The Capitol Dome

My Dear Betsy: It shall be the subject of this letter to give you some account of my present situation and of occurrences since I left home. The city of Washington in point of situation is much more delightful than I expected to find it. The ground, in general, is elevated and mostly cleared, and commands a pleasing prospect of the Potomac River. The buildings are brick, and erected in what are called large blocks—that is, from two to five or six houses joined together, and appear like one long building. There is one block of seven, another of nine, and one of twenty houses, but they are scatted over a large extent of ground. The block in which I live contains six houses, four stories high and very handsomely furnished. It is situated east of the Capitol, on the highest ground in the city. 7 Mr. King, our landlord, occupies the south end, only one room in front, which is our parlor for receiving company and dining, and a room in back, occupied by Mr. King's family, the kitchen is below. The four chambers are appropriated to the eight gentlemen who board in the family. In each chamber are two narrow field beds and field curtains, with every necessary convenience for the boarders. Mr. Read and myself have, I think, the pleasantest room in the house or in the whole city. It is on the third story, commanding a delightful prospect of the Capitol, of the President's house, Georgetown, all the houses in the city and a long extent of river and the city of Alexandria. 8 The air is fine and the weather, since I have been here, remarkably pleasant. I am not much pleased with the Capitol. It is a huge pile, built, indeed, with handsome stone, very heavy in its appearance without, and not very pleasant within. The President's house is superb, well proportioned and pleasantly situated. 9 But I will hasten to give you a more particular account of our family, which, I presume, will be more interesting to you than the Geography of the District. Mr. King's family consists only of himself, his lady, and one daughter, besides the servants, all of whom are black. Mr. King was an officer in the late American Army, much of a gentleman in his manner, social and very obliging. I have seen few women more agreeable than Mrs. King. She almost daily brings to my mind Dr. Lakeman's first wife[.] [S]he [Mrs. King] was the daughter of Mr. Harper, a respectable merchant in Baltimore; has been favored with an excellent education, has been much in the first circles of society in this part of the country, and is in nothing more remarkable, than her perfect freedom from stiffness, vanity, or ostentation. Their only daughter, Miss Anna, is about seventeen, well formed, rather tall, small featured, but is considered very handsome. She has been educated at the best schools in Baltimore and Alexandria. She does not converse much, but is very modest and agreeable. She plays with great skill on the Forte Piano, which she always accompanies with a most delightful voice, and is frequently joined in the vocal part by her mother. Mr. King has an excellent Forte Piano, which is connected with an organ placed Cutler's 21 December 1801 letter to his daughter (see p. 26–27) after arriving in Washington to take his seat in the first session of the Seventh Congress, that had convened two weeks earlier, described his living conditions, very different from the "dingy" and overcrowded wood shacks Members of Congress expected because of negative propaganda about meeting in Washington. It is published here in its entirety for the first time since two of Cutler's grandchildren compiled and published his most significant writings in 1888. 5 The "family" atmosphere created for and by eight New England Federalists as boarders in the best of Carroll's rowhouses proved to be not just comfortable but an antidote to the stresses of the political arena in a place where the only source of public entertainment were Sunday sermons in the House chamber by the chaplain or a variety of visiting ministers. 6 When Cutler returned to Washington in early December 1802 for the second session of the Seventh Congress, the Kings were no longer operating a boarding house. "[F]inding it very difficult to get lodgings, went to the point [Greenleaf's Point in Southwest] to [Samuel] Speak[e]….The house is small. Mr. [George B.] Upham [of New Hampshire] and I can take a room, but it is small, otherwise a good one. The family appear agreeable." Cutler's weekly board was $6.50 at Speake's; he begrudged both the long, uphill walk to the Capitol as well as the lack of agreeable society among his four fellow New England members of the House. "At Mr. King's last winter, we had frequently very agreeable family in the company; here we have none. I very much miss the amusement Miss Anna King used to afford us with her Forte-Piano, and excellent voice." 13 Congressional Directories are not known to survive for either session of the Eighth Congress, but Cutler noted in his diaries that he continued to board with the Speake family for 26 THE CAPITOL DOME

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