Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/650208
of the House of Representatives. Pickering was an ardent Federalist who, in the words of his modern-day editors, was "devoted almost exclusively to the bitterest kind of opposition to omas Jefferson and all of his works"—be they Jefferson's hand-selected architects, sculptors, or Virginian Republican successors to the presidency. According to Law, Pickering's opinion was "a most admirable piece of sound, judicious criticism on some of the works of our chief architect, and his subordinate artists"—complete with "plain good sense and natural taste" combined with "much poignant satire and humour." 19 Mr. Pickering rose and afforded the house consider- able instruction and amusement by a piece of shrewd, judicious, natural criticism upon certain models he had examined of sculptural ornaments intended for the capi- tol. He wished to enquire . . . whether the fig ures intended by the architect (Mr. Latrobe) to represent the several states, were to be comprehended in the proviso [appropriation for rebuilding ]; or whether those fan- tastic images were to be laid aside. ey are (said Mr. P.) female figures. e one designed to Represent New Hampshire has a fish in her hands. Now, of all the fish caught in the sea by the people of New England, forty nine in fiy, perhaps ninety nine in a hundred are taken by the inhabitants of Massachusetts. e female repre- sentative of Massachusetts has a boy by her side to rep- resent the district of Maine. e lady of Vermont has a raw calf skin thrown over her shoulders; the pate falls on the le shoulder, and two of the legs hang dangling from her bosom. Mr. P. did not know with what emblem the lady of Virginia would be exhibited; perhaps with a BUCK SKIN over her shoulders; whether with the horns on her head, or, like the calf 's pate of Vermont, resting on the le shoulder, he could not tell; but doubtless a pair of the legs would be suspended from her breast. Pickering went on to ridicule Latrobe's corn and tobacco orders and his atlantes in the Senate, and although the blocks of marble for them had already been ordered from Italy, Pickering con- cluded "by declaring that he could not vote for the proposed appropriation unless the preposterous state emblems he had described, were swept away." 20 Latrobe blamed Law for the "public and eloquent condem- nation" of the caryatids and challenged Law's self-defense that "Every body to whom [I] have spoken condemns [them] equally." In a lengthy essay, Latrobe reminded Law that sentiments and abstract ideas are expressed on human faces, heard as human lan- guages, written as records, and depicted in paintings and sculp- ture as "signs, an internal operation or movement of the mind neither audible, visible, nor tangible." 21 If then it is the intention of architectural writing to record events, or to perpetuate sentiments, national customs, or private matters, and it is admitted, that such records are worthy of the expense they may occasion, the consideration of the Character, in which the record shall be written and of the style is the only one before us. It may indeed be said that as good Laws may be made in a Wigwam, as in the Capitol, and that all decoration is useless, and all history mere idle amusement. You how- ever who admit Corinthian columns without Censure will not, I presume make that assertion. . . . e Senate by the Constitution of our country, repre- sents not the majority of the people, like the house of Representatives, but the individual States, as corporate bodies. . . . If their Chamber is to be decorated at all, the decoration should have the character consistent with the character of the body for which it was built. eir character of an assembly of the States is that which is most prominent. e practice of representing communities . . . by female figures, has existed since the dawn of history.... An unknown statue without attributes, is everywhere re- ceived as the portrait of an individual. But the moment any attribute is discovered there remains no doubt that the statue is a personification. is then remains the only question. It is a question respecting the talents of the Architect and of his Sculptors: are the attributes intelligible? . . . [e] Chronological state LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION Fig. 10. e flowers and leaves of the American magnolia tree used to decorate the capitals of Latrobe's dwarf columns in his first Senate chamber probably represent American arts and sciences. 27