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THE CAPITOL DOME 47 federal government carried on as before. The new- ly expanded Capitol, with new House of Representa- tives and Senate chambers, needed decorating. Promi- nent among the many new spaces were four enormous 20- by 30-foot walls that formed part of the staircases which led to the visitors galleries for both chambers. Montgomery Meigs—the U.S. Army officer responsi- ble for overseeing the Capitol's expansion—had spent years trying to hire artists to paint one or more of these walls. By early 1861, he had finally succeeded in lining up someone to do so, by the name of Emanuel Leutze. 3 Leutze (fig. 4) was a German-born immigrant who had gained great fame as the creator of Washing- ton Crossing the Delaware, which had made both the painter and the painting household names in 1850s America. For the southwestern staircase of the House, Leutze had for some time proposed painting a depic- tion of emigrants heading west. With Meigs suitably impressed by the concept, Leutze began painting a two- and-a-half by three-foot study, to show more precisely what he had in mind. It didn't take long for the Confederacy to begin target- ing the West. Shortly after Lincoln's inauguration in March 1861, Union newspapers were foaming about plots to "revolutionize" California and Oregon. Later that spring, reports reached the White House that a reb- el force was headed to El Paso, Texas, with the objective of invading the New Mexico Territory and pushing even further west to conquer southern California. There was even information reaching Washington which, as Seward put it, "wears an air of authenticity," that sug- gested the rebels were planning to seize Mexico's Lower California and use it as a base to attack shipping along the Pacific coast. 4 The president, overwhelmed by an avalanche of events in the East, instructed Seward and the State Department to thwart this threat to the West. 5 Near the end of spring 1861, Leutze had completed his study of what would be called Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way, which was shown to not only Montgomery Meigs, but to Members of Congress, the president, and members of his cabinet. The study depicted a wagon train of emigrants labo- riously struggling to the top of a mountain pass, with a view to the west of fertile land bathed in a setting sun. At the bottom was a separate, thin panoramic view of the entrance to San Francisco Bay, with a small collec- tion of sailing vessels well within the bay, seemingly just off San Francisco, which was shielded from view by a ridgeline. All of these vessels were framed—and seem- ingly protected—by the fortifications at Fort Point on the right and the more distant fortifications of Alcatraz Island on the left. 6 Among the many that were taken by Leutze's study was William Seward. The prolific artist had painted a full-length portrait of Seward as senator in 1859 and would complete a second portrait of him as secretary of state by the end of 1861. The two men got along quite well, which seemingly would have surprised no one who had ever met Emanuel Leutze. As one government official who knew him well declared, the artist was "a genial, kind hearted gentleman, generous to a fault, and exceedingly companionable." 7 Seward liked the study of Westward so much, that he asked Leutze if he would make a copy for him. Naturally, the artist agreed, and by mid-June was busily re-creating the study for Seward. This copy would not always have the same detail as the original study; the Fig. 4. Numerous acquaintances described artist Emanuel Leutze as an amiable and kind man. Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896) took this photograph in the 1860s.