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31 Fig. 17. Latrobe also used light as a physical and metaphorical force at St. John's Church, as it enters through 13 sides: the cupola and windows on its 12 sides. MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY wing vestibules; rather it was enclosed in its south wall, an ill-lit flight of stairs that ended at the entrance to the House chamber. ose who climbed the staircase emerged from dimness into bril- liant light emanating from two directions, the House chamber and its vestibule. e conceit seems to have been the passage from the darkness of monarchy into the brilliant light of democracy. Latrobe was employing his version of "architecture parlante," or "architecture that speaks," the late eighteenth-century French architectural theory that eschewed decoration to convey mean- ing in favor of relying on the functions associated with architec- tural forms themselves to express their purposes. For Latrobe it was light "speaking," that constantly changing evanescent force that made distinguishing architectural forms possible. is mag- nificent architectural entrance sequence survived the fire to serve Latrobe's second House chamber but was ruined when congress- men demanded that an open staircase be installed in the inner vestibule in the early 1820s. More significantly, Jefferson and Latrobe meant the physi- cal light flooding the House chamber to represent the Enlight- enment ideal of Liberty as the new civic religion (fig. 16). e connection of light to liberty was common in the colonies where Enlightenment ideals of liberty, democracy, republicanism, and religious tolerance were linked. On 1 June 1795, Jefferson wrote: "is ball of liberty, I believe most piously, is now so well in motion that it will roll around the globe. At least the enlightened part of it, for light and liberty go together." Near the end of his life, in a letter to John Adams, Jefferson reiterated the phrase: "I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady advance." Jefferson's 1812 comment to Latrobe that the Capitol was the "first temple to be dedicated to the sovereignty of the people" and his frequent reference to America as the "empire of liberty" attest to his allegorical ways of expressing the revo- lutionary change in how humans were governed. In addition to Jefferson's written words we must add his intention to light the House chamber as a kind of lighthouse, a beacon pinpointing the location of America's representative form of government. Latrobe shared Jefferson's political and intellectual points of view but neither le a paper trail outlining their covert meanings for the House chamber. e truth is in their work. 28 Latrobe, like many great architects before him, recognized the power of natural light to reveal the beauty of architectural forms but also to realize intangible meanings. In two of his com- missions contemporary with his designs to complete the Capitol, Latrobe also utilized the power of light to convey abstract mean- ings. Latrobe returned to Washington in early July 1815 and by the end of the month the building committee to erect St. John's Episcopal Church invited mechanics to view Latrobe's drawings in the architect's office at the Capitol. By erecting a more monu- mental church than originally intended, St. John's vestry sent its message to Congress—then debating moving elsewhere—that the national capital should remain in Washington. One factor in Latrobe's selection of a Greek cross shaped plan for St. John's