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.
Washington DC did not fit with the type of nation president Jefferson desires. Jefferson believed in localism and a limited central government, along with a agrarian society. A highly urban, developed center of government did not fit with these American visions or Jefferson's ideals (who projected himself as a plain, pretention hating man).
ReplyDeleteoops I'm sorry. I forgot to log into the right email before I submitted, but Jalilah wrote this.
DeleteI agree, he did want an agrarian society so the small town of D.C may have felt a little too big.
DeleteYes, great explanation.
DeleteYes, I think Washington DC was going to become a very urbanized city, which does go against farmers being the ones who dominate American society, so I agree.
DeleteI agree, what Washington DC becomes is not what Jefferson had in mind.
DeleteI agree, Washington DC is different from Jefferson's envision
DeleteI agree. He was a very informal politician- ambassadors complained that he didn't even dress nicely to meetings. I think the beauty and thoughtful design of the capital would be lost on him.
DeleteI agree, DC does not give off the impression of a rural, farming based society like Jefferson wanted for the country.
DeleteI agree. Jefferson favored an agrarian society and DC did not correctly reflect his desires.
DeleteI agree, it did not match exactly what he had envisioned.
DeleteI believe that Washington D.C did not fit Jefferson's view of the presidency because he wanted to be a man of the people, while the architecture in the capital was very Roman and had an aura of importance. On the other hand, it was a small town so it did fit with Jefferson's crusade against urbanization.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Jefferson worked very hard to project a version of himself that was plain and the "everyday" American, and this capital's design contradicted his views.
DeleteYes, exactly.
DeleteI had similar views, there were really two sides that I couldn't choose one, but I like the idea of a small town being for Jefferson's Republican views of an agrarian society.
DeleteI agree Washington DC's architecture does not match up with what he envisioned for the nation.
DeleteYeah, Washington DC's architecture did not line up with Jefferson's ideals.
DeleteI agree this explains kind of why it fit his vision but didn't at the same time.
DeleteI agree that architecture had to do with DC conflicting with Jefferson's ideals.
DeleteWashington DC didn't fit with Jefferson's view because Jefferson wanted a casual display of what normal life in America while Washington DC was much more elegant and important. He was a voice for the citizens and wanted to represent them so this did not fit his ideals.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this. Jefferson was in support of an agrarian society and DC shows more of an urban society.
DeleteI didn't think about it this way, but it does make a lot of sense how Jefferson would want the capitol to not be extremely distinct from the rest of the country
DeleteWashington DC seemed to be made to feel like it was much more important than the other cities, trying to be modelled after Paris. However, even though it did have value, which I think went against Jefferson's views on what the nation would be, he was pro-French, and I would also expect him to model his capital after Paris because of that. I'm more in the middle of whether Washington DC was actually what Jefferson wanted or not.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point, the city was modeled pretty closely after Paris and he did like the French.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that Washington DC, as it is described in our readings does somewhat match up with the type of nation President Jefferson describes. The town is described as a "a small, provincial, unsophisticated province of a capital village." This follows the model that Jefferson planned for America, an agrarian society that does not align with urbanization or industrialization. However, I think the Roman, awe-inspiring Capital Washington D.C becomes is not what Jefferson envisioned for a capitol.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jefferson likely would've opted for something more humble.
DeleteI agree, but Washington DC is only like this small town for a little while. After Pierre L’Enfant redesigned it with urban street plans, it shifted away from Jeffersonian ideals.
DeleteI agree Jefferson preferred a more simple life and the capitol did not reflect that.
DeleteI agree, Jefferson would have preferred a more simple capital reflecting the localism he believed in.
DeleteI agree, before it was redesigned, the capitol did reflect Jefferson's localist ideals.
DeleteI agree since it was a little more than a provincial village, so it was still kind of in his preference, but it was definitely not afterwards.
DeleteI agree that Jefferson did not want urbanization in his vision for a capital.
DeleteTrue, D.C before L'Enfant's impact was a good representation of what Jefferson valued.
DeleteI agree--it originally was a provincial town but it eventually changed.
DeleteFor sure, Washington DC is not what Jefferson envisioned, you could say Washington DC represented the industrialization/growing sector of the economy. The fact that Jefferson was pro-agrarian, I think it speaks words that this is not what Jefferson envisioned
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that the capital was more representative of the industrialization of the U.S.
DeleteI like your point on how the capital represented the developing industrialization of the nation at the time.
DeleteI agree, the city of D.C was the polar opposite of what Jefferson wanted the U.S to become.
DeleteI think that because Jefferson was more interested in the idea of localism and agriculture, a giant, boastful capital city would have been kind of against what he pushed for. However, there are obvious problems with your capital being farmland, so I don't believe there would've been much complaint that the president didn't have to live in a corn field.
ReplyDeleteI agree, if the capital would have been in a city such New York, it wouldn't have aligned with Jefferson's view.
DeleteI agree, while it may not have aligned with his ideals, the area was also somewhat uninhabitable at the time, and urban layout would probably be easier than cabinet meetings in a swamp.
DeleteI believe that Washington D.C did match with the Nation Jefferson desired for a while but when Pierre L'Enfant redesigned it, it longer matched with Jeffersons vision. It longer matched Jefferson's ideals as he was interested in localism rather than industrialization which was what the capital represented after it was redesigned.
ReplyDeleteI agree, as the capital building does give represent the opposite of what Jefferson believed.
DeleteYeah. I believe that privately Jefferson liked extravagance, but DC and its extravagance worked against his political ideals.
DeleteI agree, it started out the way Jefferson wanted but it became the opposite.
DeleteI agree. Jefferson's vision of a small-scale, agriculture centered society does not align with the city L'Enfant proposed, which drew inspiration from Paris, one of the biggest cities in the world at the time.
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ReplyDeleteI do think Washington DC, as described in our reading, is a match to the type of nation President Jefferson wants, as it is described as a small provincial village, which matches with his belief in an agrarian society. This location as well promotes his image as someone who is plain and one of the people, but, the capitol building's style does contradict Jefferson’s beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI think that despite it beginning as small and provincial, it was designed to be rather urban, which I don't think Jefferson would have liked.
DeleteWashington D.C. was very different than the America that Jefferson desired. It was designed to be a city akin to beautiful Roman Architecture. Jefferson preferred the idea of a localist, agricultural society. I think that an extravagant capital not only disinterest Jefferson in terms of an urban environment, but also that he didn't really believe in a big centralized government in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI agree. He highly valued agriculture and farms. A grandiose capitol was not his vision, in my opinion.
DeleteI agree, he desired much more of a "humble" nation.
DeleteWashington DC does not fit the type of capital Jefferson desired. He would have preferred it to reflect localism and simplicity, maintaining his ideal agrarian society. Instead it ended up designed on a grand scale with broad avenues by Pierre L'Enfant. This did not match Jefferson's disdain for pretension.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it was not only not agrarian it was also extravagant.
DeleteWashington DC ultimately did not fit the nation that Jefferson wanted. Jefferson pictured the US as agrarian and localist, while the capitol reflected the urbanized and industrial nation that the US was becoming. Thus the grandiose city that DC became, clashed with the nation that Jefferson envisioned .
ReplyDeleteI agree--the capitol that Pierre L'Enfant created did not match Jefferson's ideal capitol.
DeleteWashington DC was not an example of the kind of republic Jefferson desired. He was much more a supporter of agrarian living and localism, and cities are the opposite of that. The city of Washington was an industrial city and even more a city for the upper classes. It was designed to be the capital and at that time, the politicians were mostly wealthy white men. The capital excluded exactly the type of people and living Jefferson advocated for.
ReplyDeleteThe final vision for Washington DC didn't really align with the tope of country Jefferson and the Republicans envisioned. They wanted a localist country with a small central government where most civilians were rural, agricultural freeholders, as opposed to propertyless city dwellers. DC was proposed as an industrial city inspired by Paris, with grand radiating avenues, and that goes against what Jefferson thought the US should aspire to be.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Jefferson was an advocate for localism with its economy largely from agriculture, as opposed to industrialization, i.e. a grandiose city like Washington DC.
DeleteWashington DC did not match with the the type of nation that Jefferson desired because Jefferson was in support of agriculture and didn't favor industrialization or urbanization. However, Washington DC was described as "a provincial village" so it partly fit with Jefferson's desires.
ReplyDeleteWashington DC was not a match with the type of nation Jefferson desired because he had envisioned of a society that emphasized localism and simplicity. Washington DC was a little more than a provincial village.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Washington DC didn't seem to represent an agricultural society like Jefferson hoped.
DeleteIn my opinion, Washington DC did not match well with the America that Jefferson had envisioned. He wanted a more localist America that was based in agriculture as opposed to industrialism. Washington DC, however, was a great, industrial city that was not any of the aforementioned.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jefferson planned to achieve a agrarian society, not an industrial one.
DeleteI agree, Washington DC was far more an industrial city rather than what Jefferson wanted which was a nation based on farming.
DeleteI do not think Washington DC represented the type of nation Jefferson wanted. He was trying to aim for an agrarian and rural society. Instead, Washington DC seemed like the opposite, urban and industrial.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe Washington DC was aligned with Jefferson's desires, since he believed in a decentralized, local society, while Washington DC represented an urban centralized center of government.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not think that Washington DC fit with what Jefferson wanted the nation to be. The nation Jefferson wanted was more of a "humble" society built on agriculture and farming. Washington DC was far from this, rather than being more towards farming, it was actually an industrial city.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my classmates, D.C did not fit the ideals Jefferson held and wanted the nation to become. Jefferson's vision for the U.S was one of humble localism and agriculture, while D.C was an extravagant urban location with advanced architecture and the representation of industrialism.
ReplyDeleteWashington D.C did not fit with the president's ideals. Jefferson aimed for an agrarian society, but the designs of Washington D.C were urban, and left no kind of farmland. While Jefferson may have wanted an agrarian society, the capitol represented what the rest of the country was moving towards: industrialism.
ReplyDeleteWashington DC did not exactly fit with Jefferson's desires for a capitol. Despite his immense amounts of wealth, Jefferson had a disdain for pretension. Washington DC was designed by Pierre L'Enfant and was planned to be constructed on a grand scale, but in the end Washington DC was a provincial and inhospitable town.
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