community with only a few buildings of consequence." It is ironic that Jefferson, who spent so much time in Paris, did not want his nation's capital to look like that grand European city.

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  9. Based on the reading notes Washington DC didn't match Jefferson's view on the ideal nation. I know this because Jefferson wanted a nation with an agriculture based economy but Washington DC didn't have any agriculture. It was also mostly inhospitable and had very few public buildings.

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  10. Washington DC does not math with what Jefferson wanted. even the plans of the area was different as, the plans said it would be more of a place where there would be a lot of more classical style of buildings but no sign of farming. Jefferson believed in localism and wanted there to be clear part of both the economy and of everyday life to be filled with agriculture.

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  11. The reality of the situation did not match Jefferson's vision for it. Jefferson wanted the capitol city to have lots of agriculture and education. Washington DC ended up being a inhospitable space with neither agriculture or education. It had very few educational or cultural places of significance and did not become the rival of European capitols in Jefferson's term.

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    1. So it was basically the opposite, that isn't great for Jefferson then.

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  12. Washington DC did not align with Jefferson's vision. Jefferson wanted America to be largely based on agriculture and education. There was no sign of agriculture in Washington, and despite Jefferson's publishing of "crusade against ignorance," there was no sign of education. The capital became a provincial and inhabitable village that went against every ideal Jefferson had when entering office.

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    1. I agree. Not only did the city not represent Jefferson's idea of the agrarian capital, but it also did nothing to further the "crusade against ignorance" and symbolize any advancement in education. Maybe that's why he built the University of Virginia?

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  13. Washington DC was not what Jefferson wanted from it, because he wanted agriculture to be the main sector of the economy, along with education. It was described as "raw, inhospitable community with only a few buildings of consequence" This does not fit what Jefferson wanted

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    1. I agree, there were two main things that Jefferson wanted, and Washington DC had neither, and in fact flew right in the face of what he wanted.

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    2. I agree, I didn't originally think of education, but it is an accurate Jeffersonian ideal.

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  14. Washington DC was far from what was envisioned by Jefferson. Jefferson planned for an agricultural center that was a desirable place to live. Washington D.C. became a hostile place to live. The city had the white house and the capitol building but wasn’t a very big city in the United States. It didn’t resemble anything like Paris as was thought upon and through all the things they tried to do about it’s appearance the city didn’t become what it was thought to become.

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  15. Jefferson's vision did not align with how Washington DC was conceived as, or how it ended up being. Jefferson wanted agrarian society, but the concept for Washington DC was of an urban metropolis. Additionally, the reality for Washington DC was still a city, just not a populated one. It wasn't an agrarian farmers paradise, like Jefferson envisioned.

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  17. Washington DC was not the capital that Jefferson would have wanted. Jefferson the architect did not share Washington's or Adams's or any Federalist's view of much, including the design for the nation's capital. He wanted a city that emphasized the agrarian nature of the new country, not a grand city modeled on Paris by Pierre L'Enfant. It didn't even turn out to be like Paris. It ended up with an inhospitable community, which Jefferson didn't want.

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  18. It was pretty far from Jefferson's original vision, because Jefferson's original idea was more centered on an agrarian society, and not a swampy, less-than-average model of Paris. Jefferson wanted a simplistic society, which he especially wanted the Capital to be; Instead, he got a inhospitable miniature city with limited agriculture. There were more buildings than Jefferson wanted, because Jefferson wanted a more simplistic society that is far from federalist values, and more buildings meant more industrial society ideals, which aligns with non-Jeffersonian ideals.

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  19. It is clear that Washington DC was not even close to what Jefferson wanted. No ideas were shared in the architecture as well. with the result being a bad rip off. Jefferson had visualized a simplistic society, he had visualized something distant from the federalist values. Instead the result was a capitol filled with buildings, that in Jefferson eyes was industrial society ideas.

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